Urban Field Study and Analysis

Urban Field Study: The first half of the assignment will involve drawing a descriptive picture of a neighbourhood of your choosing within the City of Toronto, according to its post-1997 boundaries. Parameters for field study: Within respect to the neighbourhood you choose, in drawing your descriptive picture, I will ask you to focus: 1. By selecting one residential street in your chosen neighbourhood 2. The neighbourhood's main street, i.e., where commercial storefronts and offices as well as public institutions, such as library or post office, along with place of workshop(church, synagogues and mosques) are located close to one another. Main Mode of Gathering Data: In conducting your field study, the emphasis will rest on walking on the selected residential street as well as the main street or shopping area. This will allow you to move at a pace where you are able to observe up close the generally subtle patterns associated with a neighbourhood. Criteri for Field Study: From you field observation, how walkable is the neighbour? Feature related to residential area: Age of homes, types of dwellings; size of individual homes. Historical features: Presence of historical buildings, historical plaques, remnants of field edges Natural features: type of trees, native or non-native species; aboveground or buried streams, suggested by a notable dip in an otherwise flat topography; post-glacial features, such as drumlins; old shorelines, indicated by significant rises in topography. Analysis: For the second half of the final assignment, the emphasis will rest on analysing the descriptive picture that you have gathered from your Field Study, i.e. pointing out a few important general patterns related to your neighbourhood of choice. To what extent does your selected neighbourhood reflect a MECHANICAL approach to urban design? Segregating different activities into distinct and even isolated zones, which are most accessible by automobile. Priority given to treating the network or hierarchy of streets as thoroughfare, to facilitate intentionally the rapid movement of automobiles at the expense of other modes of transport, such as walking or public transit Open space, such as parks or playgrounds, which gets shoved into poorly defined plots of land least desirable for development purpose, away from where a neighbourhood's main activities take place. To what extent does your neighbourhood reflect an ORGANIC approach to urban design? Segregating based on the scale or size of buildings instead of activities, where we have mix of diverse functions woven together along a main street about ten minutes away, at most, walking distance from all neighbourhood dwelling, with only noxious activities(heavy industry, busy airports) set any significant distance away. Treating the streets as a living room, a place in which to hang out as well as for travelling elsewhere, which allows for different modes of transport, especially walking and cycling, travelling along an irregular grid pattern street, with T-junctions and radial streets. Open space consisting of public squares at the main centre of a neighbourhood along with encompassing well-defined natural features, such as a wetland or ravine or forest grove or noticeably sloping ridge line or hill. What changes will have to be made in order to build up a neighbourhood's resilience, i.e. capacity to withstand the possible or likely impact of RESOURCE DEPLETION and the FINANCIAL CRISIS? In regards to "resource depletion", I am referring to "Peak Oil", ie the end of cheap oil with our growing reliance on harder-to-get forms of oil and alternative fuels, and its implications for designing (sub)urban areas and transport systems with a critical reliance on automobiles. With respect to the "Financial Crisis", I am referring to the blow-ip, most visibly emerging in Fall 2008, in the global economy as it has been unfolding over the last thirty years, with a greatly increased reliance on services, especially the FIRE(finance, insurance and real estate) sector. This has great implications for Toronto and surrounding area(GTA), with its ever deeper dependence on the FIRE sector and, conversely diminishing reliance on a diverse manufacturing sector. The minimum required length is two paragraphs per question(2 question) 800-1000 words in total(400-500 words per question) The urban field study and analysis can include a photo presentation and/or drawings, as well as relevant maps and graphs.