This event, the third in our series on Peripheral Centralities, will feature work from scholars and practitioners in architecture, urban/landscape design, urban geography and urban planning examining present-day and proposed/imagined developments, via a social, political, cultural, environmental and/or design lens, that represent new peripheral centres – iconic architectural focal points, self- contained master planned developments, future employment/infrastructure hubs, loci of alternative living/politics – or a centering of the outer suburban peripheries of cities.
In this seminar series overall, we hope to build on previous debates on issues such as, but by no means limited to: (i) flex space; (ii) central infrastructures (e.g. TODs, rail stations, and airports); (iii) entertainment, sports and consumer landscapes; (iv) university and college campuses; (v) design icons and “starchitecture” in the periphery; (vi) massive urbanism beyond the centre; (vii) workplaces such as warehouses, data and distribution centres; as well as (ix) projects that are part of disaster and emergency management in times of climate crisis, pandemic and war.
We are thinking of the projects that literally or figuratively “stand out” and seek centrality in the Continuous City, or the anaesthetic landscape of the Zwischenstadt. Given the location of this seminar – Toronto – we will also be interested in discussions relating to that city region’s (or any city region’s) quest to densify the suburbs and traditional neighbourhoods.