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- Title
Quand la banlieue était le futur.
- Authors
POITRAS, CLAIRE
- Abstract
This paper aims to highlight the expression of architectural and urban modernity within North American suburbs. Over the past years, the political and cultural influence of suburbs has grown significantly. Their social composition and economic dynamics have also considerably changed. Thus, the suburb's built environment, land use and social life no longer correspond to the image that we had up until the 1980s, namely that of a bedroom community consisting mainly of single-family houses whose inhabitants commute to work on a daily basis. In the 1940s and 1950s, the suburbs' built form and urban design displayed several innovative features. After providing a portrait of the population growth of Montreal's suburbs area, this paper examines the ways in which urban and architectural modernity has been expressed in the built environment of North American suburban areas. My objective is to show that a tension is at work between, on the one hand, the preservation of the suburban ideal consisting of exclusively residential communities of single-family homes surrounded by green space for middle and upper-middle class, and, on the other hand, the ambition of local elected officials promoting the suburb as a place increasingly boasting urban features, such as density and commerce and industry.
- Subjects
CANADA; SUBURBS; URBAN growth; 20TH century architecture; LAND use; CITIES &; towns; CANADIAN architecture; SOCIAL conditions in Canada; HISTORY; CANADIAN history, 1945-
- Publication
Zeitschrift für Kanada-Studien, 2018, Vol 38, Issue 2, p8
- ISSN
0944-7008
- Publication type
Article