1.5 ConEd Learning Hours
10:45 a.m. ‐ 12:15 p.m.
Today, isolation and financial struggles have become ubiquitous. To maintain ever‐shrinking rental spaces with ever‐increasing costs, so many people find themselves working long hours to make ends meet. Social connection is pushed out for isolation; a day full of hours hustling with little hope for change is commonplace. However, there are emergent housing models that seek to address a number of these issues all at once.
In this session, five projects are showcased as model mash‐ups of co‐living concepts, place‐making, storytelling, environmental innovation, and the hospitality sector to create a new urban model of communal living dotting the urban centres of Toronto.
Each of these projects, with unique architectural expressions, seek to illuminate and foster communal answers to the struggles of isolated living by offering an option of Swiss‐army‐knife private space and expansive communal design within architectures that speak to their historical context. Geothermal is a starting point for each of these projects with several innovative measures showcased in each of the projects, which range from an eight‐storey midrise to a 40‐storey tower, illustrating the creative realization of the design and development team’s aspirations.
Learning Objectives
1. Understand communal living and the underpinnings of its growing popularity.
2. Learn the components and metrics that make really great communal living projects.
3. Understand how buildings can become cultural nodes in existing communities—both becoming addresses for the residences and places for the existing community.
4. Learn how the sustainable practices learned from these communal projects can be applied to other residential models that also seek financial sustainability.
Robin McKenna
Associate, Studio JCI
[Bio to come...]