October 15th, 2008
Mayor’s launches 5 Shukos at Pecha Kucha night
By Alanah Heffez // 8 Comments
Shuko: Japanese...an idea, a project, a plan.
Gerald Tremblay opened the Pecha Kucha des Élus with a challenge. He invited the audience - a crowd of mostly architects, planners, designers and media folks - to devise design solutions to 5 local priorities.
The mayor's energetic 6-minute presentation prompted the Pecha Kucha night's host to exclaim: "Don't ask what your city can do for you, but what you can do for your city." This is my favourite attitude to urban living, and I'm so pleased that the mayor seems to feel the same. So go ahead and put your creativity to work on one of these 5 projects:
1 - Champ-de-Mars metro station straddles the Ville-Marie expressway, between old Montreal and the area near the Radio Canada building. The expressway will soon be covered, creating a new public space. The challenge is to design an animated place that will stitch the urban fabric back together, while incorporating the stained glass mural created by Quebecoise artist Marcelle Ferron in 1968.
2 - The Palais de Justice wall is a looming windowless shadow over old Montreal, but Tremblay would have it transformed into a blank canvas canvas, open to innovative designs (anything from a mural to, I imagine, a hanging garden) which respect the building's architecture, placement, and vocation.
3 - Abribus bus shelters tend to collect filth, slush, and "scratchiti" tags. Can they be better designed to create a more pleasant environment that could attract - or at least not repulse - public transit users seeking shelter from the wind and rain?
4 - Taxi-branding - Montreal's 4500 taxis are rather bland compared to New York's famous yellow taxis or London's distinctive black cabs. The taxi from the airport or train station is often a visitor's first experience of the city, and the mayor challenges designers to come up with a unique signature that would identify and unite the city's mixed-bag taxi fleet.
5 - Temporary Street Furniture for the Quartier des Spectacles is needed for the onslaught of summertime festivals that transform downtown into an open air venue. The mayor didn't describe exactly what will be required (barriers, benches, bleachers, signage, lights, etc) but would like it to be versatile, comfortable, robust, storable, and fit in with the QDS theme. That means anything with illuminated red polkadots is a go.
The 5 Shukos are each open to a design competition, moderated by Design Montreal. To participate, or learn more about the specific rules of the competition, add yourself to the mailing list at www.shukomontreal.com.
Champ-de-Mars image from metrodemontreal.com; palais de justice and taxi images from shukomontreal.com.
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Comments
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Champ de Mars: couvrir la rue St-Antoine pour y prolonger le site du Champ-de-Mars vers le nord, jusqu’à une place qui descend graduellement en amphithéâtre vers la station de Métro; des espaces ludiques pourraient y être aménagés un peu comme le square Viger plus à l’est.
Mur du Palais de Justice: le succès du spectacle sur les silos de Bunge à Québec devraient être suffisant comme idée.
Abribus: simplement s’arranger pour que le concessionnaire en effectue l’entretien serait suffisant sans devoir changer le bon design minimaliste actuel.
Taxis: de toutes les couleurs, commme actuellement, avec un liséré d’une couleur spécifique (soit la même pour tous, ou une couleur pour chaque compagnie) autour de la porte arrière, un peu de la façon dont les portes des avions sont décorées.
It is sad that no one seems to get that architecture is art in the same vein as a painting or sculpture. That said, why can't the Palais de Justice be respected as is for its brutalist design? The side walls are windowless, yes, but they are not boring: firstly, the quality of the materials are far different from a cheap apartment block on Guy street. Secondly, the layering of the two heights make it an exceptional piece of mid-century design. Can no one see the influence of Marcel Breuer or Le Corbusier?
I don't think the walls are ugly or boring. I think they are really cool. I agree however that doing something to animate them is probably a good way to make the space more useful. That said, I think a mural would be a horrible idea. The material is too good and looks too nice to be painted.
Please no more murals, please....
The link has been corrected. Thanks for pointing it out.
Actually, I hate the Palais de Justice, both inside and out, but not from this angle -- in fact, this is its one redeeming feature, even though it's popular to bash it.
I think this is a great idea to give more life to what would be otherwise bland areas that take away from the city.
Good idea. The link in the HTML doesn't lead to http://www.shukomontreal.com though...
Comment by mare
October 15, 2008 | 10:12 am