In 2016, the provincial government of Quebec (Canada) passed a bill recognizing municipalities as “proximity governments” thus giving more power to the entities closest to the “ground” and to people. While the concept of proximity promises better-adapted local development, it must also be understood in the way the municipality tangibly presents itself through its architecture. The built environment has much to reveal on how proximity is, at its core, a material construct. Our research project focuses on small to medium-scale cities in the province; cities close to local and regional contexts, where proximity is tested by low densities and large territories, and where the pressure of distant metropolitan centres is still felt. We look specifically at town halls and municipal courts, whose in-person access, in this context, is characterized by geographical exclusion against a backdrop of municipal service centralization. The tendency toward online services and the devaluation and underfunding of municipal architecture tip the scale further and question the latter’s role in a sustainable political culture. We selected 45 cities for analysis and drew their town halls and municipal courts transversally from the interior to the surrounding neighbourhood to the urban context. The analysis points to a wide variety of figures that coalesce to constitute types beyond their architectural form based on the layout of interior and exterior public spaces and the disposition of municipal buildings within the relationship between centre and periphery. This multiscalar study reveals the way municipal architecture and urban design construct public interfaces in urban assemblages.
Thomas-Bernard Kenniff, Ph.D. (UCL Bartlett), M.Arch (U. Waterloo), is Professor of Environmental Design at the École de design, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), where he teaches design studios, theory and criticism and research by design. His work addresses the relationship between the built environment, design processes and society with a special interest in public space and architecture. He is the cofounder of the Bureau d’étude de pratiques indisciplinées (BéPI), investigating hybrid and transversal modes of design and research.
Emmanuelle Bergeron is a graduate student in the Master of Environmental Design program at UQAM’s School of Design. She holds a Bachelor of Environmental Design from the same institution. Her work addresses the current housing shortage by looking at the renewal of courtyard houses in Québec and is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Agathe Parent-Corriveau is a graduate student in the Master of Environmental Design program at UQAM’s School of Design. She holds a Bachelor of Urbanism from the University of Montreal. Her work focuses on the transformation of abandoned spaces underneath elevated mobility infrastructure in Canada and is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Joelle Kelzi is a graduate student in the Master of Environmental Design program at UQAM’s School of Design. She holds a professional degee in Architecture from the Université Saint-Esprit de Klasik in Lebanon. Her work addresses adaptive architecture in high-risk flood zones in Canada.