Bridging Scales and Disciplines: Ecological Approaches to City Building

The two-day summit focuses on innovative collaborations across disciplines, sectors, and scales, serving as a forum for participants to share innovative projects and initiatives that have transformed urban regions. The event aims to connect a network of future collaborators, influence decision makers to adopt new approaches to policy, and to inspire participants to advocate for nature-based solutions to urban resilience challenges.

• The in-person event will take place on Friday, June 3rd and Saturday, June 4th, 2022 at the University of Toronto’s John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design.

• The event features keynote conversations from senior practitioners and scholars, case study presentations from the GTA, and moderated panel discussions with international guests. Keynote presentations from Anne Whiston Spirn, Carolyn Woodland, and Nina-Marie Lister are confirmed.

• The summit highlights successful collaborations between public agencies, design professionals, non-profit organizations, and community activists in case studies in the Greater Toronto Area, and creates a dialogue with international guests working on similar initiatives in other contexts.

• Optional site visits to exemplary ecological infrastructure and conservation within Toronto’s metropolitan landscape are offered, including: Evergreen Brick Works, Meadoway, Rouge National Park, Port Lands Flood Protection Project, and Tommy Thompson Park. These precedents highlight successful collaborations between public agencies, design professionals, non-profit organizations, and community activists, and their stories will be told by speakers from these different perspectives.

• The goal is to invite diverse participants across sectors and disciplines to connect, brainstorm, and collaborate to work toward ecological approaches to city building.

The event is open to landscape architects, planners, engineers, architects, policy makers, researchers, academics, city delegates, elected officials, emerging professionals, designers, climate experts, innovators, change makers, students, and the broader public. The full event is approved for CE Credits with OAA, and OALA. OPPI members may also claim event participation as CPL.