LAN2300H S
Instructor: Sheila Boudreau
Meeting Section: L0101
Wednesday, 12:00 - 3:00pm
Location: DA 315

This course is an opportunity to cultivate a critical understanding of applied theory and knowledge related to green infrastructure, through research and activities focused on urban planning and landscape architectural design. New approaches are being developed to redefine urban growth in response to a global trend towards urbanization, contributing to urban heat and other serious environmental and social impacts. What is not well understood, however, is how to improve our understanding of the complexities of the many systems involved, and how to work effectively across disciplines and with different communities to co-produce mutually beneficial solutions.

A goal of this course is to advance a participatory model of practice (with Ryerson University (RU) School of Urban and Regional Planning graduate students), while inviting local Indigenous youth and mentors from the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto (NCCT) to be collaborative partners in the process.

Students will explore green infrastructure as both product and process, and reflect on this work as a necessarily interdisciplinary and adaptive land-based practice that shares Indigenous values. Through case analysis, and working in teams on real-world challenges at various scales (for Toronto and Region Conservation Authority projects, and the NCCT property), students will build capacity to create innovative solutions through respectful dialogue, shared responsibility, and synergy.​