Originally a community settled by Irish immigrants in the 19th century to service industry along the Lachine Canal, Griffintown got its first heavy dose of ‘renewal’ in the mid-20th century by way of warehouses, parking lots and thruway elevated transportation infrastructure. This renewal was so successful that the neighbourhood became an exemplary no man’s land [...]
|
|||||
|
In the past few weeks, I’ve had the opportunity to pass through Victoria Square in Montreal on several occasions. Normally home to the Montreal Exchange and a metro entrance stolen from Paris, the square is now also host to Montreal’s very own incarnation of the Occupy Movement, Occupy Montreal. Given that Victoria Square is a [...] It is one thing to look at architecture from bygone eras and wonder “What were they thinking?”. Hindsight is 20/20, and even brutalism must have been avant-garde in the beginning. It is another, slightly more discouraging thing, however, to look at projects now under construction and wonder “What are they thinking?”. This sentiment, unfortunately, is [...] The island of Montreal The escape route (via the one major south shore bridge not in the midst of falling apart) 90km away from the island of Montreal Kalkan, Turkey If you ever wondered what a British colony would look like in the 21st century, wonder no more. The rationale for this new British Invasion enabled by budget airlines? Sun. Glorious, Mediterranean sun. The kind that scorches pasty anglo-saxon hides in mere minutes, especially when one sunbathes without sunscreen (as British Kalkanites seem prone to do judging [...]
A few months ago, I purchased a Turkish language learning programme to, not surprisingly, learn some Turkish. Living with a wonderful Turkish woman who is soon to be my wife, it was high time to get a better grasp of what exactly she was saying about me to her [...] Somewhere under Istanbul, I’m told there are hills. I can believe that, although they are hard to discern from the heaving, pulsating city that has been constructed on top of them. The city’s rolling neighbourhoods seems to owe less to geology and more to heaps of apartment buildings that look at first glance [...] In the annals of regrettable architecture, Hydro-Quebec’s Montreal headquarters must certainly be reserved a place of honour. Completed in 1962 to house Quebec’s government-owned electric utility, its wide-bodied ode to statism dominates the eastern edge of downtown and looms over the city’s small but lively Chinatown. The building’s bland appearance, however, belies the reality that [...] Living on the island of Montreal, one can easily forget that the city is not representative of urban life on the North American continent. But it suffices to get on a plane to a newer, more westward town such as Calgary to be reminded that suburbs are still king in many places. And that downtown [...] As the human species becomes ever more urbanized, the very concept of eco-systems grows faint in many minds. Our landscapes are heavily manufactured and manipulated, our access to basic resources and sustinence filtered through complex industrial systems of our own design. Growing up in an urbanized reality (where the difference between city and country life [...] |
|||||
|
Copyright © 2012 ApeRifle - All Rights Reserved |
|||||