Culture-oriented urban reinvention of a post-industrial district as the successful strategy for homogenizing urban fabric of the inner city:
The Silophone project.

Essay outline

Culture-oriented urban reinvention of a post-industrial district as the successful strategy for homogenizing urban fabric of the inner city:
The Silophone project.

• Introduction – Cite multimedia (emphasis on business and residential transformations) and QUARTIER EPHEMERE (culture-based reuse) are two urban redevelopment projects that take place in the historical districts of Faubourgh des Recollets. Each has potential to become dominant in the area.

Thesis: Incorporation of existing cultural programs in the post-industrial redevelopment projects is more beneficial to the city than commercial or housing transformations of the post-industrial structures, since the latter are less likely to preserve collective memory and give a new identity to a constantly evolving modern city.

II. The context and history of the Silophone project (part of QUARTIER EPHEMERE)

• Description of the structure.
• Abandonment of the structure due to general trend in late 20th century North America towards deindustrialization.
• Reinvention, by assigning new temporary use to the structure and reasserting it as a tourist attraction (as well as web art project). The sonic inhabitation of the structure.
• The steps taken towards finding new permanent use for the building.

III. The strategies of incorporating cultural programs in urban renewal projects vs. residential and commercial transformations of the post-industrial structures. Unlike commercial or residential urban renewal project:

• New cultural project becomes tourist attraction and, therefore, annexes itself to downtown and “Old Town” area, at the same time creating extension of the downtown to waterfront.
• New cultural project as a new landmark - new identity of the city.
• New cultural project offers greater possibility of further reinvention of the industrial structure, since it attracts more public attention.

IV. The Outline of the importance of emphasis on culture-based urban renewal projects in the post-industrial districts of the inner city

V. Case studies of “cultural” urban renewal projects:
            i. Emscher Park in Germany’s Ruhr
                        -Use of creativity
                        -Long term redevelopment as recreational area and tourist attraction
                        -Establishing a new identity for the renewed region
            ii. Harbourfront park in Toronto.
-Initial transformation of the post-industrial site in commercial and residential area
-Further transformation as cultural public project – therefore making the area vital and connecting the city to the water.

VI. Conclusion: it is necessary to maintain, through cultural projects, the creative attitude of the community towards their environment to achieve greater sustainability and generate more choices to reinvention. The Silophone project establishes an important example for urban reuse and can be viewed as a representation of the next step in the evolution of urban renewal strategies.

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Like many major North American cities, Montreal has entered the post-industrial phase with an old industrial district, which became obsolete in the middle of 20th century. This old industrial district is located at the Faubourgh des Recollects, which was one of the first districts to appear in the city. The industrial district is, therefore, in close proximity to what is regarded as “Old Town” today. The Faubourgh links the downtown of Montreal to the St. Lawrence River waterfront. This area has immense potential in terms of urban renewal. Its location renders it as possible extension of downtown. Also, depending on the future overall gentrification strategy of the district, Faubourgh could redevelop the waterfront, which would benefit the city. Right now the area is subject to two major redevelopment projects: Cite Multimedia (revitalizing an the old industrial quarter through input of new businesses, companies, and residents) and QUARTIER ÉPHÉMÈRE (investing in “in situ” art projects within abandoned industrial buildings) (Illustrations 1, 2, 3, 4). The Silophone project (part of QUARTIER EPHEMERE) appears to be an example of the most innovative approach towards urban reuse. It is hard to predict whether the emphasis of the Faubourgh’s renewal would shift in near future from business and residential development of the dominant project Cite Multimedia toward integration of culture-based programs in the post-industrial district (QUARTIER EPHEMERE). Nevertheless, the above-mentioned possibility of future transformation of the district might be more advantageous for Montreal. The incorporation of existing cultural programs in the post-industrial redevelopment projects is more beneficial to the city than commercial or housing transformations of the post-industrial structures, since the latter are less likely to preserve collective memory and give the new identity to a constantly evolving modern city.

The Silophone project, which utilizes the Silo #5 building, is part of the QUARTIER EPHEMERE urban redevelopment. The Silo #5 is an abandoned grain storage facility in the port of Montréal. The building is situated in near the Faubourgh des Recollets area at the waterfront of the Lachine canal. The building was constructed in several stages between 1903 and 1958. The newest part of the building was designed to last for generations; however, due to the changes in the global grain market and to the general trend of de-industrialization in North America at the end of the 20th century, the building became redundant less than forty years after its completion. Since 1994, Silo #5 has stood empty, and its fate has been hotly debated. (Illustrations 2 and 3) The silo #5 grain elevator has a total capacity of five million bushels, or enough wheat to make 230 million loaves of bread. The building is a quarter of a mile long and over twenty storeys high. The portion of the structure used by the Silophone project is constructed entirely of reinforced concrete, measures 200 meters long, 16 meters wide and approximately 45 meters at its highest point. The main section of the building is formed of approximately 115 vertical chambers, all 30 meters high and up to 8 meters in diameter. These tall parallel cylinders, whose form evokes the structure of an enormous organ, have exceptional acoustic properties: most notably, a stunning reverberation time of over 20 seconds. The acoustics of the structure make beautiful anything played inside the Silo. All those who have entered have found it an overwhelming and unforgettable experience.

The Silophone is a project by [THE USER] which combines sound, architecture, and communication technologies to transform a significant landmark in the industrial cityscape of Montréal. [THE USER] is a Montréal-based artistic collaboration between architect Thomas McIntosh and composer Emmanuel Madan. Since its formation in 1998, [THE USER] has been creating audiovisual works, which explore humanity’s relationship with technology. A preoccupation with obsolescence, the flipside of progress, runs through [THE USER]’s work. Silophone uses the incredible acoustics of Silo #5 by introducing sounds collected from around the world using various communication technologies, into the physical space, creating an instrument which blurs the boundaries between music, architecture and web-based art. Sounds arrive inside Silo #5 by telephone or Internet. They are then broadcast into the vast concrete grain storage chambers inside the Silo. They are transformed, reverberated, and colored by the remarkable acoustics of the structure, yielding a stunningly beautiful echo. This sound is captured by microphones and rebroadcast back to its sender, to other listeners and to a sound installation outside the building. Anyone may contribute material of their own, filling the instrument with increasingly varied sounds.

This project takes cues from transformations of similarly imposing industrial sites in Europe such as La Fonderie in Brussels, Belgium and Emscher Park in Germany’s Ruhr, both of which reactivate abandoned sites by appropriating the mandates of existing cultural programs in their surrounding communities. The Silophone project aims to raise popular awareness of the building and to catalyze activity that will eventually result in the discovery of an appropriate new function for the abandoned elevator.

The Silophone project also features a physical manifestation of sound inhabitation: the sonic observatory located a few hundred meters from Silo #5: the sonic observatory is immediately and permanently accessible to the general public. It is equipped with a microphone allowing people to contribute sounds to the Silophone, and two loudspeakers allowing them to hear the echo of their voice. The installation has been open and accessible day and night, winter and summer since November 2000. The observatory was conceived and designed by [THE USER] with the assistance of construction consultant Caroline Alain. A number of original works for the Silophone have been commissioned by musicians, composers and sound artists, and by national and international music organizations. These works are performed at a series of live concerts. Using high-speed Internet connections, certain concerts are broadcast live from remote locations.
To contextualize the project and in homage to Silo #5, the Centre d’histoire de Montréal presented a museum exhibition focusing on the industrial and social value of the grain elevator when Montréal was the economic hub of Canada. This exhibition, together with a series of walking tours organized by Héritage Montréal, aimed to demystify the industrial and post-industrial sector of the city where Silo #5 is located. In September 2000, on the initiative of Docomomo (the DOcumentation and COnservation of the architecture of the MOdern MOvement), four teams of renowned Montréal architects and designers were invited to explore the future of Silo #5 through architectural projects. The major challenge was to propose projects that respect the architectural integrity of this vast structure and ensure its economic viability. The resulting proposals were presented as part of a public forum at which urban planners, artists and specialists were invited to discuss the Silo’s future.

The Silophone is one of the cultural projects included in the QUARTIER ÉPHÉMÈRE, which seeks at once to question and promote the role of art and artists in the heart of the city. Through investing in “in-situ” projects and production of art in a post – industrial framework QUARTIER ÉPHÉMÈRE attempts to explore our urban zones and to reach a diverse public, off of the beaten track of contemporary art. Although this approach contains inherent difficulties, the effect of daily exposure by the public to artists and their works can be profound and poetic. Seeing how artists interpret the world and how they perceive the spaces we enter each and every day can be life changing.

QUARTIER ÉPHÉMÈRE supports different kinds of experimental projects, which are sometimes highly technological or risky. QUARTIER ÉPHÉMÈRE aims to explore the common concerns of the modern city: preservation of our heritage, our collective memory and the impact of architecture in order to forge a stronger cultural identity and to inspire reflection about the past and the present. Artists can gain insight and inspiration from the exchange of ideas and contacts made possible by QUARTIER ÉPHÉMÈRE's international and visiting artists residency programs.

The historical significance of the Silo building. The Silo #5 was an innovative solution to the problem of storing and moving large quantities of grain, a significant achievement of engineering, which was remarked upon by the theorists of Modern architecture. Gropius and Le Corbusier considered it to be one of the most outstanding constructions of modern architecture. Today it is a contemporary ruin or “monument” in the heart of a post-industrial urban landscape.

The evolution of North America's economy from industrial to post-industrial has caused a dramatic shift in our society's perception of its industrial installations. The presence of heavy, production-based industry in the city center, which dates back to the industrial heyday culminating in the 1950’s and 1960’s, is perceived today as an outmoded and undesirable urban model. A gradual exodus of the North American production-based industrial infrastructure has accompanied the rise of the information-based economy in the North America to other continents, largely Asia and South America. What industry remains in the large North American cities has been largely relocated from the city center to the periphery.

Urban grain elevators are uniquely situated on a “fault line” between a resource-oriented industrial past and a present associated with the culture of leisure. Often these elevators are deemed too anachronistic for transformation and are simply destroyed.   This redevelopment, along with similar revitalizing strategies in other North American cities including Toronto share a basic indifference to the very specific nature and history of the buildings upon which they impose a completely foreign program in a relatively short period of time. The results of this kind of urban renewal can be seen increasingly throughout the post-industrial world: accidental, inappropriate, almost surreal juxtapositions of shiny temples to the new deities of consumerism and leisure, alongside relics of heavy industry and the production age.

The history of Canada is inextricably intertwined with the history of wheat. Wheat made possible the settlement of the Canadian prairie: it also rendered the colony viable, especially during the great wars of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries when it became the patriotic “breadbasket of the motherland”. The technology of the grain elevator was crucial to the expansion of markets for Canadian wheat overseas. Grain elevators (such as Silo #5) are therefore representative of the international exchange in that most basic of commodities - food - and Canada's role in this exchange. The 1950’s addition of the B-1 complex to Silo #5 (the section of the building occupied by Silophone) coincided with a dramatic shift in world trade paradigms and with rapid changes in the ways agriculture was practiced in Canada. Although most of the east coast grain elevators now stand empty, their presence is a reminder of the central importance of grain to the history of Canada's expansion and economical development.

Across the Lachine Canal, Silo Number 5 still stands empty, “a study in sober gray concrete and rusted steel, the relic of an era of optimism, when Canada’s agricultural industry seemed set to dominate the world market.” Standing on the margins of Montreal’s former commercial district, Silo Number 5 stands as a reminder that wheat grown on the prairies once stopped at Montreal before being shipped to Europe. Canada’s agricultural industry was a link to the rest of the world. Montreal, in a way, was connecting North America and Europe. This heterogeneity – and the battle of economic and political wills that goes along with it – has always been part of Montreal’s appeal, and the relatively recent transition from an industrial to an information-based society seems only to have intensified it.
Canadians have a lot of land to manage, and Silo Number 5 attests to the immensity of the terrain that Canadians cultivated by the time construction was started in 1903. Silo Number 5 is an emblem of an industrial-technological utopia, a celebration of Modernist economies of scale, macroeconomics in the form of industrial architecture.

The significance of emphasis on cultural as opposed to commercial and residential redevelopment projects in the post-industrial inner city transformation. The old industrial quarter in Montreal is located between the downtown and the waterfront of the Lachine Canal. It includes the historical district Faubourgh des Recollets (bounded by St. Antoine, McGill, de la Commune streets and the Bonaventure Autoroute). The Faubourgh des Recollets “has long been recognized as a premium location for downtown residential development. The recent trend in urban loft living is accentuating its cachet.” The possibility to convert vacant industrial space to artists’ lofts (the idea that QUARTIER EPHEMERE has now took on) has been emphasized before. All the diverse revitalization projects that presently take place in the Faubourgh (commercial, residential, and cultural) contribute to homogenization of the fractured urban fabric of the post-industrial district, which still has large amount of empty lots used for parking. Among the various successful urban redevelopment strategies that are impose on the contemporary Faubourgh, the incorporation of existing cultural programmes appears to be most promising strategy in terms of establishing a connection between the downtown of Montreal and the waterfront, and possible future gentrification of the latter. The development of industrial quarter adjacent to the port (when Montreal had developed in the industrial centre in the mid-19th century), as well as situating the grain elevators at the waterfront (when Canada started exporting wheat overseas) was justified at the time. Montreal acted as a transportation hub of Canada until the first quarter of the 20th century. However, in the late 20th century and the beginning of 21st, the industrial buildings in the district (particularly the grain elevators at the waterfront) are uneasy neighbours of the government and business buildings of the downtown area. “…To many, the words "port" and "harbour front" have become synonymous with leisure and tourism as opposed to industrial activity.” As it was already mentioned above, urban grain elevators are uniquely situated on a ‘fault line’ between a resource-oriented industrial past and a present associated with the culture of leisure. In Montreal, just like in number of other deindustrialized cities, exists a possibility to turn the waterfront into a recreational area, making an effective connection between downtown and the waterfront. The Silophone illustrates that such large and hard to reuse industrial building can successfully become the part of the reinvented waterfront. It already is a tourist attraction.

The Silophone project is particularly an important part of Montreal’s inner city urban renewal. Converting a large building into a musical instrument is an innovative and unique solution for reuse of a redundant industrial object. The existence of such project in Montreal creates a model for other abandoned grain storage facilities, as well as various obsolete structures to be reinvented analogically. Of course, there is no need to create other large echo chambers elsewhere in the world. It is the innovative approach that has to be adopted by other cities. The Silophone project is already accessible for everyone who has access to Internet or a phone – which means, people in many parts of the world. Naturally, such unorthodox approach urban reuse might not last for long time. After all, the whole structure is only used for generating sounds. The creators of the project mention on their website that Silo #5 is just temporarily used as a musical instrument. The silo is waiting for a more beneficial use for it to be found. The temporary occupation of the silo can be viewed as a way to ensure that the structure will not be demolished in the near future or as a way to attract attention to the structure so that the search for the new utilization for it would be facilitated.  Also the Silophone is particularly interesting in comparison to other urban renewal projects because the participation in the project is not restricted geographically, is it is mentioned above. Various revitalized post-industrial redevelopments that also incorporate cultural programs, such as art galleries or parks, play a significant role in restoring the declined sites and benefiting community. However, what makes the Silophone project stand out is the fact that it also exists in cyberspace. Of course, many post-industrial redevelopment projects have websites on Internet too; however, we can only actually take part in the activities they offer if we visit their geographical locations. The projects like Silophone contribute to creating new identity for the constantly changing city. The fact that such projects are located in the inner city, and are integrated in the major tourist routes, ensures that they would contribute to the city’s image. In the case of Montreal it is very important, because Montreal is a regional centre, it represents the province and therefore it should also illustrate local cultural developments.
“’ Establishing cultural identity is crucial as celebrating distinctiveness in a homogenizing world marks out one place from the next…. Equally important is creating new traditions and images so the city’s images are not frozen in the past. Historic cities have built-in advantages; they have textured layers of history and built remains to work with in projecting their uniqueness and specialness. This is more difficult for newer cities, unless they can create other forms of buzz.”

In comparison to many major “Old World” cities aged at least a thousand years Montreal, as well as many other major North American cities, needs to consider incorporating more cultural programs in the redevelopment of historical industrial district as means of emphasising the various phases of its history. The industrial district of former Faubourgh des Recollets is located near the historical districts of Montreal. By incorporating more cultural programs in the Faubourgh area, the city will continue its urban historical “narrative”, so the visitors of the city would have more chance to witness the different stages of Montreal’s history. Since downtown and the old quarters of Montreal are already tourist attractions, the redeveloped Faubourgh could potentially extend this area and conveniently connect downtown to waterfront and thus homogenizing the fractured city fabric. The city can also narrate its visitors about its inhabitants through its symbols and signs, as well as its artefacts. Here is an example of how a city can communicate:
“A visit to Montpellier showed how simply city could tell the story of its aspirations. At the airport a sign welcomes the visitor in a dozen languages saying, in effect: ‘Montpellier is an international city’. On the road to the centre are signs announcing tree planting schemes, the use of indigenous flowers in civic beds or the creations of cycle paths: the message is: ‘Montpellier is an ecological city’. Further on, a district with streets named after Alfred Nobel and Albert Einstein, housing companies like Synergy, Diagnostics or Digital indicates a new tech area: ‘Montpellier is a new tech city’. In the central square stands a health screening vehicle symbolically proclaiming: ‘Montpellier is a healthy city’.”

If the area between the downtown of Montreal and the waterfront would be fully gentrified in such a way that the vacant industrial buildings (including the structures at the waterfront) would not be destroyed, but would be reused and integrated through the use of cultural programs (the way Darling foundry (illustration 4) and Silo #5 of QUARTIER EPHEMERE already are), these artefacts of the past would contribute to asserting the positive image of the city and its inhabitants.

 Nowadays we tend to erase our past by destroying historical and industrial buildings. The destruction is sometimes justified due to inconvenient location or the physical condition of the building, nevertheless the buildings are usually destroyed because city managers cannot find any alternative use for them or decide to find an easier way to redevelop the land. This was the fate of the Faubourgh des Recollets after the industrial decline: parking lots were expanding due to demolition and the city did not benefit much from that. The Darling foundry, the silos and number of other industrial buildings of the Faubourgh are the documents of the industrial époque of Montreal. The destruction or abandonment of industrial buildings in the centres of many North American cities is wrong not only because it contributes to urban sprawl, but also because this way we deny ourselves a chance to witness the physical manifestations of the city’s and country’s past. “We continue to erase memory-a particularly pointless form of urban vandalism. Memory is undervalued though it helps the anchoring process, it can be tapped as a creative resource, it triggers ideas, and it helps make connections”. Incorporation of cultural projects in the remaining industrial buildings of Faubourgh (that had not become the part of the revitalization project yet) would make a useful extension for downtown and most importantly would give the following message to the visitors of the city: “Montreal is populated with environmentally-conscious creative people who value their past and find innovative urban solutions in order to achieve social and cultural integrity of their constantly evolving city”.

One could argue that reinventing the vacant industrial buildings of the Faubourgh as commercial or affordable residential projects would make the useful extension for downtown and preserve our heritage as well. No doubt, such projects are also beneficial to the city; nevertheless they are more appropriate for the redevelopment of post-industrial districts located on the periphery of the city. If residential and commercial buildings would be dominant in the area, which connects downtown and the waterfront, the tourists and the dwellers of the city would have much less places to visit on their journey through the downtown and historical districts. Whereas number of post-industrial landmarks, which aside from representing a period in history of Montreal and Canada, welcome people to see the art exhibitions they house, give opportunity to meet the artists and allow to participate in such excusive to the city activity as playing the Silophone (as the journey finally reaches its destination – the waterfront) would make the old industrial district much more versatile, would benefit more than just the local community (as would be the case with residential and commercial redevelopments).

“A country’s culture is of paramount importance to development of each person’s human potential within that society.” “Culture can also strengthen social cohesion, increase personal confidence and improve life skills, improve people’s mental and physical well being, strengthen people’s ability to act as democratic citizens and develop new training and employment routs” .

Case studies. Emscher Park, Ruhr, Germany. In the so-called Emscher District, the coal, iron and steel industries, shrunken by periodical crises, have left behind “a bizarre landscape: spaces torn to pieces and environmental damage, land settlement with swamps and polders, slag heaps instead of flood-plain forests and soils polluted with polyaromatic hydrocarbons and heavy metals”. The Ruhr region contains a great many derelict industrial buildings; some new are classified as historical and architectural monuments. These are being redeveloped as commercial, cultural and leisure facilities in an effort to find contemporary uses, which will also allow them to retain their industrial identity. The remarkable constructions are examples of early Modernism are being prepared for new use with only a minimum of alteration to the old fabric. A gas tank is filled with water and becomes a new home for a diving club. Visitors are practising rock-climbing on the concrete sides of a redundant furnace (Illustration 5). Late at night, the Landscape Park Duisburg Nord “fills with the voices and distant laughter of people disappearing on mysterious torch-lift tours through the gargantuan installations of the former Dusburg Meiderich steel works, only dimly lit by Jonathan Park’s coloured light installation”.

The second Memorandum from the IBA Emscher Park, issued after the half-time exhibition in 1994, sets out five main project categories: remedial work on the industrial landscape, cleaning up the Emscher river system, new-build commercial and educational facilities, housing developments, and re-use of derelict industrial installations. Regaining the industrial landscapes has been a primary mechanism of allowing local people new ways of identifying with their surroundings. It was necessary to renew the psyche of the region whose monoculture of coal and steel, and its decline at the end of the 20th century, had etched itself into the mindscape of people.

The Emscher park features two symbolic themes of the metamorphosis of the industrial landscape: “physical nature “(represented by eroding cast iron plates of the “Piazza Metallica” amidst the blast furnace plant) (illustration #6) and “utilization” of the place and the park (adaptation and interpretation of the industrial structure without destroying them). Instead of building objects for specific uses, fantasy and playfulness allow the existing abstract structures to function in new ways: the blast furnace is not only an old furnace, and it is also a mountaintop used by climbers, rising above its surroundings. The former ore bunkers become the rock faces of mountain scenery, or transformed into enclosed gardens.

The main product of this IBA is experience: the people in charge of local developments have been given direct experience of how to achieve the required quality in the individual projects, as well as a possible way to make those projects part of a larger qualitative change.  The buildings, with all their innovation, are the physical markers of a new body of local knowledge. The Emscher Park is an example of a successful urban renewal project that managed to create a cultural change without erasing memory of the region.
Toronto, Ontario. Of course, every city has a unique historical narrative bound in its urban fabric, and every urban waterfront has its own special challenges and opportunities. There is no single formula for waterfront regeneration. Nevertheless, cities must learn from one another. The Toronto harbour front “offers useful lessons for those who care about the future of urban centres and the role of public spaces and cultural programming and ensuring their vitality”.    For more than ninety years the central waterfront was Toronto’s main industrial, rail, and port centre. By the 1960’s however, these uses became obsolete. In addition, it also became isolated and decayed, cut off from the life of the city by outmoded infrastructure, environmental degradation, and the inaccessibility of the shoreline. A similar situation can still be described in Montreal, however it is not as dramatic. When the redevelopment of the area was initiated, market conditions clearly demanded that the next phase of waterfront redevelopment would be a mixture of private and public uses, with balance of residential and commercial land use. In the early 1970’s, as part of first phase of redevelopment program, private high-rise commercial and residential buildings were constructed at the water’s edge (immediately to the east of what was going to become Harbour front site). Citizens perceived these buildings as blocking public access to water and were concerned that the central waterfront would become a private domain for private profit-with little, if any, public use. If the former industrial area of the Montreal’s Faubourgh des recollects would be redeveloped in a similar way-that is with emphasis placed on commercial and residential uses of the area, the impact on the waterfront would not be as dramatic indeed. Historical quarters of Montreal would still establish certain connection of downtown to waterfront. However, the Faubourgh will become segregated to certain extent if made residential and the district would be excluded from social dynamics of downtown Montreal and excluded from cultural events. Also residential districts are not really desirable tourist destinations.

The citizens of Toronto wanted guaranteed continued public access to the full length of the water’s edge at Harbour front and affordable and diverse cultural programming to continue. The public programming was incorporated into the project after 1978 after several years of intergovernmental negotiation and public consultation. The goal was to achieve the complete rejuvenation of Harbour front as a people-oriented, mixed-use urban area and to provide enough-quality cultural, recreational and educational programs. The Harbour front evolved into active blend of traditional parkland and open space with a variety of cultural, recreational, residential and commercial activities (illustrations 7 and 8).

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As the Case of Toronto Harbor front Park illustrates, the incorporation of existing cultural programs in the post-industrial redevelopment projects is more beneficial to the city than commercial or residential transformations of the post-industrial inner city districts. Although residential and commercial urban renewal projects also benefit the city, they are less likely to preserve collective memory, and give the new identity to a constantly evolving modern city. The redevelopment of post-industrial districts that establish new identity for the region like Emscher Park, while preserving the existing physical framework, allows the residents and visitors of the area to creatively reinterpret their surroundings. This approach to urban renewal is much more efficient and beneficial in a long term than “tabula rasa” approach of the mid-20th century. By reinterpreting the redundant structures on existing site, rather than destroying them, we establish the creative milieu for the society. We also create a model that will serve as a step in evolution of urban design and therefore possibly a stage in evolution of the society since our surroundings have great impact on our consciousness. The Silophone project in Montreal might not be long lasting, however it acts as important an example of creative approach to reuse of obsolete post-industrial districts of the inner cities, which disrupt the city fabric due to their scale and redundancy. Silophone project is particularly important, since it introduces completely new strategy that can be perceived as a next step in the evolution of urban renewal tactic.

Illustration 1: map of former Faubourgh des Recollets, Montreal.

Illustration 2: Silo #5.

Illustration 3: Silo #5 (view from the former the Faubourgh des Recollets)

Illustration 4: Darling Foundry (renovated for a use as an art gallery).

Illustration 5: Emscher park, Rhur, Germany. “Climbing garden.”

Illustration 6:Emscher park, Ruhr, Germany. “Piazza Metallica”

Illustration 7: Toronto waterfront

Illustration 8: Power plant renovated for a use as an art gallery. Toronto.

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