Lachine Canal 4.0 Public and Private Realm Guidelines

In the spring of 2023, the City of Montreal and its partners launched the Lachine Canal 4.0 project, an urban transformation initiative aimed at revitalizing the birthplace of Canadian industry and the industrial sites along its corridor, in the boroughs of Lachine, LaSalle, Le Sud-Ouest, Ville-Marie, and Verdun. Integrated into an economic development strategy, the project seeks to revitalize the industrial corridor by supporting Industry 4.0, focused on the adoption of new technologies.

civiliti and Enclume were tasked with supporting the Service du développement économique and the Bureau du design in producing Public and Private Realm Guidelines for the canal’s economic sectors. Although not legally binding, the guide aims to inspire boroughs, partners, and businesses by providing tools and strategies to revitalize the area, enhance the quality of living environments, and strengthen the profile of this employment hub.

Anchored in the site’s defining characteristics, which are its industrial heritage, industrial buildings, green and blue network, mobility, and uses, the guide proposes intervention strategies at multiple scales. Largely illustrated with examples, these strategies are based on principles of resilience, reuse, connectivity, and integration. Drawing from the territory’s key markers, hypothetical development scenarios have also been developed of to suggest how these strategies could take shape in practice.