Storied attunements: revitalizing public space in downtown Sudbury

Abstract

Expressed in various art forms and across diverse media, narratives communicate universal themes that enable audiences to identify with the work despite references to culturally, geographically and temporally-specific details. As non-visual carriers of narrative, stories and music in particular rely on the involvement of the audience’s imagination to visualize scenes, atmospheres and places. These interests orient research into the complex interrelationships between the arts of narrative, music and architecture to develop a translative framework for architectural and urban design that yields atmospherically rich spaces inspired by place-specific narratives. Focusing on Sudbury, Ontario, four sites were selected in the downtown core for their connections to overlooked local (hi)stories apropos of the railway, the surrounding rock blackened from mining exploits, and buried creeks. Significantly, these sites are also neglected, or at best underused areas in the city, which the proposed design interventions tackle in order to stimulate an urban revitalization that shifts the emphasis away from a carcentric urban fabric to a more pedestrian friendly, and environmentally and culturally sustainable experience. Culminating in the design of a Mist Park, a Connective Garden, an Urban Terrace and a Resource Centre with an exterior plaza, this thesis project celebrates local identity in its translation of narrative and ambient soundscapes into locally “attuned” public spaces, offeringa critical-poetic commentary on how a design approach interwoven with (hi)story and sound can contribute to a network of sensitive architectural responses that instigate an inclusive, ground-up urban revitalization.