When George Baird, architect and researchist in urban morphology, studied Toronto’s urban fabric in 1978, he examined the morphological transformations of its central core and showed that the urban fabric in some parts of this North American city was in the process of desintegration (Baird 1978). This phenomenon also affected the urban fabric of Montreal, and the urban design projects, related to a modernistic approach, built in the 1960s, were responsible for these transformations and provoked a spatial discontinuity (Charney et al. 1990). The paper will study projects from the modernist period, but will also include the postmodernist and the contemporary periods to determine the new urban design approach and to evaluate the relationship of these projects with the urban fabric of Montreal. We have endeavoured to study three major urban design projects in Montreal from 1950 to 2014 to determine their role in the progression of the phenomenon of desintegration. With the work of numerous urban morphologists on North American cities (Charney, Vernez-Moudon, Gauthier, Racine) and the impact of this more recent knowledge on the way we intervene on the fabric, this phenomenon should be in regression in Montreal as elsewhere. Our hypothesis is that the reinterpretation of the urban syntax in the process of designing urban fabric in Montreal is a solution to reestablish a dialog between new built environments and the historical fabric of the city. But is this new research for continuity still in a fragile state ?
3rd ISUFitaly International Congress I Rome, 23-24 February 2017 - BOOK OF ABSTRACTS / Santarsiero, mariangela ludovica; Jashanica, Kaltrina; Addario, Francesca. - (2017), p. 27. (Intervento presentato al convegno LEARNING FROM ROME Historical Cities and Contemporary Design tenutosi a Sapienza University of Rome, Faculty of Architecture, Rome, Italy).
3rd ISUFitaly International Congress I Rome, 23-24 February 2017 - BOOK OF ABSTRACTS
santarsiero, mariangela ludovica;jashanica, Kaltrina;addario, francesca
2017
Abstract
When George Baird, architect and researchist in urban morphology, studied Toronto’s urban fabric in 1978, he examined the morphological transformations of its central core and showed that the urban fabric in some parts of this North American city was in the process of desintegration (Baird 1978). This phenomenon also affected the urban fabric of Montreal, and the urban design projects, related to a modernistic approach, built in the 1960s, were responsible for these transformations and provoked a spatial discontinuity (Charney et al. 1990). The paper will study projects from the modernist period, but will also include the postmodernist and the contemporary periods to determine the new urban design approach and to evaluate the relationship of these projects with the urban fabric of Montreal. We have endeavoured to study three major urban design projects in Montreal from 1950 to 2014 to determine their role in the progression of the phenomenon of desintegration. With the work of numerous urban morphologists on North American cities (Charney, Vernez-Moudon, Gauthier, Racine) and the impact of this more recent knowledge on the way we intervene on the fabric, this phenomenon should be in regression in Montreal as elsewhere. Our hypothesis is that the reinterpretation of the urban syntax in the process of designing urban fabric in Montreal is a solution to reestablish a dialog between new built environments and the historical fabric of the city. But is this new research for continuity still in a fragile state ?I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
