Context
An Interior Street Appropriated
No neighbourhood reflects Toronto, as a diverse multi-cultural city, more than Kensington Market. During Pedestrian Sunday, music ranging from Hip-Hop to ethnic traditional music can be heard echoing the neighbourhood as people occupy its sidewalk and public streets with their amplifiers, vendors offering global food from a hybrid of Italian-Jamaican to Hawaiian Poke Bowls occupy the street with their tents, and other ecclectic means of occupation.
Kensington Market is a romantic ecosystem, full of identity and creativity, but unfortunately, is on the verge of extinction. Nevertheless it carries a message that goes beyond its localism. According to Chombart de Lauwe (1976), Appropriation involves a whole series of psychological processes of creating, relaxing, acting, dreaming and learning according to one’s desires and projects. Spatial Appropriation stimulates users to reconsider the meaning of sharing in a contemporary society with a cosmic perspective.
I am interested in investigating the spatial species and elements that support Appropriat to occur at the Threshold Spaces of Kensington Market. For a site to become Appropriated, users must recognize the spatial possibilities inherent in it before they can utilize those possibilities for their own ends, facing the potential risks in doing so.
General State of New Development Facade in Toronto
Typical New Development Facade in Toronto
The Tall Building Design Guidelines, Mid-Rise Building Guidelines, and Streetscape Manual by the City of Toronto Planning Department has failed to recreate that gritty, organic ambience that characterizes Toronto because none of their solutions extracted Toronto's socio-cultural DNA.
The result is Dead Space, spaces that are difficult to be appropriated by the local community. Current band-aid solution by property owners, is to put large big box retails to diminish the feeling caused by the lack of community.
HOW MIGHT WE
Assist designers to create a community that is socially and culturally acceptable in Toronto, in order to:
• Reduce Dead Space creation
• Improve local's socio-cultural connection to the Proposed design
• Reinforce creation of Complete Communities
Methodology
The analysis utilizes occupation observation in Kensington Market between August-October 2016. Some of the observation occurs during Pedestrian Sunday and how the Threshold space is activated.
1. Document Occupiers and Occupied space.
2. Stratifies scenes that carry possibilities for reproduction of actions.
3. Isolate and document any necessary elements to perform the action.
This is an open project with various potential applications. This could be utilized as a toolkit to understand the city as an organic social artifact and encourage more participation in designing and utilizing public spaces.
Taxonomy
1. Residential
‘Residential’ investigates Threshold Spaces of residential properties. There is two distinct categories: ‘Congregate’ and ‘Territory’.
1.1 Congregate
Congregate investigates how Threshold Spaces are used as a small place of gathering.
1.2 Territory
Territory investigates the use of physical structure as a way of occupying residential border Threshold Spaces.
2. Corner
‘Corner’ investigates Threshold Spaces occuring at corner sidewalks.
There are two distinct categories: ‘Retail’ and ‘Lounge’.
2.1 Retail
Retail investigates how Threshold Spaces, owned by private retail property, emphasize presence through its action.
2.2 Lounge
Lounge investigates how Corner Threshold Spaces are being utilized as a small gathering space.
Sub-Type 1 has more privacy and requires more artifacts to sustain the action.
Sub-Type 2 acts more similar to a hallway. Its playful nature with its little to no artifacts requirement means that it happens more frequently.
3. Street
‘Street’ investigates Threshold Spaces at public streets. There are three distinct categories: ‘Infrastructure’, ‘Tropical’, and ‘Playing’.
3.1 Infrastructure
Infrastructure investigates how infrastructural elements sustain Appropriation.
3.2 Corner Street
Corner Street investigates Appropriation occuring at corner streets.
3.3 Playing
Playing occurs right in the middle of the street during Pedestrian Sunday.
4. Facade
Three species of 'Facade' occurs in Kensington Market.
4.1 Silver Attitude
Infrastructure investigates how infrastructural elements sustain Appropriation.
4.2 Aromatic Facade
Infrastructure investigates how infrastructural elements sustain Appropriation.
4.3 Walk Through
Infrastructure investigates how infrastructural elements sustain Appropriation.
Influences and Works Cited
Professor Mason White
Carena, Simone and Bruno Marco - Borrowed City: Motoelastico (2013)
Atelier Bow Wow - Pet Architecture (1980)