Transit Urbanism - Creating a Multi-Modal Transit Hub for Edmonton, Alberta

Abstract

In 2003, Mark Ovenden imagined what an underground metro for the world might look like. It is not a proposal by any means, but rather an idea that represents a level of global connection unimaginable in our lifetime. Maps like Ovenden’s have the ability to pose questions about our future and our relationship to one another in an increasingly connected world. My thesis project operates as a microscope to Ovenden’s petri dish global organism. What is visible is the presence of a complete and complex network; invisible are the smaller catalysts that exist today, as well as those which may emerge over the next several decades, that have the potential to expand upon this theoretical idea. This is going to be studied within the context of the growing transportation movement currently taking place in Edmonton, Alberta. The concept of built assemblages static in time and the interaction of the people who operate within and continue to develop on top of them portrays the relationship between our humanistic desires and our intent to develop the systems that we require to grow sustainably.