Plants, people and historic buildings: adapting the TTC Danforth carhouse and garage In Toronto through biophilic design

Abstract

Over the years, historic buildings are gradually disappearing within the cities due to poor management, neglect, abandonment, or lack of funding. Renovation of these buildings is rewarding in the end, but it is a delicate, costly, and time-consuming process. The importance of building conservation and the issues of demolition as a conventional solution for old buildings become controversial and challenging. Adaptive reuse solution is now a rising architectural approach in building conservation. This study will focus on the adaptive reuse of buildings by integrating plants based on the concept of Biophilia with consideration of climatic conditions. The emergence of biophilic architecture is rapidly growing, and its value can no longer be ignored. The project proposes to adapt the unused Danforth Garage historic transit hub in Toronto into a sustainable community hub by applying the architectural concept of growth through the densification of both human and plant inhabitants. The planning and place-making design aspects nurture the connection between humans and nature in architectural designs.