Grounding atmospheres: reframing urban edges through sensory experience

Abstract

This thesis explores how architecture can counter the sensory fatigue produced by digital saturation and media-rich urban life through small-scale public interventions within overlooked urban edges in Toronto. Framed through the concept of “Drift Place,” the project reimagines residual spaces created by the city’s emphasis on efficiency, circulation, and movement as opportunities for sensory engagement, attentiveness, and embodied experience. Through three site-specific interventions exploring light and reflection, industrial vibration and memory, and sound and topography, this thesis investigates how architecture can cultivate moments of “slow“ and perceptual recalibration within everyday routines. The interventions operate within existing urban flows, encouraging heightened awareness of atmosphere, materiality, and the surrounding environment. Through sensory-driven spatial experiences, this thesis positions architecture as a counter-environment to digital overstimulation, reframing neglected urban edges as places of presence, exploration, and connection within city life.