Researches and Projects

Concours international d'idées YUL-MTL; Paysages en mouvement

The Chair in Landscape and Environmental Design at University of Montreal (CPEUM) launched an international urban design ideas competition YUL-MTL: Moving Landscape for the gateway corridor linking Montreal-Trudeau International Airport (YUL) to its downtown area (MTL) along Autoroute 20.

Purpose of the competition

The CPEUM has been commissioned by the Ministère des Transports du Québec to coordinate the competition and the underlying collaborative planning process bringing together the main public and private actors responsible for this territory. The 17 km gateway corridor, which is mostly made up of transport infrastructures and brownfields, is witnessing a large number of development infrastructural projects, thus offering considerable urban innovation potential.

The International Ideas Competition wants to seize this re-qualification opportunity to propose planning options to structure a coherent vision aiming at creating an expressive gateway based on Montreal’s identity as a UNESCO City of Design, a designation of which Montreal is celebrating the 5th anniversary in 2011.

The proposals should revolve along three work streams:

  • An evolving and emblematic landscape project for the metropolitan area
  • A scenographic composition of the corridor experiences
  • A collaborative approach to sustainable urban development

To attain this goal, contestants should reflect on design elements as much for the corridor as for the adjacent areas. The resulting vision will offer coherent guidelines for the different interventions to come by ensuring a better-balanced interaction between transport infrastructures and the adjacent living environments.

Type of competition

The International Ideas Competition YUL-MTL: Moving Landscapes is an open and anonymous ideas competition. Held in one stage, at the international level, it is opened to planning and design professionals alike.

International Jury

Entries will be evaluated by an international jury chaired by Italian architect and urban planner Bernardo Secchi, along with:

  • Pierre Bélanger, associate professor in landscape architecture, Harvard University, Graduate School of Design, Cambridge
  • Ken Greenberg, architect and urban designer, Greenberg consultants inc., Toronto
  • Florence Junca-Adenot, founder of the Forum Urba 2015, Université du Québec à Montréal
  • Anick La Bissonnière, architect and scenic designer,  Atelier Labi, Montréal
  • Maroun Shaneen, representative of the ministère des Transports du Québec

Winners (ex-aequo)

The jury has awarded three equal prizes of $ 33 000 to the following contestants:

  • Brown and Storey Architects (Toronto, Canada), for their development of a strategy based on the densification of neighbourhoods                                                                                        Board 1      Board 2
  • dlandstudio (New York, USA), for their contextualisation of Montreal’s transport infrastructure problems into the North American context and for the proposed concepts to reduce the effects of barriers between neighbourhoods                                                                                        Board 1      Board 2
  • Gilles Hanicot (Montreal, Canada), for their proposal based on the uses of renewable energy structures to build new landmarks in the corridor and for the development of the mixed-use urban development program                                                                                                       Board 1      Board 2

The jury noted the richness of the competition results by awarding 11 honourable mentions. These provide new and multiple axes of development for Montreal territory.

Team



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