This is Us, OACC-episode 01
Authors: Bronte Mutukistna, Priyasha Singh
Content curator: Marveh Farhoodi
We take pride, at OACC, over our members who show such a great deal of empathy towards the built environment and the impact it has over our communities. Our members come from a diverse range of backgrounds, and they have an incredible portfolio of projects that they pursued in Canada or in their home countries or somewhere else, where they contributed widely towards the betterment of their communities in an impactful way, through architecture and design. We want to share them and their work with a wider range of public, to acknowledge the mindfulness that they put towards equity and sustainability within the built environment. From this month onwards, you can read more stories behind the OACC community.
Meet Bronte
We recently had a chit-chat with Brontë Mutukistna, one of our recently-joined and active volunteers about her exciting project Parktivism.
Parktivism is the outcome of Brontë’s teamwork with Claire, Crystal, Olivera, Oscar, and Zhanina for the Future Cities Healthy Communities proposal. Along with her team members, Parktivism aims to create a virtual space, i.e, a platform, which allows residents of neighborhoods in north-west Toronto to come together and collectively address issues existent in their greenspaces with the goal of developing localized solutions and ensuring greater access to healthy and vibrant parks..
Read the story behind Parktivism and the socially-minded young people behind it:
How did it start?
My group and I came together at the Future Cities Builders Program, run by Evergreen, which brought together 25 youth to build a healthier and more equitable city. We were challenged to develop a project that addressed an issue existing in Toronto. My team and I felt that it was important to address accessibility to green space. During the COVID pandemic, we have all seen the value of accessing local parks and green spaces, and the importance of nature to both our mental and physical well-being. We recognized as a team that accessibility to green space was not equitably distributed across the city and there were communities and areas around Toronto that severely lacked activated and inclusive green spaces.
As a team we decided to focus our work on neighbourhoods in northwest Toronto. We primarily focused on tower neighbourhoods as they don’t have the same access to green space that households with yards do. These neighbourhoods’ local parks are also quite underserved compared to Toronto’s downtown parks, and we wanted to bring more attention to this area that is underrepresented.
The Story….
It was critical that we fully understood the existent problems and barriers residents of north-west Toronto were facing before developing any kind of solution. We spoke to local residents, community organizations, and city councillors to really understand what people wanted and what was missing in their neighbourhoods. We heard a lot of concerns, from broken street lights to ill-maintained trails. We began to understand that these green spaces were really under-served and there clearly needed to be more intervention. Beyond the need for greater oversight and maintenance, the real problem we saw was the lack of a community-led governance approach whereby residents themselves had a platform to improve the public realm.
Developing a platform that would facilitate community-led governance was a long ideation process. However two key factors led to the development of a digital solution. One, being the COVID-19 pandemic and the inability for people to physically engage residents. Second, the need for a platform that was quick and easy to operate, taking little time from people’s existing priorities.
As a result, we developed an app called Parktivism. This app was first developed as a platform that enabled people to efficiently report maintenance issues they saw in their green spaces and local parks. From there, we also wanted to engage residents in a more meaningful way and create a space that really elevated the voices of residents to advocate for their parks. So, we brought another layer to the app that evolved into a more collaborative aspect. Beyond reporting maintenance issues, users can provide suggestions on what kind of infrastructure they would envision in their space. For example, if a park lacks benches to sit on, a user can suggest on the Parktivism app that additional benches should be put in. Other users can see that suggestion on the app, and come together to collectively advocate for more benches in the park. In essence, we are really looking to connect people and mobilize support for shared issues people see in their spaces.
We hope that the app not only serves residents, but can also be a platform for community organizations, planners, and city officials to see what residents want. For example, a city councillor can see first hand through the app that the people in their ward might want a bench or garden in their local park, and can take actionable steps with the city to make that happen. So it’s also a communication tool amongst different people across northwest Toronto.
It’s coming together!!!
To develop our app, we teamed up with Computer Science students at the University of Toronto. They coded the app to the stage where we now have a really good base-layer. The app still needs a bit more development but it is looking great. Our next steps are to beta test and connect with residents living in northwest Toronto to actually use the app, hear their feedback, and further improve the app.
It’s really exciting to see a problem in your city and being involved in making tangible changes. It’s not something that youth really get a chance to do. My team and I are working diligently to make this project a reality. With this project we hope that people not only will have access to vibrant greenspaces but have a voice in what that greenspace looks and feels like.
So what is your story? How do you want to make an impact?
I joined OACC during my undergrad at the University of Toronto because I saw a gap in the curriculum at university. I didn’t see any kind of opportunity for engagement with the community or discussion on participatory design. I really thought about the social impact of architecture and how academia failed to touch on the adverse impacts design can have on the urban fabric and more particularly its impacts on marginalized populations. That’s something I thought was missing and so I decided to join OACC. I got to work a little bit on the Little Jamaica project which was really exciting. I think as a designer, it’s really important to engage with issues regarding the lack of equity in our cities and how design plays a role. Design decisions hold power and can have widespread impacts on people and places, and that shouldn’t be taken lightly. These concerns developed throughout my undergrad and led to my involvement with OACC and to the creation of Parktivism.
Walking towards an urbanized future
I will be pursuing a Master of Landscape Architecture next fall at the University of British Columbia. With this degree I hope to engage with issues of environmental justice and equity. I think the field of landscape architecture has a large role to play in addressing equity and spatial justice. I really want to pivot my work towards engaging with the environment in that way, looking at the disproportionate impact climate change has on different communities and how marginalized communities have historically lacked access to green spaces and how skilled developments push these communities further away. Beyond that, I am an environmentalist and I am very passionate about climate change and I really want to design for a more sustainable planet through community-informed processes.
The team at Parktivism is looking for further support with app development and actively seeking to collaborate with organizations that work to improve greens paces across our city. Reach out to them by sending an email to parktivism@gmail.com.
