The urban design workshop brings together three teams, each made up of designers from Montréal, Berlin and Buenos Aires, the three UNESCO Cities of Design.

The initial step of this project involved the section of the Montréal-based designers following a public call for nominees issued by Design Montréal in May 2007.

In all, 58 Montréal designers, grouped into 15 interdisciplinary teams, showed interest and filed applications to take part in the urban design workshop. Of that number, three teams were chosen by the selection committee, made up of representatives of the City of Montréal, the Ministère de la Culture, des Communications et de la Condition féminine du Québec, the UNESCO Chair in Landscape and Environmental Design at Université de Montréal, and the Canada Research Chair on Urban Heritage at Université du Québec à Montréal.

The second step saw designers from Berlin and Buenos Aires selected by invitation, based on lists provided by those cities and following contacts established by the Montréal designers already selected. This step was coordinated by Emmanuelle Vieira of ZOOMCREA.

For the workshop, the selection of designers based in Berlin and Buenos Aires aims to:

• Stimulate intellectual reflection thanks to the novel perspectives contributed by creators from abroad;
• Showcase Montréal’s recent designation as a UNESCO City of Design;
• Help the Montréal public accept and embrace that designation;
• Stimulate partnership work with the other member cities of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network;
• Promote the development of professional collaborations among designers from Montréal, Berlin and Buenos Aires.

Each team is made up of Montréal-based designers from various disciplines and complemented by one designer from Berlin and another from Buenos Aires (except for Team 3, which includes two designers from Buenos Aires). Rounding out each team is an intern member, a young Montréal professional in the field of urban planning or design selected by Design Montréal.