Students from Toronto Metropolitan University’s Department of Architectural Science partnered with The Bentway to reimagine spaces beneath Toronto’s Gardiner Expressway, exploring how underutilized areas could be transformed into vibrant hubs for community life.
Toronto Metropolitan University’s Department of Architectural Science hosts collaborative studio every winter, a unique intensive workshop for 160 undergraduate students across varying levels of experience with the goal of solving complex design problems through teamwork. This year, the collaborative studio partnered with The Bentway as the community research partner for a national ongoing research project to explore the potential for expanding the definition of design excellence in the built environment to include critical issues such as accessibility, equity, well-being, and inclusion, specifically in the context of Toronto’s waterfront.
Students were tasked with a creative and interdisciplinary investigation to reimagine areas around and below the Gardiner Expressway, exploring topics such as: rewilding urban spaces for nature learning or performance, convergence hubs promoting cultural exchange, pet parks with eco-friendly infrastructure, and elevated observatories for rest and engagement. The Bentway team was delighted to have the opportunity to visit the students in their creative environment during this process, share insights from our work, and offer design critiques.
The students presented their creative proposals for social spaces and community engagement with comprehensive 1:25 scale models and experiential collages. These works were on display in a captivating exhibition from January 9 – 21, 2025, thanks to the exhibition production efforts of 10 cluster leaders. This exhibition served to highlight the students’ innovative ideas and their potential to transform Toronto’s waterfront into a more inclusive and dynamic urban space. Congratulations to Professor Terri Peters and PhD student Yaxin Jiang, the participating students, cluster leaders, and DAS faculty on the inspiring work of this project.
We are excited to share that the Waterfront Stories CollabEx25 exhibition will be on display again in the Department of Architectural Science’s Paul H. Cocker Gallery from April 30 – May 1, 2025!
Photos by Sidra Homam. Courtesy of Toronto Metropolitan University’s Department of Architectural Science.