This thesis condenses open public space on an urban site in order to create an animated environment for public use. Maximizing use of an open lot in Sao Paulo, Brazil, an elevated concrete plate layers the site into a covered plaza below with sport and recreation program above. By lifting a programmable ground surface above street level, the project maintains the ground plane as an extension of the urban surroundings. The underside of the elevated plate becomes a horizontal elevation, or sixth façade, which is the new public interface of the project. Essentially a double-sided surface that is formally manipulated, the elevated structure both defines and unifies the two zones, mediating between them while creating different conditions and atmospheres, each with their own potential to invite public activity.

This thesis proposes turning a Toronto subway station into a gallery that will display temporary exhibitions of contemporary art. Islington subway station, on the corner of Bloor Street West and Islington Avenue, will anchor a future civic and cultural centre and will become the social and public focal point of Etobicoke Centre. The building will turn this neighbourhood into a vibrant community, creating a self-sustaining node around which people will live, work, and play. This proposal has been inspired by urban sociologist Ray Oldenburg’s concept of the ‘third place’. In contrast to the first and second places of home and work, the third place encompasses the social realm, being a neutral space where people can gather and interact. The proposal for the Islington Gallery of Art also adapts new urbanist Peter Calthorpe’s theory of the ‘Transit Oriented Development’ where the subway station is the central node in the neighbourhood. Both of these concepts will be discussed further in the thesis. The Islington Gallery of Art will bring commuters a direct connection with culture. This gallery will transform the public space of infrastructure into a setting for informal public life. A third place will be created where one currently does not exist. The thesis combines the three narratives of public space, public transportation, and civic culture in the design of a mixed-use building. It explores how transportation infrastructure and architecture can combine with contemporary art to instigate the development for a new kind of place, one that isn’t a traditional street or square, near the periphery of the City of Toronto.

Young people have not traditionally had a voice in urban planning. More often than not, they are incorporated into planning by either considering them as an implicit population or as part and parcel of planning for families (Knowles-Yanez, 2002; Freeman and Aitken-Rose, 2005; Frank, 2006). This is now recognized as one of the shortcomings of urban planning. This study seeks to address this gap within a specific context of urban revitalization and public space within a public housing development. This study explored how young people between the ages of 10 and 16 living in Regent Park, Toronto define and value local public spaces. Their perspectives are particularly relevant at this time as their neighbourhood is in the process of a 15-year, multi-million dollar revitalization plan. This plan will bring about extensive physical and social changes to the neighbourhood. The key objectives of this study were to understand the perspectives of young people about their neighbourhood public space, to determine how young people’s perspectives match with revitalization plans and to adapt participatory research methods appropriate for young people. By using a participatory, multi-method approach, I set out to determine how young people understand public space and the extent to which this is incorporated into public housing revitalization. The study findings show that the contemporary principles guiding public housing revitalization do not match how young people define and value public space. Findings reveal that young people have a broad definition of public space which encompasses public, quasi-public and private spaces. They also demonstrate that understanding public space involves both physical and social elements. This is incorporated into their ideas regarding revitalization. Young people placed more of an emphasis on social than physical solutions. Key to the findings are young people’s preferences for a neighbourhood network of walkways over through streets, maintaining community insularity, local landmarks and culture and their fears over losing these due to change brought about by new residents. Many public space elements were regarded as simultaneously positive and negative. They regard the revitalization process of their neighbourhood public spaces with mixed emotions, including trepidation, scepticism and hope. In this way, study findings add to the existing literature on young people and urban planning. Young people have a distinctive way of experiencing the urban environment and when asked in an appropriate manner, will share revealing insights that would not necessarily have been thought of by adults (Hart, 1997). The study recommendations build upon the existing literature on the participation of young people in urban planning. This study shows that there is a need for planners to work alongside local community agencies and organizations already involved with young people. There is also a need to reconsider how planners address the issues of equity and public engagement. Young people do not have a political voice. For this reason, it is important for planners to consider the principles of equity and advocacy in a manner that embraces strategies for planning with multiple publics. Planners need to be educated and made aware of the different methods to appropriately engage young people. This includes adapting participatory techniques, determining agents of community access and self-reflexivity.

This thesis investigates the condition of the contemporary suburban landscape and the potential of transit infrastructure in re-establishing the continuity of the fragmented social fabric. It follows the emerging discourse in addressing low density environment as a phenomenon that is becoming the dominant form in our individualistic and consumption-based society. The investigation focuses on Mid-Scarborough, Ontario, as a case study of a suburban ethnic community. Recognizing that high-intensity activity nodes are potential incubators of density and social meaning within the otherwise dispersed and fragmented suburban setting, this thesis proposes to expand an existing intermodal station into a mixed-use complex. Th rough diversifying the function of transit infrastructure with public and commerical programming, the design proposal channels existing intensity towards activating the social potential of interstitial public space. Ultimately, improved interconnectivity and communications between public fragments will foster social integration and the development of regional identity.

In the nineteen nineties, former Yugoslavia, went through a series of interstitial disputes, both religious and political, which evolved into hatred amongst its own people and ultimately into an unforgiving civil war. Rising demonstrations of the groups with different religious and cultural views within the country’s boundaries amalgamated into a war which divided the state into separate countries and left many cities and villages in despair, economic desolation and poverty. Although some have been directly affected by the physical casualties of war, others have suffered indirectly. One of the villages affected is Ruski Kerestur, found in the Republic of Serbia where more than ninety percent of the residents are non-Serbian. Many of its people fled the country due to political and economic uncertainties. This minority group is of the Carpatho-Rusyn decent which are the heart and soul of the village. Inspired by personal motive and desire to heal communities in distress, this thesis presents an opportunity to reconcile Carpatho-Rusyn people from the social diaspora in attempt to reclaim their national identity and give them the courage to persist on and continue the cultural legacy that has been nurtured for generations. Leaning on the speculation that ‘a spirit in people and belief in the future comes from the very foundation of a building’; it utilizes an architectural intervention as basis to conceive a quintessential communal space that redefines social and practical functions necessary for cultivating Rusyn traditions, ethics and domestic values. To develop an understanding of their public realm, the thesis dips into the crevices of time searching for Carpatho-Rusyn progress of development and migratory movement from their homeland in the Carpathian Mountains to the present day conditions. It tends to explore the idea of ‘adaptation’, the ideology that defines an architectural type through the process of transformation and negotiation of a community and its direct effect on public space, urban system and architectonic form. These theories will become a kernel for producing a useful and meaningful civic landmark that will strengthen the spirit of people giving hope and new life to the wounded village. The new ‘living monument’, Carpatho-Rusyn Art Gallery and Reconciliation Centre, presents a new gateway for Ruski Kerestur and its people into the healthy future shedding light on their moral values which were tamed for centuries by wars, ethnic cleansing and inexorable conviction of their non existence. The design proposal reintroduces a Rusyn way to the world and echoes the emotion of pride which permeates every Rusyn soul.

The public spaces of many low-income, inner-city neighbourhoods are fundamental in forming strong social networks, nurturing the development of community and supporting the needs of vulnerable residents. This aspect of the urban condition is rooted in the understanding of public space as social space, emphasizing the innumerable differences of individuals and their everyday patterns of inhabitation. This thesis explores Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, a historically marginalized neighbourhood with a strong sense of community that has developed from an accessible and inclusive public life. However, as the neighbourhood undergoes re-development, social polarization threatens the vitality of its public space and the existing sense of acceptance and connection. To mitigate the impact of gentrification on public space, architecture is employed as a tool to support and enhance the area’s inclusive public realm. Applying principles of Everyday Urbanism, it illustrates the social importance of ‘everyday space’, emphasizing the human condition and multidimensional aspects of cities. Three distinct designs propose ‘neighbourhood places’ at strategic locations throughout the Downtown Eastside. Guided by the principles of ‘city design’ and four established design goals, each project demonstrates an attempt to anchor the existing community in place, foster a dialogue between different neighbourhood groups and promote a sense of ownership and belonging. Although this thesis concentrates on the Downtown Eastside, it outlines a set of design principles that can be applied universally, increasing community connections and support throughout our cities.

This study examines framing strategies employed by the social movement responding to homelessness in Atlanta, Georgia over the course of the 20th century. Drawing on archival records, media accounts and interviews with religious, business and government leaders, this longitudinal case study documents the varied casts of individuals and groups responding to the visible poor on the streets of the city. At the forefront of this project were religious groups serving variously as agents of social control or prophets calling for justice. Social movement framing theory, supplemented by resource mobilization and political opportunity theories, are applied to analyze movement processes. Framing theory provides an explanation for the coordination of collective action in social movements. However, the processes by which movements develop, contest and subsequently transform frames have received little scholarly attention and remain central questions for framing theory. This study addresses these questions. Analytically, I consider the movement in two waves: 1) an early movement dating from 1900 to 1970 and, 2) a modern movement covering the years from 1975 to 2005. In each period movement leaders adopted diagnostic, prognostic and motivational frames to organize and direct their actions. In the first wave, the Salvation Army and Union Mission drew on frames of sin and redemption to develop specialized, separate institutions and programs for the visible poor. The second wave of the movement developed its framing by incorporating elements from the civil rights movement, liberation theology and the Catholic Worker traditions. Religious leaders developed a church based, volunteer run shelter system providing free emergency night shelter to homeless persons. Freezing deaths on the streets of the city in 1981 led to rapid diffusion of church-based sheltering and adoption of a crisis/disaster frame. Central to these developments was a core group of religious leaders bringing a variety of personal experiences and visions to sheltering. The experience of sheltering and the confrontations with downtown business and political leaders fostered the development of frames with greater complexity and highlighted internal contradictions in the movement. New frames explaining homelessness variously emphasized either structural (injustice) or individual (disability) factors leading to framing conflicts within the movement.

This thesis proposes turning a Toronto subway station into a gallery that will display temporary exhibitions of contemporary art. Islington subway station, on the corner of Bloor Street West and Islington Avenue, will anchor a future civic and cultural centre and will become the social and public focal point of Etobicoke Centre. The building will turn this neighbourhood into a vibrant community, creating a self-sustaining node around which people will live, work, and play. This proposal has been inspired by urban sociologist Ray Oldenburg’s concept of the ‘third place’. In contrast to the first and second places of home and work, the third place encompasses the social realm, being a neutral space where people can gather and interact. The proposal for the Islington Gallery of Art also adapts new urbanist Peter Calthorpe’s theory of the ‘Transit Oriented Development’ where the subway station is the central node in the neighbourhood. Both of these concepts will be discussed further in the thesis. The Islington Gallery of Art will bring commuters a direct connection with culture. This gallery will transform the public space of infrastructure into a setting for informal public life. A third place will be created where one currently does not exist. The thesis combines the three narratives of public space, public transportation, and civic culture in the design of a mixed-use building. It explores how transportation infrastructure and architecture can combine with contemporary art to instigate the development for a new kind of place, one that isn’t a traditional street or square, near the periphery of the City of Toronto.

Young people have not traditionally had a voice in urban planning. More often than not, they are incorporated into planning by either considering them as an implicit population or as part and parcel of planning for families (Knowles-Yanez, 2002; Freeman and Aitken-Rose, 2005; Frank, 2006). This is now recognized as one of the shortcomings of urban planning. This study seeks to address this gap within a specific context of urban revitalization and public space within a public housing development. This study explored how young people between the ages of 10 and 16 living in Regent Park, Toronto define and value local public spaces. Their perspectives are particularly relevant at this time as their neighbourhood is in the process of a 15-year, multi-million dollar revitalization plan. This plan will bring about extensive physical and social changes to the neighbourhood. The key objectives of this study were to understand the perspectives of young people about their neighbourhood public space, to determine how young people’s perspectives match with revitalization plans and to adapt participatory research methods appropriate for young people. By using a participatory, multi-method approach, I set out to determine how young people understand public space and the extent to which this is incorporated into public housing revitalization. The study findings show that the contemporary principles guiding public housing revitalization do not match how young people define and value public space. Findings reveal that young people have a broad definition of public space which encompasses public, quasi-public and private spaces. They also demonstrate that understanding public space involves both physical and social elements. This is incorporated into their ideas regarding revitalization. Young people placed more of an emphasis on social than physical solutions. Key to the findings are young people’s preferences for a neighbourhood network of walkways over through streets, maintaining community insularity, local landmarks and culture and their fears over losing these due to change brought about by new residents. Many public space elements were regarded as simultaneously positive and negative. They regard the revitalization process of their neighbourhood public spaces with mixed emotions, including trepidation, scepticism and hope. In this way, study findings add to the existing literature on young people and urban planning. Young people have a distinctive way of experiencing the urban environment and when asked in an appropriate manner, will share revealing insights that would not necessarily have been thought of by adults (Hart, 1997). The study recommendations build upon the existing literature on the participation of young people in urban planning. This study shows that there is a need for planners to work alongside local community agencies and organizations already involved with young people. There is also a need to reconsider how planners address the issues of equity and public engagement. Young people do not have a political voice. For this reason, it is important for planners to consider the principles of equity and advocacy in a manner that embraces strategies for planning with multiple publics. Planners need to be educated and made aware of the different methods to appropriately engage young people. This includes adapting participatory techniques, determining agents of community access and self-reflexivity.

This thesis investigates the condition of the contemporary suburban landscape and the potential of transit infrastructure in re-establishing the continuity of the fragmented social fabric. It follows the emerging discourse in addressing low density environment as a phenomenon that is becoming the dominant form in our individualistic and consumption-based society. The investigation focuses on Mid-Scarborough, Ontario, as a case study of a suburban ethnic community. Recognizing that high-intensity activity nodes are potential incubators of density and social meaning within the otherwise dispersed and fragmented suburban setting, this thesis proposes to expand an existing intermodal station into a mixed-use complex. Th rough diversifying the function of transit infrastructure with public and commerical programming, the design proposal channels existing intensity towards activating the social potential of interstitial public space. Ultimately, improved interconnectivity and communications between public fragments will foster social integration and the development of regional identity.