Planned Inefficiency: Defining and Defending the Public Realm in the Age of Autonomous Vehicles

The urban public realm is an increasingly contested space. As disruptive technologies continue to enter North American cities, they exert outsized impacts on urban environments, governance, and social constructs. Meanwhile, the urban policies which dictate the implementation of these technologies are frequently designed in service of their monetization schemes, rather than citizen welfare. Architecture is a discipline uniquely capable of making complex information accessible to the public. Architecture can spatialize, translate and interpret the complexities and challenges which disruptive technologies pose to cities, empowering their citizens. Responding to the case study of autonomous vehicle technologies in Toronto, this thesis contributes to an expanded definition of architectural practice, utilizing architectural thinking and working methods to test novel approaches for understanding and protecting democratic urban governance in the 21st century.