Design for Citizen-Generated Urban Interventions: Understanding the Relationship Between Formal and Informal Urban Design in Toronto

Abstract

Citizens’ urban practices that intentionally alter a public setting challenge privatization of open spaces, as well as exclusion from design processes and public spaces of the city. Research on the spatial context of these practices, referred to as citizen-generated urban interventions, is limited. This project identifies spatial conditions that are associated with the emergence of citizen-generated urban interventions. From the literature, I developed a site assessment to evaluate the spatial conditions that are theoretically related to the occurrence of citizen-generated urban interventions. Using wandering as a method, I identified and evaluated sites of interventions found in publicly accessible areas throughout Toronto. After analyzing the data, I describe commonalities among the spatial conditions of the observed sites. Based on the results, I created a working typology of citizen-generated urban interventions and preliminary design recommendations for landscape architects.