地下蒙特利尔:混凝土下的神话

生活在蒙特利尔,你最终会面对这样一个问题:"地下城在那个方向?"你可能徜徉在这座城市的主要购物大街凯瑟琳大街上,这里H&M和Zara与脱衣舞俱乐部和热狗店并肩而立。或者,你可能在吃午饭的时候在最繁忙的麦吉尔地铁站穿梭于人群之中。无论走在哪里,你都会遇到一些迷茫的游客,手里拿着免费的旅游地图,问你这个很难回答的问题。那么你最好让他们走进最近的商场或地铁站入口,然后跟他们解释,"就在那里,不过可能跟你想象的不一样。"蒙特利尔的任何一个导游都会首先告诉你,这座城市有一个32公里长的巨型建筑,

MONTREAL:CONCRETE UNDERWORLD

Montreal’s underground city is actually that, an urban space nearly asheterogeneous as the city proper above ground. The diversity is both organic andthe result of deliberate policy decisions. On the one hand, the 32-kilometre networkof shopping malls, office buildings, apartment towers, cultural centres, universitiesand civic institutions has grown piecemeal over the past fifty years, a connectingArab pop music, eccentric art installations, posh malls, and university hang-outsthough subway lines and sinuous passageways. Montreal urban planner, JacquesBesner notes that there was no master plan for RéSO (a stylized version of réseau,meaning network). Instead, Montreal’s city government encouraged propertydevelopers to lease space underneath the streets connecting their projects to theunderground city. In exchange for the right to connect a building directly to a metrostation or some other public amenity, property owners must keep their undergroundpassages open to the public until the metro closes at 1am. It’s a key distinctionbetween Montreal’s underground city and those of most other cities, where propertyowners unilaterally control access. Instead, in Montreal public and private spacesare blurred, and civic life exists above, below and beyond the ground level withwhich it is normally associated.