CHAPTER 4 PRECEDENT STUDIES
4.4. COMMUNITY ANCHOR - Living Arts Centre
83 they provide a space (with no admission fee) for families to gather, as maybe the house they stay in are too small to facilitate this. These green spaces may also generate economic activities.
The public spaces include the provision of artwork to reflect the importance and character of the area and location indicating the cultural and contextual relevance. These spaces are connected by a series of walkways and pedestrian pavements which promotes physical activity and creates a renewed focus on fitness. Here, fitness and physical activity facilitate healthy living and are enforced as preventative measures to sustaining to the health of the community. Semi-private social spaces are encouraged by the use of roof planes as outdoor living spaces and roof gardens.
4.4 COMMUNITY ANCHOR
84 reinforced the continuing problem that Mississauga is a barren precinct with a shopping mall at its heart. With the initiative of the Living Arts centre this perception is beginning to change as the city and its architecture makes a determined effort to provide a genuine, cohesive civic centre bustling with public activity.
Vision
The vision of the project looks towards the local residents, businesses and all relevant stakeholders for help in moulding Mississauga’s city centre in an animated and activated area. The key vision of the architectural typology is to contribute towards a city centre that has the potential to be a focal and anchoring point for employment opportunities, commercial activity, civic, recreational facilities and residential development.
Although the architecture itself is at a micro scale, the processes leading up to the inception of the building where of a macro nature. The city was addressed as the site and the Living Arts Centre as just a part of the whole. To avoid urban sprawl, proximity and mixed land uses were of high value and the Centre continues to address these issues at an architectural level. The Centre therefore addresses neighbourhood sustainability in that it becomes a linking feature in the greater scheme, leaving destinations more accessible.
Figure 4.4.2.1: The Living Arts Centres engaging facade. (www.pcl.com)
85 With placemaking being the primary goal, making this vision a reality depended on using the right process. When this revitalisation effort began, the first thing that was done was to educate in the details of what makes a great place- this included the training of more than two hundred city staff, city managers and commissioners. In order for new questions to be risen within the design process the definitive priority should be the production of place that attracts people and instils joy.
The new designs questions and concepts became: What program and functions would be a drawing factor? How can one design the spaces in and around the Centre in order to support this activity? Through this possibilities emerged such as the idea of increasing cooperation between varying city planners. The idea was to become that of using public spaces and gathering points as venues or destinations, for instance, market or performance spaces.
With the understanding that the environment influences human beings and focusing on spaces of quality or ‘genius loci’, health is encouraged back into the city through the design.
Individuals identify with the meaningful environments created and the spaces are experienced positively.
Participation and governance
The city of Mississauga is diverse in that it houses many distinct ethnic groups. Forty-seven percent of its population is foreign to Canada and all these varying origins come together to have altered desires for their public spaces. Therefore the bringing of these various cultures and ideas together was vital for community cohesion and community empowerment.
Empowerment, which contributes to wellbeing, grows out of involvement in thinking, planning, deciding, acting and evaluating, and this is what the design team of the Centre allowed for. Fostering community involvement from the outset was especially important, requiring thoroughness and sensitivity. Bringing together a diverse range of stakeholders within the planning procedures guaranteed that the design was to be geared to multiple audiences. This ensured that the public realm became more democratic and eclectic in nature, becoming locally sensitive and a forum for inter-cultural communication.
Continuing from this and going hand in hand with these ideas of placemaking and locally sensitive design was the need for a bottom-up, community based approach. The ideology was that if one wants to design a place that works well for the people who use it on the day to day, then civic engagement was a necessity in the planning processes. This meant providing
86 the surrounding community with the tools to a critical decision making role and allowing their knowledge and desires to guide the design of their civic buildings. This all resulted in the Living arts centre, a civic building that incorporates local character, citizens’ wisdom and instils a sense of place and cohesion within the community. People naturally feel somewhat more connected to a place or space if they, or someone they know, had a role to play in its conception and this makes a vast difference in people’s perceptions.
After Mississauga’s city staff completed their training, they worked closely together with the community to assess their cities public spaces and civic buildings in order to suggest
improvements. Ideas ranged hugely from allowing for more activities to physical changes in their makeup. The benefits to this community based approach are clear to be seen in the inventiveness and eagerness of the cities participants. These ideas and contributions are now the template for furthering development and reshaping of the city.
Figure 4.4.2.2: The Living Arts Centres lobby acts as a community gathering point.
(www.flickriver.com)
87 Public spaces
The Living Arts Centre sees social capital upheld through community engagement, volunteerism and social trust. As the city is made up of a diverse community, the design concept followed was to bring people of diverse social, economic and cultural groups into close proximity. The city and the design treat public spaces as outdoor community centres.
Mississauga, who already operates a network of indoor community centres, ‘normal’
community centres, with budgets for management and programming elaborated on this idea and now operates public spaces in this same way, as places that need continual management to succeed. Exterior public spaces have become ‘outdoor community centres’ where the diverse community can all enjoy coming together. The City’s 2007 draft budget set aside funds for a full-time city centre management staff, the first time the city has created a position to manage an outdoor space. The lawns and landscaped site of the Centre became the outdoor community centre for the next generation.
Mississauga’s commitment to placemaking bodes well for the future of civic engagement, wellbeing and social cohesion in the city. By creating successful public spaces shaped by the architecture that surrounds it, with real community participation, they have taken a very forward-looking and courageous step.