The Building Montréal UNESCO City of Design project aims, between now and 2011, to stimulate opportunities for creation and highlight initiatives by the design industry that give vital and tangible expression to Montréal’s status as a UNESCO City of Design.
The $1.2 million to be invested over three years is used to finance the holding of design and architecture competitions and to promote Montréal’s initiatives via the realisonsmontreal.com Web portal.
Calf for Entries
The Building Montréal, UNESCO City of Design initiative is issuing a call for projects to representatives of boroughs, the Ville de Montréal’s central services, the Société de transports de Montréal, the Société du parc Jean-Drapeau, the SHDM and Stationnement Montréal, which are planning to implement, between now and 2011, an urban planning project that includes a design component (e.g.: architecture, graphic design, industrial design, interior design, landscape architecture or urban design).
Examples of eligible products include construction, interior design or renovations to sports, cultural, community or public transit facilities; design of public sites; and installation of street furniture or public signage. Design workshops and ideas competitions are not eligible for funding.
Each selected project receives:
- funding of up to $100,000 for the organization of a design competition ;
- guidance from the Design Montréal team in running the competition as well as publicizing and promoting the outcomes ;
and the overall project benefits from the scientific support of the UNESCO Chair in Landscape and Environmental Design of Université de Montréal.
The funding offered aims to cover a part of the cost of organizing a competition (professional fees paid to entrants, production of documents, publicizing of the results, etc.), while the guidance services will reduce the overall time required for the procedure (public call for entries, selection of competitors, development of proposals by the competitors, analysis of submissions and selection of the winner) to an average of two and a half months, enabling projects to be completed with no significant change to their planned schedules.
Selection criteria and procedure
A committee, made up of:
- recognized outside experts in architecture, urban planning and design,
- representatives of partners (the Ville de Montréal, government ministries, and the Conférence régionale des élus),
- members of the Rendez-vous 2007 Steering Committee,
will select, among the eligible entries, projects that are deserving of a design competition, using the following criteria:
- added value for the Montréal urban projects selected provided by a contest; i.e., the difference in the value of the project with and without a competition;
- the public interest of the project; i.e., the relative contribution of the project in a usage context;
- the guarantees of project completion (expertise, budgets, regulations, risk);
- compliance of the submitted project with the objectives of Building Montréal, UNESCO City of Design;
- implementation of the project or competition finished before December 2010 at the latest.
The selection process will also consider fair distribution of chosen projects:
- by type (e.g., buildings, public sites, street furniture);
- based on the disciplines that will be involved (urban, industrial and graphic design, architecture, landscape architecture, etc.);
- according to geographical distribution within the territory of Montréal.
Interested applicants must submit all necessary documents ahead of the deadline specified in the Call for Entries document (French only).
BACKGROUND
Since 1991, the Ville de Montréal, through its Commissariat au design and its Design Montréal office, has supported the promotion and development of unique initiatives such as Commerce Design Montréal and the Design Montréal Open House that have encouraged designers to be involved in the city’s cultural and economic future.
In June 2006, Montréal was officially designated a UNESCO City of Design, joining the Creative Cities Network established by UNESCO in 2004.
In granting Montréal the title City of Design, UNESCO has acknowledged the city’s creative potential in the design disciplines, based on the strong concentration of talent here as well as the commitment and determination of the Ville de Montréal, other levels of government and civil society to build on those strengths for the purpose of enhancing Montrealers’ quality of life.
The UNESCO designation is neither a label nor a form of recognition. It is an invitation to develop Montréal around its creative forces in design.
Montréal, UNESCO City of Design is thus a collective project that, to become a reality over time, demands that all stakeholders – elected officials, citizens, experts, entrepreneurs and designers – buy into it and make it their own.
In November 2007, the governments of Canada and Québec, the Ville de Montréal, and various cultural and business groups, all of them partners in the Montréal, Cultural Metropolis gathering in November 2007, responded to this UNESCO invitation by agreeing, as part of their 2007-2017 Action Plan, to promote excellence in design and architecture (Commitment 3.2) and to uphold Montréal as a UNESCO City of Design (Commitment 4.4).
Motivated by the implementation of these commitments, the Design Montréal office of the Ville de Montréal and the UNESCO Chair in Landscape and Environmental Design at Université de Montréal, both promoters of Montréal’s candidacy as a UNESCO City of Design, launched a three-year project with the assistance of four major public partners: the Ministère des Affaires municipales, des Régions et de l’Occupation du territoire, the Ministère de la Culture, des Communications et de la Condition féminine, the Conférence régionale des Élus de Montréal and the Ville de Montréal.
In June 2009, a call went out to everyone to work together in implementing Montréal UNESCO City of Design.
Montréal thereby joins an international movement of cities and governments that are establishing initiatives to improve the quality of their living environment (CABE and Design Council, UK; Design Trust and Van Alen Institute, NY; City of Design, Saint-Étienne; Copenhagen, etc.).
MISSION
The goal of the Building Montréal UNESCO City of Design project is to enhance the design quality of the objects, buildings and public spaces intended for Montrealers through better upstream integration of project designers in various disciplines.
At the heart of the project are:
- local and international networking of Montréal design though an interactive Web portal that is inclusive and upgradeable
- creation by means of design and architecture competitions in connection with projects of public scope that are in the planning phase
- dialogue between citizens, designers and elected officials through public forums and awareness-raising activities
VALUES
The Building Montréal UNESCO City of Design project is based on the idea of quality in design:
- It is an area of concern: the quality of design lies at the heart of the viability, vitality, attractiveness and competitiveness of cities. Excellence in design and its exemplary character are the minimum that is required for objects, building and spaces intended for public use
- It is the outcome of a process: quality in design is accessible to everyone and depends heavily on the proper planning of the awarding of commissions and good choices in selecting the designers. It is set out upstream from the projects. Some processes, such as design competitions, promote better reflection on needs and a more enlightened choice of those being mandated based on concept quality. They foster a competitive spirit among designers that favours excellence, as shown by international experience
- It is defined by certain criteria: quality in design follows criteria that broadly exceed the appropriate relationship between form and function. According to the U.S. magazine Metropolis (March 2009), “good design” now meets the 10 following criteria:
- Sustainable (environmentally responsible)
- Accessible
- Functional
- Well made (manufactured and built)
- Emotionally resonant
- Enduring
- Socially beneficial
- Beautiful
- Ergonomic
- Affordable
On top of these criteria is the idea that good design:
- offers a solution that is sensitive to the context
- makes sense culturally
To this list can be added other criteria, such as well-being, desire (aspiration), cultural expression, re-use, sensitivity to context, etc. Quality in design does not refer only to the esthetic nature of projects. It corresponds above all to a community’s long-standing desired values. These values may be associated with cultural, social, environmental and economic aspects of a society. They fluctuate, because they are intimately linked to the evolution of society.
APPROACH
The project aims to:
- lead the various influential players in urban development to engage with the project to conceive and build the city with input from designers
- champion those who defend quality in design
- develop, by the power of example, Montrealers’ interest in and taste for – and, consequently, their demand for – good design
- democratize quality in design: a city is built not only on exceptions (the “spectacular”) but on the sum of individual efforts (“the ordinary”)
- open up the awarding of public commissions and make them more accessible: creating room for the next generation, letting new talents flourish by enabling them to contribute to the city’s future
- promote design competitions as the preferred process for awarding public commissions, because of their transparency, their educational scope and the quality that they generate
- encourage the undertaking of projects that contribute to the quality and sustainability of the living environment, and to the development of Montréal’s urban landscapes
