Riviere-Cours/River-Yards
Project Statement
In a country of vast forests, and mountains, rivers have been used for millennia as routes for trade and travel, and as sites for hunting, fishing, gathering, celebration, and settlment. When Samuel de Champlain first sailed up the Saint Lawrence, he arrived at the site of Quebec City where there was already an Algonquin village there - Kebec - meaning the place where the river narrows.
In the 20th and 21st centuries, industrial progress and the propogation of personal automobiles made roads the new rivers, spurring development and expansion of the city beyond the historic core. Shaped by a complex set of variables including landscape and geology, adjacent land uses, housing demand, new development has preferentially oriented itself towards roads. Development today continues to predominantly orient houses, businesses, institutions towards streets, defining these networks as the primary modes of circulation and prioritizing car and transit over pedestrian, cycling, boating and other modes.
RIVER-YARDS proposes to re-establish rivers as a primary network for recreation, development, circulation and wildlife habitat within Quebec City.
Ranging from small, highly manicured enclosures, to extended ranges adjacent to ravines, transportation network, hydro corridors, parks, and bodies of water, yards in many ways define the private outdoor spaces of North America. One need only look in google earth to see that most cities are carved into small parcels, separating each yard from the next, limiting access into these other systems. What does a yard look like that begins at each river, reaching out beyond the floodplain into adjacent neighbourhoods, creating a vast network of open spaces, recreation, river-oriented development and connected wildlife habitat? When thought of in these terms, a RIVER-YARD provides access and amenities to the public, expands possibilities and offerings for recreation, development and ecological protection and restoration within and extending beyond the city limits.
The network of rivers flowing towards the St. Lawrence are at the backside and are highly modified within the urban condition, subject to encroachment, development within the floodplain, polluted runoff, combined sewage outfalls, erosion and sedimentation, all of which degrade the overall quality, access and impression of the rivers. Efforts are underway to address these myriad issues and this project proposes a redefinition of the yard - both front and back - to include the stewardship, connectivity, and use of Quebec City's rivers.
By focusing on "yards" of various scales and types, RIVER-YARDS puts forth a suite of interventions that can be thought of at many scales and deployed across sites throughout the river network. We selected our sites to demonstrate the viability of these interventions in combination to create destinations that are dynamic, drawing residents and tourists alike through the seasons.
By identifying common challenges and opportunities across the sites provided, we developed a set of strategies. These DEPOSIT new program and development, MEANDER between areas of interest to allow circulation and connectivity within and between river systems, and FLOW, accomodating and embracing the dynamic and variable nature of the rivers by integrating flexibility, resilience and adaptation into the design and phasing.
(Competitor's text)
(Click French version to read the jury's comments)
12 scanned / 12 viewable
- Presentation Panel
- Presentation Panel
- Presentation Panel
- Site Plan
- Site Plan
- Site Plan
- Schema
- Schema
- Schema
- Perspective
- Perspective
- Perspective
