Drawing from the rich cultural heritage of the American Indians/Inuit culture, Montreal’s Urban Forest on Victoria Street started in 2011 and imagined a transformation of a car-dominated road into an imaginative environment for people. Since its inception, it has contributed to Montreal’s unique culture of exterior event spaces and urban transformations. It contributes to an improved social environment and sensorial experience:the spatial environment offers and incites activities and it is engrained in the social fabric of the neighborhood. As a temporal road transformation, it dissipates at the end of the summer, but as a recurring phenomenon with so far 11 consecutive editions, it demonstrates a sustained appreciation and longevity. At once ephemeral and enduring, the transformed space is sustained in the urban social and material fabric of the city, and exists as a prototype of road transformation. The knowledge gained from this project underscores the need for the democratization of urban space.
