Publications

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Couverture Cahier Amé Tempo

Handbook of Best Practices for Quality of Temporary Street Design Projects in Montréal

This Handbook is designed to inspire and equip professionals involved in the planning, design and implementation of a temporary street design project in Montréal. It is aimed at professionals working for Montréal boroughs and central departments, commercial development corporations, retailer associations, and more broadly at design practitioners mandated to carry out a project. The Handbook is underpinned by observational data gathered over the past years and feedback from a range of stakeholders. It consists of three sections:

1 – Typology of temporary street design in Montréal
2 – Quality Vision: 125 best practices to inspire action
3 – Quality Operation: 70 strategies for taking action

This project was supported by the Ministère de la Culture et des Communications du Québec, under the Entente sur le développement culturel de Montréal between the City of Montréal and the Government of Québec.

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Cover - Handbook 3 – 35 Exemplary Projects Illustrating Best Practices

Handbook 3 – 35 Exemplary Projects Illustrating Best Practices

The Handbooks of Best Practices for Design and Architecture Quality for Industrial Sites provide concrete solution avenues to inspire action and guide exchanges among companies, promoters and decision-makers. With the Handbooks, the City hopes to prompt greater contributions from industrial projects and sites in implementing the Montréal 2030 Agenda for Quality and Exemplarity in Design and Architecture and delivering on the aspirations stated in the Montréal 2030 Future Vision as well as the City’s other plans and policies, including the City Vision (Projet de ville) and the 2020–2030 Climate Plan. The Handbooks have been developed in collaboration with the firm Lemay, mandated as principal provider responsible for researching and writing the documents. Cover project: Hydro-Québec 315-25 kV De Lorimier, by Jodoin Lamarre Pratte architectes (image: Adrien Williams)

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Handbook 2

Handbook 2 – Taking Action! Montréal’s Industrial Areas in Transition

The Handbooks of Best Practices for Design and Architecture Quality for Industrial Sites provide concrete solution avenues to inspire action and guide exchanges among companies, promoters and decision-makers. With the Handbooks, the City hopes to prompt greater contributions from industrial projects and sites in implementing the Montréal 2030 Agenda for Quality and Exemplarity in Design and Architecture and delivering on the aspirations stated in the Montréal 2030 Future Vision as well as the City’s other plans and policies, including the City Vision (Projet de ville) and the 2020–2030 Climate Plan. The Handbooks have been developed in collaboration with the firm Lemay, mandated as principal provider responsible for researching and writing the documents. Cover project: McGill University Power Plant, by Les architectes FABG (image: Steve Montpetit)

Handbook 1 – 84 Best Practices to Inspire Action

The Handbooks of Best Practices for Design and Architecture Quality for Industrial Sites provide concrete solution avenues to inspire action and guide exchanges among companies, promoters and decision-makers. With the Handbooks, the City hopes to prompt greater contributions from industrial projects and sites in implementing the Montréal 2030 Agenda for Quality and Exemplarity in Design and Architecture and delivering on the aspirations stated in the Montréal 2030 Future Vision as well as the City’s other plans and policies, including the City Vision (Projet de ville) and the 2020–2030 Climate Plan. The Handbooks have been developed in collaboration with the firm Lemay, mandated as principal provider responsible for researching and writing the documents. Cover project: Water intake, Canal de l’Aqueduc, by Smith Vigeant architectes Inc. (image: David Boyer)

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Resilient Public Spaces Toolkit - cover

Resilient Public Spaces (French only)

Scientists have established that with climate change, extreme weather events will become more frequent in the future, including episodes of intense rainfall leading to flooding that is damaging and costly to communities. Implementing adaptive measures may be seen by some as an expensive constraint, but consider the costs of doing nothing. This toolkit shows how rethinking the design of public spaces provides an opportunity to mitigate the impacts of climate change at a lower cost. The first resilient public spaces completed, such as Parc Pierre-Dansereau and the Fleurs-de-Macadam public square, prove that it is possible to seamlessly incorporate stormwater management capabilities into planning and, in so doing, help enhance urban resilience. Project on cover: Place des Fleurs-de-Macadam, by NIPPAYSAGE (image:
NIPPAYSAGE)

Jeux WASA – Quartier Durable (French Only)

The collaborative online game "Quartier Durable" is an awareness-raising tool that helps develop design skills, deconstructs prejudices, and helps people understand the impact of design on the transition and on quality of life. This project was made possible with the financial support of the Government of Québec and the City of Montréal, pursuant to the Entente de développement culturel de Montréal and the Fonds d’initiative et de rayonnement de la métropole. See how the game works and its content.

Catalogue – Architecture and Homelessness: Inclusive Practices for a Supportive City

Drawing on a review of existing literature, the catalogue surveys spatial planning and design at every scale, from the City down to objects. It inventories more than 60 practices grouped into five major categories and illustrated using a variety of inspiring projects. The outcome of an initial year of research, it has been developed to inform and equip stakeholders in the design, community and urban development communities by presenting a portrait of architecture and design practices with the potential to improve the well-being of people in situations of homelessness. This project was made possible with the financial support of the Government of Québec and the City of Montréal, pursuant to the Entente de développement culturel de Montréal and the Fonds d’initiative et de rayonnement de la métropole.

Design Guide for Resilient Businesses - Rethinking commercial design after the pandemic

This design guide is the result of “COVIDesign”, an applied, multidisciplinary research project that brought together over 20 hand-picked experts under the supervision of Architecture Without Borders Québec. The guide examines the planning and service design of retail stores, restaurants, and groceries from the perspective of resilience and mitigating the pandemic’s economic, social, and environmental impacts. It is intended for anyone wanting to make informed business-design decisions to implement enduring, high-quality, attractive, and effective solutions that go beyond any temporary health adaptations.

Guide to use of the Boîte à outils pour mieux informer, délimiter et diriger sur un chantier (French Only)

The outcome of collaborations between Montréal’s Communications department, its Infrastructure and Roads department and the Bureau du design, the Boîte à outils pour mieux informer, délimiter et diriger sur un chantier (toolkit for better informing, delimiting and directing on worksites) aims to improve the visual and functional quality of spatial planning in the vicinity of worksites in Montréal. The guide to use of the toolkit, available to all city employees since 2019, outlines methods for better informing Montrealers about the nature of work and projects, better delimiting worksite areas, as well as better directing users and making it easier for them to access various services.

Guide. Réadaptation des services en bibliothèque en temps de pandémie. (French Only)

How can the city continue offering services and a quality experience to library users despite the many constraints resulting from the pandemic public health response? Conducted by the Bureau du design as part of the Laboratoire en design de services publics (public services design lab), the exercise was led by service design studio Meilleur monde in collaboration with architect Alexandre Landry and graphic design studio Tagteam. The teams analyzed and adapted the user pathways and indoor layout of three municipal libraries, which enabled production of a best-practices guide shared with the municipal library network.

Guide d’accompagnement à la tenue d’un panel de design (French Only)

The Guide for design panels is a tool developed by the Montréal Bureau du design to ensure qualitative follow-up on a project (development, architecture, or product development) with the support of design experts. The Guide is intended for municipal managers and other parties involved, to help them understand the scope, benefits and keys to success for this process.