When undertaking the renovation of large-scale road infrastructure, there is a unique design opportunity to reconsider the role of road networks and their effect on our contemporary urban landscape. This study analyses Montreal’s trenched Décarie Expressway to explore the potential space created by road infrastructure and its role as a key element in urban renewal. The urban design takes shape according to the specific characteristics of the neighborhoods adjacent to the Décarie axis. Remediation of these neighborhoods occurs here by introducing public spaces and inserting real-estate development over the expressway. The design concentrates on connecting pedestrian paths along a new public plinth. Since we have inherited the road infrastructure developed by modern car culture, we must begin to envision transportation infrastructure as an opportunity for public spaces with real three-dimensional connectivity that would marry civic needs with cultural amenities and ultimately symbolize the physical rehabilitation of the Décarie axis.

The urban landscape-heat-health relationship was explored using a model of human thermal comfort (as energy budget) modified to incorporate varying urban landscape. Census Tract-level energy budget was modelled in Toronto during four extreme heat events. Energy budgets (~+80 W m-2) and heat-related ambulance calls (~+10%) increased during heat events and were positively correlated, albeit with some event-to-event fluctuation in relationship strength. Heat-related calls were negatively correlated to canopy cover. “Cooling” design strategies applied to two high-energy budget Census Tracts nearly neutralized (~–25 W m-2) thermal comfort and increased canopy cover (500–600%), resulting in an estimated 40–50% reduction in heat-related ambulance calls. These findings advance current understanding of the urban landscape-heat-health relationship and suggest straightforward design strategies to positively influence urban heat-health. This new high-throughput, Census Tract-level thermal comfort modelling methodology incorporates the complexities of the urban landscape has relevance to landscape architecture, urban design, and public health.

A case study of Vancouver’s West End neighbourhood examines the cultural, structural, economic and political impacts of a glbtt (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and two-spirited) community and a gay urban village on its city. This work also queries the role of municipal government in the regulation and maintenance of the social composition and identity of a neighbourhood. Finally, the future of gay urban villages is discussed as their role in promoting solidarity and safety transitions toward a commercial and nodal one. This research involved three local key informant interviews and nine community residents who participated as photographers in a community visual analysis. Results unveiled a neighbourhood intrinsically well suited to serving a transient gay male community with an increasing dispersion of the identifying demographic. For the foreseeable future the significance of the Davie Village in the socio-sexual landscape of Vancouver appears secure through the nodal nature of gay retail, bars and services, reinforced by business interests. As an urban typology supporting a comparatively young glbtt culture, the gay urban village plays a unique role in the city, providing spaces of experimentation and invention — a stage for new systems of cultural (ex)change to emerge.

A map is a context. This project is about contextualization. This process has helped me understand where landscape architecture currently sits as a discipline and offers hints as to where it might go in the future. The function of this mapping is as much about re-shaping an understanding of landscape architecture as it is about understanding landscape urbanism. Like architecture and city planning, landscape architecture is a discipline in constant flux, redefining its role with and relationship to parallel fields of thought and within broader disciplinary contexts. Over the last few decades it has become apparent that landscape architecture has emerged as a discipline strongly capable of reshaping urban space. Ideas regarding landscapes as active, dynamic, operational systems have paralleled the discipline’s growing relevance within an urban context. In this time landscape urbanism has emerged as a reaction to landscape architecture’s role within our changing world. For landscape urbanism to contribute anything of value to the future of urbanism, or to the design disciplines, it needs to be contextualized within the larger framework of which it is part, without this context landscape urbanism has no relevance. Where it has come from must be critically assessed as a way to understand its intentions and potential future. Landscape urbanism may expand architecture’s boundaries to include elements of landscape thinking, but it does not expand the boundaries of landscape design. Its attempt to generate a new approach for urbanism is innovative as architecture, in its effort to expand the discipline’s understanding of site, but as a design discipline, or a strategic approach to thinking, landscape urbanism is not innovative.

In recent decades, the role of port cities has changed dramatically. In many cases, the port function has been removed from the urban waterfront altogether. For this practicum, the subject is not the post-industrial, but rather an investigation into the role of landscape architecture in a place where industry persists on the shoreline. Halifax, Nova Scotia is the principle location for this exploration wherein the existing port-city interface is re-evaluated. This study includes an examination of the course of worldwide port development and the resulting impacts on port-city interrelationships and a historical comparison of the Port of Halifax to the general evolution. Mapping is the core of the analysis and is the primary means of assessing current conditions and future considerations. The work concludes with a final design proposal. Design drawings demonstrate the conceivability of the working port environment as a place to reconnect citizens with their harbour and the activities that occur within.

A case study of Vancouver’s West End neighbourhood examines the cultural, structural, economic and political impacts of a glbtt (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and two-spirited) community and a gay urban village on its city. This work also queries the role of municipal government in the regulation and maintenance of the social composition and identity of a neighbourhood. Finally, the future of gay urban villages is discussed as their role in promoting solidarity and safety transitions toward a commercial and nodal one. This research involved three local key informant interviews and nine community residents who participated as photographers in a community visual analysis. Results unveiled a neighbourhood intrinsically well suited to serving a transient gay male community with an increasing dispersion of the identifying demographic. For the foreseeable future the significance of the Davie Village in the socio-sexual landscape of Vancouver appears secure through the nodal nature of gay retail, bars and services, reinforced by business interests. As an urban typology supporting a comparatively young glbtt culture, the gay urban village plays a unique role in the city, providing spaces of experimentation and invention — a stage for new systems of cultural (ex)change to emerge.

A map is a context. This project is about contextualization. This process has helped me understand where landscape architecture currently sits as a discipline and offers hints as to where it might go in the future. The function of this mapping is as much about re-shaping an understanding of landscape architecture as it is about understanding landscape urbanism. Like architecture and city planning, landscape architecture is a discipline in constant flux, redefining its role with and relationship to parallel fields of thought and within broader disciplinary contexts. Over the last few decades it has become apparent that landscape architecture has emerged as a discipline strongly capable of reshaping urban space. Ideas regarding landscapes as active, dynamic, operational systems have paralleled the discipline’s growing relevance within an urban context. In this time landscape urbanism has emerged as a reaction to landscape architecture’s role within our changing world. For landscape urbanism to contribute anything of value to the future of urbanism, or to the design disciplines, it needs to be contextualized within the larger framework of which it is part, without this context landscape urbanism has no relevance. Where it has come from must be critically assessed as a way to understand its intentions and potential future. Landscape urbanism may expand architecture’s boundaries to include elements of landscape thinking, but it does not expand the boundaries of landscape design. Its attempt to generate a new approach for urbanism is innovative as architecture, in its effort to expand the discipline’s understanding of site, but as a design discipline, or a strategic approach to thinking, landscape urbanism is not innovative.

In recent decades, the role of port cities has changed dramatically. In many cases, the port function has been removed from the urban waterfront altogether. For this practicum, the subject is not the post-industrial, but rather an investigation into the role of landscape architecture in a place where industry persists on the shoreline. Halifax, Nova Scotia is the principle location for this exploration wherein the existing port-city interface is re-evaluated. This study includes an examination of the course of worldwide port development and the resulting impacts on port-city interrelationships and a historical comparison of the Port of Halifax to the general evolution. Mapping is the core of the analysis and is the primary means of assessing current conditions and future considerations. The work concludes with a final design proposal. Design drawings demonstrate the conceivability of the working port environment as a place to reconnect citizens with their harbour and the activities that occur within.

Focusing on the relationship between individuals with dementia and their environments, this research explores how to improve quality of life for those with dementia by increasing the capacity of existing urban public spaces. A content analysis of municipal planning documents (N =51) contextualized interviews, conducted with municipal urban planners (N =13) in the province of British Columbia, exploring their perspectives on designing dementia-friendly public spaces. Seven themes were identified from the findings. Furthermore, planners did not know much about planning for dementia, either suggesting they were perhaps already addressing dementia through other disability guidelines, or saying they did not know what could be done in the urban environment regarding dementia. They were open to learning more about dementia-friendly approaches. Incorporating the key dementia-friendly principles of familiarity, comfort, distinctiveness, accessibility, safety, inclusiveness and independence into age-friendly policy or Official Community Plans would promote designs that benefit persons with dementia, as well as many others with mental and physical impairments. / Graduate / 0573 / 0999 / mprzy@uvic.ca

The thesis considers the changing concepts of local open space in relation to the demand, supply and standards of open space. The development of parks in Britain first are contrasted with the development of parks in the United States, noting the legacies in both nations. After the historical resume, the changing attitudes to leisure and recreation in Britain and the United States which have occurred in the last fifteen years are considered. The numerous studies, both in Britain and in the United States, detailing the demand for open space are followed by supply studies of open space, which expose the deficiencies of open space and express people's desires for open space. A comparison of the ideal open space standards to the actual supply and deficiencies of open space are analysed in further local studies. Both private and public organisations in Britain and the United States have carefully fostered ideal standards, which have been unattainable by any of the major cities in Britain or in the United States. The need for new standards and new approaches to local open space designs in inner urban areas is discussed in the chapter on current policies on open space. Different design concepts and methods are suggested for solving the present problems. The concepts particularly emphasised are small parks, greenways and adventure playgrounds, but other suggestions are made. An appraisal of the financial, legal and administrative difficulties is followed by a study of the availability of urban wasteland for public open space. New methods of assessing the multi-purpose use of existing open space and discovering potential new open space sites on a case-study basis are suggested. The concluding chapter summarises the need, character and problems of local open space.