Isolation in Practice: The Infilling of Common Space in Toronto’s Vertical Suburbia

Abstract

The City of Toronto has recently amended their zoning by-law to allow developers to infill the common space in and around suburban postwar towers. Infill densities ranging from townhomes to high-rises are becoming commonplace, while the city is explicitly asking developers to consider Toronto’s amenity-packed design guidelines for these new builds. They have also amended the bylaw to allow for the conversion of postwar towers’ “unused” common space into new rental units. Using a Lefebvrian, mixed-methods approach to understanding the production of infill development upon postwar towers, this research explores a case located at 1340-1360 Danforth Road. By triangulating data from interviews, site visits, policy, archival documents, and media, it uncovers the ways in which the modernist design goals of the towers have gone unrealized through practices of financialization and tenant exploitation. It argues that in practice, infill development functions as a novel form of housing financialization – resulting in less affordable housing, fewer common areas, and increasingly isolated living experiences for residents.