A master thesis from Aalborg University
Rethinking urban redevelopments: A circular urbanism strategy for the Faubourgs redevelopment in Montreal, Canada
Term
4. Term
Publication year
2021
Submitted on
2021-06-03
Pages
110 pages
Abstract
This thesis examines the potential that circular urbanism holds as a sustainability strategy for urban redevelopment projects. Current redevelopments done in a linear process fail to maximize temporal, material, and spatial resources, while at the same time is unsuccessful to address important community needs in redeveloped areas. Alternatively, circular urbanism can be considered as an adaptation of circular economy to the urban redevelopment process, combining urban regeneration, adaptive reuse, and multifunctionality practices to optimize the use of existing temporal, material, and spatial resources in the fulfillment of neighborhood community needs. The Montreal Faubourgs redevelopment is proposed by C40, a network of cities committed to addressing climate change, in the frame of the competition ‘Students Reinventing Cities’. The Faubourgs redevelopment is used as a case study to demonstrate the feasibility and validity of a proposed circular urbanism roadmap. The review of literature, municipal documents, and policies, mainly the Specific Urban Plan produced through extensive public consultations for the redevelopment of the area, as well as semi-structured interviews with academic and local experts was conducted. The aim is to develop, through a design thinking process, a circular urbanism strategy that is iteratively created with a concrete case study, to contribute to greater sustainability in urban redevelopment projects. This thesis intends to answer the following research question: How can the design of circular urbanism by Montreal Municipality be a strategic driver for sustainability in the case of the Faubourgs neighborhood redevelopment? Lessons that municipalities can learn from the application of the circular urbanism roadmap to the redevelopment of the Faubourgs neighborhood are discussed such as the potential for municipalities to use strategic planning towards circularity, the importance of the context in the development of circular urbanism strategy, and the role of planners in the development of the necessary synergies.
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