Eighth International Conference on The Constructed Environment

Abstract

The master plan proposed for the Outremont site in Montreal builds the city in a traditional approach without regard to landscape issues or citizen aspirations that are expressed by actions of ephemeral reappropriation. Could the regeneration of this vast site give way to free nature and free appropriation? The demolition of the old railyard to make room for a new campus led to a transformation of the landscape, from industry to wasteland, from third-landscape to built space. In parallel, a transitory occupation has engaged a variety of audiences in the experimentation of the place and thus opened the perspectives to new potentials. This exploration of landscape mutations and the use of the site by local organizations as an urban catalyst offers the opportunity to influence the urban future, to operate a paradigm shift, from the problem to the potential. Can the changing state of the transitory site and its cultural occupations engage a landscape reflection on how to develop and inhabit the space? Is it possible to imagine a moving garden and a space of freedom in addition to an official urban space? The richness and the complex nature of this territory revealed by our researchs, observations and actions pave the way for a real regeneration that could change the way we think and do the city.