Le taxi prend ses aires! Ideas Competition - Ville de Montréal invites
designers to envision the ideal taxi stand

MONTREAL, March 10 /CNW Telbec/ - Helen Fotopulos, member of the Executive Committee responsible for culture, heritage, design and the status of women, along with her colleague Manon Barbe, Executive Committee member responsible for transportation, are pleased to announce the launch of an ideas competition for the development of new taxi stands. Designers in all disciplines are invited to propose innovative solutions for enhancing taxi customers' and drivers' experience of this public space they share. A total prize purse of up to $40,000 will be awarded to the competition winners.

"This competition once again demonstrates our administration's desire to encourage creativity in design and architecture in Montréal, and open up access to public design commissions to a broader range of practitioners," Ms. Fotopulos said. "As a UNESCO City of Design, Montréal is perfectly positioned to ensure enrichment of its public spaces and incorporate them into a vision for the future. We are once again providing an opportunity for Québec creators to demonstrate their talents."

For her part, Ms. Barbe added: "In Montréal's Transportation Plan, the taxi industry is recognized as a vital component of the mass transit system. This industry is currently engaged in extensive efforts to refresh and revitalize its image. We want to provide both passengers and drivers with an enjoyable experience that starts with pleasant, user-friendly taxi stands, because these will eventually serve as recharging stations for future electric cars."

The general objective of the competition is to spur debate around, and interest in, the quality of public spaces in Montréal, and to enable designers to offer their visions for development of these spaces. The ideas competition therefore aims to nurture reflection on the issue posed by the existing taxi stands, which have several shortcomings from the point of view of both drivers and users.

The Le taxi prend ses aires! competition is one of the five shukôs, or creative challenges, that the Mayor of Montréal issued during the Pecha Kucha Night for Elected Officials on September 30, 2008. It is directly in line with the ongoing commitments made by the Ville de Montréal and its partners in the Action Plan 2007-2017 - Montréal, Cultural Metropolis, the goals of which include the promotion of excellence in architecture and design. The City has launched several other design competitions in recent months, including for the development of mobile street furniture for use by festivals, the design of a new bus shelter, and the redevelopment of the area surrounding Champ-de-Mars métro station.

    
    Competition
    structure
    

The ideas competition is anonymous and open to all design professionals, students or consortiums whose main place of business is in Québec. It is a single-stage competition. The proposals will be studied and evaluated by a jury on the basis of the following criteria: quality of the user experience, definition of an identity specific to the waiting area, the innovative and esthetic qualities of the project, its integration into the urban environment, and the atmosphere created by the planned intervention.

    
    The jury members are:

    - Jean-Guy Chabauty, Industrial Designer, Moderno;
    - Michel Dufresne, Urban Planner, Groupe Cardinal-Hardy;
    - Carl Gagnon, President, Imago;
    - Lucy Mungiovi, Director of Convention Services, Tourisme Montréal;
    - Isabelle D'Astous, Co-creative Director, Sid Lee;
    - Dory Saliba, President, Proprio Taxi;
    - Sylvain Villeneuve, Urban Planner, Division Chief, Urban Planning,
      Ville-Marie Borough, Ville de Montréal.

    How
    to apply
    

Registration is free. Each entrant must complete the form available on the realisonsmontreal.com website no later than April 20, 2010. Proposals must then be submitted before noon on May 18, 2010, to the following address:

    
    Concours d'idées
    Le taxi prend ses aires!
    A/S de Véronique Rioux, conseillère professionnelle
    Bureau Design Montréal
    303, rue Notre-Dame Est, 6e étage
    Montréal (Québec) H2Y 3Y8
    

Prospective entrants who have questions may submit them to the competition's professional advisor, Véronique Rioux, by e-mail at [email protected], by April 20, 2010. The design competition is being administered by the Design Montréal office of the Ville de Montréal with the co-operation of the Bureau du taxi et du remorquage de la Ville de Montréal and support from the taxi industry.

    
    About
    Design Montréal
    

The Design Montréal office was created in January 2006 by the Ville de Montréal. Its mission is to implement the municipal action plan aimed at improving design throughout the city and positioning Montréal as a city of design.

For further information: Stéphanie Jecrois, Design Montréal, [phone]; Source: Bernard Larin, Office of the Mayor and the Executive Committee, [phone]