“De Bord en bord”, meaning “from edge to edge”, is an attempt to soften the hard infrastructural edges of injustice that have devasted Beauport’s wetlands and hindered the physical and socio-economic mobility of residents of Quebec City in accessing its natural resources. The project aims to reconnect the urban fabric of the city to its waterfront by reframing its divisive Dufferin Montmorency freeway as an ecological corridor and an urban common that allows its citizens to reclaim their right to the river.

Spanning 11km from Port Beauport to Montmorency Falls, the corridor is defined by sweeping landscapes and green buffers along the highway. At its core are “lines of opportunity”—once-isolating infrastructures reinterpreted as threads of connection. The existing railway is revitalized into a suburban commuter line linking downtown to the reimagined waterfront, while Route 138 is transformed with narrowed vehicle lanes, pedestrian boulevards, and bike paths that invite active, inclusive movement.

At strategic junctures where Dufferin Montmorency passes through residential neighbourhoods, the freeway is capped as a land bridge park offering a quilt of amenities from amphitheatres to community gardens that cool the microclimate and invites moments of play, rest and community gathering. The corridor is integrated with soft-edge wetlands acting as a resilient and absorbent sponge that embraces water and prevents runoff from the impervious roadway infrastructure.

Project credit: Mengyu Zhao, Oliver Shi, Celina Abba, Tanushri Dalmiya