Flemingdon Pavilion. 2016.CoDesign.w/TCAT
The Flemingdon Pavilion was a product of a multidisciplinary collaboration between The Centre for Active Transportation (TCAT, Nancy Smith Lea), Dalla Llana School of Public Health, along with Car Martin as a co-design consultant. The project was a blend of design and action-research, the latter which was led by Dr. Suzanne Jackson, and was entitled “Creating a Town Centre in a Tower Neighbourhood”. It explored participatory ways of inserting public landmarks into mid-century apartment neighbourhoods that lack discernable ‘Centres’.
Flemingdon Park is a popular place as a first home for many new Canadians, thus the pavilion codesign participants drew on memories of public landmarks from many past homes. The combined colours, materials and form grew out of these memories, while the large Flemingdon sign and combined seating borrowed from the popular ‘Toronto’ sign at Nathan Phillips Square in Downtown Toronto.
The Flemingdon action-research project culminated in a public event with a presentation from the local city councillor, and a temporary construction of a single module of the final design, along with food from local caterers. Though the pavilion was temporary, the codesign process was ultimately effective at convening community and catalysing ideas and actions towards public space improvements.