Faizaan Khan - Selected Urbanism Projects

First Parliament Site

The site of Upper Canada’s first parliament buildings is underutilized and forgotten. With no remaining built structures, I worked with a team of planning and sociology students to develop a strategic master plan that embodies the heritage of the site in a new form. The project interprets the significant heritage of the site through passive programming, reconciliatory ownership practices, and reclaiming gentrified public spaces for the local community.

As the designer, I balanced the mixed uses so that the site could unlock economic potential and remain a viable public investment, while being socially accessible and community-oriented. I also developed all massing and design concepts, as well as all models, renders, and drawings. The project culminated in a public-facing report that was delivered to Toronto’s real estate management and planning division, as well as used by local community groups to advocate against the Provincial expropriation of the site.

2021 • Academic/Professional • Matti Siemiatycki • 1 Year

To reconcile the community’s concerns that current park infrastructure cannot accommodate an influx of new residents, every three storeys in the residential towers contain an inner courtyard as a repeatable module. This fosters micro-communities, is more accessible to older residents, and reduces the burden on existing park land.

Section Perspective - Residential Tower Module

Render - Interior Library

Render - First Parliament Square

Render - Park Winter Rink

NOEL

Lives alone, loves VR games, and regularly bikes to their friend’s house by Dupont.

SAMIHA

Lives with her parents in Scarborough and takes the bus, RT, and subway downtown for school.

Moments of Movement

2020 • Academic • Simon Rabyniuk • 1 Semester

Originally published as a web-based interactive map, Moments of Movement examines urban interfaces, data, and sensing through the lens of mobility. Moments of Movement takes a light touch approach to design, rooting itself in the philosophy that design interventions cannot substitute the necessary legislative and policy changes that are needed to make urban mobility more equitable.

The design concept and renders were developed collaboratively. I was personally responsible for developing the personas, story maps, drawings, and graphic narrative structure.

Lives in Port Credit with his husband and two kids. Takes kids on GO train to see the Jays game.

John at Oakville GO Station

On the GO Train

Render by Rick Schutte

Noel on the way to St George.

Samiha at the bus stop

A GRID OF PRESSURE MATS ARE USED TO SENSE CROWDING AND DIM LIGHTS ACCORDINGLY.

JOHN’S KIDS WANT TO FOLLOW THE BRIGHT LIGHTS INSTEAD OF GOING THEIR USUAL ROUTE. MAYBE THEY’LL FIND A NEW SPOT TO EAT FOR AFTER THE GAME?

NOEL SEES THAT THE LIGHTS ARE DIM AND DECIDES TO WAIT FOR THE NEXT TRAIN. SAMIHA ONLY HAS A FEW MORE STOPS TO GO.

WANT TO BUILD YOUR VERY OWN HERITAGE BUILDING? WITH HERITAGE HERO, NOW YOU CAN!

Whose Heritage?

2021 • Academic • Maria Yablonina • 1 Month

This project considers two categories of heritage buildings. Those that are already formally protected (“heritage”), and those that have been submitted for consideration (“publicly loved”).

Through spatial and literary analysis, webscraping, and image processing, this project uses a satirical advertising campaign to explore and critique the colonial power structures and biases embedded into Toronto’s contemporary heritage preservation.

On the team, I was responsible for sourcing data and writing all of the code that would allow us to scrape the web as well as filter, sort, and geocode the data. I conducted the spatial analyses using GIS, and created digital models. I was also responsible for filming and editing the satire video.

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2 APPLY MATERIALS & HERITAGE ATTRIBUTES

3 PLACE YOUR HERITAGE BUILDING IN A HERITAGE DISTRICT

Web Scrape

Align

StyleGAN

Household Income and Heritage Designated Property Map

Material palette

Base Frankenstein Model

“Tween-ing” Designated vs Publicly Loved Models

City of Toronto 3D Massing

15 Queen Street - Gentle Density

2021 • Professional • 1 Month

The adaptive reuse strategy proposes the addition of an apartment block to the anterior of the site to incentivize private developers to maintain the heritage structure at the front. By opening up the first floor of the heritage structure for commercial uses like a grocery store, the reuse strategy embeds a complete community into the small site where commuter families can return home and access everything they need without having to get back in their car.

Interior Loft Render

Outdoor Shared Patio

Storefront Apartment Stairs

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Kinetic Canopies

2019 • Academic • Nicholas Hoban • 1 Semester

This project responds to the need for flexible spatial configuration in Yonge-Dundas Square due to the regular festivals held on the site. These canopies replace temporary tent structures reducing labour and setup time. Simultaneously, they shield occupants from the overbearing digital billboards above, creating a more pleasant atmosphere in an otherwise visually overwhelming urban node.

On the team I was responsible for producing renders, grasshopper scripts, physical models, drawings, and animations.

Motion Diagram

Site Model

Canopy Interior - Shadow Timelapse

Cafe

Festival Stall Concert