Posted May. 26/04
Public housing is more than just cheap accommodation. It is a reflection of the value that Canadians place on living in dignity and safety. Architecture helps to shape publicly funded communities that work — both new designs and those in need of renewal.
“Post World War II, architects saw themselves as social engineers but they’ve shied away from public housing in the last two decades,” reflects Carleton professor Ben Gianni. “The redevelopment of existing complexes revisits the issue — both to better understand and, where appropriate, to redress some of the shortcomings of their modernist predecessors.” He is now putting some of his first-year graduate studio students to the test by asking them to propose a strategy for transforming Toronto’s Regent Park.
Built in the 1940s, Regent Park is one of Canada’s first public housing complexes and was designed to be an ideal community in a park setting. However, due to the use of space — most notably the lack of through streets — the community functions badly. Those who live there are frustrated by high crime, upper-story units that are unsuitable for families, and little sense of ownership.
Over the next six years the Toronto Community Housing Corporation hopes to transform the area. Six of Gianni’s students have taken up his challenge. As architecture student James Hayes explains, “The recent gun violence in Regent Park is serious and the original planning is partly at fault. I want to help solve a big social problem.”
The vision is ambitious — 2,087 rent-geared-to-income units, 500 affordable ownership units for low-income families and 2,500 market housing units. If it works it could be a model for other projects across Canada. “Housing is not only houses,” says student Roberto Campos, BAS/02. “In a design versus dollar world, we can still create affordable, responsible architecture so that neighbourhoods belong to the city around them.”
