Exhibition & Workshops

Parks in Action: Co-designing inclusive open spaces exhibition highlights the role of parks and open spaces in fostering climate action in Toronto’s inner suburbs. This exhibition highlights the role of parks, open spaces,and the public realm in fostering climate action in Toronto’s inner suburbs.Urban green spaces range from expansive ravine networks to pocket gardens, andfrom street rights-of-ways to school yards and green roofs. Regardless of theirscale, they are valuable tools for urban climate change mitigation andadaptation.Toronto’s parks fulfillessential social and environmental prerogatives, including mitigating urbanheat island effect, supporting biodiversity, and improving air quality.Similarly, they offer crucial water management goals and reduce the impact ofextreme weather events. Well designed parks also act as inclusive gatheringplaces, fostering social interaction, health, and well-being.“Parks in Action” aims to demonstrate how climate action in thepublic realm is generative of participatory design and social engagement—fromthe scale of small local installations “hubs” to “tower communities” alongurban watersheds. Central to this work is the link between social equity andclimate adaptation—ensuring that all communities, regardless of theirsocio-economic backgrounds, have equal access to green spaces and theirbenefits.

Exhibition Launch

Engagement Workshops

Parks in Action was designed to include a range of active to passive participation opportunities that are both educational and procreative. Throughout July and August, engagement activities were hosted in the exhibition space, designed to bring together community members, climate research experts, NGOs and policy-makers. At these activities, a new participatory design tool was be piloted where participants tackled one of four pressing urban issues (urban heat, urban flooding, ecology & green infrastructure, or public space activation). Through this activity, players took a deep dive into Toronto’s unique towers-in-the-park landscapes and were encouraged to think critically about ways landscape can be infrastructure when we talk about climate mitigation and adaptation.

While working through this activity collaboratively, the ultimate goal is for all participants, regardless of background, was to walk away feeling more empowered and able to advocate for the types of changes they would like to see in Toronto, as well as have a better understanding of infrastructural solutions to climate risk. The dates and themes of the four workshops were as follows:
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July 19: Public Space Activation 
July 26: Urban Heat
August 9: Urban Flooding
August 23: Ecology & Green Infrastructure

The exhibition was designed to include a range of active to passive participation opportunities that are both educational and procreative - with the goal of shedding light on the critical role of the public realm in our communities. It highlighted a new form of knowledge sharing through a democratic, participatory process. The goal was to provide a unique opportunity to a diverse group of community members, researchers and policy-makers to have collaborative and solution-oriented discussions regarding ongoing urban issues.

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