{"id":49157,"date":"2014-07-25T12:00:43","date_gmt":"2014-07-25T16:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?p=49157"},"modified":"2014-07-23T15:13:30","modified_gmt":"2014-07-23T19:13:30","slug":"nxt-city-prize-marisa-bernstein-nicolas-koff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2014\/07\/25\/nxt-city-prize-marisa-bernstein-nicolas-koff\/","title":{"rendered":"NXT City Prize: Marisa Bernstein and Nicolas Koff"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

The\u00a0NXT CITY PRIZE<\/a>\u00a0is all about vision to reimagine Toronto\u2019s public spaces and inject a sense of energy, dynamism and reflexivity. With a focus on ideas coming from the next generation of city builders, The\u00a0NXT CITY PRIZE<\/a>\u00a0is an open invitation for all young people connected to Toronto to improve on the design of our city’s open spaces. The\u00a0NXT CITY PRIZE<\/a>\u00a0will be announced in mid-August, and the deadline for submissions is July 31st.\u00a0Spacing<\/em>\u00a0has teamed up with the\u00a0NXT CITY PRIZE<\/a>\u00a0to provide our readers with a series of Q&As with local and national city builders in the lead up to the announcement of the winning design.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"LINE-600-GREY\"<\/a><\/p>\n

TODAY: MARIS\u00a0BERNSTEIN\u00a0and NICOLAS KOFF,\u00a0urban designers and two of the co-founders of Projexity<\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n

What public space improvements have you contributed to that you’re proud of?<\/b><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Scadding Court Community Centre\u2019s forward-thinking food and retail shipping container market known as Market 707<\/a> used Projexity to crowdsource designs, funding and volunteers for a new outdoor public patio.\u00a0 The entire process, from gathering resources to building the prototype, took only five months. We\u2019re pretty proud that Projexity made that happen by enabling community members, designers and stakeholders to come together.<\/span><\/p>\n

As a landscape architecture student, Marisa assisted Upenn professor Karen M\u2019Closkey\u2019s firm PEG-OLA to build gardens on vacant plots in Philadelphia with local communities. Riffing off the traditional Knot Gardens (think parterre), the series of \u2018Not Gardens\u2019<\/a> demonstrated the conversion of vacant land to low-cost, low-maintenance (yet well-designed!) neighborhood gardens.<\/p>\n

What public space improvements would you like to see in Toronto?<\/b><\/em><\/p>\n

Where do we begin? While Philly faces a growing network of vacant plots, Toronto is being developed at hyper-speed. Transit and neighbourhood amenities like parks, ravines and a healthy local commercial ecosystem now more than ever need to be fostered in order to make Toronto more livable.<\/span><\/p>\n

Personally, we\u2019d like to see more \u2018pet architecture\u2019 happening in the city. Coined by Atelier Bow-Wow out of Tokyo, the term refers to taking advantage of the oddly-shaped leftover bits in the urban fabric, such as traffic triangles or tiny plots between buildings; these could be used to create awesome spaces for the community to use.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What do you consider to be great examples of public space in other global cities?<\/b><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

We could talk about great public spaces \u2018til the cows come home. We love Tokyo for it\u2019s dynamic neighbourhoods. The scale is built for the pedestrian\u2019s experience: it’s all about the finer-grain commercial, large tree canopies, residential gardens that are more public than private, and the occasional to-be-developed parking lots transformed into temporary night markets.<\/span><\/p>\n

Speaking of night markets, Singapore\u2019s hawker markets are a great example of a healthy balance between government control and informality. Although fully regulated, these laid-back markets still offer some of the best street food in the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

We love Strasbourg\u2019s famed Place Kl\u00e9ber, a large, flexible urban square, which handles vehicular circulation and parking in a smart way (it\u2019s underneath the square). This move allows for a seamless connection to shops and restaurants on the perimeter.<\/span><\/p>\n

What advice do you have for young people as it relates to public space?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

YOLO, perhaps? Be bold and experimental, always question the status quo and dare to dream your way to better public spaces.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"bernstein_koff\"<\/a>Marisa Bernstein and Nicolas Koff are the urban designers behind Projexity, a Toronto-based online platform that offers communities new tools to improve their neighbourhoods. The duo has been collaborating since their graduate school days at the University of Pennsylvania, where Marisa received a Master of Landscape Architecture degree and Nicolas received both a Master of Landscape Architecture and a Master of Architecture degree.<\/em><\/p>\n

Marisa and Nicolas constantly seek to uncover the potential of underused spaces and are keen on exploring alternative ways to involve communities in the building of their neighbourhoods.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Their work as design professionals has also focused on\u00a0understanding sites in order to\u00a0create frameworks that can respond to constantly changing natural and cultural conditions. From coastal Venezuelan towns to the streets of Mumbai, India, Marisa and Nicolas\u2019 projects have taken many shapes from small gardens to large infrastructural networks.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Now based in the great city of Toronto, Marisa and Nicolas,\u00a0along with programmer Jonathan Koff,\u00a0continue to use Projexity to\u00a0strengthen communities and\u00a0cultivate experimental methods of place-making.\u00a0This Fall, they will be teaching a 3rd year Master of Landscape Architecture studio at the University of Toronto on community-engaged urban design.<\/em><\/p>\n

Top photo by Ian Irving, Market 707<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0NXT CITY PRIZE\u00a0is all about vision to reimagine Toronto\u2019s public spaces and inject a sense of energy, dynamism and reflexivity. 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