Strategies to animate Toronto's transitional post-industrial waterfront

Post-industrial waterfronts are spaces in transition. Waterfront land will be redeveloped eventually, and until that time, planners must tum to new approaches for these transitional spaces, with a goal to activate and animate them. Animation strategies can be used in any post-industrial or transitional space, but in waterfronts, they are essential. This paper discusses two case studies. Gas Works Park and Landscape Park Duisburg-Nord are public space projects in which animation techniques have fostered transformation and engagement of the public. Several typologies of post-industrial space illustrate the animation techniques described within the case studies. The paper evaluates these techniques or strategies and applies them to a post-industrial area slated for redevelopment, Toronto's Port Lands. Key Words: post-industrial space, waterfront, animation, loose space, ephemeral landscapes.