Democratizing Road Space: Montreal’s Urban Forest/ Forêt urbaine 2011 - 2020

In the midst of the covid-19 pandemic, the 10th edition of Montreal’s Urban Forest, or in French Forêt urbaine, in Victoria Street, took place during the summer of 2020. The decennial anniversary of this ephemeral public space presents an opportunity to reflect on its role as a dynamic cultural landscape in the city of Montreal initiated by the McCord Museum. Indeed, the Urban Forest has been, and continues to be, a barometer of phenomena taking place in the public realm of the city, and is an incubator of urban experiments. The Urban Forest is positioned politically; as design research, it argues for the democratization of road space and the foregrounding of trees in urbanization processes. This talk articulates contextual influences that shaped this project over a period of ten years. As an iterative design process over ten years, the Urban Forest embodies accrued knowledge contributing to Montreal’s cultural history.

Learning objectives:

• Understand how contextual influences shape the transformation of a road space
• Learn the benefits and pitfalls of ephemeral pedestrianization of road spaces
• Explore how collaboration between a cultural institution and a municipal government can contribute to improved urban space

Housekeeping:

Once registered, a post-registration email will be sent to your inbox with the information for the Paula Meijerink's Virtual Speaker Session via a recorded Zoom session and the 10 Question Quiz. You will need to score a 7 out of 10 on the 10 Question Quiz to receive LACES credit. 

This course has been approved for 1 LACES HSW credit. 

Tickets

$0.00 OCASLA Member Ticket

$25.00 Non-OCASLA Member Ticket

$0.00 Student Ticket