From our mapping analysis, we found three areas where pins were concentrated too. These areas are numbers "1", "2", and "3" on the map to the right.
In this section, you will find information on the type of green spaces we think can be affixed here.
01
Outdoor Living Wall:
"green-, bio-, vegetated-, living- or eco-walls” living walls are a great type of green installation which helps to offset the lack of green spaces within an area (CRD, n.d.)"
02
Community Gardens:
"gardening programs that “provide access to land within the City parks system, and on other City-owned lands, for groups of people who wish to grow their own plants (City of Toronto, n.d.).
03
Pocket Parks
these spaces are “also known as minipark or vest-pocket parks, [and] are urban open space at the very small scale”
Outdoor Living Walls:
Known as “green-, bio-, vegetated-, living- or eco-walls” living walls are a great type of green installation which helps to offset the lack of green spaces within an area (CRD, n.d.). These aesthetically pleasing and modern green space interventions are simply vertical gardens and can be engineered to fit a variety of different plant and green species. Think about how eye-catching and peaceful it would be to sit on a bench in the lovely summer weather in Toronto with your friends and family and converse whilst at the same time enjoying the relaxation of experiencing a green wall feature.
With a dynamic composition of vertically tall buildings and many unused wall spaces, a living green wall will be quite feasible to implement within the Regent Park community. We determine that location one (1) on our map is best suited for this installation as it presents a great opportunity for the construction of this green space and will help to satisfy the concentrated demand for green spaces within this specific region of Regent Park.
Not only will a green wall bring a new form of green space within the area, but it will also help to repair the loss of social cohesion and community togetherness that was brought forward when Regent Park’s original green spaces were removed and replaced with concrete buildings. It is almost as though green spaces like these will revitalize the greenness of the neighborhood as well. As green wall specialists Sempergreen (n.d.) maintain, green walls “offer many economic, ecological and social benefits”. More specifically, these green walls allow for more social interactions, “increase the feeling of well-being”, and help to initiate an environment that is peaceful, healing, and sustainable (Sempergreen, n.d.; Maplefacades, n.d.).
We also recommend that community consultation is maintained and that the residents participate in the choosing of what types of culturally specific and relevant plants are to be showcased within these spaces. We intend that a story is also told through the types of plants grown on this installation. We also encourage the creation of a program within the community which will teach Regent Park’s residents about how to maintain these walls making them pioneers for green space development for the community.
Community Gardens:
Through our community engagement and conversations with the Regent Park residents and extended community, one of the green features which seem to have a great deal of importance and impact on the wellbeing and togetherness of this neighborhood is community gardens. Community gardens are gardening programs that “provide access to land within the City parks system, and on other City-owned lands, for groups of people who wish to grow their own plants (City of Toronto, n.d.). In other words, these types of green spaces are areas where community members are allotted parcels of land to cultivate and harvest plants that they wish to grow. These plants can be then used as a food source, medicinal or other recreational purposes.
Community garden pioneers from the University of Regina reports that these types of green space and infrastructure “inspire residents to invest in their relationships with their neighbors, creating a network of support that can be relied upon in times of need” (SZCG, 2024). It is evident that these spaces continue to contribute positively to the overall mental, social, and physical well being of the populations that are supported by these gardens.
As for Regent Park, with a very dynamic and multicultural ethnic composition, community gardens will offer many opportunities for residents to interact with one another and cross-cultural knowledge transfer and adaptation will be able to unfold. Additionally, there is already a strong community garden culture within Regent Park which echoes great justification for this specific type of community green spaces. Not only will these community green spaces help to offset the impacts of the loss of greenery, but these spaces will also help to holistically develop and help increase social cohesion and connectedness within the community itself.
To help support the installation of these gardens, we encourage residents and other community organizations to design and collaborate with one another to develop community gardens that are easily accessible, and age-friendly to every single resident. Organizations we hope are employed by the community include Green Thumbs and Dixon Hall. We also urge that furniture such as benches and other seating areas be implemented to encourage conversations surrounding community gardens and to enrich the value and agency of these green spaces and gardens once implemented.
Pocket Parks:
As the green spaces discourse continues to evolve, there have been new types of green spaces being created. One of these new examples is pocket parks. Pocket parks are tiny permanent installations that can be fitted within a small area. A more refined definition of pocket parks by Blake (n.d.) explains that these spaces are “also known as minipark or vest-pocket parks, [and] are urban open space at the very small scale”. Their dimensions range from a “few house lots in size or smaller, pocket parks can be tucked into and scattered throughout the urban fabric where they serve the immediate local population” (Blake, n.d.). It must be noted that these areas can also be all season long and can last from the warm temperatures of the summer to the harsh winter weather.
Notable Toronto cities like Kitchener, Waterloo and Brampton, Peel region have utilized these spaces to bring green life back into the city. With pocket parks being a very unique and user friendly space, this will be one of the most suitable installations to improve the number of green spaces within Regent Park. We maintain that for the area marked “3” on the map above, a pocket park can be easily added to this space and can help enrich the already pre-existing green spaces such as the Regent Park.
We encourage that a pocket park be fitted with seating and gathering furniture to allow for residents to sit and converse with one another. In addition, we believe that this space ought to be fitted with age-friendly infrastructure such as a play area for children and an outdoor prayer area. We hope that developers will take inspiration from organizations such as 8 80 Cities and Muslims in Public Spaces (MIPS) when consulting and designing this space. We also hope that this space is fitted with other plants and permanent features year round.
