Building a home is a process, not an event. It is a continuous and dynamic relationship between dwellers and their dwellings. Using houses as cultural artifacts, this thesis examines the morphogenesis of a French-Canadian neighbourhood in Montreal. / Cite-Jardin du Tricentenaire was a wartime effort of a small group of entrepreneurs who had dreams of building an "ideal", French-Canadian community. Its high rate of persistence over the past fifty years--one in five households are original settlers--makes it a convenient laboratory for the study of community development. / The research revolves around several themes: the planning behind the original housing; the physical evolution of the houses themselves; the experiences and perceptions of the homeowners; and the cultural and temporal context into which the housing was placed. This research establishes relationships between transformation behaviour and household characteristics, by analyzing how households adapt their housing situation to accommodate changing needs and aspirations.

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This thesis examines the relationship between women's empowerment and low-income housing sustainability. It argues that housing projects and policies should be designed to enable women take control of their environment, which would not only profit women but ensure economic and social sustainability of the neighborhood, benefiting all its other residents as well as the city. The thesis discusses how housing policies have failed to empower women and analyzes the manner in which a built environment can empower its female residents and consequently be enriched by them, as exemplified by three decades of history of an isolated neighborhood called Mountain Sights situated in the outskirts of Montreal.

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