La conservation des quartiers anciens ne se réalise probablement jamais sans être accompagnée de tensions sociales de différentes sortes. Si, dans les années 1960 et 1970, de nombreux projets ont  pu être motivés par la résistance citoyenne aux  formes les plus néfastes de la rénovation urbaine, aujourd’hui, on a l’impression que la volonté de conserver le patrimoine urbain aboutit presque systématiquement à la «gentrification – un terme qui ne renvoie pas uniquement à l’embourgeoisement d’un...

Over the past twenty or so years, the architecture of churches in Quebec and across Canada has triggered new and increasingly pressing questions: how should we approach their conservation, use, or meaning in a context where religious practice is in sharp decline, where the economic situation of parishes is prompting hasty decisions, and where radical versions of secularism are being imposed in the public space? These new questions call for different ways of thinking about the historic valu...

Over the past twenty or so years, the architecture of churches in Quebec and across Canada has triggered new and increasingly pressing questions: how should we approach their conservation, use, or meaning in a context where religious practice is in sharp decline, where the economic situation of parishes is prompting hasty decisions, and where radical versions of secularism are being imposed in the public space? These new questions call for different ways of thinking about the historic valu...

Over the past twenty or so years, the architecture of churches in Quebec and across Canada has triggered new and increasingly pressing questions: how should we approach their conservation, use, or meaning in a context where religious practice is in sharp decline, where the economic situation of parishes is prompting hasty decisions, and where radical versions of secularism are being imposed in the public space? These new questions call for different ways of thinking about the historic valu...

Georges-Émile Tanguay (1858-1923) est un architecte de la région de Québec dont l’œuvre semble à cheval sur l’éclectisme stylistique typique de la fin du XIXe siècle et la recherche d’une modernité influencée tant par l’Europe que l’Amérique. Mais au moins en ce qui concerne la conception d’églises, tout se passe comme si la cohérence de son travail apparaissait surtout quand on le considère sous l’angle d’une relecture critique de la ...

Welcome addresses and cocktail, followed by the Concordia Signature Event "The Garden of the Grey Nuns". As the opening ceremony and cocktail take place in the former Grey Nuns' Motherhouse, recycled into campus residence and reading rooms by Concordia University,  delegates will also have the possibility to discover the video Three Grey Nuns (3 minutes, by Ron Rudin and Phil Lichti. Three Grey Nuns recount their memories of communal life in the Grey Nun’s Motherhouse.  Built...

Working with archival documents and the current-day morphology of the Grey Nuns' site, Dr Cynthia Hammond, Dr Shauna Janssen, in collaboration with Dr Jill Didur, will curate a series of installations and performances that speak directly to the rich heritage of a specific urban landscape: the gardens of the Grey Nuns' Motherhouse, now part of the Concordia University downtown campus. Visitors will have the opportunity to explore the lost working gardens of the Grey Nuns. As with other such...

There is no doubt that the involvement of civil society is a key element in the history of heritage. Working upstream, in line with or against the tide of state recognition, enlightened amateurs or ordinary citizens have invested time and energy in the safeguarding and enhancement of a good, a place or a practice, judged, from their point of view, as irreplaceable or remarkable. It is easy for each country or each region to find an example of a precursor, working alone or in a group, who has ...

This festive event will offer delegates a taste of one of the iconic dishes of Montreal, the smoked meat sandwich, imported by Jewish immigration from Eastern Europe in the early 20th century. In particular, the tasting will allow a discovery of the products of the renowned international institution Schwartz's, the Hebrew Delicatessen for which Montrealers and tourists alike are willing to wait in long line-ups. During the tasting, “Chez Schwartz,” a documentary produced by Garry B...

While historical churches are being abandoned all over the Christian West, more and more places are growing the opposite way: pilgrimage sites are being enlarged and enhanced, whole urban districts are being developed with churches and temples boasting diverse, and often unorthodox, religious practices. Epistemologically linked to heritage, the sacred now seems to follow a path of its own, staging itself in new settings where the “religious heritage” refers mostly to common practices, however...

More details to come. Bus tour. Tour Guide : Luc Noppen Coût / Fees : 48$ + taxes

We propose a rich and colorful inaugural evening, in a mythical place: Dawson Hall, behind St James United Church (1887-1889, Alexander Francis Dunlop, arch.), known as the "Montreal Methodist Cathedral" - with 2000 seats, it was the largest Methodist church in Canada when it was built. Designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1996, it escaped demolition in 1980 when it was classified as a historic monument, and then escaped extinction thanks to an ambitious restoration project, in...

Roger D'Astous is one of the most important Canadian architects of the 20th century. A student of Frank Lloyd Wright, he worked all his life to establish a northern architecture. This rebellious and flamboyant artist was a superstar of the sixties, then fell into disgrace before being reborn in the twilight of the century. Author of two Montreal icons, the Château Champlain Hotel and the Olympic Village for the 1976 Games, his residences are sensual works of art and his churches are strang...

Walking tour of the working-class housing and churches of Saint-Pierre-Apôtre and Sainte-Brigide-de-Kildare (now the Sainte-Brigide Cultural and Community Centre) in the south-central district of Montreal.The tour will be guided by Luc Noppen.A departure (by foot) will be organized from the conference site; the tour itself will begin at 5:00 pm at the Beaudry metro station (a metro station of Berri-UQAM, site of the conference).

Bus tour of the Soulanges Canal and its facilities (1899-1959), currently undergoing a major enhancement project. The first stop will be at the west entrance of the canal, the Coteau-Landing (Les Coteaux) entrance lock; from there, we will go to lock no. 4 and to the old Cedars hydroelectric power station (called "Petit Pouvoir"), classified as a historic monument since 1984 by the Quebec government, then to Pointe-des-Cascades where the spectacular locks no. 1, 2 and 3 are located. The vi...

We offer a unique experience for the closing dinner of this conference in Montreal, in the former U.S. pavilion of Expo'67 - the most popular of the exhibition, with 5.3 million visitors: the "geodesic dome" designed by architect Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983) with the collaboration of Shoji Sadao. The self-supporting steel honeycomb structure, covered with a polymer skin, was burned down in 1976 and redeveloped in the 1990s, according to the plans of architect Éric Gauthier, into an envir...