Stop Building Sad Cities: Montreal's Architecture Problem

We talk a lot about livable cities. We talk about their density, housing supply, climate resilience, and transit-oriented development.

These are urgent and necessary conversations. But we rarely talk about joy. Not just as a matter of mood, but as a driver of Montreal’s continued economic vitality.

We have collectively normalized emotionally flat, forgettable spaces. The cookie-cutter model of glass-and-steel structures may cut costs and speed construction as Montreal confronts its housing crisis. But there’s a true cost being paid by the well-being of our main streets and public spaces: the heart of our economic development and Montreal's identity.

The Boring Building Problem

The Boring Building Index campaign, initiated by Thomas Heatherwick through Humanise, is a global crowdsourcing platform for images of buildings people find dull or depressing. As the campaign puts it, “Boring is a state of psychological deprivation… boring buildings deprive us of crucial sensory information. They make us antisocial. They change how we feel and how we behave.”

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