At the far eastern edge of Quebec, the Lower North Shore unfolds as a territory where harshness meets wild beauty. Shaped by relentless natural forces, this vast landscape is dotted with a constellation of villages scattered along the Gulf of St. Lawrence. French and English speakers as well as Innu peoples come together as Coasters, inhabitants of the edge, living at the threshold between land and sea.

Beyond the end of Highway 138, accessible only by plane or boat, this fragmented coastline is a world apart. Its communities, isolated yet deeply rooted, maintain an intimate relationship with the water: the only thread binding them together.

Fishers, navigators, and guardians of ancestral knowledge, the Coasters have developed ways of inhabiting their land that reflect both resilience and a profound attachment to their territory.

It is in this exceptional context that the Architecture/Territory/Information 4.0 studio is taking place, as part of the professional master's program at the University of Montreal's School of Architecture. In collaboration with the Centre de services scolaire du Littoral and various local partners, it invites 18 students to immerse themselves in the contemporary realities of the Lower North Shore. Far from being a simple theoretical exercise, the aim is to explore the extreme conditions of this territory, understand its weaknesses and strengths, and propose projects rooted in the life of the communities.

Between isolation and openness, between sea and land, between memory and future, the studio asks how architecture can become an instrument of resilience, exchange, and innovation while imagining new ways of dwelling at the edge of the world.