In an effort to address hostile designs in Toronto, a principal architect said designers should look beyond their projects and reassess how inclusivity and accessibility can be fostered in the city.
“I think inclusivity is heavily based on policy,” said Michael McClelland, the principal designer of ERA Architects in downtown Toronto. “In other words, it is not the after effects of making park benches that people cannot sleep on. The goal of the designer is to look further and look at policy.”
McClelland believes some policy decisions are well intended, but can negatively affect people. He uses the example of the city’s park department, who are tasked with building public parks, but overlook affordable housing or how to address mental health and harm reduction.
Gentrification is another factor that limits inclusion and accessibility, according to McClelland.
“Gentrification is a really large issue, and I think it is something designers create too narrow a box for them where they are thinking ‘how is this building fitting on a street, and that’s all I’m doing,”’ he said. “They are not thinking about ‘should I be designing a building that accommodates a greater number of people, or intergenerational families?'”
McClelland advocates for architects broadening their scope, and reconsidering how they can be part of the solution for urban issues.
“Architects have to step up and think more broadly of what their goals and overall ambitions are,” he said. “Many people call it city-building rather than architecture, and that is what we need to be thinking about it.”
For future action, he is optimistic that more designers will think about making the city less exclusive and help push policy to make it a reality.
“There is an abundance of need for talented architects to make proposals, to make suggestions, to implement some change,” McClelland said. “But it is not an easy thing, and frankly it is an uphill battle until planning allows some space for architects to design other than they’re doing at the moment.”
Listen to Michael McClelland’s interview here:
