The Greater Toronto Area (GTA) is Canada's largest metropolitan area and principal destination for international migration and investment. Over the next 25 years, the GTA is anticipated to grow by approximately 2. 5 million people to a population of almost 8 million. While many view this growth as a symbol of economic prosperity, others see it as a threat to Toronto's economic, environmental and social well-being due to the dispersed, automobile-oriented way in which the city has accommodated its growth since the 1950s. <br /><br /> Over the last two decades, planners have focused much energy on ameliorating the shortcomings of post World War II urbanization by developing policy measures such as Smart Growth, Growth Management, and New Urbanism that aim to alter the way in which cities are built and thereby effect change in the lifestyles that have precipitated from this landscape. In Ontario, the Provincial Government recently launched a Growth Management campaign for the Toronto area called <em>Places to Grow</em>. Although many have attempted to define this relationship between environment and behaviour, little attention has been given to attitudes, preferences, and behavioural tendencies of those who will be most directly affected by such policies: the general public. <br /><br /> This study surveys residents from six GTA neighbourhoods in order to understand their attitudes and preferences toward urban living and accommodating urban growth and thereby shed light on where support may be found for implementing <em>Places to Grow</em>. Academic literature suggests that residents generally oppose changes to the physical landscape that do not conform to prevailing cultural values and attitudes. The results of this work indicate that people generally support development that is in keeping with the landscape to which they are habituated. Given that most Torontonians live a suburban lifestyle and that most of Toronto's growth occurs in the suburbs, municipalities may be challenged to implement <em>Places to Grow</em> which stands to impact the suburban landscape more than other areas of the region. If <em>Places to Grow</em> is to be successful, planners must have a better understanding of residents' preferences and motivations in order to attract and maintain their interest in community development throughout the entire planning process.

This research describes a methodology for measuring built form patterns using spatial data and GIS that is amenable to the study of large geographical areas. This methodology was used to investigate the capability of municipal planning to influence residential development. In the early 1990s, the Town of Markham, Ontario, Canada adopted a residential development philosophy inspired by New Urbanism. An adjacent municipality, the City of Vaughan, has employed a conventional development approach. By calculating several built form measures derived from the design prescriptions associated with New Urbanism, this study seeks to discern if Markham's adoption of an unconventional development philosophy has resulted in a residential built form distinct from that in Vaughan. <br /><br /> Built form measures are calculated for both municipalities for two eras. Development from 1981 to 1995 represents the "before" or baseline configuration, while development from 1996 to 2003 is used to characterize built form created when Markham's New Urbanist-inspired approach was in force. Period over period comparisons are carried out for each municipality, as are within-period comparisons between municipalities. <br /><br /> Findings indicate that development patterns are distinct in the two study periods. From the early period to the more recent, street networks take on a more grid-like organization while building lots and blocks become smaller. These changes are accompanied by an overall decline in accessibility to amenities. However, development patterns were found to be quite similar in both municipalities in the recent study period, exhibiting differences in degree, not in kind. The findings appear to indicate that planning's influence over residential built form is limited to moderately accelerating positive trends, and moderately retarding negative trends.

This thesis examines the suburban verge’s latent potential as an alternative public space. It is located between the boundaries of private properties and public streets, where territorial boundaries and ownership are unclear. The site for this thesis is the southeast quadrant of the intersection at Jane Street and Finch Avenue West in the former city of North York, now part of Toronto. The intersection reveals a fertile field of public activity that engenders new forms of social engagement and invites a reconsideration of public space in the urban periphery. A product of Modern planning, the suburban verge is a buffer between vehicles and pedestrians. Home to hydro poles, streetlights, small-scale furnishings and the ubiquitous cast-in-place concrete sidewalk, the suburban verge is a definitive element of the suburban landscape that accounts for a substantial amount of neglected public land. The suburban verge’s ambiguity attracts a variety of unsanctioned and informal activities. At Jane and Finch, socio-economic issues, a diverse population and escalating pressure to increase density further intensify this unscripted behaviour. This thesis calls attention to the unrealized potential of the suburban verge. It does not set out to create new public space; rather, it draws upon existing social patterns in order to enrich the suburban public realm. Subtle inflections in the existing terrain, deliberately modest in form and operation, expand the social and ecological capacity of the suburban verge and demonstrate the need to consider the potential of everyday practices as a vehicle for generating dynamic public space.

The Greater Toronto Area (GTA) is Canada's largest metropolitan area and principal destination for international migration and investment. Over the next 25 years, the GTA is anticipated to grow by approximately 2. 5 million people to a population of almost 8 million. While many view this growth as a symbol of economic prosperity, others see it as a threat to Toronto's economic, environmental and social well-being due to the dispersed, automobile-oriented way in which the city has accommodated its growth since the 1950s. <br /><br /> Over the last two decades, planners have focused much energy on ameliorating the shortcomings of post World War II urbanization by developing policy measures such as Smart Growth, Growth Management, and New Urbanism that aim to alter the way in which cities are built and thereby effect change in the lifestyles that have precipitated from this landscape. In Ontario, the Provincial Government recently launched a Growth Management campaign for the Toronto area called <em>Places to Grow</em>. Although many have attempted to define this relationship between environment and behaviour, little attention has been given to attitudes, preferences, and behavioural tendencies of those who will be most directly affected by such policies: the general public. <br /><br /> This study surveys residents from six GTA neighbourhoods in order to understand their attitudes and preferences toward urban living and accommodating urban growth and thereby shed light on where support may be found for implementing <em>Places to Grow</em>. Academic literature suggests that residents generally oppose changes to the physical landscape that do not conform to prevailing cultural values and attitudes. The results of this work indicate that people generally support development that is in keeping with the landscape to which they are habituated. Given that most Torontonians live a suburban lifestyle and that most of Toronto's growth occurs in the suburbs, municipalities may be challenged to implement <em>Places to Grow</em> which stands to impact the suburban landscape more than other areas of the region. If <em>Places to Grow</em> is to be successful, planners must have a better understanding of residents' preferences and motivations in order to attract and maintain their interest in community development throughout the entire planning process.

This research describes a methodology for measuring built form patterns using spatial data and GIS that is amenable to the study of large geographical areas. This methodology was used to investigate the capability of municipal planning to influence residential development. In the early 1990s, the Town of Markham, Ontario, Canada adopted a residential development philosophy inspired by New Urbanism. An adjacent municipality, the City of Vaughan, has employed a conventional development approach. By calculating several built form measures derived from the design prescriptions associated with New Urbanism, this study seeks to discern if Markham's adoption of an unconventional development philosophy has resulted in a residential built form distinct from that in Vaughan. <br /><br /> Built form measures are calculated for both municipalities for two eras. Development from 1981 to 1995 represents the "before" or baseline configuration, while development from 1996 to 2003 is used to characterize built form created when Markham's New Urbanist-inspired approach was in force. Period over period comparisons are carried out for each municipality, as are within-period comparisons between municipalities. <br /><br /> Findings indicate that development patterns are distinct in the two study periods. From the early period to the more recent, street networks take on a more grid-like organization while building lots and blocks become smaller. These changes are accompanied by an overall decline in accessibility to amenities. However, development patterns were found to be quite similar in both municipalities in the recent study period, exhibiting differences in degree, not in kind. The findings appear to indicate that planning's influence over residential built form is limited to moderately accelerating positive trends, and moderately retarding negative trends.

This thesis examines the suburban verge’s latent potential as an alternative public space. It is located between the boundaries of private properties and public streets, where territorial boundaries and ownership are unclear. The site for this thesis is the southeast quadrant of the intersection at Jane Street and Finch Avenue West in the former city of North York, now part of Toronto. The intersection reveals a fertile field of public activity that engenders new forms of social engagement and invites a reconsideration of public space in the urban periphery. A product of Modern planning, the suburban verge is a buffer between vehicles and pedestrians. Home to hydro poles, streetlights, small-scale furnishings and the ubiquitous cast-in-place concrete sidewalk, the suburban verge is a definitive element of the suburban landscape that accounts for a substantial amount of neglected public land. The suburban verge’s ambiguity attracts a variety of unsanctioned and informal activities. At Jane and Finch, socio-economic issues, a diverse population and escalating pressure to increase density further intensify this unscripted behaviour. This thesis calls attention to the unrealized potential of the suburban verge. It does not set out to create new public space; rather, it draws upon existing social patterns in order to enrich the suburban public realm. Subtle inflections in the existing terrain, deliberately modest in form and operation, expand the social and ecological capacity of the suburban verge and demonstrate the need to consider the potential of everyday practices as a vehicle for generating dynamic public space.

Jiangnan is on the brink of revolution: a network of bullet train lines will re-territorilize this region of China, including Shanghai, drawing its 80 million inhabitants within a single hour’s commute of one another. From the train, the boundaries between Jiangnan’s ancient cities, villages, and countryside appear to dissolve into a momentary smear of colour. At the very moment the earth has shrunk by the bullet train, Jiangnan’s new mega-city status will erode a sense of community rooted in long stable demarcations of place. The humanity that endures will likely be atomized, lost in a vast, blurred, and indecipherable landscape that has sacrificed community for the high-speed design of a relentless modernity. Fuciao Cun Village, which stands at the geographic centre of Jiangnan, is being dismantled to accommodate explosive urban growth. Only the abandoned temple remains. The surviving temple is imagined to harbour three voices, each offering an alternate vision speed, space and time. Motionscapes studies the scene from the bullet train window and the power of the temple as a ruin, standing still in a landscape of radical flux. Waterland re-tools the temple site to choreograph new economies and transportation networks that respond and reveal a topography continuously animated by water. Finally, Maritime Theatre turns to classical Jiangnan gardens, cities, and temples for tactics of place-making. These techniques attempt to evoke collective memory to waken a dormant yet resilient zeitgeist at the uprooted site. Motionscapes, Waterland, and Maritime Theatre each offer an architectural intervention, the temple as ruin, waterworks and brickworks, and theatre. In sum, the three proposals at Fuciao Cun Temple are layered to project a fuller and inclusive experience of place onto a broader landscape, otherwise derationed, homogenized, and sacrificed by a manically technologic modernity.

The main purpose of the thesis is to analyze the phenomenon of conflicts between urbanism and ruralism, which reveals the development of early Chinese society and social collective consciousness, thereby comprehending the social meanings of Congwen Shen¡¦s novels; to explore the connection of themes of conflicts between urbanism and ruralism, tradition of the May Fourth realistic literature, and the early local realistic literature, and to interpret the literary meanings of Shen¡¦s novels. Besides the introduction and conclusion, the text is divided into three parts: Chapter Two is the ordination of sociologists¡¦ research on the transition of Chinese society from Ching dynasty to 1949, to serve as the frame of reference of Shen¡¦s novels for later-on discussion. Chapter Three is to apply Lucien Goldmann¡¦s literary critique to analyzing the binary opposite structure in Shen¡¦s novels and homologies of Chinese economy, politics, cultural transition, and collective consciousness. Chapter Four is to analyze the theme of urban and rural conflicts in Shen¡¦s novels, which may inherit from the tradition of realistic literature, to compare similarity and dissimilarity of the important local realistic literature in 1920s or 1930s, and to explore how the author and the social collective keep objectivism and subjectivism in balance, thereby evaluating the status of Shen¡¦s novels in early Chinese literature.

Diss. Uppsala : Univ., 2004.

Calculating the numbers of people, their age, and income demographic in our future not only gives the idea of how people’s lifestyle will change, but also provides a clue of how planners should prepare the future. In this perspective, planners should pay close attention to any possible changes in demographic profile. By closely researching the cause and effect of the changes, they are able to be more responsible to the future and design an environment that better meets the needs of the population. According to many researches about population projection, we will experience a significant shift in population pyramid and this can be traced to the Baby Boomer generation’s aging. This report starts with connecting the population change to the recent development theories in urban planning and design field. To make our living environment better, and to make the urban theories, such as Infill Development, or New Urbanism, more sustainable, I think the development patterns should be more flexible to reflect our future demographic changes. By doing so, we will be able to maximize the advantages of those theories and make our built environment more sustainable stage. / text