Projexity: crowdfunding a better Toronto!

Want to improve your city? Why not crowdfund it! Or better yet Projexity it! (...try saying that three times fast!)

Founded by a group of Canadian architects, landscape architects and urban designers, Projexity is your 'one stop shop' for getting projects off the ground! It's a crowdfunding platform that empowers you to engage with improvement projects in your 'hood.

Image courtesy of Natasha Basacchi.

Marisa Bernstein is a landscape architect and urban designer and also one of the co-founders of Projexity. "What's really unique is that this project was completely crowdsourced (via Projexity), from designs to funding to volunteers." Bernstein is talking about a recent project that created a new public patio and stage at Market 707 in Toronto. "The new public patio fills a void in a street food market that previously didn't provide people with a safe, comfortable place to sit down and eat.  Its modular nature and use of reclaimed materials demonstrates that innovative urban design doesn't have to cost a lot to meet the needs of a community." says Bernstein.

It's this passion and drive that's seperating Projexity from its peers. The team at Projexity don't just leave you in the dark, they provide guidance and advice throughout the entire process.

While at the moment, Projexity is only active in Canada and the US, we can't wait for Projexity to launch in other countries around the world. Hats off to the awesome guys at Projexity and good luck in 2014!

Watch a video of Projexity below.

Also see Brickstarter - from NIMBY to YIMBY (yes in my backyard), and Start Some Good - a crowdfunding platform for non-profits.

Kidnapping Condominium Advertisements

Toronto likes to boast that it has more cranes that any other North American city. In fact, some politicians like to make the claim that Toronto has more cranes than New York, Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta and Miami combined. But what does this really mean and how does this explosion of development affect existing residents?

Increased noise, obstructed views and restricted streets are obvious impediments to development. However, there are other inconveniences that politicians, construction companies and developers overlook. Toronto artist, Sean Martindale is trying to draw attention to one of these issues.  

Image Courtesy of Adam Krawesky

As a skeptic of advertising in the public realm, Martindale is frustrated and concerned with condominium advertisements that take up physical space on Toronto’s sidewalks. The A-frame “sandwich board” style ads that dominate sidewalk space make Toronto’s streets an obstacle course for pedestrians. In certain locations, Martindale has counted up to 40 signs in a single downtown intersection. 

Image Courtesy of Adam Krawesky

Inspired by this frustration, Martindale has collaborated with Adam Kraweksy and Martin Reis to turn these urban obstacles into artwork. The artists kidnap sandwich board advertisements from downtown sidewalks and then modify them. The former advertisements of shiny, brand-new condominium buildings are replaced with images of every day street life or old shots of buildings that have been torn down to make way for more condos. The artwork intends to send a very different message than one of luxurious living. 

Image Courtesy of Adam Krawesky

After revamping the sandwich boards, the artists relocate the advertisements in new locations across the city. Martindale, Krawesky and Reis have installed 36 modified sandwich boards around Toronto. A map with the boards’ locations can be found here.

While some may argue that the project does not alleviate congested pedestrian space, it effectively draws attention to an unanticipated problem of urban development and challenges people to reflect on the outcome of Toronto's condo boom.

Celebration Park: An Urban Future with Nature

By Robert Voigt.

Celebration Park lemonade stand. Image courtesy of Robert Voigt.

The summer of 2012 in Toronto saw the creation of a one‐of‐a‐kind urban park experience from the collaboration between Adam Bienenstock (Park Designer/Builder), Urban Planner Robert Voigt, and sponsors ING Direct, Canadian Wildlife Federation, and Parks Canada. 

As part of the Celebrate Yonge project, for one month, Celebration Park supplanted automobiles on Yonge Street in downtown Toronto with 250,000 lbs of towering trees, massive logs, boulders, grasses and flowers, 30 seat amphitheater, and a raw log ‘cabin’.  A civic place designed to reconnect people with nature and express possibilities for a better future.  The Park was intended to be the perfect venue for the partners and community to reanimate the most congested corridor of the busiest city in the country; a new and inspiring combination of nature and urbanity.  This was made real with local organic farmers market events, Parks Canada programs, and the Canadian Wildlife Federation bringing live owls, turtles, and porcupines for people to experience.

Celebration Park. Image courtesy of Robert Voigt.  

Connections to nature have been shown to improve physical and emotional health, and profoundly increase everything from IQ to serotonin levels while decreasing rates of ADHD, stress, bullying, vandalism, and obesity.  Moving beyond basic aesthetics to addressing real quality of life requires a more refined, supportive, and dynamic connection between our neighbourhoods, towns and cities, and nature. The design of our build environments and their interconnections with nature and landscape has to be about more than just "open space” or urban forestry. These simplified concepts will have to be superseded by design awareness that is informed by medical, and social sciences as well.  Our communities will have to support our lives in new ways.  Designers will have to embrace city building with a new appreciation and aesthetic.  Access to nature must become integrated into our placemaking and community design programs, advancing true livability: the quality of human well-being, nourished and nurtured by an interrelationship between the build environment and nature that facilitates, social, psychological, physical, spiritual and cultural development for all individuals and the community alike.

For one month we lived this future, and Celebration Park showed how the right team and a willing community can create projects that change experiences and expectations.   As a result of Celebrate Yonge business activity increased, vehicle speeds were tamed while traffic volumes were unaffected, pedestrian and bicycle numbers rose, and the daily experiences of citizens were improved.  When the project came to a close, the work crew that went unnoticed during construction was suddenly being questioned as to why Celebration Park was not remaining, and who could people speak with to make this urban oasis a daily and permanent reality.  Have no doubt that there are those that are working on that challenge, but that is just the beginning and there is much work to do in neighbourhoods and communities around the world.  So the question that Adam and I are always asking is “Where to next?”

Adam Bienenstock is about to complete a month long workshop & speaking tour of Australia starting on 22 July.

Robert Voigt is currently working with the Australian based Bank of Ideas to schedule dates for a workshop tour on active transportation and healthy community design (contact Peter Kenyon at pk@bankofideas.com.au ). 

Follow Robert Voigt on twitter here.  

Celebration Park design rendering. Image courtesy of Robert Voigt.