The Ville de Montréal invites designers to submit applications for a new bus shelter, including the advertising poster frame, bench and solar power system, to be used by the Société de transport de Montréal (STM).
The purpose of the competition is to select the best bus shelter concept and, in turn, choose a designer, firm or group of firms to study and produce the shelter, which the Société de transport de Montréal intends to have built for installation across its entire network, gradually replacing the current models and responding to new needs.
The bus shelter is one of the STM's front-line passenger-hosting structures. Many shelters are more than 30 years old. The range of different models and the age of some of these structures have made it increasingly difficult to manage and maintain the inventory of bus shelters. Over the next four years, the STM plans to have 400 new shelters built for installation all across its network, gradually replacing the current models and responding to new needs.
Context
"Bus shelters are important components of service quality for the STM," said Michel Labrecque, Chairman of the Board of the STM. "They allow transit users to be shielded from the elements, to sit down, and to consult the system map as well as bus schedules. Besides being accessible, they must be safe and easy to maintain. The STM is convinced that creators will be up to the challenge of submitting designs for modern, functional bus shelters that reflect the importance that Montréal ascribes to public transportation as well as to good design."
For his part, André Lavallée, Montréal Executive Committee member responsible for the Transportation Plan, Urban Planning, Heritage and Design, noted: "Bus shelters are a significant part of the urban landscape. With the design competition, we can call upon the creativity of Montréal designers to find solutions that are innovative, sustainable and respectful of the urban diversity that is a hallmark of our city."
The Mayor issued five shûko – or creative challenges – to the design community during the Pecha Kucha Night for Elected Officials on September 30, 2008. The competitions associated with each shukô aim to provide tangible encouragement to creativity in design and architecture in Montréal, and to open up access to public design commissions to greater numbers of practitioners. An initial design competition to develop movable street furniture elements for use by festivals was launched on June 8.
This design competition is:
- open
- with registration fees ($50)
- Quebec-wide
- held in two stages: the first by application and the second, by paid services submitted by five (5) finalists.
Stage 1
The first, which involves no compensation, is the pre-selection stage: designers are invited to submit an application for analysis and evaluation by a jury, after which five competitors will be chosen to enter the second stage of the competition.
Stage 2
For the second stage, which is funded, the five competitors will be asked to develop original concepts. After this stage, the jury will analyze the competitors' proposals and choose a winner.
To be eligible, submissions must be:
- presented by a candidate who is a member in good standing of the Association des designers industriels du Québec or any individual who has at least 5 years' experience in similar projects, in the design field or a related field, in particular industrial design, architecture or environmental design;
- presented by a candidate having its main place of business in Quebec.
The jury, which is the same for both stages, comprises the following individuals:
- Denise Vaillancourt, Executive Director, Planning, Marketing and Communications, STM
- Marie Turcotte, adapted transport users' representative, Board of Directors, STM
- Benoît Gendron, Director, Planning and Development, STM
- François Gagné, Team Lead, Planning and Urban Design Workshop, Urban Planning Division, Service de la mise en valeur du territoire et du patrimoine, Ville de Montréal
- Michel Dallaire, industrial designer, President, Michel Dallaire Designers Inc.
- Maurice Cloutier, ADIQ, environmental designer, Director, School of Design, UQÀM
- Gilles Saucier, architect, Saucier + Perrotte Architectes
No fees or allowances will be paid for Stage 1 of the competition.
For Stage 2 of the competition, each of the five competitors will receive $15,000 plus taxes.
At the completion of the competition, the company that is awarded the tender for developing and following up on the production of prototypes will be required to enlist the services of the winning firm, whose fees will be $100/h, plus taxes, for a contract of 1000 hours.
Registration is mandatory. Each entrant must submit the form that is included with the competition regulations, available from the portal realisonsmontreal.com, along with payment of the $50 registration fee.
Only entries from those who have obtained the competition documents from the Design Montréal office will be considered.
The deadline for submitting entries is noon on September 30, 2009.
The Design Montréal office is located at:
303, rue Notre-Dame Est, 6e étage
Montréal (Québec) H2Y 3Y8
Office hours are 8:30 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4:30 p.m.
Prospective entrants who have questions relative to the competition must submit them to the competition's professional advisor, André Desrosiers, by e-mail at [email protected], by September 24, 2009.