The architect – working with real estate company Développement Olymbec and engineer Groupe SBSE – is the only UK finalist in the Reinventing Montreal contest, part of the wider C40 Reinventing Cities initiative.
The other finalists are BMHL Equities and Sotramont Canada with Atelier Chaloub Architectes, Gris Orange Consultant and Écohabitation; Groupe Dayan with Provencher_Roy and Rayside Labossière; and Groupe Corev with LAAB architecture with Humà Architecture and Artelia Canada.
The 150 Rue de Louvain Ouest regeneration in the Chabanel neighbourhood is the focus of the third edition of Reinventing Montreal, part of the C40 Reinventing Cities programme.
The competition aims to promote environmental sustainability, climate change resilience, and community integration. Key aims include delivering a ‘humane, inclusive and affordable’ mixed-use regeneration of the large brownfield site.
The finalists will be submitting final proposals in November with a public jury and presentation of projects scheduled for February next year.
Montréal is the most populous city in Canada’s French-speaking Quebec province. The latest announcement comes two years after an open international contest was launched seeking ideas for the reuse of expired roof materials from the Montréal Olympic Stadium.
The University of Montréal launched a contest inviting students around the world to rethink how its Cepsum Arena could promote ‘invisible’ accessibility last year.
The C40 Reinventing Cities initiative focusses on the transformation of a wide variety of sites including empty plots, abandoned buildings, a disused printing works and a former chemical works.
C40 Cities is a network of major cities representing more than 650 million people and one quarter of the global economy. The campaign group focuses on tackling climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and climate risks in urban settings, while increasing health, wellbeing and economic opportunities for local residents.
In 2017, the network launched its annual Reinventing Cities open call for professionals seeking innovative proposals for new carbon-free and resilient developments on a range of dense city centre sites.
Competition sites in the first edition – inspired by the city-wide Reinvent Paris contest – included a 1ha civic centre car park in Cape Town; an abandoned 1,400m² factory in Paris; and a 121ha former landfill in Houston.
Now in its fourth edition, the latest C40 Reinventing Cities challenged participating teams to ‘accelerate the development of decarbonised and resilient urban regeneration across the globe’ and create new ‘city landmarks of the future.’
The latest edition of the C40 Students Reinventing Cities Competition launched early last year and invited multidisciplinary teams of students and young people to draw up green and inclusive concepts for a range of prominent urban sites.