Resumen de The Development Process of Urban and Architectural Guidelines for the Rehabilitation of an Inner-city Neighbourhood: Le Village, Cornwall, Ontario, Canada
Avi Friedman, Qin Lin, David Krawitz
The neighbourhood of Le Village in Cornwall, Ontario, was a prosperous working-class district until the late 1950s, when the textile mills in the area shut their doors. The layoff of many residents of Le Village marked the beginning of the deterioration of the community's physical conditions. Many people moved away and sold their homes to investors who rented them out. Very little maintenance was carried out on these homes over the intervening years. As a result, the authors were engaged to survey the community and to prepare urban and architectural guidelines for its rehabilitation. The process began by collecting data on two main components of the neighbourhood: its urban aspects; and the condition of the homes. Armed with these findings and their analysis, the team studied the urban character of Le Village and the character of its existing homes. This observation, synthesis and analysis resulted in the development of design guidelines for the rehabilitation of urban components as well as those directly related to the homes themselves. Finally, in a practical application, two housing projects were chosen as design examples to test the guidelines. This paper describes the process of conceiving those guidelines with the intention of preserving the traditional character of the existing neighbourhood and presents the homes that have been rehabilitated as a consequence.
