Rechercher dans la communauté

Un nouveau mobilier urbain au centre-ville Le Devoir Jeanne Corriveau Édition du samedi 11 et du dimanche 12 octobre 2008 Mots clés : mobilier urbain, Montréal Les accoudoirs des nouveaux bancs empêcheront de s'y installer pour dormir Un nouveau mobilier urbain fera graduellement son apparition au centre-ville de Montréal à compter du printemps prochain. Les nouveaux bancs publics, conçus par le designer Michel Dallaire, comporteront des accoudoirs qui les rendront inconfortables pour ceux qui voudraient s'y étendre pour dormir. En mai dernier, l'arrondissement de Ville-Marie avait confié à Michel Dallaire le soin de redessiner le mobilier urbain du centre-ville. Le contrat de 25 000 $ avait été octroyé sans appel d'offres. Le maire Benoit Labonté désirait que le designer donne au centre-ville «une signature particulière». Michel Dallaire a conçu des bancs et des poubelles à la fois sobres et fonctionnels qui remplaceront graduellement le mobilier actuel. L'arrondissement compte actuellement 500 bancs et plus de 800 poubelles, mais les aléas de la vie urbaine et les opérations de déneigement ont laissé des traces. L'une des particularités de ce nouveau mobilier est qu'il s'adaptera à l'inclinaison du terrain sur lequel il sera installé, et la mise à niveau sera facilitée. Pour concevoir les poubelles, Michel Dallaire a observé les cols bleus à l'oeuvre. Le modèle de poubelle qu'il a conçue est plus ergonomique et permet une économie de mouvement de 20 %, précise-t-il. Quant aux bancs, ils sont dotés d'accoudoirs positionnés, non pas aux extrémités, mais près du centre. Impossible donc de s'y installer pour dormir. Michel Dallaire soutient qu'il s'agit là d'une caractéristique qu'on retrouve également à Paris et à Toronto. «J'ai voulu que ce banc ne soit pas perçu comme un empêchement de dormir, mais plutôt qu'il donne des places à tout le monde», explique-t-il. À l'arrondissement, on se défend bien d'avoir voulu décourager les siestes. «Ce n'est pas la fonction d'un banc, de toute façon. Les accoudoirs permettent avant tout de rendre le banc plus ergonomique et confortable», soutient Jacques-Alain Lavallée, chargé de communication à l'arrondissement. Les bancs et les poubelles seront fabriqués en plastique recyclé ou en bois, et se déclineront en deux couleurs, gris et beige, a-t-on précisé à l'arrondissement. Le designer souhaitait d'ailleurs une couleur «caméléon»: «On ne veut pas polluer l'environnement. On veut que le banc soit utile quand on en a besoin. Mais quand on n'en a pas besoin, on ne veut pas qu'il nous parle toute la journée», dit-il. Les prototypes des bancs et des poubelles sont en cours de production aux Ateliers municipaux. Hier, l'arrondissement n'a pu préciser combien coûtera au total cette opération de rajeunissement du mobilier. http://www.ledevoir.com/2008/10/11/210268.html (11/10/2008 00H36)

16 juillet 2009 - Alfred Dallaire MEMORIA, Montréal Les rénovations su salon funéraire sont presque complétée.

Hi! I hope this post is not miscategorized. Since I moved to Montreal I have been looking forward to seen these old garbage cans replaced: They are too small, break easily, are always leaking, and most of them have lots of garbage under them which looks really bad (I don't even know how it gets there though I have a few theories). Anyway, in 2007 I found out that Michel Dallaire (the BIXI industrial designer) was to design new benches and garbage cans for downtown: http://www.ledevoir.com/2007/12/17/168881.html In 2008, renderings of the new designs appeared on his website: http://www.dallairedesign.com/flash/index.html And after that nothing happened. Is there any way to know what happened to this? Are they ever going to be replaced?

lundi 17 décembre 2007 Le mobilier urbain du centre-ville de Montréal sera redessiné par Michel Dallaire Le designer Michel Dallaire, concepteur du prochain vélo en libre-service à Montréal, vient aussi de se voir confier le mandat de redessiner les centaines de poubelles et de bancs publics du centre-ville. C'est du moins ce qu'a confirmé au Devoir le maire de l'arrondissement de Ville-Marie, Benoit Labonté, qui a quitté récemment le camp du maire Tremblay pour rejoindre l'opposition.M. Labonté a confié que ce mandat particulier, qui sera entériné le 20 décembre prochain par le comité exécutif de l'arrondissement de Ville-Marie, vise à insuffler un peu plus d'homogénéité et d'esthétisme au mobilier urbain que côtoient quotidiennement les résidants et visiteurs du centre-ville. «On sait que j'ai une préoccupation particulière pour le design. J'ai donc demandé à M. Dallaire de concevoir le mobilier urbain de l'arrondissement. Je veux qu'on donne une signature au centre-ville. Je m'attends à beaucoup de créativité», a soutenu M. Labonté. Ce contrat, d'une valeur d'environ 25 000 $, confié à la firme de Michel Dallaire (MDDI), devrait permettre d'amorcer, dès le printemps 2009, le remplacement graduel des bancs et poubelles du centre-ville. Des bancs bancals Parfois disgracieuses et obsolètes, les poubelles publiques posent de nombreux problèmes de fonctionnalité, selon Michel Dallaire. Le nouveau design privilégiera l'usage de matériaux recyclés et devra permettre aux employés de la Ville de manipuler les ordures plus facilement et de façon plus sécuritaire. Quant aux bancs publics, on s'assurera que le nouveau modèle permette une mise à niveau facile -- les bancs actuels, parfois installés sur des terrains en légère pente, sont trop souvent bancals. Selon M. Dallaire, il y a peu de bancs à niveau dans les rues de Montréal, sans même parler de tout le mobilier vieilli, vandalisé ou victime des opérations de déneigement. «On veut une marque distinctive pour le centre-ville, mais pas trop de design, car trop, c'est aussi polluant pour le regard. Il ne faut pas être décoratif, mais d'abord utilitaire. On cherche à concevoir un objet intemporel, sans fioritures», a indiqué M. Dallaire, qui, en 2004, a déjà conçu pour la Ville le mobilier du Quartier international. Récemment, il a aussi conçu les supports à bicyclettes, intégrés aux nouvelles bornes de stationnement numériques de Stationnement de Montréal (SdM). L'organisme qui gère le stationnement dans la métropole vient tout juste de lui confier la conception de tout le système de vélos en libre-service prévu dans le dernier Plan de transport de Montréal. Les premiers vélos devraient être offerts au public dès l'automne prochain, dans le cadre d'un projet-pilote. Sans bénéficier d'un budget aussi important que celui du Quartier international, le designer affirme qu'il produira pour le centre-ville un mobilier tout à fait différent, «plus simple», mais de très grande qualité. Selon M. Labonté, les sommes que l'arrondissement investira dans la modernisation de ce nouveau mobilier urbain seront déterminées lors de l'adoption du prochain programme triennal d'immobilisations. «L'idée n'est pas seulement de se différencier, mais de lancer le message que le design est important, explique le maire de l'arrondissement. J'ai toujours parlé d'embellissement. J'ai donc la responsabilité de donner un message clair. Cela fait partie d'une stratégie complète pour valoriser le design.» Source de l'article : http://www.ledevoir.com/2007/12/17/168881.html

Du site de BBC News - 2 articles sur la conférence à McGill en fin de semaine, in "the Canadian city of Montreal" - lol Forum tackles genocide prevention Local people in front of burnt out buildings in Darfur Delegates said atrocities continued to this day in Darfur A conference in the Canadian city of Montreal has been discussing ways to try to prevent genocide. Delegates heard from survivors of the Nazi Holocaust, as well as genocidal campaigns in Rwanda and Cambodia. Many delegates referred to the current crisis in Darfur, Sudan, which has been described as "genocide in slow motion". "It seems that for the most part the vow of 'never again' was not taken seriously," Payam Akhavan, the conference chair, told AFP news agency. Esther Mujawayo, a Rwandan woman who lost her mother, father and husband in the 1994 genocide, said she was sceptical about the world's willingness to prevent atrocities. "Don't tell me you didn't know. The world did know. The world looked away. You knew but did not have the will," said Mrs Mujawayo. "When the people were evacuating, the French, the Belgians, the Americans, all the expatriates, they even evacuated their dogs and their cats," while Rwandans were left behind, she said. 'Arm opponents' Much of the discussion at the conference, sponsored by McGill University's law faculty, has centred on how to prevent common aspects of genocides, like media outlets demonising potential victims and foreign bureaucratic inertia preventing intervention. But a controversial thesis was also presented by the French scholar, Gerard Prunier. He said the only way to stop government sponsored mass killings was to give military backing to opponents of that government. "If we decide that in fact what is going to happen is of a genocidal dimension, we have to support, including militarily, the people who are fighting against it," he said. He told the BBC that would mean arming and assisting the rebels fighting against government-backed militia in Darfur. Some two million people have been displaced and at least 200,000 have died during the four-year conflict in western Sudan. Can the world stop genocide? Can the world stop genocide? A conference in the Canadian city of Montreal has been discussing ways to prevent genocide. BBC world affairs correspondent Mark Doyle, attending the meeting, asks whether this can be done. Remains of victims of the Rwandan genocide laid to rest at the Murambi Genocide Memorial. Some 800,000 Rwandans were slaughtered in 100 days in 1994 The 75-year-old woman sat on stage in front of hundreds of United Nations officials, legal experts and academics. The day before, Marika Nene had travelled from Hungary to Canada - the first plane she had ever taken on her first journey outside Hungary. She was not intimidated by the gathering. Her long hair was lit up by a stage light and her facial features were strong. But the strongest thing about Marika Nene, a Roma - or Gypsy - woman who was trapped in the anti-Gypsy pogroms during World War II, was her determination to tell her story. "I had no choice. I had to give myself up to the soldiers," Marika Nene said through a translator. "I was a very pretty little gypsy woman and of course the soldiers took me very often to the room with a bed in it where they violated me. I still have nightmares about it". Many members of Marika Nene's Roma family died in the work camps and the ghettos. She had travelled to Montreal to give a reality check to the experts and UN officials at the "Global Conference on the Prevention of Genocide". We do not need to have a legal finding that genocide has been committed in order to take preventive action Payam Akhavan Former war crimes prosecutor She was joined by other survivors - from Rwanda, Cambodia and the Jewish holocaust. They all told their horrific stories bravely. But there was something especially extraordinary about the elderly Roma who had transported herself from a village in eastern Hungary into the glare of an international conference in one of the most modern cities in the world. It was an example of what Nigerian Nobel Prize-winning author Wole Soyinka would later describe to me as one of those points where people meet each other in a spirit of "egalitarian awareness". Six million Jews or one million Tutsis are just numbers. But this strong Roma woman was a human being who was not ashamed to tell her story. Betrayal The Montreal conference drew personalities from the UN, academia and the legal profession. Romeo Dallaire Romeo Dallaire could do little to prevent the Rwandan genocide The general aim was to build pressure on politicians to take mass killings - even in far-off places about which we know little and sometimes care less - far more seriously. If that sounds like a fuzzy and vague ambition, Canadian Gen Romeo Dallaire, who commanded a UN peacekeeping force in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide, begged to differ. Gen Dallaire led a force in Rwanda which was betrayed by UN headquarters in New York - his mission was starved of resources and so forced to observe genocide rather than stop it. Since that failed mission, he has made a career out of lobbying politicians to do better on issues like peacekeeping, abolishing the use of child soldiers and nuclear disarmament. "This conference is aimed especially at young people," said Gen Dallaire from a hotel surrounded by the campus buildings of McGill University, which organised the conference. "If these young people became politically active," he continued, "they could dictate a whole new concept of what national interest should be and what humanity should be." What is genocide? Payam Akhavan, professor of international law at McGill and a former prosecutor at the UN war crimes tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, said defining genocide mattered from a legal point of view - but that analysing how it could be prevented was the real point. Pol Pot in the 1970s, and shortly before his death in the 1990s Pol Pot, who led Cambodia's Khmer Rouge, was never brought to justice "The legal definition of genocide is contained in the 1948 Genocide convention," he told me. "In simple terms, it is the intentional, collective destruction of an entire human group based on national, racial, religious or ethnic identity." "But the key point", Mr Akhavan continued, "is that we do not need to have a legal finding that genocide has been committed in order to take preventive action." That is because, of course, by the time the lawyers have decided a mass killing fits their definition, it is usually too late to act. The Iranian-born professor said it was necessary to think about the ingredients of genocide, which he listed as: * incitement to ethnic hatred * demonisation of the target group * radicalisation along ethnic or religious lines * distribution of weapons to extremist groups * preparation of lists of those to be exterminated Similarities As someone who personally witnessed and reported on the Rwandan genocide, I found it quite disturbing to read about other mass killings. Genocides can only be stopped by the people directly involved Gerard Prunier It was not the details which I found shocking, but the spooky similarities that kept cropping up across the world. The lists prepared by the Hutu extremists in Rwanda, for example, were mirrored by the obsessive recording of the details of victims by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. The yellow identity stars Jews were forced to wear in World War II were the equivalent of the ethnic identity cards every Rwandan had to carry. This is the grim opposite of Wole Soyinka's "egalitarian awareness". It is the social science of genocide, which appears to have common features across history. The conference aimed to isolate and analyse Mr Akhavan's "early warning" factors to raise awareness. But what to do with the information? As speaker after speaker reminded the Montreal conference, the US government, among others, has asserted that genocide is being committed right now in the Darfur region of Sudan. It was continuing even as we sipped our coffee in softly carpeted rooms and nibbled our Canadian canapes. Everyone has known about it for several years but virtually nothing had been done to stop it. A dissident voice So all the talk about "early warnings" and "United Nations peacekeeping forces" and "the will of the international community" could be said to amount to little. Local people in front of burnt out buildings in Darfur The US and others have said a genocide is unfolding in Darfur At this point, a controversial scholar intervened with comments which challenged the entire conference. French author Gerard Prunier, like the proverbial ghost at a wedding, said genocides could not be prevented by the international community. "When you see a dictatorial regime heating up, everyone starts talking, talking, talking ... and by the time the talking stops, either matters have quietened down or they have happened." And that is the crux of the matter, according to Mr Prunier - it is difficult for politicians or the military to intervene in a situation that has not yet evolved into a crisis. Give war a chance? So what is Mr Prunier's solution? "Genocides can only be stopped by the people directly involved - and usually that means people involved in the war that accompanies most mass killings." And if it is the government committing the genocide, the solution is "arm the rebels", he says. "It won't be clean - it will be messy," the French author said, "but it is more likely to stop the mass killing than international intervention." To a large extent, Mr Prunier has history on his side. The Holocaust only ended when the allies destroyed Hitler's regime. The killing fields of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge were only stopped when the Vietnamese army moved in. And the genocide in Rwanda only ended when the Tutsi rebels overthrew the extremist Hutu regime. Against this, it could be argued that some interventions have worked - for example the Nigerian intervention in Liberia, which was followed up by a UN peacekeeping mission. It seems that resolving dramatic human rights abuses may require some of the diplomacy and the "international good will" that flowed so freely in Montreal. But as well as what Winston Churchill called "Jaw Jaw", some situations, it seems, may only be resolved by "War War".