Questions relating to the sustainable development of large urban centres in the 21st century have taken on a decisive role in the thinking of elected officials and developers, as it has in architects' practices. Innovative products that stem from new technologies have been designed by manufacturers, optimizing the functionality and durability of materials. Green architecture and "eco-urbanism" have given rise to many articles, debates and new methods, while architecture, as it reestablishes its ties with this line of thinking, is embracing new themes such as eco-responsibility and global public good. These new practices, which were unimaginable a few years ago, meet the expectations and the hopes of a public that is increasingly sensitive to the protection of the urban environment. They are significantly altering ideas regarding housing, public facilities, urban transportation and, more generally, our vision of the city of the future.

While these ideas are now universal, from Asia to South America, from Europe to the North American continent, Canada and France are each in their own way faced with these questions and offer innovative solutions. Forerunners such as Alvar Aalto (Villa Mairea) or Paolo Soleri (Arcosanti) are now echoed in the form of housing designed by Jakob+MacFarlane in the 19th arrondissement of Paris, Edouard François's "Tower Flower," the botanical garden designed by Catherine Mosbach in Bordeaux, or Montreal's eco-neighbourhoods, urban development projects in Calgary or Vancouver.