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From the Star:
Newcomers transform city
Fringe Benefits exhibit explores ways in which multiculturalism shapes architecture, design
Aug 12, 2008 04:30 AM
Donovan Vincent
City Hall Bureau
Architect Ian Chodikoff took a good hard look at the neighbourhoods surrounding Toronto's core and found more than the stereotypical bland subdivisions and big-box retail outlets.
He learned that immigrants, many of whom have settled in the inner and outer suburbs for housing and income reasons, are leaving an indelible imprint on the "built form" in those communities.
Places of worship, commercial and industrial complexes, community centres, sports fields – they're all being transformed by newcomers, says Chodikoff, curator of the exhibit called Fringe Benefits: Cosmopolitan Dynamics of a Multicultural City.
The exhibit, currently on display at Toronto's Design Exchange, explores through videos, maps, photography, essays and art, the ways immigrants and various ethnocultural groups are shaping the suburbs.
"In Toronto, we describe ourselves as being so multicultural. Yet in some ways the multicultural activity is not happening downtown ... the innovative results of multiculturalism are actually happening in the outskirts of Toronto,'' says Chodikoff, 38, who holds graduate degrees in architecture and urban design from the University of British Columbia and Harvard respectively.
One example is The Great Punjab Business Centre, a large complex in Mississauga intended to cater to the South Asian community.
The $25 million project, being developed by Harkiran Boparai, is expected to be complete later this year. If all goes as planned, it will provide units for restaurants, retail, wholesale, and medical and legal offices. The design of the complex is "influenced by the great buildings of the Punjab," explains Chodikoff's exhibit.
There's also T.Junction, (pronounced "T-dot junction") which, when it's finished next year, will be one of the first Tamil shopping plazas in North America. It's an 80,000-square-foot facility planned for the Eglinton and Warden Aves. area, and Sri Lankan architect Yaso Somalingam is one of the mall's four developers.
A multitude of examples in the exhibit point to how ethnic groups are expressing their cultural identity through ambitious new business ventures.
"You see developers building South Asian shopping centres, Tamil malls with night markets ... (and) you say, wait a second, this is actually very interesting," Chodikoff says. "There's actually a whole different way of thinking about our city, being brought to us by people who were born outside of Canada."
Local politicians and business leaders need to be aware of this, he argues, suggesting "conventional approaches" associated with urban planning may need to be abandoned in areas around the core.
Not that these changes come without conflict. Several years back, Markham's former deputy mayor Carole Bell sparked controversy by complaining that long-time residents were upset by an apparent takeover of the community by Chinese businesses and signage.
Chodikoff embarked on his project after studying urban life in West African countries like Senegal.
Back in Toronto, Chodikoff became interested in "informal urbanism" – the ways suburban residents use parks, strip malls, shopping centres and other public areas.
He was surprised by what he discovered in his research in various GTA neighbourhoods.
"It's amazing to go to an apartment building and on the front lawn on a Thursday night you might have 100 people picnicking on a piece of grass that a Western-raised person wouldn't think of picnicking on.
"There's a hunger for designed spaces, both built and landscaped ... we need a way to facilitate better designed solutions," Chodikoff argues.
Studies by the United Way, Statistics Canada and the University of Toronto, among others, have pointed out that poverty in Toronto is increasingly taking the shape of a ring of neighbourhoods around the downtown core.
"Trends in income polarization are creating a wealthier downtown core, while the inner suburbs are becoming increasingly poor and increasingly comprised of visible minorities,'' the exhibit points out.
"The data is clear that if you live in the suburbs you're less likely to be working in the financial industry, more likely to have less money, more likely to be a single mother and take the bus," Chodikoff says.
That's not to say that only poor minorities are living in the suburbs, he hastens to add.
There's a lot of wealth and entrepreneurialism there, too, Chodikoff says, adding that entrepreneurs with deep pockets who come from these communities are building facilities to address needs there.
http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/476681
AoD
Newcomers transform city
Fringe Benefits exhibit explores ways in which multiculturalism shapes architecture, design
Aug 12, 2008 04:30 AM
Donovan Vincent
City Hall Bureau
Architect Ian Chodikoff took a good hard look at the neighbourhoods surrounding Toronto's core and found more than the stereotypical bland subdivisions and big-box retail outlets.
He learned that immigrants, many of whom have settled in the inner and outer suburbs for housing and income reasons, are leaving an indelible imprint on the "built form" in those communities.
Places of worship, commercial and industrial complexes, community centres, sports fields – they're all being transformed by newcomers, says Chodikoff, curator of the exhibit called Fringe Benefits: Cosmopolitan Dynamics of a Multicultural City.
The exhibit, currently on display at Toronto's Design Exchange, explores through videos, maps, photography, essays and art, the ways immigrants and various ethnocultural groups are shaping the suburbs.
"In Toronto, we describe ourselves as being so multicultural. Yet in some ways the multicultural activity is not happening downtown ... the innovative results of multiculturalism are actually happening in the outskirts of Toronto,'' says Chodikoff, 38, who holds graduate degrees in architecture and urban design from the University of British Columbia and Harvard respectively.
One example is The Great Punjab Business Centre, a large complex in Mississauga intended to cater to the South Asian community.
The $25 million project, being developed by Harkiran Boparai, is expected to be complete later this year. If all goes as planned, it will provide units for restaurants, retail, wholesale, and medical and legal offices. The design of the complex is "influenced by the great buildings of the Punjab," explains Chodikoff's exhibit.
There's also T.Junction, (pronounced "T-dot junction") which, when it's finished next year, will be one of the first Tamil shopping plazas in North America. It's an 80,000-square-foot facility planned for the Eglinton and Warden Aves. area, and Sri Lankan architect Yaso Somalingam is one of the mall's four developers.
A multitude of examples in the exhibit point to how ethnic groups are expressing their cultural identity through ambitious new business ventures.
"You see developers building South Asian shopping centres, Tamil malls with night markets ... (and) you say, wait a second, this is actually very interesting," Chodikoff says. "There's actually a whole different way of thinking about our city, being brought to us by people who were born outside of Canada."
Local politicians and business leaders need to be aware of this, he argues, suggesting "conventional approaches" associated with urban planning may need to be abandoned in areas around the core.
Not that these changes come without conflict. Several years back, Markham's former deputy mayor Carole Bell sparked controversy by complaining that long-time residents were upset by an apparent takeover of the community by Chinese businesses and signage.
Chodikoff embarked on his project after studying urban life in West African countries like Senegal.
Back in Toronto, Chodikoff became interested in "informal urbanism" – the ways suburban residents use parks, strip malls, shopping centres and other public areas.
He was surprised by what he discovered in his research in various GTA neighbourhoods.
"It's amazing to go to an apartment building and on the front lawn on a Thursday night you might have 100 people picnicking on a piece of grass that a Western-raised person wouldn't think of picnicking on.
"There's a hunger for designed spaces, both built and landscaped ... we need a way to facilitate better designed solutions," Chodikoff argues.
Studies by the United Way, Statistics Canada and the University of Toronto, among others, have pointed out that poverty in Toronto is increasingly taking the shape of a ring of neighbourhoods around the downtown core.
"Trends in income polarization are creating a wealthier downtown core, while the inner suburbs are becoming increasingly poor and increasingly comprised of visible minorities,'' the exhibit points out.
"The data is clear that if you live in the suburbs you're less likely to be working in the financial industry, more likely to have less money, more likely to be a single mother and take the bus," Chodikoff says.
That's not to say that only poor minorities are living in the suburbs, he hastens to add.
There's a lot of wealth and entrepreneurialism there, too, Chodikoff says, adding that entrepreneurs with deep pockets who come from these communities are building facilities to address needs there.
http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/476681
AoD
