Eisa Hayashi

Encapsulated Nature

In ordinary times, nature plays an important role in constructing healthful living and working environments. Pandemic living has disconnected many from their work spaces and routines in Toronto’s downtown, and it is not clear under what circumstances they can return. Nowhere is this situation more dire than in the PATH, the city’s massive underground pedestrian network. Improbably, is nature the answer here?

This thesis overlays the extant patchwork of private development in the PATH with a new public infrastructure of strategically distributed microforests, forming small ecosystems. This ensures access, light, and air quality, and inspires rediscovery of the natural world.

Advisor: Laura Miller

Winter 2021