Not For Sale! – Venice Biennale 2023

The Venice Biennale for Architecture provided fertile ground for us to collaborate with social activists, artists, and other experts to develop and showcase a creative response to Canada’s Housing crisis grounded in community needs.

https://www.labiennale.org/

We were proud to be a part of the Architects Against Housing Alienation (AAHA) curatorial team and contribute to Canada’s entry in La Biennale di Venezia 2023 Venice Biennale, with an exhibition titled “Not For Sale!”. Our team collaborated with the Parkdale Neighborhood Land Trust (PNLT), and Gentrification Tax Action (GTA), to develop one of the exhibition’s 10 calls to action for housing reform in Canada.

Focusing on the negative impacts of gentrification on the supply of affordable housing in Toronto neighborhoods like Parkdale, GTA proposed the implementation of a Gentrification Tax which would be used to fund the development of publicly owned affordable housing significantly increasing the supply of new and renovated existing multi-unit buildings. Architecturally, LGA with PNLT selected an existing mid century 7 story apartment building on Jameson Street and through adaptive re-used, additions and renovations, illustrated how a set of economic but impactful improvements can create additional units, enhance the public realm, reduce the embodied carbon and deliver a broader range of housing options.

On the ground floor, we proposed converting street facing interior spaces into a community library, a modest neighborhood café, and beyond, offices for PNLT. By opening up the ground floor to invite the public in, and extending our design scope to the street edge, we were able to improve the experience of the public realm and, increase the porosity between the community and the ground floor all throughout the day. In addition, other dedicated spaces for the buildings tenants were added providing portions for recreation and play.

We added a 3.3 meter deep Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) addition to the street elevation of, allowing us to reclaim and insulate the wall, increase the interior floor area for the apartments and create new balconies for many of the units. On top of the existing roof, we added two-storey “maisonettes”, creating much needed family units. These were also constructed out of CLT to facilitate an expedited construction process through prefabrication. The remains roof area was transformed into an all season landscaped amenity space for the community. After these interior improvements, 20% of the units would be accessible, 40% of units would have two or more bedrooms, and a full overhaul of mechanical systems would reduce operational carbon emissions and utility costs.

Our proposal asserted the urgent need to address Canada’s housing crisis by responding to and designing for communities.

We are privileged to live, work, and create in the meeting place of Toronto (from the Haudenosaunee word Tkaronto), the traditional homeland of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat peoples. As settlers, we acknowledge our role in the ongoing process of mending and nurturing relationships with Indigenous people, and the inherent subjectivities of building on these lands. We orient our practice to engage in reciprocal consultation and authentic relationship building with Indigenous communities, to work within each nation’s culture and ways of knowing and seeing the world; and to peaceably share, respect and care for the lands sustaining us all.

Not For Sale! – Venice Biennale 2023

The Venice Biennale for Architecture provided fertile ground for us to collaborate with social activists, artists, and other experts to develop and showcase a creative response to Canada’s Housing crisis grounded in community needs.

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