Traversing the Lanespace
M.Arch Thesis, Ryerson University, Toronto, 2017
My thesis research began with an interest in walking as a means of reading the city. Walking allows us to experience the unfolding of the cityscape through slow movement and attentive observation. Research in the form of choreographed walks led to an understanding of how various methods of moving through the city can stimulate different interpretations. Unconventional routes through Toronto’s laneway network followed by unconventional representation of the findings drew away from the blatant and called attention to the otherwise unnoticed. The application of the strategies uncovered through my walks proved capable of remaking untapped public space for strollers to pause and occupy, explore and discover.
“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