_program
The urban design studio proposes the creation of a green neighborhood at the heart of the metropolis. The revitalization project for the Bellechasse sector is part of a broader effort to reconstruct the urban fabric between the boroughs of Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie, Outremont, and Plateau Mont-Royal.
_constraints
The site is landlocked, constrained by the presence of railway tracks and the Rosemont–Van Horne viaduct. These infrastructures strongly shape its urban form, uses, and associated meanings. Their intersection with the urban grid gives rise to atypical spaces distinguished by their uniqueness.
_proposal
Due to its position within the city, as well as the uses and transportation infrastructures that define it, the Bellechasse sector operates at two scales. Our proposal aims to reactivate the existing urban framework of the area at both the metropolitan and neighborhood scales.
Our approach promotes a true recycling of the sector by embracing its inherent qualities, which differ from those of the surrounding residential neighborhoods. Like many spaces bordering railway corridors, the Bellechasse sector exists as a marginal zone operating according to its own logic. It can be understood as a threshold, an in-between north–south spatial interval linking Mile End and Petite-Patrie, both set apart and full of connective potential.
The project envisions the development of a central core organized around the railway, acknowledging its historical role in shaping the neighborhood, its potential for green spaces, and its unique landscape and urban characteristics. This represents an opportunity to reaffirm the sector’s nature as a heterotopia within the city.
Furthermore, the proposal encourages and reinforces the layering of networks, including: the redevelopment of the sector to foster social interaction and cultural activity (public space networks), active and sustainable transportation (mobility networks), the reduction of urban heat islands (vegetation networks), stormwater management (drainage networks), and economic development (commercial networks), among others.
Ultimately, the ambition is to transform the Bellechasse sector into a true laboratory for sustainable urban development.