WELCOME TO THE STUDIO SHOWCASE FOR LARC 502
This first-year MLA studio, led by Professor Daniel Roehr and Adjunct Professor Maren McBride, is focused on public space design and exploring inclusivity as a driving factor in the design process
Studio Description
As an integral part of community life, public space is essential to the social, physical, mental, and economic health of cities, creating a collective sense of community and promoting social inclusion, civic participation, sense of belonging, and recreation. But what happens when we’re told that those spaces are no longer safe? The global COVID-19 pandemic has challenged the right to public space and ability to get outdoors, creating a flux of access and experience that has had a clear impact on human health and well-being that goes beyond the impacts of the disease itself. Most critically, perhaps, the pandemic has highlighted a noticeable disparity, disproportionately impacting those who rely solely on the public realm to “get outdoors”. There is a significant need for urban centres to reimagine the design, development, and availability of public space as safe, accessible, and equitable respites for all. This increase in need and use has put pressure on cities to increase not only the quantity, but the quality of gardens, parks, and plazas. This offers an incredible opportunity for landscape architects and designers to bring greater consideration to how these spaces can, and should, do more.
Through two design exercises, this studio examines two distinct experiences within the landscape – gardens and urban parks – asking how these can be better designed to react to the new realities of urban life. This studio seeks to explore inclusivity and accessibility within public space as primary drivers of design, recognizing that cities have historically been organized in a manner that is inherently biased based on ethnicity, gender, and/or physical ability.