Reconnecting waterfronts and central neighbourhoods: the lessons to be learned from user behaviour for the redesign of public spaces

ABSTRACT

Waterfront redevelopment is one of the main categories of urban project in major cities since the 1980s. However, waterfronts are faced with issues of fragmented land ownership and a lack of integration with other central neighbourhoods. Using Montreal’s waterfront as a case study, this paper shows how the governance framework of urban design may undermine their integration. The observation of user behaviour within public spaces offers a new perspective for the redesign of these links between neighbourhoods, and seeks to contribute to a vision of waterfront precincts beyond the limits imposed by administrative constraints.

KEYWORDS:

• Waterfront
• public space
• user behaviour
• urban design
• Montreal

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank François Racine for his constructive comments on an earlier draft, James Burnett and Marc-Philippe Rebelo for their translation work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The authors received financial support for the research from Mitacs through the Mitacs Accelerate program (Ref. No. IT12726) and from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) through the Partnership Engage Grants program (Ref. No. 892-2020-0054).