NEWS IN BRIEF Montreal architect selected to design new Algerian city LEMAY Architects, based in Montreal, has won a nearly $1 billion contract to design Bourouag, a new Al- gerian city. This project follows the practice’s 2012 suc- cess in receiving a $2.4 billion dollar contract for El-Menia, also in the northern African country. LEMAY’s president Louis T. Lemay said the Bourouag project’s mix of residential and commercial real estate will pose an exciting challenge to the firm’s architects, designers, urban designers and other experts. The archi- tects say the engineering consulting firm Exp will be di- rectly involved in the project once it reaches implementation. Michel Lauzon, partner and chief creative officer, in- dicated that this mixed urban development will marry res- idential, commercial and institutional buildings in four clusters forming a cohesive and integrated community. “These sectors will be both autonomous and interde- pendent, allowing for a sense of community ownership,” he said. He added that this oasis city, born of the avail- ability of a stable water supply, will be defined by the in- terrelation between a human settlement and the natural surroundings. Lauzon said the new city will extend over 40 hectares and will accommodate 2,595 housing units, including 125 villas in a first cluster. A second cluster will house three primary schools, three high schools, two daycare cen- tres, a 15,000 sq. m. sports complex, a college and a mosque. The third cluster will have a hotel, a shopping centre and a business centre complete with a bank, a health clinic and an administrative building. The fourth cluster will be composed mostly of public spaces, including some of an institutional or commercial nature, including a public market, a rock garden, green spaces, fountains and a small water park. Bourouag will be crisscrossed by a road network to- talling 8.8 km. Lauzon said the project is an innovative concept based on contemporary urban design theory. It includes diver- sity, an element of surprise and recent developments in the field of urban ecology, he said. It takes into account the unpredictable evolution of the real estate market and commuting distances, and favours active modes of transportation. The Canadian Design and Construction Report — Spring 2013 – 9