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Overview
High-rise buildings have long been a significant form in urban development. But this form of living comes with its own challenges and the COVID-19 pandemic of the last two years has magnified some of the problems for life in close proximity.
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Recent events disrupted and altered the everyday routines of everyone and exposed how vital access to public space is. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic public space was paramount in providing a physical space where high-rise residents could implement a safe distance from one another, and as a location of metamorphosis for human interaction and interconnection.
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High-rise living, public space, and COVID-19 in the Greater Toronto Area looks to analyze the lived experience of high-rise residents and explore interventions in urban planning and building management that can improve vertical living. We will focus on two types of high-rise buildings within the Greater Toronto Area: the condominium tower and the rental complex.
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Founded on French critical thinker Henri Lefebvre’s (1991)✤ theory on the social production of space, we are interested in how people have experienced shared space and amenities in residential high-rise towers, and how people have developed new places and processes for social interaction within high-rises in the constrained context of COVID-19.