Skip to main content

MEET THE
CHALLENGE TEAMS

Community partner: Bâtiment 7 (B7)

Design challenge:

Design of the outdoor spaces surrounding and adjacent to the B7 site.

Context

Bâtiment 7 is an urban rehabilitation project based in and around a series of buildings based in a brownfield formerly owned by the Canadian National Railway Company in Montreal’s Pointe St Charles neighbourhood.

It aims to positively impact its neighbourhood through the creation of a mixed-used programming model flexible enough to change over time and slated to include at launch: a daycare centre, a micro-brewery and artist studios.

The site is located at the southern-most edge of the Pointe St Charles neighbourhood, a traditionally poor and culturally diverse area of Montreal currently experiencing significant gentrification.

It is important to note that the site itself was granted for development as a result of significant citizen mobilizing in Pointe St Charles.

Challenge summary

This design challenge will consider the outdoor spaces of the Bâtiment 7, adjacent to, and surrounding, the buildings themselves.

The aim of the challenge will be to consider the potential location of the outdoor spaces and to produce a visual draft of a potential site layout.

Within the social context and neighbourhood, that surrounds them, how could the outdoor spaces of the site be managed in order to be accessible to the area’s population? To what extent can the Bâtiment 7 physical site become a mitigation agent in the neighbourhood?

Community partner: CivitasPartners

Peace Initiatives Canada | St. George's Place du Canada

Design Challenge

Interfaith Center in Downtown Montreal

Context

Civitasx is a joint initiative of St. George’s Anglican Church and PEACE Initiatives Canada, a Muslim non-profit.  Civitasx is Latin for “community with a common purpose” and reflects a shared faith-based commitment to dialogue and community service. This collaboration has so far led to regular food outreach events.

St. George’s Anglican Church, a national historic site, includes an annex that, among other things, is currently being used to offer services to Montreal’s homeless population.

This site is underutilized. It is essential to the survival of the Church community that they develop a project that will help raise approximately 8 million dollars. They also hope to do this while increasing their capacity to meet their social mandate.

Challenge summary

Civitasx would like to explore the possibility of converting this site into a sustainable community-focused project that would include worship space for three or four other faith communities – including Indigenous faith and spirituality – and a common space designed specifically to support interfaith project work and shared learning.  

This design challenge will consider the extent to which the Church annex could be adapted, either in its current form or through expansions, to serve an interfaith dialog and service mandate.

Challenge outcomes should include a preliminary vision of the site demonstrating how it could potentially allow for worship and programming areas for the site’s various faith-based partners and joint areas allocated towards shared programming and service.

Community partner: NDG Food Depot

 

Design challenge

Outreach strategy to area residents

Context

The NDG Food Depot is an organization offering a comprehensive array of food security services under one roof that includes: emergency food baskets and meals, educational services and a network of collective gardens and is the only organization in NDG dedicated solely to food security.

NDG is a large neighbourhood in the west of Montreal and home to three food deserts that are geographically quite far from each other.

Challenge summary

The depot is currently looking for a new home, but regardless of where it settles, given the size of the neighborhood, it will inevitably be far from at least two of its target populations.

This design challenge will consider the ways in which the depot could maximize current outreach strategies in order to strategically position itself and its programs.

The depot relies on an integrated model of multiple services in one location, so the focus will be on both, encouraging access to the depot space, and finding innovative ways to incorporate this comprehensive model in its off-site activities.

Challenge outputs could consider the potential creation of temporary or permanent infrastructure, the use of networked collaborations with other actors and the implementation of outward-facing messaging mechanisms appropriate for the organization.

© Concordia University