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‘TheÌýCreek and the Garden’ is about actively preparing Toronto for the surge forÌýgardening and food production within the city and developing a strategy toÌýensure the future’s growing need for urban food garden space. TheÌýdisconnectedÌýrelationship between food production in rural areas and the food consumptiveÌýurban areas has to be reconsidered and transformed into a more hybrid conditionÌýrequiring innovative use of the City’s urban spaces. IfÌýsuccessfullyÌýimplemented, the thesis strategies will offer the promise of urbanÌýtransformation, sustainable production of a safe and diverse food supply, andÌýthe eventual repair of urban ecosystems, all this while simultaneously yieldingÌýcomplex habitable environments that explore the relationship of public space toÌýour personal and collective ecological footprints.

Considering the present urban parksÌýalong Garrison Creek as these possible spaces and giving these parks aÌýdedicated space for food production, the thesis project aims to review theÌýoverall park system with regards to foodÌýproduction, and to study in detail theÌýChristie Pits site with the end in creating a framework for the foodÌýinfrastructure system to support this complex park emergence. Identifying theÌýsignificant topography of the buried Garrison CreekÌýas a specialÌýcharacteristic, it is turned into an opportunity to reinterpret the existingÌýcondition and to offer a new spatial vision for those sites as a whole.

TheÌýthesis objective is thus broadened to the creation of a system that negotiatesÌýthe valued use of park between an urban breathing space, a recreationalÌýplayscape, and an active food production landscape in which food andÌýrecreational infrastructures are operative and intertwined.
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