Paper short abstract:

The patterns laid out in Montreal during the French colonial period defined land division and housing production up to the 19th century. Planning and building practices remain beyond changes with the British colonial rule or the economic growth.

Paper long abstract:

The French legacy in the North American continent is generally of an archaeological interest for a long gone world established between the early 17th until the late 18th centuries. Indeed the original patterns of a few towns, villages and the land concessions along the Saint Lawrence River were considerably altered after 1763 with the British rule. Nevertheless, the doctoral thesis, a later paper and a current research dealing with Montreal's development during the 19th century, all confront the structural legacy of the French colonial urban development patterns that defined Montreal's growth then, and to a certain degree still today.

This presentation focuses on the structural heritage affecting the land division and the housing production in Montreal. The contrasting lot dimensions and layouts tell a story of spatial hierarchy congruent with the intended feudal colonial society established in New France. But on the other hand, these designs also introduced a sustainable component taking into account the owners' means, their social and economic capacity for their real estate development, and the location and assets of these plots. Housing types built on these lots followed similar goals and means. The urban and the architectural solutions found matched the legal and economic frameworks that echoed Anthony H. King's typologies of colonial urban development. In this regard, the historical investigations reflect the misunderstandings of colonial endeavours, within the French overseas expansion, but also its strategy in the Quebec context; the limitation of a Nordic outpost and the competition of Dutch and English seaboard settlements.