Playing on the Tracks: Rethinking Transit Infrastructure as Event Space to Generate a City of Culture and Play

Abstract

This thesis investigates the potential of a combination between event spaces and transit infrastructure. The project explores the city of Edmonton, Alberta, and a new typology of infrastructure called transit oriented development that will encourage people to rely on public transit as part of their everyday routine. An element of play is introduced by integrating event programming with transit program. This new hybrid of infrastructure and architecture will encourage the mixing of people and cultures as a celebration of the everyday events of the city and it will allow the city to grow into a corridor of transit oriented developments and event space designed at a human scale. This new hybrid architecture creates a corridor of opportunities for new and unplanned events of the everyday, which will create a city and culture of play.