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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.
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.
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.
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.