An international platform connecting cities, universities, NGOs, and companies to ensure AI is responsibly designed and governed for the common good.
Projects build for and by communities through transdisciplinary research and design
Co-conceived
Our projects are elaborated with citizens, organizations, and municipalities. This way, we generate knowledge that is inclusive, applied, and transformative—ensuring communities remain at the center of innovation and urban change.
Intersectoral
We bring together design & planning, social & human sciences, and natural sciences & technology. We adopt best practices of interdisciplinary research and transdisciplinary knowledge production and communication.
Creative
We advance knowledge through making and experimentation. By blending design, science, and art, we generate critical and imaginative responses to urban challenges, producing outcomes that are both scholarly and transformative for communities and institutions alike.
Partnership projects
-
-
A multi-institutional research partnership studying the role of continental rivers in fostering biodiversity and social inclusion in urban communities.
Core projects
-
A co-created AI tool to measure and improve equity, diversity, and inclusion in Montreal's public spaces, developed with MILA and the Coalition of Inclusive Municipalities.
-
Using AI to generate visual representations of inclusive public spaces in Montreal, shaped through community workshops and citizen feedback.
-
A web application showcasing exemplary modest design projects across Montreal to promote sustainable and inclusive urban design practices.
-
Research and design guidelines to mitigate the visual impact of 60,000 5G antenna installations on Montréal's urban landscape, in partnership with city and telecom stakeholders.
Thesis projects
-
-
A doctoral dissertation developing a civic Right to AI for public-space governance, operationalized through pluralistic alignment — enabling cities to elicit and represent heterogeneous values without collapsing them into a single optimization target.
-
A qualitative study based on 10 semi-structured interviews exploring how women experience positive solitude in public spaces in Montréal, particularly urban parks, through the lens of feminist ethics of care.
-
-
A qualitative study of how situations of intimacy are manifested in fluvial public spaces, through interactions between individuals, spatial configurations, and the active presence of the river, based on fieldwork at riverfront sites in Montréal.
-
A qualitative study using semi-structured interviews and participatory design methods with women experiencing homelessness in Montréal, centered on La Place des Montréalaises, aiming to inform more inclusive and hospitable public space design.
-
-
A qualitative study based on 10 interviews examining the spatial appropriation processes and community social spaces of individuals at the intersection of lesboqueer and racialized identities in the Greater Montréal area, using an intersectional and phenomenological approach.
-
A qualitative study based on 24 semi-structured interviews across four stakeholder groups identifying three key levers — participation format, digital education, and inclusion of marginalized groups — for strengthening citizen involvement in the governance of AI applied to urban mobility in Greater Montréal.
-
Based on 15 semi-structured interviews and ANT Analysis Diagrams, this research maps the surveillant assemblage experienced by climate and environmental justice activists in Tiohtià:ke/Montréal, examining how surveillance shapes their emotions, imaginaries, and contention repertoire across protest moments, everyday life, and social media.
-
A mixed-methods study combining an online survey (n=70) and semi-structured interviews with citizens diagnosed with depression and/or anxiety (n=8) to explore how the deployment of AI in Montréal's urban spaces affects citizens' mental wellbeing, comfort, and spatial privacy.
-