With local news declaring Toronto the “most expensive city in Canada,” it’s a place that, in some ways, seems more inaccessible than ever. “Toronto For Free” is an initiative to search for and study spaces that are used as “urban interiors” or “urban rooms”: publicly accessible spaces of any scale that, though not enclosed by an architectural envelope or shell, offer a sense of interiority and possess qualities of a room within our urban landscape. The site I am proposing for my design intervention is located on the 9-kilometre-long Beltline Trail, in the Moore Park Ravine segment of the trail, within the piers of a concrete train bridge which spans the ravine. My intervention consists of two main moves – An entrance and a fireplace. The entrance creates intention. If one chooses to walk through the door, one chooses to occupy space. The 36” opening provides a relatable reference of scale, with the intention to better “see” the colossal extent of the bridge's size. The infill Fireplace spans between the columns, which fully encloses one side of the “urban room.” Heat creates contrast in temperature enclosing those around, creating a sense of interiority with the absence of walls. The fireplace proportions are scaled up to mimic the proportions of the superstructure. I’ve chosen brick to create my intervention because of its structural abilities and relevance to this specific site and brick production in the Don Valley. By using arches, I can support heavy loads of brick which is essential to achieve the large scale of my infills. I hope to create an “urban room” that lasts 100 years and ages through time.
