Fono, Kate, Luke and I (aka Atmosphere Industries) were in the news this weekend for our most recent public space game, Gentrification: The Game!

Gentrification in a nutshell: 30 people, divided into teams of ‘developers’ and ‘locals’, fight to collect real-life properties, build chain coffee shops, form BIAs, and bend the neighbourhood to their will. They’ll craft slick advertising campaigns, deliver impassioned speeches, and probably run around a bit. One part real-world Monopoly, one part public-space hacking, and one part pure spectacle, Gentrification helps players and the public think about and enjoy their public space in a new and unexpected way.

That last part is my favourite – I love how these games engage people in repurposing and reinterpreting the space they live in. If you consider street games in the context of movements like gorilla gardening or urban caving, you see a opportunity to explore and, in some ways, regain ownership of the built environment. And, if that gets people thinking about and engaging with issues like urban growth and renewal… all the better!

Ryan hit the nail on the head when he said:

The four are also realistic enough to acknowledge that a single game isn’t going to change the world. But convincing the public to make better use of their public spaces, and pushing out of their comfort zones through games like Gentrification, can be good for both the body and the soul.

We’re proud to be running Gentrification as part of Pedestrian Sundays in Kensington Market on July 25. Find out more at http://www.atmosphereindustries.com/gentrification.

Updates:

+ Gentrification: the Game! won ‘Best in Fest’ and ‘Best Use of Technology’ at the Come Out and Play Festival in Brooklyn!
+ Atmosphere Industries was invited to run Gentrification: the Game! The British Expansion Pack at the Hide and Seek Festival in London
+ Gentrification on Planetizen
+ Eye Weekly names Gentrification a best bet for this weekend
+ Gentrification posted on BlogTO
+ The Alternate Reality Gaming Network announces our Toronto game

A few weeks ago, I found myself in Brooklyn with the team to run Gentrification: the game! at Come Out & Play. After salivating over the High Line and soaking up all that is downtown New York city, I had the opportunity to go check out the amazing work being done at the Adaptive Design Association.

The Adaptive Design Association designs and develops adaptive equipment for people – mainly children – with disabilities. Through working with families, schools and communities and using readily available and affordable materials (cardboard!), they create tailor made solutions to support kids in achieving “their full developmental, social, and academic potential.”

I love how the use of cardboard really encourages the idea that anyone can alter their surroundings. Being so readily available allows for constant reiteration and experimentation and really opens up some great possibilities for creativity and empowerment.

Along with Gentrification, the whole theme of the weekend seemed to be around ‘hacking’ space – questioning how spaces are used and exploring the new ways they can be inhabited.

Thank you so much to Alex Truesdell and the ADA team for taking the time to speak with us and show us around!

+ Also important to note that the ADA model is currently being explored by the wonderful folks over at Ryerson’s Experiential Design and Gaming Environment (EDGE) Lab.

+ speaking of cardboard… check out Burnt Toast‘s recycled cardboard interior design for Smithfield Shop in the UK

I’m currently volunteering with the Community. Design. Initiative. in Toronto. It’s so exciting to be involved with a project that is determined to not only respect, but include and empower, the people that design is meant to serve.

The Community. Design. Initiative. is an innovative partnership project focused around using the power of architecture and design together with place-based poverty reduction to engage youth in one of Toronto’s most challenged neighborhoods…Instead of bringing designers into this neighborhood, the youth have been (and will continue to be) engaged from concept to construction, from design process to ribbon cutting, from interior design to landscape architecture.

A video of the work so far has just been posted on Youtube and I thought I would share it:

Also interesting to read is Meaghan Murray’s (an architectural mentor for the project) reflections about engaging youth in the design process.

Just read this article on aged housing by Ceridwen Owen from Architects for Peace.

I really liked the point about considering the wider context in which the “home” is situated. The “home” is defined as being part of an integrated neighbourhood – residents have to interact with the context outside the “home” in order to meet daily needs and, in doing so, are being incorporated into the fabric of the wider community.

I think this issue really gets interesting at the point at which going out into the community isn’t really feasible. While yes, many individuals can venture out into the world – and should – this is often crippled by the need to be with someone. In this way, having aged care facilities where all the services are tied in with housing can encourage an individual’s independence – as well as their interaction with others.

I’ve seen this idea played out with a “city within a city” approach – bedrooms become “homes”, corridors become “streets”, and services become “libraries” or “restaurants”. I know of a lot of supportive housing – elderly homes as well as homeless shelters – that are taking this route. Some of the projects by Sam Davis in California come to mind. As do Humber Heights and Strachan House, both in Toronto.

And while it can feel a little ‘fake’ or ‘planned’ at times, there are definitely merits. Perhaps we just need to find a way for residents to have some ownership or influence on that environment so it could evolve more organically – more like the city it’s mimicking.

“Housing First”, or “rapid-re-housing”, is an approach whereby homeless individuals are moved immediately from the street into their own permanent housing. This approach differs from the traditional “Continuum of Care”, where the individual must progress through different ‘levels’ of housing before they reach independent living.

In Toronto, this strategy comes under the “Streets to Homes program”. Homeless are approached by the City of Toronto’s outreach workers who offer assistance in getting permanent housing (and support services to keep them housed.)

The controversy sparked by a recent survey of Toronto’s homeless has highlighted how difficult it is to qualify the success (or lack thereof) of these programs.

Phil Brown, manager of the city’s department of shelter, support and housing, said every effort was made to obtain an accurate count. According to Mr. Brown, hard-to-reach areas near rivers, bridges and ravines were targeted by city staff members who are trained on where to look.

I think the National post article closed on the right note: “Homeless people actually like to tell their story and let us know what their service needs are.” The challenge is being able to connect, encourage and empower these individuals to share their insights and experiences – when many remain largely invisible.

]]> http://alex.raynesgoldie.org/housing-first-success-in-toronto/feed/ 0 http://alex.raynesgoldie.org/centre-for-addiction-and-mental-health/ http://alex.raynesgoldie.org/centre-for-addiction-and-mental-health/#comments Thu, 14 Jan 2010 17:13:14 +0000 alex http://alex.raynesgoldie.org/?p=250

Found this great article by Michael Posner on the future of Toronto’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.

“CAMH has embarked on a hugely ambitious, $100-million, 11-year renewal project – dubbed Transforming Lives – that aims to tear down the walls, real and conceptual, that have long kept it isolated. The institution’s newly minted president and chief executive officer, Dr. Catherine Zahn, hopes the renovated campus, with integrated treatment clinics, training and research facilities, will become a kind of “urban village” woven seamlessly into the larger fabric of Toronto.”

The project seems to really be embracing the new housing methodologies of integration, normalisation and autonomy. And I think the article really articulates the beliefs behind this approach. It really reinforces for me that the trend right now is a process from moving away – both physically and psychologically – from this idea of the ‘institution’ towards something that more closely resembles the ‘home’.

“The new treatment paradigm is the antithesis of the philosophy that inspired the site’s creation. When it opened in 1850, the Provincial Lunatic Asylum aimed to provide a bucolic sanctuary for the mentally ill, surrounded by acres of treed parkland and a thick brick wall, five meters high, built by the inmates.

Now, as local art-gallery owner Jamie Angell observes, ‘Providing housing where patients can learn to live with others, as opposed to the isolation associated with the past, [is] a step in the right direction.’”

This idea of moving forward is really emphasized by the construction process that involves new buildings, renovations and demolitions. It’s as if these new ideas are physically and conceptually reclaiming the old buildings and everything they represented.

“Toward the end of the next decade, the only visible remnant of the site’s turbulent history will be a single stretch of the old brick restraining wall, at the south end.”

Project: Cité du commerce électronique, Montreal
Architect: BLT Architectes

I stumbled on this great interior while trying to escape the wrath of Montreal’s winter cold. I love the way exterior elements (I’m guessing of the old building) have been repurposed – it’s kind of ghostly how the rooflights hang in positions they might have previously occupied. I found that this was also a really poetic way to define and differentiate space as they  lead you down the atrium’s main hall.

+ more montreal photos ]]> http://alex.raynesgoldie.org/cite-du-commerce-electronique/feed/ 0 http://alex.raynesgoldie.org/hong-kong/ http://alex.raynesgoldie.org/hong-kong/#comments Mon, 14 Dec 2009 17:25:56 +0000 alex http://alex.raynesgoldie.org/?p=362

+ more photos

currently trying to get my hands on “Portraits from Above: Hong Kong’s Informal Rooftop Communities” – a collaboration between Canadian architect Rufina Wu and a German photographer Stefan Canham. The duo spent 3 months documenting 5 rooftop slums in Hong Kong and the book is filled with photographs and architectural drawings representing what they experienced.

From the foreword:

“There’s no elevator. We climb up eight flights of stairs, hesitating the last few steps, looking at each other, out of breath: what’s our right to be here? The roof is a labyrinth of corridors, narrow alleys between steel huts, wood, bricks and plastic. Steps and ladders lead up to a second floor full of huts. We get lost. Armed with our leaflets, Rufina knocks on a door. A brief conversation in Cantonese. Stefan is in the background, the foreigner who smiles and doesn’t understand a single word. They listen to us, smiling as well, and then ask us to come into their house.”

(photos from: “Portraits from Above: Hong Kong’s Informal Rooftop Communities”)

An article I wrote on the ‘design’ of informal settlements – “cities that ‘design’ themselves” – was recently featured in an issue of JustChange Magazine! Download the pdf or click here to check out all of JustChange’s Issues.