A FEW GOOD LINES

example:plimsoll line governs ship loading

The great challenge in urban strategies is to acquire a broad vision of the emerging future, to then articulate this into a comprehensive model, and then crystallise all this into 'a few good lines', whose resonances orchestrate a beneficial outcome.  

It's that simple... 
It's that difficult.

Development can either be described within a bubble-wrap casing, or be a shrink-wrapped defined form.  Both approaches appear in zoning standards, where linear measurements describing a bubble-wrap envelope, and the permitted floor area being part of the shrink-wrap.

North Toronto urban fabric consists primarily of first-generation urban neighbourhoods, interlaced with main streets transitioning into second-generation configurations.  It's not simply a matter of re-framing the bubble-wrap, recognisant of an expanded shrink-wrap.  

There is a change in typology which accompanies this transition.  New challenges present themselves, as do opportunities.  The term 'intensification' is liberally applied - branding Toronto's expansion (transition),  whereas other cities use  the term 'consolidation' to describe the same event. Intensification only expresses an increase in magnitude, whereas consolidation takes a step forward recognising that the true challenge - the coal face of good planning - is all about fitting intensifying developments into a desirable urban outcome.