Transient Occupancy: The Resurgence of Publics in Downtown Toronto

This thesis uses contemporary architectural theory to investigate a distinct set of concerns in the financial district of Toronto. In its investigation it uses two of Rem Koolhaas's ideas, that of Bigness as described in 1994 in "Bigness or the Problem of Large" and that of the Staging of Uncertainty a concept defined in Koolhaas's 1994 article "What Ever Happened to Urbanism" and largely consistent with ideas developed in his book Delirious New York, 1978 to examines how Toronto's financial district is currently driven by capital. To explore the issue of capital through the lens of Bigness and the Staging of Uncertainty the work uses a research-by-design methodology to develop a speculative design project that questions how this urban condition might be shifted to become more inclusive to concepts such as the Staging of Uncertainty instead of its singular focus on neoliberalism.