Sustainable placemaking in Suburbia

Abstract

There has been a significant increase in housing development in the Greater Toronto Area over the past fifty years, and all signs indicate that this will continue in the near future. The unsustainable practices of suburban developments must be addressed. This thesis will look at the history of suburban developments from post-war times to current practices, with a focus on the lack of identity of a place, the loss of ecosystems, and hyper-individualism. It will also look at ways to improve tomorrow’s suburban developments through placemaking, energy-efficient design and implementation of green technologies like Net Zero and district energy to manage and reduce the energy consumed by these developments. The thesis will consider these elements and practices to create a plan to lay the groundwork for the future community development. The main design proposal of this thesis will be for phase one of the plan, which focuses on creating a place and providing identity to the site.