The inception of Montreal’s underground displayed significant inventiveness in striving for a multi-level city, however today the urban network has developed into an overly-commercialized, perfunctory series of ‘unfelt’ commuting spaces. This thesis is firstly an invitation to see past the glossy storefronts and re-connect to the romantic notion of a subterranean urban labyrinth. Situated between the Expo islands and Mount Royal, the underground city needs an infusion of places of active engagement in order to exist in the city’s social imaginary. This thesis also emphasizes the sense in which these dormant spaces can be awoken to provoke in its occupants a sense of their potential for play and encounter. Transgression puts this potential in motion. The notion of transgression forwarded is personified by the 21st century ‘urbanist’, who studies and uses the city. As flâneur, drifter, urban explorer, traceur, tracker, the transgressive urbanist transforms familiarity by crossing thresholds. Beyond these thresholds lies new territory of sensual engagement and physicality, where we playfully search for the city’s secrets, and engage our capacities to ‘feel’ space. By investigating these practices, a design direction emerges that offers relief from the persistence of ‘anesthetic space’ in Montreal’s underground. This thesis presents reflections on the history of Montreal, a poetic exploration of ‘urban ambiances’, and a curation of works by transgressive urbanists. Through a series of cartographic explorations charting the network’s accidents and deviations, a series of zones are identified as potential intervention sites. Within these places are converging traces of subterranean tunnels, freeways and passages. The intention of these interventions is to unearth a latent urban ambiance of play.

The inception of Montreal’s underground displayed significant inventiveness in striving for a multi-level city, however today the urban network has developed into an overly-commercialized, perfunctory series of ‘unfelt’ commuting spaces. This thesis is firstly an invitation to see past the glossy storefronts and re-connect to the romantic notion of a subterranean urban labyrinth. Situated between the Expo islands and Mount Royal, the underground city needs an infusion of places of active engagement in order to exist in the city’s social imaginary. This thesis also emphasizes the sense in which these dormant spaces can be awoken to provoke in its occupants a sense of their potential for play and encounter. Transgression puts this potential in motion. The notion of transgression forwarded is personified by the 21st century ‘urbanist’, who studies and uses the city. As flâneur, drifter, urban explorer, traceur, tracker, the transgressive urbanist transforms familiarity by crossing thresholds. Beyond these thresholds lies new territory of sensual engagement and physicality, where we playfully search for the city’s secrets, and engage our capacities to ‘feel’ space. By investigating these practices, a design direction emerges that offers relief from the persistence of ‘anesthetic space’ in Montreal’s underground. This thesis presents reflections on the history of Montreal, a poetic exploration of ‘urban ambiances’, and a curation of works by transgressive urbanists. Through a series of cartographic explorations charting the network’s accidents and deviations, a series of zones are identified as potential intervention sites. Within these places are converging traces of subterranean tunnels, freeways and passages. The intention of these interventions is to unearth a latent urban ambiance of play.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of rock types and morphologic classes on the locations of underground cities existing in Cappadocia. To achieve this purpose four databases are created that contain related information of underground cities, present settlements, rock types and morphologic classes. Four main analyses are carried out using the data created fort the study. These analyses are: 1) Distance analysis to determine the distances between underground cities and present settlements, 2) Density analysis to inspect the areas where the underground cities are concentrated, 3) Distribution analysis to explore the spatial distribution of underground cities within the rock types and morphologic classes, and 4) Neighbourhood analysis to examine whether the underground cities within rock types and morphologic classes are located along or far inside the marginsof the polygons. The conclusions reached after the analyses are as follows: 1) The mean distance between two underground cities is about 4 km. 2) The mean distance between an underground city and the nearest present settlement is about 700 m. 3) Underground cities are concentrated in Derinkuyu-NevSehir-&Ouml / zkonak belt. Present settlements, on the other hand, are concentrated along Aksaray-Ortak&ouml / y-HacibektaS. 4) For the underground cities, pyroclastic dominant Neogene sequences are preferred whereas all other units are avoided. 5) In terms of morphology, the class defined as &ldquo / mesa&rdquo / is strongly preferred for underground cities. 6) Neither lithology nor morphology played a role in the site selection for present settlements. 7) Both for rock types and morphologic classes the underground cities are located along margins of the polygons.

This thesis attempts to detect the ignimbrite units in which the underground cities were carved and the relationship between the joints in these ignimbrites and the walls of underground cities. Orientation of rooms, directions of walls and joints are input data used in the study. Two sites in Cappadocia (Derinkuyu and Kaymakli) are selected to investigate the relationship. Measurements taken from 46 rooms of Derinkuyu and 64 rooms of Kaymakli are analyzed for the room and joint directions, joint locations in the room and joint densities. The density analyses are also performed in the field for Kizilkaya and G&ouml / rdeles ignimbrites. Conclusions derived from the analysis are: 1) Derinkuyu is carved within Kizilkaya and Kaymakli is carved within G&ouml / rdeles ignimbrite, 2) The thickness of Kizilkaya and G&ouml / rdeles ignimbrites observed 13.5 and 34 m, respectively, in the field. The probable thickness of Derinkuyu and Kaymakli underground cities are 40 and 25 m, respectively, 3) The rooms and the joints are oriented arbitrarily, 4) Forming the room walls that are perpendicular to joints were not preferred, 5) The joint densities in Derinkuyu show ascending tendency, while the joint densities in Kaymakli have descending tendency from top to ground floors, 6) The joint density of Kizilkaya in the field is higher than the joint density in Derinkuyu underground city. Similarly, the joint density of G&ouml / rdeles in the field is higher than the density of Kaymakli underground city, 7) The joint density of Kizilkaya ignimbrite is higher than G&ouml / rdeles ignimbrite in both field and underground measurements.