Modeling the City and Musings on Density

So if you are a regular you potentially noticed that its been a while since I’ve done any real posting. Lately I have been concentrating most of my efforts on a studio project I have been working on. We’ve (My Group and I) been putting together a proposal for the implementation of a Light Rail Transit (LRT) line down Avenue Du Parc in Montreal and I have been working on a lot of the 3D images. 

I’ve also been working over theories on density and its measurements in preparation to discuss potential thesis topics with my adviser in the next couple of weeks and have been finding the concept of density a bit of a quandary when it applies to Urban planning. I mean sure we all think of density in terms of the number of people within a certain area, but is that really an adequate measure for density. Highly built downtown areas can end up measured as having very low density if you have a downtown area that few people actually live in.

Should building volumes be our measure of density? what is the total amount of built space within a certain area, and how much volume does it take up? This could certainly give a better view on what density feels like to the pedestrian, but then there is the issue of neighbourhoods with similar volumes but much higher population levels. Take a small apartment building in Korea and a building here in Canada, in Korea there are likely to be twice as many people in the building.

Until now density has been a fairly loose measurement, it has been ok for statistical purposes and when considered as an abstract number but as we move into a future where compact and efficient cities are the new goal, we are going to need to take a closer look at this measurement.

From the furthest corners of the Urban Jungle

When people argue about high density urban landscapes, they generally look to Asia, where population density is staggering by western standards. Where a Canadian might consider 1000 people per square kilometer crowded, in places like Hong Kong, Singapore, or South Korea, 100 apartment towers per square kilometer is more like it.

I’m writing from Ulsan, a little known, less talked about city in South Korea. Located 56 kilometers north of Busan, but standing alone as almost an urban island. It is a city undergoing massive construction and reconstruction, where new satellites seem to pop up over night, where apartment buildings truly grow like weeds.  Over the course of my next few posts I’m going to try and describe, both in words and pictures, the development of a country which has taken place in half a life time. Known locally as “the miracle on the Han river”, Korea has grown from the ruins of civil war to a prosperous, if not somewhat mysterious global power.

If the American Dream ™ is a family of 2.1 kids, 2.1 volvos and 2.1 golden retrievers living together in a split level house with a white picket fence, then the Korea Dream ™ is to live in the newest, biggest, most expensive apartment tower in the city, with 1.2 kids, 2.1 Hyundais, and 1.2 shitzus. Luxury apartment towers are springing up in downtown cores across the nation. In my city alone there are 18 complexes under development or recently completed that are 30 stories or more.

South Korea, which is approximately the same size as Ireland, holds a population of 50 million. Ireland has a population of 4.5 million. Ireland is a relatively flat country, South Korea is 70% mountains, which are not inhabited. The only logical choice for urban development is to go up, not out. In this series of posts, I’m going to try and document the benefits and problems of urban development, Korean style.

Mississauga is growing up

Mississauga City Center

On of Toronto’s largest suburban communities is growing up, quite literally. Amacon Developers decided to release both of the buildings in its Parkside Village project in order to meet the demand for units.

“People were standing out in the rain waiting for them,” she said of the 36-storey Residences at Parkside Village and the 45-storey Grand Residences that became available last week. “Amacon didn’t want them to come in just to see a sea of red dots, and think that everything had been sold.” source

Absolute Tower, aka The Marilyn

The Parkside Village project is part of the eleven block “urban village” that Mississauga is developing in its city center. One of the features of the development will be its 10 to 12 feed wide sidewalks, to allow for cafe seating and an active street life.

Amacon has been in the news in the past for the Absolute Tower or the “Marilyn Monroe” for its sexy shape.

The development of the “urban village” fits with Mississauga’s changing demographics. The city recently released an ‘Engagement and Directions Report’ which shows that the population of the city is aging. It is expected that the percentage of the population over 65 years of age will shift from 8% currently to 25% over the course of the next 30 years. The city currently is not seeing many young families or much of an increase in the less than 44 age group.

These urban living style developments are in high demand for all these aging baby boomers, most of whom made the exodus from urban areas for that two story detached with garage in the burbs. However out in the burbs there are very few amenities and services within walking distance and transit is thin in suburban areas. Condos provide an alternative in a densely packed urban core.

The Parkside Village development project is on 12 hectares of property in downtown Mississauga and turning it into a more pedestrian friendly city with smaller block sizes, (Jane Jacobs would be pleased) and using communities like Montreal’s old part as a starting point. Abandoning the excessively zoned style that Mississauga was built with and building stores and restaurants, a recreation centre, a wine cellar, a film screening room, patios, and a hectare of parkland centered on a green arcade down the middle of the development.

I for one am happy to see any move in the suburbs towards urbanisation, and with the Greenbelt that now encircles the Greater Toronto Area we are likely to see more projects like these as these ring cities are forced to start going up due to both limits on sprawl and the desire of the population for walk able urban developments.

Emporis.com’s listing of buildings for the City Center development.

The Life At Parkside Site.

Mississauga's Potential Skyline

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