1. Introduction1997 University Charrette: Forum for Young Creators
SIGNS OF LIFE: OUTDOOR ADVERTISING IN THE URBAN LANDSCAPE
1. Introduction
2. Debate
parameters.
3. Goals
and challenges
4. The
Project
5. Programme
6. How to
participate
The Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA), in collaboration with the Chaire en paysage et environnement at the Université de Montréal, the Centre de design de l'UQAM, and the Schools of Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Urban Planning, Graphic Design, and Communications at the Université de Montréal, McGill University, the Université du Québec à Montréal, Université Laval, Concordia University, and Carleton University, is organizing a design charrette on the theme of urban outdoor advertising.
Exploration of this very topical issue serves to introduce an international colloquium to be held in Montréal in the spring of 1998 by the Chaire en paysage et environnement, under the co-direction of chair-holder Philippe Poullaouec-Gonidec and Michel Gariépy, Dean of the Faculté de l'aménagement at the Université de Montréal. The charrette should generate new urban-project visions and ideas which will feed the debate at the upcoming colloquium.
The university charrette will run from Thursday 30 October to Monday 3 November 1997. The Centre d'exposition de l'Université de Montréal which is housed in the Pavillon de la Faculté de l'aménagement at 2940, Côte Ste. Catherine Rd., will host an exhibition of work produced during the charrette from November 4 to 9 1997.
This is the third edition of the university charrette, which has become an annual forum for young creators in the field of urban design. As in past years, it will bring together the full range of design-related disciplines: architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, industrial design, interior design, and graphic design. In addition to university students in the field of design, the charrette will target young designers (recent graduates) participating in internships with professional associations in Québec.
In North America, commercial signs have long been a major design element. Indeed, this function has become the dominant aspect, or "trademark," of places such as Times Square in New York, Piccadilly Circus in London, and Las Vegas — glittering tourist "musts" that light up our collective imagination.
Close to 30 years ago, in 1968, the Las Vegas "Strip" was the subject of a landscaping and architectural study by renowned architect Robert Venturi. He was the first in his field to show a keen interest in interpreting this example of American commercial architecture. The work based on this experience, Learning from Las Vegas: The Forgotten Symbolism of Architectural Form, challenges architects and urban planners to take a positive, unbiased look at commercial signs. With respect to the "Strip," Venturi asserts, "The graphic sign in space has become the architecture of the landscape." He argues that Las Vegas architecture serves as a vehicle for popular commercial iconography. Highlighting various aspects of the communication system formed by this eclectic, vernacular landscape dedicated to consumerism, he leads us to reassess the incongruous, seemingly chaotic order of the city. As stressed by Venturi, "The moving eye in the moving body must work to pick out a variety of changing, juxtaposed orders. . . ." Three decades later, what lessons can we draw from this work? One of them is certainly the failure, up until now, of planners to take commercial signs into account when preparing urban design projects.
Outdoor advertising, while it may be an indicator of urbanity can also be seen as a symbol of urban decay (as in "cities for sale") and as evidence of the decline in the quality of urban spaces — a phenomenon frequently referred to as "visual pollution" . One has only to look at the unbridled proliferation of commercial signs along certain thoroughfares, which are themselves generally the first target of urban-renewal efforts.
The serious financial problems experienced by public institutions in recent years, combined with the extension of free-market mechanisms to virtually all aspects of society, have led to an explosion of outdoor advertising, even in places where commercial signs were previously excluded. University campuses, for example, are being invaded by advertising, as are certain public utilities (e.g., urban transport).
The spread of outdoor advertising has generated a variety of problems, including changes in the meaning of urban spaces, and thas created a conflict between commercial signs and directional signage stemming from saturated communications. This makes it difficult for citizens to find their way and, in some cases, compromises road safety. The phenomenon may even lead to paradoxical consequences, to the extent that positive effects of commercial signs — e.g., the enhancement of certain street furniture as supports for signs (bus shelters, Omni columns) — may be obliterated by the multiplication and diversity of sign supports.
The goals of this multidisciplinary design charrette are to develop ideas about the outdoor advertising on the city, and to propose innovative architectural and landscaping projects that respond to issues such as:
the complex phenomenon of public and private visual advertising in the urban landscapes of our cities and suburbs, at the dawn of the twenty-first century. Are the relations between landscape and outdoor advertising twofold? What are the criteria for visual insertion and sociocultural acceptance of outdoor advertising in an urban environment?
recognition of the commercial landscape (public and private posters and signs), its raison d'être, spatial and physical features, charms, and coherency in cities that host local and international events. Do signs constitute one of the changing backdrops of the city as stage? Can outdoor advertising be seen as the colourful expression of the city's "here and now"? What impact does outdoor advertising have on a city's image?
the dimensions and problems of meaning, orientation, saturation, and safety linked to outdoor advertising as a normal component of the city. What are the current practices in the area of urban outdoor advertising? Does outdoor advertising play a structuring role in the city? What are the terms for outdoor advertising in cities? How can outdoor advertising be integrated into the urban project as part of urban design practice?
Participating teams should choose a site for intervention in the city or its immediate environs. It is intended that this site be residual in nature, with no discernible urban charcateristics, an indeterminate landscape, difficult to classify, a fragment of architecture, of the city or its landscape, unused, mute, of no significance, ( a vacant lot, an abandoned building, a parking lot, the area around a shopping centre, an expressway exit, an exposed mitoyen wall -in-waiting, a sidewalk hostile to pedestrians, an underground passage, the fringes of a busy road or a pseudo boulevard, a shuttered-up store, a blind wall, a disused industrial site, construction hoarding, fences and pylons of every kind, etc.).
The first step consists of describing , using both images and words, the existing state of the site selected. A reference plan or an aerial view, at a scale appropriate to the scope of intervention proposed, would be preferable. The urban issues that affect this particular site must be easy to understand.
The second step will be to describe and illustrate the strategy adopted ie. how does the team conceive of contemporary visual communication (its structure, its location, its way of communicating, its content) as transforming both the landscape and the ways in which people exercise control over that space and act within it?
The third step consists of graphically representing the proposed response to and transformation of the site chosen: plan, section, elevation, perspective, details at the choice of the team. Teams may choose whatever process they wish - drawings, photo-montage, computer graphics. The physical qualities of this new environment should be well illustrated. The relationship between the defined space and the signage , as well as that between the observer and the component parts of the intervention, should be very evident. The nature and character of the visual content should be well defined (civic, festive, commercial, artistic…), as well as the temporal quality of the installation (permanent, intermittent, seasonal, nocturnal, nomadic…).
« Architecture supplies the substance for simultaneous collective reception » wrote Walter Benjamin. Today publicity superimposes itself, becomes a substitutue for the substance of architecture. The emerging landscape of our megalopoli, made up of speed and light, this overexposed city described by Paul Virilio, is this the message of a new world whose feeling and use we don't yet see in the world of tomorrow?
Thursday 30 October from 4:30 to 7:00 pm
Students, recent graduates and professors are invited to an information meeting on the charrette to be held at the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) at 4:30 pm. After the presentations, a question period and discussion, a informal gathering for a glass of wine and some conversation will follow in the Shaughnessy House at the CCA. Participants can continue the discussion and will have a chance to look at the exhibitions.
Friday 31 October to Sunday 2 November
Students and recent graduates work en charrette. Students should contact the designated professor in their school or department to find out about available studio space and to reserve it. Stagiaires should contact the school from which they graduated.
Sunday 2 November at 5:00 pm
End of the charrette. Each school or department is responsible for the transport of the projects to the Centre d'exposition at the Faculté d'aménagement (2940 Côte Ste. Catherine Rd., tel. 343-5741) before 6:00 pm.
Students and recent graduates (stagiaires) can form groups of three to five people, including, if they wish, students or recent graduates from other disciplines or from other universities. A registration form available from the designated professor at each university should be filled in by each team and sent to Nancy Dunton (tel. 939-7000, fax 939-7020 e-mail ndunton@cca.qc.ca) at the CCA by Monday 27 October at 5:00 pm.
Each team will present two A0 format panels oriented horizontally, mounted on foamcore , maximum thickness ¼ inch. From 4 to 9 November, the Faculté d'aménagement de l'Université de Montréal is organising an exhibition of all projects at the Centre d'exposition de l'Université de Montréal at the Pavillon de la Faculté d'aménagement, Côte Ste. Catherine Rd. A jury of specialists will examine the projects received and attribute prizes to the best projects. Prizes will be awarded on Monday 3 November at 7:00 pm at the Centre d'exposition at the opening to the exhibition organized by the CCA. Moreover, the winning projects will be visible on the the charrette web-site. A publication which will include the winning entries is being planned by the CCA.
It is imperative that students and recent graduates recuperate their projects after the exhibition by presenting themselves in person at the Centre d'exposition de l'Université de Montréal during business hours on the following days: 10, 11, 12, 13 November.
For further information, please do not hesitate to contact either Nancy Dunton, Head of University and Professional Programmes at the CCA or the designated professor at your university. A complete list of all designated professors will be posted on the charrette web-site.
3
September 1997