The City Vision sets out Montréal’s commitment to rethinking the current development model for industrial sites so as to foster the ecological transition and development of a green, circular economy. To that end, the City is inviting property development stakeholders in both the public and private sectors to submit industrial case studies in order to document innovative design and architecture practices that contribute to the vitality of the industrial economic centres and to the quality of neighbouring living environments. The submitted projects will serve as input for a handbook of best practices for improving the development of and (re)imagining such sites in a context of industrial renewal.
The City of Montréal has identified several priority industrial zones all across its territory. The (re)development of these economic centres will present opportunities to engage businesses and industrial promoters as key allies for the implementation of innovative, superior-quality occupancy models.
To provide a more concrete vision of the future and more tactically focused possible solutions for industrial promoters and decision-makers, the City’s Service de développement économique is currently working to develop a Handbook of Best Practices for the Design and Architectural Quality of Montréal's Industrial Sites.
With the handbook, the City is seeking to enhance the role of industrial projects and sites in implementing the Montréal 2030 Agenda for Quality and Exemplarity in Design and Architecture and in achieving the goals for these land areas stated in the Montréal 2030 future vision as well as in the City’s other plans and policies, such as the City Vision and the Climate Plan 2020-2030.
The handbook will frame the key challenges impacting the quality of Montréal industrial real estate projects and document design principles that foster quality in the design and architecture of industrial sites (the term design is here understood within a multidisciplinary approach encompassing all planning and development disciplines).
It will be a guidance document, providing concrete examples and established quality criteria to underpin discussions. While not a regulatory document, the handbook is meant as a decision support tool for the municipal as well as private sectors.
Real estate demand pressures in commercial urban areas, along with the rapidly increasing cost of land are leading land-use planning and construction stakeholders to question traditional development models, still mainly characterized by extensive use of space, a preponderance of hardscapes, and limited access to public and active transportation modes.
Against this background, Montréal is seeking to document how implementation, construction and operation of industrial sites and projects might better address the following concerns:
- How to help implement more frugal, resilient and supportive lifestyles.
- How to ensure attractiveness, retention and user wellness, and what structures for coexistence with neighbouring communities to employ.
- How to minimize building footprints through improvements in compact design and density.
- How to avoid new resource extraction and reduce GHG emissions.
- How to envisage resource circularity and industrial symbioses.
- How to recover, restore and repurpose existing assets.
- Which heritage preservation and enhancement strategies to use.
- What new forms and novel industrial esthetics to consider.
- How to design reversible and resilient buildings (adaptable to crises and changes).
- How to decide which natural ecosystems will thrive on these sites.
- How to ensure sustainable water management.
- Which bioclimatic design principles to choose so as to best reduce energy consumption in these buildings, and which technological advances can best enhance their energy efficiency.
- How to organize sustainable, low-carbon mobility across these multimodal clusters and how an industrial development project can help address last-mile logistics challenges.
- How the chosen strategies affect the form, materiality and life cycle of buildings.
- Because property development stakeholders have a social responsibility relative to the quality of the citizen living environments in which they play a part.
- Because improved coexistence of industrial operations and nearby neighbourhoods can raise the quality of living environments.
- Because collectively, we are working to reverse trends in GHG emissions, including those from construction and industrial activity.
- Because historically, quality in industrial workplaces has been neglected to the detriment of productivity.
- Because promoting best practices in this handbook is an opportunity for visibility, allowing to share a business vision, expertise and capacities, and get positioned as an ally in the eyes of peers and decision-makers.
This call for best practices is international with regard to designer origin and project location. The case studies must document solutions applied in urban contexts similar to those of Montréal. Each concept must be already built or sufficiently advanced to assess its feasibility. No limits are imposed on time or scope, insofar as the interest is in the scale of the building or buildings, the site and the integration context.
Projects may demonstrate contributions from all design disciplines. They may also result from pairing with an engineering discipline or other specialty. Submissions may be from the site or building owner, the promoter or a member of the project design team.
In submitting their project documentation, all respondents certify that they own the rights to the text and images and that the latter are not under exclusive licence. They grant to the City of Montréal the necessary usage and distribution rights for all promotional activities related to the handbook, including use of the source materials in various formats (e.g., digital, print) and communications channels (e.g., intranet, website, social platforms, news release, webinar).
This call for best practices is Stage 2 of the Handbook of Best Practices development process. For information purposes, here are the main stages and milestones:
Step 1 – Portrait of Montréal industrial areas (May, June, July 2022)
The purpose of this initial research stage is to compile and to summarize the City’s recent actions and publications on the subject of the future of Montréal’s industrial areas, along with all other external publications deemed relevant. The goal is to outline the primary development challenges, the prospective vision of industrial (re)development, and known best practices that are transferable to the Montréal context.
Step 2 – Call for best practices (July, August 2022)
At this second stage, research will more broadly investigate best practices in design and architecture for the (re)development of Montréal’s industrial areas. This will be achieved through a call for best practices issued locally but also internationally via the UNESCO Creative Cities Network, aimed at assembling a set of conclusive case studies that can be transferred to the Montréal context.
Step 3 – Multidisciplinary working tables (September, October 2022)
At this stage, public- and private-sector stakeholders (e.g.: borough officials, design and architecture professionals, real estate promoters) will be assembled to collectively consider possible futures for Montréal’s industrial areas. The working tables will study and discuss the inputs gleaned from the first two research stages (see above) and agree on the design and architecture quality principles and criteria to be applied to the (re)development of Montréal’s industrial areas.
Step 4 – Drafting of the Handbook of Best Practices (October, November 2022)
This stage will involve combining the information from each of the research stages, summarizing what has been learned and drafting the handbook.
The case studies must be submitted using the standardized Google Form no later than 11:59 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on September 2, 2022. The form can be completed gradually, and its contents saved progressively until final submission.
The form is divided into three sections:
- Project description
- Description of the project siting context
- Specific contributions of the project
General information:
- The form consists of multiple-choice questions with some answers expandable using brief texts and files sent as attachments (e.g., plans, drawings, sketches, photos).
- The minimum visual documentation requirements are: one siting plan showing the project in its surrounding context and three high-resolution (300 dpi) professional photographs including at least one exterior view.
- Expandable answers are limited to a maximum number of characters, varying from 500 to 1,500. Specific indications are included on the form.
Both the public and private sectors are engaged in the process of developing the Handbook of Best Practices; its contents will be the outcome of a consultative process on the future of industrial projects on Montréal’s territory. The working tables, explained above, will serve to study and select the best-case studies for inclusion in the handbook.
You may write to [email protected] or consult the attached frequently asked questions section.
