Project Statement:
Using Nathan Phillips Square as its prototype
site, this exploration develops spatial design strategies
that seek to bring together all citizens in ways that
encourage social negotiation and civic participation.
The identification and enhancement of behavior settings
used by the “general public” are redesigned
to embed opportunity structures and affordances that
increase the survivability and quality of life of street
people while enhancing the quality of the space for
all users on an everyday basis.
Project Narrative:
Introduction
Derived from an examination of what it means to design
for the public, this project explores possibilities
for rethinking the functions and limits of so called
democratic public spaces in contemporary society. Using
as its prototype site Nathan Phillips Square—a
beloved, public, modernist landmark that serves as the
welcome mat to City Hall in Toronto’s downtown
core—the exploration develops behavior settings
designed for the ubiquitous “general public,”
within which are embedded opportunity structures and
affordances designed specifically to increase the survivability
of street people, an ostracized population 9.4% of whom
die on the streets of Toronto every year
In the broader context, the lessons learned
from analyzing and redesigning Nathan Phillips Square
can be used to construct a toolkit for implementing
these strategies in homeless hotspots at the urban scale.
Thinking about public space in these terms could be
of benefit to all users of public space. Although the
scheme obviously most directly helps street people by
accommodating some of their basic needs and allowing
for less physically and environmentally hostile temporal
occupation of public space, other populations, nonetheless,
have something to reap too, for we all have something
to gain from one another—whether that means making
us more conscious of the conditions of our society,
teaching our children about difference, reminding us
to reflect on our position in society, simply understanding
better the conditions of this marginalized population,
or, finally, providing the opportunity for us to remove
ourselves from our hectic, self-centered, too often
consumer-driven lives to remember and reconnect us with
the idea that we are just a miniscule part of something
that is larger and more significant than our individual
selves
Objectives
The objective of the proposed design is tri-fold:
(1) to increase the survivability and visibility of
street people by accommodating them through inclusive
design strategies that allow for temporal occupation
of the space.
(2) to challenge, by means of this marginalized population,
common perceptions of public space by integrating groups
through spatial design strategies that seek to bring
together all citizens in ways that encourage social
negotiation and civic participation, challenge stereotypes,
combat apathy and ignorance, allow people to discover
what is common among them amidst a world of difference,
and provide a structure through which all citizens can
feel like they are part of something larger.
(3) In the broader context, the goal is ultimately to
provide a toolkit for applying both the strategies implemented
and the lessons extrapolated from Nathan Phillips Square
across a landscape network at the urban scale—lessons,
which extend the boundaries of our consciousness and
better inform us about our attitudes toward public space
within the profession of landscape architecture, lessons
that ask us to question critically for whom we design,
and lessons which may expand our definitions of democratic
public space—all while potentially saving lives.
Context, Site and Needs Analysis
In step one, the general existing conditions of the
square, including environmental, climatic, circulation,
topographic and vegetative conditions, and identifying
current problems, including those that launched the
design competition to revitalize the square in the first
place were analyzed.
Step two involved research that evaluated
the extent and type of social interaction among different
users of the square. It was, not surprisingly, determined
that like interacted with like and, if street people
were not completely avoided by non-street people, there
was only very minimal interaction between the two groups.
There are many reasons for this lack of interaction,
which, for the purposes of this study can be defined
as either verbal or visual, and only few of which design
might be able to address. One of these involves the
opening of views into and through the spatial container
of the square, while seating arrangements are at the
heart of another. Based on the research undertaken,
these two factors thus became paramount in the new design
proposal integrated with the program to temporally accommodate
the needs of street people.
Extensive research was conducted to determine
these needs, including interviewing and observing street
people and consulting outreach workers, organization
directors and city officials, as well as reviewing municipal,
provincial, national and international reports and studies.
The square was then analyzed in light of these findings
to see how street people utilize the existing conditions
at the square. This provided an understanding of what
the square offers street people and how these conditions
can be optimized and capitalized upon.
The third phase of analysis involved researching
the various social services available to the homeless
population in downtown Toronto. This entailed mapping
the location and walking distances of shelters, drop-in
centers, medical facilities, food banks, and mobile
outreach unit stops. It was determined that, while several
districts in the downtown core are considered to be
homeless hotspots with concomitant services, there are
few essential services for street people in the direct
vicinity of Nathan Phillips Square, in part due to the
recent closure of a major shelter and drop-in center
near the square.
Measuring walking distances to available
services became critical, as a majority of street people—60%
of whom suffer from chronic fatigue—are forced
to walk to these essential services while lugging all
their possessions, an endeavor all the more exhausting
given that many of them are constantly on the go anyway,
since they usually are chased off of public and private
property. Relying on information obtained directly from
street people, social services workers and outreach
workers, two figurative but realistic maps depicting
the 24-hour movement and behavior patterns of two imaginary
cases (a 50 year old male and 17 year old female) were
drawn to better grasp how much territory a person living
on the street might cover in trying to fulfill basic
needs in one day. This provided a more concrete understanding
of their needs, constraints and the conditions of their
survival.
In the final analysis, the top six needs
proved to be: protection from the elements, security,
storage, human contact, nutritious food and alleviation
of boredom.
The next step entailed assessing how well
Nathan Phillips Square currently meets those needs,
and how the conditions there could be ameliorated for
less inhospitable temporal occupation. Based on those
and the above findings, programming and design moves,
however subtle, were developed to address those needs—moves,
which, to reiterate, improve the provisions that Nathan
Phillips Square offers all people, both those living
on the street and not. This includes a number of landscape
components and surfaces designed to make the outdoor
environment a little less inhospitable, especially during
cold and windy Canadian winters, for all users of the
space.
Design and Planning Strategy
Based on the problems discovered through the general
site analysis, shaped by the requirements of the design
competition brief for Nathan Phillips Square, and influenced
by the theories of Danish landscape architect Jan Gehl,
the design strategies proposed for this project function
as an interaction landscape. The concept that informs
this scheme is one of transparency. The components of
the design address the objectives of encouraging and
facilitating more interaction among different users
of the space. This is accomplished by opening views
and creating more porosity; creating areas for different
scales of interaction; moving existing programs to the
edge of the elevated walkway and allowing this colonnade
to function as a lively, habitable edge; increasing
the quantity, quality and variety of seating; creating
a belvedere for shade and shelter, prospects and a new
surface for activities; improving lighting and pedestrian
access; and making the reflecting pool accessible to
all. Major components of the scheme include;
- an interaction landscape activated by
a newly designed bench system that facilitates interaction
by providing different options for seating arrangements,
optimal views of the social stages, and varying scales
of interaction. The analysis showed that the existing
linear benches are the least accommodating arrangement
for personal interaction, the proposed benches are seasonally
heated and cooled respectively, encourage interaction,
either verbal or visual, on different levels.
- a new multi use adjunct space accommodates
a “social services market place” that acts
as a destination for easily obtaining information and
for implementing services for street people. On another
day it can host a smaller arts festival. All of this
can occur while other events are taking place in the
main square. On extremely cold nights, the surface provides
a docking station for mobile outreach units for street
people and the infrastructure for transportable survival
pods, which act as temporary personal shelter devices
during extreme weather alerts.
- an outdoor reading room stocked with
newspapers and magazines donated by commuters on their
way to work, as well as books from City Hall’s
own library. While the space is conceptualized to encourage
social interaction, ideally, it might even function
to slowly reintegrate street people back into the work
force by hiring them to reshelf the reading materials
and manage the book carts.
- other multipurpose fixed physical supports
for these behavior settings include: the above-mentioned
heated/cooled benches, which contain storage bins, bike
racks and which double as less uncomfortable sleeping
surfaces at night; more opportunities for shade and
protection from the elements through a permanent canopy
that doubles as an elevated viewing platform for the
square; and an inexpensive restaurant that serves highly
nutritious food and can be incorporated into a social
services meal program.
- an information pavilion that serves
as a base for those seeking socially-oriented information
can be used for disseminating information on a variety
of social issues and causes. Increased lighting doubles
as a beacon, makes all users feel more secure—but
especially street women, 21% of whom are raped every
year—while conveying important information during
extreme weather alerts. Finally, design elements, such
as pay phones, potable hot and cold running water, an
accessible reflecting pool and runnel, make the environment
more accommodating to everyone.
|
