Housing on Toronto's Main Streets
1989
Toronto, Ontario, Canada- Domestic architecture
- Building
- House
This international ideas competition for the redevelopment of Toronto's main commercial streets was launched in November of 1989 by the city of Toronto, the Province of Ontario and the Metropolitan Council of Ontario. The Housing on Toronto's Main Streets Competition aimed at defining a future vision of the city's commercial streets - perceived as public spaces within the urban Torontonian culture.
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While respecting the historic development model of these streets, the project was to facilitate the creation of modest housing by increasing the scale of existing buildings on these main arteries, (altering the height of existing buildings from 1-2 stories to 4-5 stories.) In doing so, it was expected that it would be possible to construct 80,000 new housing units and improve the quality of the urban space and public activity on the streets. This therefore involved the development of new and hybrid residential typologies that would be appropriate to urban conditions and sensitive to the City of Toronto's history, while respecting the social and demographic context of the region. The results of this competition were to serve as guidelines for the establishment of new strategies encouraging the excellence of architectural production.
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Proposals to be submitted for this competition were to remain schematic with no detailed drawings required. Competitors were required to explore three location categories, (vacant lot situated between two demising walls, corner site and a large site – undivided lot, block extremity). For each category, three locations were identified that were situated on various commercial streets in Toronto. These sites were representative of numerous urban particularities present within the city. It is noteworthy, and to the surprise of many, to mention that a team composed of three students from the University of Montréal won this competition.
(From competition's documentation)
<br><br>
While respecting the historic development model of these streets, the project was to facilitate the creation of modest housing by increasing the scale of existing buildings on these main arteries, (altering the height of existing buildings from 1-2 stories to 4-5 stories.) In doing so, it was expected that it would be possible to construct 80,000 new housing units and improve the quality of the urban space and public activity on the streets. This therefore involved the development of new and hybrid residential typologies that would be appropriate to urban conditions and sensitive to the City of Toronto's history, while respecting the social and demographic context of the region. The results of this competition were to serve as guidelines for the establishment of new strategies encouraging the excellence of architectural production.
<br><br>
Proposals to be submitted for this competition were to remain schematic with no detailed drawings required. Competitors were required to explore three location categories, (vacant lot situated between two demising walls, corner site and a large site – undivided lot, block extremity). For each category, three locations were identified that were situated on various commercial streets in Toronto. These sites were representative of numerous urban particularities present within the city. It is noteworthy, and to the surprise of many, to mention that a team composed of three students from the University of Montréal won this competition.
(From competition's documentation)
This competition is in the archiving phase, thank you for your understanding