The MES Major Project

My research as part of the MES degree at EUC at York University addresses the case for retrofitting existing large tower block residential buildings in Toronto, and successful retrofit work done abroad.

The need for viable strategies to drastically curtail green house gas (GHG) emissions immediately has been made clear (UNEP, 2022) and domestic energy usage for heating, cooling and other needs makes up a significant portion of those GHG emissions (Cheese, 2022; Shekarrizfard & Sotes, 2021). Existing housing stock needs to reduce emissions as does the construction industry; both are problems for achieving anything like local or international zero emissions goals (Toronto, 2022; UNFCCC, 2022). The scale of expense and number of residents of tower blocks makes the undertaking to refit such buildings very different than single family dwellings. The scale, expense and carbon emissions involved in a tear-down and replace approach makes retrofitting existing towers a crucial consideration. The political economy of rental housing in the context of these towers complicates planning and execution of a refit program, but doing nothing is not an option if carbon emission reduction targets are to be met, or maintain the buildings at suitable standards for their inhabitants, where, for example, extreme heat events disproportionately hit vulnerable populations living in Toronto’s tower neighbourhoods (Shiab & Bouchard, 2022).  

Toronto is an excellent site for this research as for the large number of apartment towers built in Toronto from the later 1950s up to the 1970s, self-consciously aiming to provide much needed housing for an ever expanding population (Moriyama, 1958). This was ‘modernism’ in post-war Toronto planning and architecture (Dennis, 1994; McClelland and Stewart, 2007; Young, 2006; Sewell 2016; Wight 2016). It aimed at solving certain problems – housing, and in such density to make for viable communities. Others were created.

Part one of my research intends frame the legacy of Toronto modernism in planning from the perspective of energy efficiencies and environmental concerns. The second aspect of the research seeks to explore the current state of these structures and issues that face residents, challenged by social and environmental changes: increased inequality, insufficient maintenance and extreme climate change related events. Extreme climate change events we are experiencing are significant in older tower blocks in the peripheries of social and economic urban integration around Toronto’s ‘edges’. Soon, the newly built glass condominiums will face challenges of costly building-scale maintenance in the face of climate change. In both eras of tower building, insufficient planning for climate shock resilience, and limited political and financial engagement will challenge residents’ capacities to withstand those shocks.

The third aspect of the research is about strategies to retrofit the older areas of high-density developments in urban peripheries, housing vulnerable populations. The Tower Renewal Partnership in Toronto (TRP, 2022A) is one focus of my research in the Toronto situation. I will research cases of retrofitting work, and on concrete block social housing in Europe to identify leading practices and the potential for their implementation. The work of the firm Lacaton & Vassal in Paris, Bordeaux and Mulhouse, France, features heavily. Jaccaud & Associés in Geneva and environs as well as a number of building in Rotterdam are of major interest in my perspective. Bringing in a comparative perspective, I will research international strategies for emissions reduction and mass housing retrofit policy. My aim is an evaluation of leading practices from a planning perspective.

Select Bibliography

Cheese, T. (2022). GTHA carbon emissions on track to return to pre-pandemic levels, report warns. CBC News. Nov 15. Available at: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/the-atmospheric-fund-carbon-emissions-report-1.6648166

Keil, R. (2020). The spatialized political ecology of the city: Situated peripheries and the capitalocenic limits of urban affairs. Journal of Urban Affairs, 42(8), 1125–1140.

Kipfer, S., & Dikeç, M. (2019). Peripheries Against Peripheries? Against Spatial Reification. In Massive Suburbanization (pp. 35–55). University of Toronto Press. https://doi.org/10.3138/9781487531867-004

McClelland, M., Stewart, G. (2007). Concrete Toronto: A guidebook to concrete architecture from the fifties to the seventies (1st ed.). Coach House Books.

Moriyama, R. (1958) “Urban Renewal Pt. 2” Journal of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (JRAIC), Vol 35 No 2.

Riva, M., Kingunza Makasi, S., Dufresne, P., O’Sullivan, K., & Toth, M. (2021). Energy poverty in Canada: Prevalence, social and spatial distribution, and implications for research and policy. Energy Research & Social Science, 81, 102237-. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2021.102237

Sewell, J. (2016). Shape of the Suburbs: Understanding Toronto’s Sprawl. University of Toronto Press. https://doi.org/10.3138/9781442689114

Shekarrizfard, M. and Sotes, J. (2021).Carbon Emissions Inventory for the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area 2019-2020. (Report) The Atmospheric Fund. Available at: https://taf.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/TAF_Carbon-emissions-inventory-GTHA_2021.pdf

Shiab, N & Bouchard, I. (2022) Here's who lives in your city's worst heat islands. CBC. July 13. Available at: https://ici.radio-canada.ca/info/2022/07/ilots-chaleur-villes-inegalites-injustice-changements-climatiques/en

Toronto, City of (2022) TransformTO. (Web Site) Available at: https://www.toronto.ca/services-payments/water-environment/environmentally-friendly-city-initiatives/transformto/

Tower Renewal Project (TPA) (2022 A). About Us, available at http://towerrenewal.com/about-us/

Tower Renewal Project (TPA) (2022 B). Research and Publications                             

  available at http://towerrenewal.com/research-reports/

UNEP (2022). CO2 emissions from buildings and construction hit new high, leaving sector off track to decarbonize by 2050: UN. (2022, November 9). UN Environment. http://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/press-release/co2-emissions-buildings-and-construction-hit-new-high-leaving-sector

UNFCCC (2022). Climate Plans Remain Insufficient: More Ambitious Action Needed Now. Available at: https://unfccc.int/news/climate-plans-remain-insufficient-more-ambitious-action-needed-now

White, R. (2016). Planning Toronto: The planners, the plans, their legacies, 1940-80. UBC Press.

Young, D. (2006). Rebuilding the modern city after modernism in Toronto and Berlin. Thesis PhD--York University.