LIFT

STUDENT LIVING

Project Overview

Role: Project Designer, Architectural Designer

Type: Academic work, course work, group work, architecture

Team members: Nidi Metaj, Bonnie Christopher & Lauren Patrick

Program: Student residential living

Site: North York, Toronto ON Canada

Timeline: January 2020 - March 2020

Description

Life is a student community landscape that promotes health and wellbeing by celebrating community, connectivity and inclusivity. Popular urban designs such as suburbia and gated communities encourage exclusivity and walls — the wall must be contested. Walls create stigma and fear because they imply the need for separation. To overcome that fear and stigma as well as to improve health and well being — the residence is lifted from the ground, eliminating borders and creating a porous site that invites all to enter and participate in community engagement. An abundance of green space is incorporated into the site to create a serene landscape. Healthy social amenities, such as a communal green house garden, fitness gym and an arts centre are facilitated to bring people together in healthy and constructive ways. Walls divide, segregate and disconnect. In an age of increasing divisiveness, it is important to take bold steps toward making an emotional and tangible change.