{"id":43222,"date":"2013-04-26T11:00:13","date_gmt":"2013-04-26T15:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?p=43222"},"modified":"2013-04-25T18:04:48","modified_gmt":"2013-04-25T22:04:48","slug":"thinking-local-an-architecture-for-humanity-toronto-lecture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2013\/04\/26\/thinking-local-an-architecture-for-humanity-toronto-lecture\/","title":{"rendered":"Thinking Local: An Architecture for Humanity Toronto Lecture"},"content":{"rendered":"

This past Tuesday night, I joined a packed house at CSI Annex for the latest of Architecture for Humanity Toronto\u2019s Lecture & Symposium Series<\/a> on the theme of \u201cThinking Local\u201d.\u00a0 Moderated by Ian Chodikoff<\/a>, Director of Farrow Partnership Architects Inc<\/a>., the panel included Janna Levitt<\/a>, Partner at Levitt Goodman Architects<\/a>, Charles Rosenberg<\/a>, Partner at Hilditch Architect<\/a>, and Joe Lobko<\/a>, Partner at DTAH<\/a>.\u00a0 This was the second lecture in a series of three, based on ideas of thinking regionally, locally, and globally.<\/p>\n

While each panel member approached the question differently, there were some definite themes that ran through the evening\u2019s discussion.\u00a0 Apart from the obvious of involving the community during the design process, other strategies included collaborations with students and local artist groups, getting angry and trying to solve issues that affect you directly, or a sort of guerrilla design approach.<\/p>\n

Throughout all the projects shown, there was a consistent resistance to building or design typologies.\u00a0 This strengthens a projects ability to be \u2018local\u2019 and remain relevant, as Janna Levitt pointed out that, \u201cas people change, cultures change, and society changes, the type changes.\u201d\u00a0 Buildings that rely too heavily on stereotypes or design fads run the risk of being seen as \u2018other\u2019 within a neighbourhood and not integrating into the community.\u00a0 When speaking about Dixon Hall<\/a>, a homeless shelter organisation, Charles Rosenberg recounted the preconceptions about shelter design that had been transformed by the end users their firm had engaged with.\u00a0 The result was a building that truly supported those who used it, and helped it be accepted by the local residents.<\/p>\n

During his presentation, Rosenberg quoted Architecture for Humanity\u2019s book<\/a>, saying \u201cdesign like you give a damn\u201d, prompting people to approach a problem and \u201cget angry at it.\u201d\u00a0 When designers and architects become activists for urban and community issues they create innovative and relevant solutions.\u00a0 He said, \u201cArchitecture has to work really hard,\u201d so people need to push the design of buildings and public spaces beyond just their assigned programs.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Much of Joe Lobko\u2019s talk reflected on the advocacy and policy work the firm has been involved in, including issues of public health and walkability.\u00a0 He believes \u201csolutions are going to come from people in communities,\u201d and related this to various urban agriculture projects around Toronto that were started out of a need and a desire from local residents, including the Black Creek Sustainable Neighbourhood Retrofit Action Plan (SNAP)<\/a> in the Jane & Finch neighbourhood.\u00a0 He also spoke about Nick Saul<\/a> and Community Food Centres Canada<\/a>, with the notion that, \u201cprojects can inspire other projects,\u201d as Saul brings the success and lessons from The Stop<\/a> to a greater network of food provision centres around the country.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The theme of food was a focus of a few projects during the event.\u00a0 As mobile food vending in the city is a frequently difficult challenge facing Toronto, Levitt spoke about Market 707<\/a>, outside the Scadding Court Community Centre, with which they were involved in 2010.\u00a0 They took the sort of guerilla strategy of, \u201casking forgiveness rather than permission.\u201d\u00a0 The food stalls, located in retrofitted shipping containers, are considered part of a \u2018program\u2019, rather than revenue generators, which help its vendors more easily obtain permits and licences.\u00a0 The small market has aided the transformation of the Dundas-Bathurst intersection, as the Community Centre took charge of changing their corner of the city, rather than waiting for City Council to suggest top-down improvements.<\/p>\n

For me, what seemed to be the over-arching message of the evening was \u2018thinking local\u2019 does not need to just come from the perspective of the designer, architect, or city planner as a way of engaging the community stake-holders in a project, but it also relies on the average citizen to prompt discourse and change.\u00a0 These are the people that know their communities the best and will be there to help promote and sustain projects at this local level.\u00a0 Levitt seemed to be heartened that increasingly a great impact can be made with less access or ability needed in order to effect change on a smaller scale.<\/p>\n

The next lecture in this series<\/a> will be held on Tuesday, May 21, 2013, on the theme of “Thinking Global”.<\/p>\n

Photos by\u00a0 Architecture for Humanity Toronto<\/a> (top) The Living City Foundation<\/a> (middle),\u00a0 Scadding Court Community Centre<\/a> (bottom)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This past Tuesday night, I joined a packed house at CSI Annex for the latest of Architecture for Humanity Toronto\u2019s Lecture & Symposium Series on the theme of \u201cThinking Local\u201d.\u00a0 Moderated by Ian Chodikoff, Director of Farrow Partnership Architects Inc., the panel included Janna Levitt, Partner at Levitt Goodman Architects, Charles Rosenberg, Partner at HilditchContinue reading “Thinking Local: An Architecture for Humanity Toronto Lecture”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4077,"featured_media":43245,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22,157,21758,3,42,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-architecture","category-civic-engagement","category-community","category-events","category-food","category-neighbourhoods"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThinking Local: An Architecture for Humanity Toronto Lecture - 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