Launching of the Design Montréal Quality Toolkit
Available online at https://designmontreal.com/en/toolkit, the Toolkit provides a better understanding of how quality in design and architecture can be a lever for achieving green transition, inclusivity, public participation and innovation objectives. Structured around 12 concepts that define quality in design or architecture projects, it offers insights on how to state quality objectives and identify strategies to implement during the planning, conceptualization and execution phases of a project, to ensure those objectives are attained.
The decision-support tools in the Toolkit allow stakeholders to identify how their projects can contribute to enhancing the quality of Montrealers’ living environments. They include the Compass, a unifying tool that takes the form of a collaborative exercise, which project teams can use to define a common vision of quality and determine what measures to implement to achieve that quality. The Toolkit also comprises themed backgrounders, videos, publications and various resources.
Collaborators
An initial call for proposals titled Developing a Stronger Design Culture, Together 2021-2022 brought together organizations and firms in a collective effort to design tools and resources, which formed the basis of the Quality Toolkit:
Mandated firms:
- Studio Meilleur Monde, for the design of the Quality Toolkit Compass
- BC2 Groupe Conseil Inc., for writing of the Quality Toolkit themed backgrounders
- Principal, for the visual identity
Subsidized NPOs:
- The Association des architectes en pratique privée du Québec, for the video project Architectes en série, Season 2
- Architecture sans frontières Québec, for the project Design et architecture au service de la lutte à l’itinérance à Montréal (“Design and architecture to help combat homelessness”)
- The Conseil des métiers d’art du Québec, for the project Design, savoirs et savoir-faire / valorisation de quinze intérieurs patrimoniaux (“Design, knowledge and know-how / Fifteen heritage interiors showcased”)
- Jeux Wasa, for the project Quartier Durable x Design Montréal
- The Université de Montréal UNESCO Chair in Urban Landscape, for the project nPlex projets locaux exemplaires (“nPlex: Exemplary local projects”)
About the Quality Toolkit
The Quality Toolkit is an initiative stemming from the Montréal 2030 Agenda for Quality and Exemplarity in Design and Architecture, which aims among other things at raising awareness among industry players of the need for quality in design and architecture. Its content was developed in collaboration with organizations and firms that proved their worth in the first edition of the call for proposals Developing a Stronger Design Culture, Together issued in March 2021 by the City of Montréal’s Bureau de design. The project was carried out with financial support from the Government of Québec and City of Montréal as part of the Agreement on the Cultural Development of Montréal, and is in keeping with Québec’s National Policy on Architecture and Land-Use Planning, adopted in 2022.
