Jaden Janzen

Advisor: Lancelot Coar

Atmospheric graphite drawing
Drawing of a bison
Indigenous placemaking on the land through ceremony, honouring the spirit of the hunted buffalo and imbuing the place with meaning. The site was named Oskana Ka-asastēki (Pile of Bones) and was the starting point for what would become Regina.
Master plan
Master plan for a proposed path strategy, identifying existing networks within the city. Paths connect current bike routes, main street fronts, green spaces, and walking tour routes as well as link community lead programing.
Studies exploring ways existing community run initiatives create a framework for activating the path network and programing spaces.
Studies exploring ways existing community run initiatives create a framework for activating the path network and programing spaces.
Isometric drawing of residential area
The proposal integrates new tools and programing within a residential dwelling development through introducing a communal gardening and construction resource facility, and a Cultural Centre, celebrating the community’s identity to the public.
Narrative depicting a story of cohabitation with one another, the land, and the city at large.
Narrative depicting a story of cohabitation with one another, the land, and the city at large.
Story of resiliency, building on the skills of trades and economics, and amplifying their reach through wide access to tools and space for community run teachings.
Story of resiliency, building on the skills of trades and economics, and amplifying their reach through wide access to tools and space for community run teachings.
Narrative depicting how gifts of art and culture are revealed and celebrated to visitors experiencing the place.
Narrative depicting how gifts of art and culture are revealed and celebrated to visitors experiencing the place.

Placemaking: Activating Communities Through Civic Agency

Throughout history placemaking, at various scales, serves as a transformative act, responding to needs of the community and creating a space of belonging, purpose, and identity. Placemaking is successful when the ambitions and aspirations of a community are given agency through civic engagement, empowering the public at large.1  Engaging with the diverse viewpoints, needs, and conditions, represented in a community, informs and enables designers to create uniting spaces for all, rather than separation and division.2  Placemaking is used as a means to transform and activate communities through responding to heritage, celebrating identity, and promoting interconnection, creating a catalyst affect extending past the traditional notions of site.

The City of Regina serves as a case study through an analysis into its central core containing the communities of Downtown, Cathedral, North Central, and The Warehouse District together acting as a microcosm of the city. The history of Regina recounts a promised “boom community” centered around the prominence of these neighborhoods, however, through a series of social, political, and ecological challenges it was unable to fully capitalize on its projection of growth to the extent of other prominent settlements.3 Current realities present physical and phycological boundaries across these neighborhoods stemming from the Canadian Pacific Railway grounds, degrading pedestrian environments along Saskatchewan Drive, patterns of urban sprawl, and social divide. Recent development and city planning has worked to address these current realities of urban sprawl and decreasing density but lacks a collective vision that transcends neighborhood boundaries.4  However, stories of civic agency and grassroot initiates reveal existing efforts to engage neighborhoods through art and culture, economic and trade skills, and land stewardship, creating a roadmap for change. Explorations aim to expand on the gifts and heart of the community by amplifying their impact through interconnected access, new tools and resources, and sites of learning, revealing the potential of the community to face uncertain futures. This thesis project proposes an approach to architectural practice as that of a spatial agent, building upon local initiatives to create a newfound sense of place, one that is rooted in heritage and identity, fosters cohabiting relationships, supports local ambitions, and ignites future visions impacting the city at large. 

 

 

1 “Placemaking: What If We Built Our Cities around Places?” Project for Public Spaces, 2018. 18.
2 Jacobs, Jane. The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: Vintage Books, 1992. 331.
3 Drake, Earl G. Regina: the Queen City. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1955. 21.
4  “City Centre Core Framework” City of Regina. 2017. 7.