معلومات المقرر

ARTH 374/A (Winter 2025): ARCH & URBANISM IN MONTREAL

A City Shaped by Its People

“Buildings make the city. They define the streets. They define the squares. They define where the parks are. They define how you live in a city, how you walk in a city, what you do in a city; they can make it very pleasant or very unpleasant.” – Phyllis Lambert

A wide-ranging survey of the architecture, urbanism, and landscape of Montreal and their significance in the political, social, and cultural context of the city throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. If “buildings make the city,” as stated by Montreal architect Phyllis Lambert, then who makes the buildings? Beyond professional architects and urban planners, this course will explore how regular citizens and their actions can shape the cityscape. We will pay attention to the ways that different forces—such as settler colonialism, immigration, economic booms and busts, gentrification, urban renewal reforms and popular movements—contribute to the transformations of Montreal and its buildings over time. We will look at architecture as a product of its specific local environment, and of global forces and historical conditions. Adopting an intersectional approach, we will consider how buildings can be read as sites of conflicting power relations, social dynamics, and collective action. As such, students will be asked to analyse buildings not as isolated objects, but as the result of political, cultural, social, and technological contexts of their time. Each week, as we discover different areas of Montreal, we will learn to recognize key architectural typologies, styles, and movements, and encounter both iconic sites and lesser-known figures. If you’ve ever asked yourself why Montreal looks and feels the way it does, a city of unique neighbourhoods defined by their buildings and the people who built them, this course is for you.