Faculty of Design

Environmental Design

Janai Redman

Equity Connects

This thesis presents my framework alongside a multi-faceted social space proposal as an interrogation of public space, and the contribution of normative assumptions of public space to issues of social and spatial inequity. The social space proposal acts as a case study of the opportunities for design to positively affect socio-spatial equity in Toronto.The conceptual scaffold of this thesis is to enable community-led design of quality social spaces, thus reimagining public space, through an intersectional approach.The proposal site is on the traditional territories of the Haudenosaunee, the Mississauga, the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, the Huron-Wendat and the Anishinabek, who are the original inhabitants and caretakers of the land. This land is covered under Treaty 13.This site is also found in North St. James Town, along Ontario street, between St. James Avenue and Wellesley street east; located in the north east of Toronto’s downtown core. Equity is engrained in the processes and outcomes of the intersectional social space design through the guidance of my framework and its objectives to activate, stay and support. The framework and social space proposal takes head of the longstanding embodied socio-spatial inequities of this place. Deliberately designed, seasonal programming invites the community to gather throughout the year, formally and informally, while a promenade spine connects the social space to the neighbourhood and the city. The program intersects directly with the social, ecological, political and economic domains of the framework. Some examples of spaces you will find here include: seating and gathering spaces, a cool-off water feature which transforms into a skating trail, community garden, a market, winter warming stations, calisthenics park, land forms/ toboggan slopes and a children’s play area. These create activated open spaces and edges, opportunities to stay and supportive infrastructure for the local economy and livability of the community.By engaging my framework within St. James Town, as a case study, this thesis suggests a methodology to address issues of urban socio-spatial inequity.