Combating Placelessness
M. Arch, Ryerson University
Cougar Court, Scarborough Village, Toronto, 2016
Cougar court is a receiver-community having undergone an influx in population density and cultural diversity over the past 35 years which demands resilient inner suburban fabric. This resilience is hindered by expansive seas of asphalt resulting in issues of placelessness, urban sprawl, and social exclusion. Using experiential narrative, this project looks to confront these issues through meaningful spaces which prompt participatory experience through walkable, ground-level engagement as an agent to build a stronger community for the residents and neighbours of Cougar Court.
“Our gait is as personal as a fingerprint, and so are our multiple itineraries. Knowledge is grown along the myriad of paths we take”
— Tim Ingold
“Architecture is thus read as having the capacity to induce slow speeds, to inhabit silences, to trace new cultural vacancies and derelict spaces.”
— Felicity D. Scott
“Understanding cities and architecture – and communicating that understanding – involves telling real stories about real places…”
— Borden, Kerr, Pivaro, & Rendell
“Only an awareness of the influences of the existing environment can encourage the critique of the present conditions of daily life…”
— Sadie Plant
“It’s from the fragments,
the forgotten bits, that you actually read the world”
— Borden, Kerr, Pivaro, & Rendell