Reading Urbanity: Articulating Toronto Regionalism

Regionalism offers a path to meaningful architecture by speaking to and reflecting the particularities of a place through built form. Before the current state of global communication and trade, regional architectures were unselfconscious vernaculars born of necessity. A contemporary regional architecture represents a conscious effort to find meaning in engaging local conditions and characteristics despite the potential to rely solely on universal technologically-driven building practices. Defining the character of a region is never simple. It is especially difficult for complex urban centres like Toronto. Natural regional characteristics are shaped and often overwhelmed by what is imported to form an urbanity, while imported characteristics are locally adapted by the realities of their implementation in a new context. Conscious regional architectures can be articulated in urban centres by studying the contemporary and historic states of natural regional characteristics, understanding imported characteristics for their place-specific adaptations, and marrying these with universal technics.