Understanding creative hubs : the agglomeration of creativity in Toronto

This paper conducts an unprecedented research that thoroughly defines the concept of creative hubs as an urban mechanism that emerges from the need of effectively leveraging local resources to better facilitate creative activities and ultimately improve local economics. Building a conceptual framework that articulates the three essential components (the 3Ps) of creative hubs: people, place and planning, this study further analyzes the creative-hub distribution in the city of Toronto. Using a mapping approach to illustrate how different creative hubs scatter, it is observed that there exist congregations of institutional-level and district-level creative hubs along the north-south and east-west direction respectively in the City of Toronto. Finally, a case study on Liberty Village is conducted to scrutinize how a creative hub achieve [sic] its functional value basing [sic] on its people, place, and planning policies.