Le taxi prend ses aires! Ideas Competition

Montreal, October 18, 2010 – Helen Fotopulos, City of Montréal Executive Committee Member Responsible for Culture, Heritage, Design and the Status of Women, and Manon Barbe, Executive Committee Member Responsible for Transportation are proud to announce the Grand Prix du jury, the Grand Prix du public, as well as the taxi industry’s Coup de coeur in the Le taxi prend ses aires! ideas competition. This competition, launched last spring among designers in every discipline, was designed to get people thinking about how to improve existing taxi stands in Montréal, keeping both taxi drivers and customers in mind. Members of the public and taxi drivers were asked to speak out by voting for their favourite concept among the five winning proposals selected by the jury.

“This competition enabled Montréal designers to share their visions with us by suggesting solutions for enhancing the taxi-stand experience and stimulate debate and interest in the quality of these urban public spaces,” Ms. Fotopulos said. “The burst of creativity generated by all those ideas contributes to the promotion of Montreal, UNESCO City of Design.”

“Recognized in our Transportation Plan as a key component of our collective transport system, the Montreal taxi industry is currently making significant efforts in order to refresh and enliven its image. We want to work closely with the industry to propose modern and dynamic waiting areas to the taxi drivers and their clients,” noted Ms. Barbe.

Louis Gagnon-Séguin and Bhavesh Mistry, Montréal, Grand Prix du jury

The jury noted the great refinement and simplicity in the Moai Statues proposal by Louis Gagnon-Séguin and Bhavesh Mistry, with its various elements that allow for harmonious integration with the city, regardless of a taxi stand’s scale, while bringing out the new taxis signature and logo. The sculptural character and subtlety in the surface play of the monolithic pillars are perfectly in accordance with the formal language of the benches and other elements. The concept’s universality, the fixture’s fine details and the parentheses demarcating the zones at ground level are among the aspects that pleased the jury. “The intelligent and skilful use of light helps maximize visibility and confers an agreeable presence on the benches, which seem to come alive on the spot,” stated jury Chair Patrick Messier, an industrial designer with Messier Designers Inc.

In addition to Mr. Messier, the jury consisted of Jean-Guy Chabauty, industrial designer, Moderno; Yung Cuong, President, Taxi Para-Adapté; Isabelle D'Astous, Co-creative Director, Sid Lee; Michel Dufresne, urban planner, Groupe Cardinal-Hardy; Carl Gagnon, Creative Director and President, Imago; and Lucy Mungiovi, Director, Convention Services, Tourisme Montréal.

Geneviève Trudel, Montréal; Thomas-Éric Béliveau and Philipp Schaake,SensidStudio, Berlin, Grand Prix du public and Coup de coeur de l’industrie du taxi

Members of the public and taxi drivers were asked to express themselves by voting for their favourite concept among the five winning proposals, and they had the chance to win a number of participation prizes. Nearly 3,000 votes were submitted from July 5 to August 30.

Both the public and the taxi industry were attracted by the Folium proposal developed by industrial designers Geneviève Trudel, Thomas-Éric Béliveau and Philipp Schaake. Their concept integrates various functions in relatively simple fixtures: an iconic beacon column, roof, folding seat, display panel, lighting, markers, interfaces, etc. The jury members found their integration of the call buttons for various needs to be astute. They also noted the concept’s intelligence and its strong signal as a distinctive urban fixture easily identifiable by taxi users, whether local residents or people visiting the city.

The Le taxi prend ses aires! ideas competition is one of the five shûkos, or creative challenges, issued by the Mayor of Montréal during the Pecha Kucha night for elected officials on September 30, 2008. It is directly in line with the ongoing commitments made by the Ville de Montréal and its partners in the Action Plan 2007–2017 – Montréal, Cultural Metropolis, the goals of which include the promotion of excellence in architecture and design. The City has launched several design competitions in recent months, including one for the development of mobile street furniture for use by festivals and another for the design of new bus shelters, as well as an ideas competition for redevelopment of the area surrounding the Champ-de-Mars métro station.

The Le taxi prend ses aires! ideas competition is an initiative of the Design Montréal office with the co-operation of the Bureau du taxi et du remorquage de la Ville de Montréal and support from the taxi industry. The public vote is organized in partnership with 98,5FM, Métro newspaper and the Place d’Armes Hôtel & Suites.

All the competing entries, including the winning concepts, are on line at realisonsmontreal.com.

About the Design Montréal Office

The Design Montréal Office was created in January 2006 by the Ville de Montréal. Its mission is to implement the municipal action plan aimed at improving design throughout the city and positioning Montréal as a city of design.