Mellem Residential Building, Gatineau apartments, Quebec property photos, Canadian modern architecture design

Architects: ACDF Architecture

Location: Gatineau, Québec, Canada

Photos: Adrien Williams

Mellem Residential Building, Canada

Developed through a close collaboration between ACDF Architecture and Maître Carré, MELLEM Les Trembles stands out first and foremost through the art of balance — a form of architectural “dosage” that has become essential in today’s context.

At a time when environmental challenges and limited resources demand that we do more with less, this approach has evolved into a genuine philosophy: creating architecture that is at once responsible, expressive, and meaningful.

Here, the balance between rootedness, longevity, and comfort is not only expressed through a distinctive architectural signature, but also through a deliberate pursuit of measured equilibrium — between restraint and richness of expression, between constructive efficiency and spatial generosity.

MELLEM Les Trembles faithfully embodies ACDF Architecture’s philosophy: creating architecture that asserts itself with quiet strength while privileging sobriety of means, ensuring that each gesture is both measured and purposeful.

Comprising 189 rental units — from studios to five-bedroom apartments — the project distinguishes itself through the deliberate decision to locate most of the common areas on the ground floor, directly engaging with the city. This gesture reflects a desire to create spaces for connection and exchange, where architecture becomes a catalyst for community.

Rather than isolating residents within an individualistic housing model, the project celebrates the “we” over the “I”, emphasizing the collective value of multifamily living. The ground floor thus acts as a true inhabited threshold, a lively space that contributes to the vibrancy of the public realm, while fostering a sense of belonging among residents.

In this spirit, the ground-floor arches form the project’s defining architectural gesture. They express both the building’s rootedness in its site, and the sensory dimension of dwelling that the architects and the developer sought to create. With their soft monumentality on the exterior, and human-scaled, enveloping presence within, the arches embody an architecture that connects, gathers, and nourishes the idea of living together.

“The project is guided by a subtle sense of balance, reinterpreting the classical colonnade to express both rootedness and permanence,” explains Christelle Monteuil-Jean-Pois, Associate Architect at ACDF Architecture. “Its style could be described as quiet elegance: an architecture that attracts the eye with precision, without ever seeking to dominate.”

The arched geometry extends through a series of curves integrated into the building’s overall volume. These flowing lines define a distinctive silhouette, where transitions between red and white brick read like a fine seam in couture, stitching together the project’s various components. This distinctive profile asserts the building’s presence at the scale of the city, while maintaining a refined human intimacy at street level.

Staggered balconies introduce texture, rhythm, and vitality to the façades, conveying the energy of the living environment within.

Perpendicular wall projections frame these compositions, creating a dynamic interplay of depth and shadow that gives the project a painterly dimension, perceptible even at the neighborhood scale.

Inside, ACDF designed the common areas with the same sense of balance that defines the project as a whole. The arches extend inward, shaping more intimate thematic zones while punctuating a longitudinal promenade that connects, end to end, the co-working space and communal kitchen to the gym.

Light-toned, reflective walls enhance natural illumination, while a dark ceiling absorbs exposed technical elements — ventilation, lighting — in a gesture of frugality and economy of means. The result is a space that feels warm, functional, and carefully measured, fully aligned with the project’s design philosophy.

At the heart of the composition, a grand staircase aligned with the main entrance leads to a lounge area that opens onto an outdoor courtyard, landscaped above the first parking level.

Nestled within the natural slope of the site, the lower portion of the building houses the first level of parking, which accommodates most of the 375 bicycle spaces, promoting active transportation, along with 20 electric vehicle charging stations.

This focus on sustainable mobility reflects the developer’s responsible vision, positioning MELLEM Les Trembles as a model for urban living that is collective, adaptable, and environmentally conscious.

With its interplay of materials, welcoming arches, fluid curves, balanced interiors, and vibrant communal spaces, MELLEM Les Trembles exemplifies a distinctive and enduring urban architecture — sober yet expressive, inviting and collective, offering its residents a true urban refuge while enhancing Gatineau’s architectural landscape.

“Our greatest pride lies in having achieved a precise balance between efficiency and aesthetics,” adds Monteuil-Jean-Pois. “The result is a unique architecture, imbued with humility, that integrates sensitively within its context, while asserting a distinctive signature.”

The C-shaped configuration of the building, organized around a west-facing garden, optimizes the site’s potential and achieves a balanced density without relying on excessive height. MELLEM Les Trembles demonstrates that a well-composed architecture can achieve meaningful levels of density while contributing positively to the quality of the environments it inhabits.

By combining a finely balanced architectural composition with an efficient use of the site, the project achieves a level of financial performance sufficient to allow for more — and better.

Rather than seeking profit at the expense of quality, this approach makes it possible to reinvest where the impact is most meaningful — in the quality of common areas, the durability of materials, and the creation of shared spaces that nurture community life.

The project illustrates that density and financial viability, when approached with intelligence and sensitivity, can become powerful levers for creating collective habitats with a smaller environmental footprint — homes that celebrate sharing, proximity, and urban quality of life.

Architects: ACDF Architecture – https://acdf.ca/

Client / Developer: Maître Carré Architecture: ACDF Architecture Interior Design: ACDF Architecture Design Styling and Coordination – Marie-Pier Edwards Civil Engineering: Desjardins Expert Conseil Structural Engineering: Génimac Mechanical and Electrical Engineering: Desjardins Expert Conseil General Contractor: Pomerleau

About ACDF Architecture With a portfolio of ambitious and design-savvy commercial, residential, hospitality, interior, and master planning projects, ACDF is recognized as one of Canada’s most forward-thinking architecture firms. Under the direction of Maxime-Alexis Frappier, Joan Renaud, and Etienne Laplante Courchesne, the firm’s harmonious designs of large-scale projects have received numerous awards and accolades in recognition of their progressive approach to a new generation of meaningful and impactful buildings.

ACDF is built upon a foundation of pragmatism and creativity, embracing the belief that every building should serve its inhabitants and passersby. Beyond the status of grand gestures and iconic appearances, the firm believes that buildings should be experiences infused with emotive and democratic architecture that touches and benefits all who come in contact with it. That process begins with practical solutions and creative designs that foster harmonious architecture, ensuring that every finished structure projects a sense of meaning and mission.

Based in Montreal, Quebec, ACDF draws inspiration from a city known for its liveability and vitality, and which straddles the divide between Europe and North America, and between the historic and the modern. Energized by challenges and constraints, ACDF explores and evaluates each project’s limitations in order to inject it with fresh ideas and innovative solutions that exceed expectations and imaginations.

Photographer: Adrien Williams

Mellem Residential Building, Gatineau, Quebec information / images received 220126 v2com newswire

Location: Gatineau, Quebec, Canada

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A Quebec company that operated a chemical manufacturing plant in eastern Gatineau, Que., has been fined $1.35 million for discharging a harmful substance into the Lièvre River in 2019.

Superior General Partner Inc., which owned and operated the Erco Mondial chemical manufacturing plant, pleaded guilty in Quebec court to 12 counts of discharging sodium chlorite into the water in violation of the Fisheries Act.

Environment Canada announced the guilty plea and the fines in a statement Thursday.

Their investigation found that the chemical — mainly used as a textile-bleaching agent and disinfectant, according to Health Canada, and considered "deleterious" to fish under the act — was spilled into the river 12 times between June 27 and July 19, 2019.

Environment Canada said that Superior General Partner Inc. took five days to notify them of the leak.

The company said the discharges into the river were the result of equipment failure.

The company and the plant's technical director at the time of the offences, Jean-François Roux, had also pleaded guilty to a charge of failing to inform federal authorities of the spills. Roux was fined $15,000.

Thousands of fish found dead in 2019

Laura Reinsborough, CEO of the non-profit Ottawa Riverkeeper, said she applauds the federal government for completing an investigation and issuing the fine.

"It's a significant size of a fine as well. That's very promising. It's reassuring," she said.

The Lièvre River flows into the Ottawa River and is home to several species of fish, including smallmouth bass, brook trout, walleye and muskellunge.

In the summer of 2019, thousands of dead fish were discovered in both of those rivers.

Environment Canada did not link the sodium chlorite spills from the Erco Mondial chemical manufacturing plant with the fish deaths, however.

At the time, Quebec's environment ministry investigated a hydroelectric plant on the river and ultimately concluded that it was to blame. Ottawa Riverkeeper later expressed skepticism to the Canadian Press about those conclusions.

CBC has reached out to Environment Canada for more information.

Reinsborough said she hopes either the federal government or the Quebec government can shed more light on what happened seven years ago that led to the massive fish kill.

"We have questions for both the Quebec authorities and ... the federal government," she said.

Environment Canada said Superior General Partner Inc. will be added to the environmental offenders registry, which lists corporations that broke certain federal environmental laws.

Money from the fine will go to the government's environmental damages fund, Environment Canada added.

Alberta’s Parker Heiderich blew past the competition, scoring 124.42 in his free program on Wednesday to earn his first national championship title. Combined with his stellar performance in Tuesday’s short program, his 188.16 points total were enough to secure gold in the junior men’s category.

“I’m so happy, it was so good,” Heiderich said after his free skate. “I think I did the best that I could today and I’m really glad I did that.”

William Chan (British Columbia) finished second with a final score of 172.68 points. Ontario’s James Cha (171.42) rounded out the podium.

In junior ice dance, it was a return to form for Layla Veillon and Alexander Brandys. The pair emerged at the top of their category with exactly the performance they were looking for in Wednesday’s free program, scoring 102.66, a personal best, for a total of 170.33 points in the competition. The pair last won the championship in 2024.

“It feels great to get the title again,” Brandys said after their program.

“And to bring out a personal best in both programs, especially for the free, going up and surpassing that 100,” Veillon added. “It’s been a goal of ours and we want to keep pushing, this isn’t where we’re stopping.”

Ontario’s Summer Homick and Nicholas Buelow (157.78) and Charlie Anderson and Cayden Dawson (146.31) finished second and third respectively.

A new record for Alberta’s Lia Cho

Lia Cho (Alberta) is a two-time junior women’s champion. With a remarkable showing in the free program, she built on her momentum from yesterday, scoring a total 199.60 points—a personal best. With this achievement, she also smashed the national record she set at last year’s national championship (188.79).

The 13-year-old sensation was overcome with emotion in the kiss and cry.

“I was just so surprised that it was such a high score, like wow, that’s the highest score I’ve ever gotten, and I was just so happy in that moment,” she said.

Victoria Barakhtina (Ontario) held on to her second-place ranking from yesterday with a total score of 171.93, while Ontario’s Quinn Startek earned bronze (157.93).

For the complete results, click here.

The Court of Quebec has issued a $1,350,000 fine to the owners of a chemical manufacturing plant in Gatineau for depositing chemicals in the Lièvre River, in violation of the Fisheries Act.

Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) says Superior General Partner Inc. pleaded guilty to 13 counts of violating the Fisheries Act in 2019 and was ordered to pay a $1,350,000 fine.

The company was the owner and operator of the Erco Mondial chemical manufacturing plant in Gatineau and the plant’s technical and environmental director at the time of the violations, Jean-François Roux, was also issued a fine of $15,000.

According to ECCC, on July 24, 2019, a representative of the plant told Environment and Climate Change Canada that sodium chlorite had been deposited in the Lièvre River due to an equipment failure. ECCC says sodium chlorite is a “substance deleterious to fish under the Fisheries Act.”

ECCC investigators found the chemical had been deposited from the plant into the river 12 times between June 27 and July 19, 2019, and that employees had been slow to identify a leak and notify ECCC about the incidents.

The Lièvre River is located approximately 30 kilometres northeast of downtown Ottawa, and runs through Masson-Angers into the Ottawa River. ECCC says the river is “home to several species of fish, including smallmouth bass, brook trout, walleye, and muskellunge.”

In July 2019, hundreds of dead fish were discovered in the Ottawa River and the Lièvre River.

ECCC launched an investigation in response to the incident, and say they did not find a link between the fish deaths and the sodium chlorite emitted by the company.

“In response to the 2019 fishkill episodes in the Rivière du Lièvre, ECCC has conducted multiple enforcement activities in the surrounding area in an attempt to identify the cause of the fishkills,” ECCC wrote. “The evidence collected by ECCC did not link the fish kills to the sodium chlorite deposits from the chemical plant owned, at the time, by Superior General Partner Inc.”

According to ECCC, Superior General Partner Inc. pleaded guilty to 12 counts of depositing sodium chlorite into water frequented by fish between June 27 and July 19, 2019. Superior General Partner Inc. and Roux each pleaded guilty to failing to immediately notify authorities about the chemical deposits.

The total fine will be directed to the Government of Canada’s Environmental Damages Fund and Superior General Partner Inc. has been added to the Environmental Offenders Registry.

A car was sent flying off the Draveurs Bridge towards the Gatineau River on Sunday morning.

In a video posted to Facebook by Camera de nuit, the car is seen colliding with another vehicle on Highway 50, seemingly losing control and ultimately heading off the bridge towards the Gatineau River below.

It appears that accumulated snow on the bridge allowed the car to be sent over the barrier. A second video posted by Camera de nuit shows snowplows on the bridge early Monday morning.

The ice was thick enough to keep the car out of the water.

Sûreté du Québec says emergency services responded to the incident at approximately 8:15 a.m. Police say the driver managed to get out of the vehicle on their own with no apparent injuries but was taken to the hospital as a precaution.

The driver of the other vehicle was uninjured.

Sûreté du Québec says an investigation is underway.

André Durocher, director of road safety with CAA Quebec, says the incident is a reminder of the dangers of winter driving.

“It could be very dangerous,” he said. “This is why people should be careful in the winter. Don’t underestimate what can happen if you hit one of those.”

Durocher says when hit at the wrong angle, a snow pile can send a vehicle over the barrier, as in this instance.

“People forget that it could be very slippery, particularly if you’re over a structure that’s over a river or water. With the condensation, the black ice is another thing to watch out for,” Durocher said.

Gatineau resident George Pombert says he’s had his own share of scary encounters on the bridge.

“It’s a fine bridge, the people are just driving too fast,” Pombert said.

On the other hand, Elise Lagace, also of Gatineau, says she’s not nervous to hit the route.

“I take my road, and I just stick on it and, goodbye,” Lagace said.

With files from CTV’s Dave Charbonneau