Monolite: An Interactive exhibit for public engagement
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Monolite: An Interactive exhibit for public engagement
Regent Park: An Ethical Smart City
A framework for an ethical smart city that serves its people.
Outcome
DESIGN INTERVENTION
Year
NOV 19
Building an aspirational model that will help anyone interested in building Ethical Smart Cities to do it in a way that uses technology and data to address the major challenges faced by cities in a fundamentally ethical way. That being said, this project was aimed towards creating better communities for the people of Regent Park after its revitalization that caused segregation and displacement of the original inhabitants and is causing accelerated gentrification of the neighborhood.
Challenge
How might we transform Regent Park into an Ethical Smart Cities by 2040?
01
Scope
Design interventions would consider how cities have evolved and will continue to progress in alignment with digital technologies, defining and demonstrating how the human experiences of Smart Cities might transform over time.
Considering systemic relationships and factors existing in Smart Cities to ensure a balance of projects that include products, systems, services, experiences, and infrastructure
02
My Role
Apart from research and brainstorming, I worked on creating the personas, journey map and the interface for the platform. I first identified the problems faced by current residents and mapped their journey through the current system. This helped me to find the gaps that played a huge role in solidifying the proposed concept. Then i worked on creating the low and high fidelity wireframes of the interface making assumptions and scenarios of how the technology looks like in 2040.
Residents of Regent Park who have been segregated and displaced of their original inhabitant and the revitalization have let to accelerated gentrification of the neighbourhood
Who are we designing for?
03
04
Research
The feeling of pride, sense of belonging and creativity have been a trademark of Regent Park for decades.
In the year 2040, post-revitalization, even though there is a cultural and social division, this community that fears that they’ll never reconnect has the potential to bounce back.
Regent Park is a community that wants to stay connected to the people who have always been their neighbors, the ones they grew up with, the ones they lost touch with and the ones they’ll to the place they call home.
When revitalizing they identified though talking to citizens what was something they missed from the old Regent Park and they found that a big thing was that food was something they used to connect over. Also, arts and culture and sports were important.
Findings reveal that contemporary principles guiding public housing renewal do not match how young people interpret public space. The qualities blamed for public housing failure, like physical and social isolation, are identified as valuable attributes of local public spaces. Would people who could afford luxury apartments want to live next door to social housing? And would lower-income residents continue to feel included and welcome in what had been their home for decades
05
Findings
Flexibility: Spaces in Regent Park should be flexible in nature so they can change based on the needs/wants of the community over time
Data: The lack of data infrastructure and collection does not allow for measurement of community use and participation
Inclusion: Physical Infrastructure excludes/includes people in a community. Every person’s voice/opinion counts in building a community.
Public Engagement should be transparent and accessible to create long-term involvement
06
Insights
Revitalization has disrupted the community and history of the original residents of Regent Park, and they no longer have a connection to their roots and to other people in their community.
In 2040, all of the displaced residents will be back in Regent Park, but the population will also have increased by 70% market housing residents. This displacement has led to polarization between communities and no sense of connection in Regent Park.
?
How might we foster social interaction and provide inclusive programming for the marginalized populations?
How might we ensure social infrastructure and programming remains inclusive and reflects a community's future needs?
How might we integrate different communities and increase social interaction?
07
Problem Statement
After considering the revitalization of Regent Park, we decided that we need to better foster social interaction in a mixed-housing community to combat perceived social polarization and divide.
Social Integration is important for community members to feel like they belong, have a voice, are supported, and to raise the overall quality of life. When relocated, original residents of Regent Park were extremely concerned about the upheaval of their community and how they would lose that sense of belonging once displaced.
08
Persona & Journey Map
Amara returned to Regent Park after the revitalization. She is a single mom who lives in a Toronto Community Housing condo with her two children. She has just moved into her building and is feeling alone and unsupported. She signs in to My Neighbour and starts browsing through the groups where she finds a book club that is hosted in the next building. On her night off, Amara attends a book club meeting and meets Mel, a stay-at-home mom from one of the Market units. The two women find that they have children the same age and arrange to collaborate on childcare and organize play dates.
Annie is a returning resident to TCH. She is 75 years old and lives alone on the third floor, and she has not connected to anyone near her in Regent Park anymore. Annie just bought a new couch and needs to get rid of her old one, but is not able to move the old couch herself. She uses the Task Board on My Neighbour to post a message to her floor asking someone to help her out. Within half an hour, Amara notices Annie’s post and responds, helping the older woman get her couch out of her apartment. Annie invites Amara for tea and the two women decide to go to the Community Farmer’s Market together the following week.
Solution
Digital Platform run by a Community Committee through residents data that is generated by a Data Synthesizing Interface
When you arrive in Regent Park, you also get access to the service “My Neighbour”. My Neighbour is a digital service made to accelerate community-building by connecting residents within their floor, building or Regent Park as a whole. They can connect to their neighbors through the Task Board, they can create and attend community events in public space.
When events are held, data is collected from attendees and a summary is sent back to the committee to be used for future consideration and to find gaps in the programs. Residents who signed up for events “check-in” with My Neighbour, and they have the opportunity to give feedback after the event.
Regent Park is an entire community that has been renewed, the relationships between members need to be renewed as well. Whether you were an original resident returning or a new resident moving into a market unit, the important construct of community is a blank slate.
Upon move-in, residents get access to My Neighbour, a digital service that connects them to the rest of the community. If they choose to sign up, they can create a profile with their interests, and events they would like to see in Regent Park. They also get access to the Task Board, a message board that can be used to communicate directly with their neighbours.
09
Branding
Conclusion
“Foster social interaction in a mixed-housing community to combat perceived social polarization and divide”
Regent Park is a large community with the potential for a cohesive and interactive neighbourhood. In order to create new connections throughout this area, the residents need a responsive platform that works for them to represent their interests in event planning and activities. By connecting residents over My Neighbour, we hope to establish a sense of community in Regent Park as it was before.