Urban design vs Covid-19
A design firm landed the contract for urban furniture for the new Esplanade Tranquille, but their ideas may not work so well in an era of social distancing.
A design firm landed the contract for urban furniture for the new Esplanade Tranquille, but their ideas may not work so well in an era of social distancing.
qatzelok 12:08 on 2020-06-07 Permalink
“And now, Anthony Faucy and the Covid-19-dancers present a post-modern dance number that problematizes the urban furniture design for a public square in Montreal.”
**applause**
Chris 13:15 on 2020-06-07 Permalink
An “era” usually means a long time. Urban furnature has a long lifetime. Social distancing is short term and will pass.
Kate 14:26 on 2020-06-07 Permalink
Chris, it’s not certain that social distancing is short term. We don’t know enough yet about this virus, about resistance and immunity to it, and whether any vaccine will work, or work for more than a few months at a time. Social distancing may well be the new normal.
Chris 14:41 on 2020-06-07 Permalink
Kate, well nothing is certain, sure, but I think that outlook is very unlikely. You can see things returning to normal out there already.
Spi 14:46 on 2020-06-07 Permalink
Is there a city of montreal policy that I’m unaware of requiring that we design new and distinctive urban furniture for every new public space? I’m not saying we should be living with benches from the 80’s but most cities either aspire to have a certain aesthetic or design language we have gone the complete opposite route.
If you take the right route from Old Montreal to McGill University you’re likely to see 3-4 completely different streetscape styles.
Kate 16:02 on 2020-06-07 Permalink
Spi, I don’t have an answer to that. Years ago, benches installed by the city were in one or two styles everywhere. Now, it seems a park (or other city space) has to be designed as a complete new environmental installation down to details like benches and garbage cans.
Arguably, this brings business to architects, landscape and industrial design groups, but it does tend to mean the fittings are custom designed and manufactured, and thus more expensive.
DeWolf 11:55 on 2020-06-08 Permalink
One-size-fits-all usually means one-size-fits-none. I think the city has indeed changed its approach because having the same standard furniture in many different types of public spaces doesn’t work very well. Each of those spaces has a different vocation, a different environmental context and different user demographics. The whole point of design is to make things that work well for people, not to force people to fit into a specific mould. I think it’s well worth the extra money.
Kate 16:22 on 2020-06-08 Permalink
DeWolf, I’m not sure what that pans out to in action. The main innovation we’ve seen added to public seating in recent years has been hostile design to make them unusable for stretching out and sleeping on. Not sure this is better than the city’s old concrete-and-wood flat slat benches we had for so long.
DeWolf 18:00 on 2020-06-08 Permalink
I don’t think that is true at all. The past few years have given us a lot of new innovative street furniture:
Large bed-like wooden platforms like in the park at Bernard/St-Dominique
Adirondack chairs as seen along the Lachine canal
Benches sculpted out of trees on St-Viateur
Small benches that hug and protect street trees on St-Laurent
Tables and chairs in the Fleurs de Macadam, plus large wooden platforms you can lie down on
The new benches in Dominion Square and the Place du Canada don’t have any barriers that prevent someone from lying down. In fact they’re very old fashioned looking.
Kate 22:26 on 2020-06-08 Permalink
OK, OK, granted. In fact, that’s worth a photo essay.
I also like the big lawn chair things that crop up, in different places – I’ve seen them as far apart as St-Henri and Villeray.
DeWolf 11:36 on 2020-06-10 Permalink
This guy has already done it!
https://cbernier.wordpress.com/2013/07/29/des-bancs-pour-tous-les-gouts/
The series started in 2013 but there is a list of updates from more recent years. It’s pretty comprehensive.