FCI Projects | Future Cities Institute founded by Caivan

Exploring Adolescent Perspectives of Inclusive and Healthy High-rise and Dense Urban Environment Designs

Adrian Buttazzoni, Lindsey Smith, Ryan Lo, Alexander James David Wray, Jason Gilliland, Leia Minaker.

“I like seeing people, different cultures, and hearing different music”: Exploring adolescent perspectives of inclusive and healthy high-rise and dense urban environment designs is a study that explores adolescent perceptions of healthy and inclusive designs in high-rise developments and surrounding areas. The study examines how these perceptions relate to planning concepts such as community context (community assets, community demographics), planning processes (participation, social capital), design and program (public space quality, space use and users), and sustainability (community stability, investment in space).

Transformative Capacities for Navigating System Change

Transformative Capacities for Navigating System Change: a framework for sustainability research and practice

Christopher J. Or, Sarah Burch.

In the face of climate change and other ecological pressures, there is urgent need to transform human systems and their society–nature relationships. However, there is a gap between transformative ambitions and our ability to enable transformative change. The relationship between sustainability transformations in practice and the transformative capacities that enable them is complex and indirect, requiring integrative frameworks to clarify the relationships between what transformations entail and the capacities needed to enable them. We develop the integrative transformative capacities framework (TCF) to conceptualize how sustainability transformations relate to the capacities to realize them in terms of the focal system and the strategies needed to bring about a desired change. We illustrate this framework, proposing key features of sustainability transformations, then identifying strategies for change associated with each feature and the capacities required to implement each strategy. We conclude by discussing some challenges of theorizing, identifying, and building transformative capacities and how the TCF addresses these challenges. This framework can help researchers be explicit about their assumptions and decisions about systems change, strategies to influence change, and the capacities to enable different actors to meaningfully contribute to change.

A framework to evaluate the effectiveness of web-based geo-participation tools as a public participation technique

A Framework to Evaluate the Effectiveness of Web-based Geo-participation Tools as a Public Participation Technique

Robert Nutifafa Arku, Adrian Buttazzoni.

Web-based geo-participation tools are increasingly being used to engage local populations and stakeholders during formal participatory planning processes. These tools are utilized by planning practitioners and researchers for several reasons. Most notable are the proliferation and availability of web, mobile, and desktop technologies, and the subsequent efficiency and engagement benefits of such technology-mediated approaches (e.g. facilitating “lunch-time” participation, expanded accessibility to greater and more diverse populations). With the growing proliferation of web-based geo-participation tools in planning practice and research, it is imperative to evaluate their effectiveness as public participation techniques. The present paper proposes a framework that defines and assesses the effectiveness of using these tools to engage the public during formal planning processes relating to urban intensification. To this end, the proposed framework adapts the Analytical Hierarchy Process to prioritize and determine numeric weights/scores for a set of applicable options with respect to three distinct participation criteria. Ultimately, this framework suggests that the most effective geo-participation tools are those deployed before planning decisions are made, allow for multiple public inputs of varying magnitudes, and contain pre-defined options with open-text commenting.

Urbanization, housing, and inclusive design for all? A community-based participatory research investigation of the health implications of high-rise environments for adolescents

Urbanization, Housing, and Inclusive Design for All? A Community-based Participatory Research Investigation of the Health Implications of High-rise Environments for Adolescents

Adrian Buttazzoni, Lindsey Smith, Ryan Lo, A.J. Wray, Jason Gilliland, Leia Minaker.

Increasing numbers of families are living in high-rise residences and densified areas of urban centres due to ongoing urbanization. A better understanding of how these environments impact the health of residents is of growing importance for planners and public health practitioners alike. Yet knowledge of the links between high-rise living and specific cohorts like adolescents is lacking. Moreover, youth perspectives are typically ignored in urban planning and building design practices. To address these issues, the present paper employs a community-based participatory research (CBRP) approach that is paired with the Theory of Affordances to investigate how adolescents (n = 22) in two Canadian cities perceive high-rise living and dense environments to impact their mental and physical health. Data was collected between July and December 2023 through geo-tracked, participant-led ‘go-along’ (i.e., walking) interviews (40–120 min) roughly 1 km in length. Inductive thematic analyses supported by an analysis of the captured photos were completed. Noted positive affordances related to high local activity density, rich pedestrian social landscapes, restorative designs, and linkages between built and social environments. Negative affordance themes included poor social control and vitality, risky design legibility, signs of decay, and passive or limited active use designs. Future study is recommended to explore relational, or culturally/socially important public places or designs, and length of residence aspects of the relationship between high-rise living and adolescent health. Implications for design and health practitioners are discussed.

Developing a tool for estimating the impacts of growth management decisions

Leveraging Waterloo’s strengths in AI, machine learning, applied math, urban engineering and planning, the FCI has assembled an interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral team of municipal, industrial and academic partners to develop a tool that will help municipalities evaluate and communicate the potential impacts of different growth management scenarios. The tool will provide municipalities with insights into how different development choices align with their environmental, social, and economic goals.

MODULE 1: Available land and existing infrastructure

This module will use existing databases and novel methods to provide municipalities with critical metrics for assessing potential development sites. This could include evaluating infrastructure availability for areas undergoing densification or assessing whether greenfield sites have the necessary surrounding infrastructure to support new development.

MODULE 2: Housing needs assessment

This module will result in the development of a data-driven housing needs assessment for municipalities. This housing needs assessment will use existing data and predictive modeling to develop various development scenarios based on municipal targets and relevant costs.

MODULE 3: Interactive dashboard

This module will result in the development of an interactive dashboard that will integrate data from Modules 1 and 2 and will allow the user to adjust parameters of the underlying models in order to demonstrate, in real time, the social, economic and environmental impacts of scenarios being considered by municipal councils and other decision-makers.

The Sustainability and Social Entrepreneurship Fellowship

This interdisciplinary project, in collaboration with Harvey Mudd College and the Turkstra Chair in Urban Design, brought together nine third-year engineering students from diverse cultural and educational backgrounds. Over nine weeks, participants tackled sustainability challenges, including supporting the City of London, Ontario, in achieving its housing pledge of 47,000 units by 2031. Students engaged in sustainable urban design training, fieldwork, and collaborative problem-solving with guidance from academic and municipal experts. The Future Cities Institute is proud to support this ongoing annual fellowship, fostering innovation, social impact, and global collaboration in engineering design.