Sustainable+Community+Don+Mills

=Phase 2: Sustainable Community--Don Mills=

Phase 1 | Videos | PACT Analysis | User Study | Requirements | Visualization | Phase 3 of this project

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**Project Overview**
The project began as two separate approaches to urbanization and sustainability practices in two Torontonian neighbourhoods : Artscape Wychwood Barns at Wychwood Avenue and Christie Street, and Don Mills community at Don Mills Road and Lawrence Avenue East, both of which were examined in Phase 1 of the project. See Artscape Wychwood Barns project here; see Don Mills project here.

We brainstormed on how sustainability practices were defined for each projects and came to a consensus that we determined that there were two ways to think about sustainability: socially sustaining a community, and conservation practices to reduce ecological impact. We decided to pursue social sustainability practices because we saw a common need for connecting the younger generations to their communities in order for the community to persist and flourish while still valuing the dominant senior population as an integral part of the community. However, the younger generation are likely to move onto other places after growing up if they feel they are not stakeholders within the community. Without the support of future generations, the community will not likely to continue to grow and develop as it has in the past.

Community-oriented urban planning plays a crucial role in this because it provides structure to how people can socialize, interact, gather, and organize themselves within a communal space. Don Mills provided a richer historical background, more personal and accessible connections for in-depth interviews, and has clearer issues affecting two generations of residents within the community. The recent Don Mills development projects inspired us to investigating these issues as the marketing efforts have been mainly intended to attract a new population, especially with the recent opening of the Shops of Don Mills complex that has replaced the old mall as outlined in the Phase 1 project.

With this in mind, we wish to understand the different perspectives of current and former Don Mills residents, and what they thought of this community. In particular, we wanted to know how they defined the community, how did they get information about community events, and what they thought the community lacked and needed in order for us to form a meaningful research problem. The result of the research will the be basis for us to build an interactive solution that is engaging and useful in connecting everyone in the Don Mills community.

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**General Issues to Consider**
- Sustaining life in the sense of being fulfilled in your community - Urbanization: new "green" condos; as a business; not as costly as people assume it to be - Not just one building but an area to create a community - Sustainable living is not just about saving energy but having facilities that meet their everyday, social, cultural needs

**General Research Questions to Consider**
How much information do we give them about the project (in advance)? How can you propose an event at the Shops? How public is the space? How much influence does the public have on shaping the space? What spaces are there for collaboration? What is the mental model for a community? How do people define communities? What is a community? What are their needs (for living)? What are basic necessities for living in a space? What do you need to live in a community? How does each generation define a community? (How to make the sense of community relevant to each generation?) How does a community grow? Knowledge of features of a community, how do people know about it if they don’t live in the neighbourhood? Public? Where is the promised community centre? (the physical building) How to utilize social media to engage and mobilize people

**Initial User Study Questions Considered**
How long have you lived in Don Mills?/ Why do you come to Don Mills? What do you want out of a communitiy? What do you like about your community? What do you define as you community (geographically, socially)? What is the size of the community? How are you involved in your community? How often are you involved in community activities? Or attend community events? What improvements have you seen in community practices? How do you think your community could improve? Do you like your community? Why do you like it? Do you know many people in your neighbourhood? Do you like your neighbours? Could you share a story about living in “insert community name”? What events are going on/going to happen in your community right now? How did you know about these events?

Would you like to know more about community events? What would be the easiest way for you to access this information? Who do you feel represents your community? How would you describe people in your community? Who/What represents your community? How much time have you spent in the centre? What do you do there? Where do you get resources? Where do you prefer? Why? (Food) How do you get your information? Source of information? (Library? Newspaper? Internet? TV?)

How do you feel about green practices? What do you know about green practices and green design?

Phase 1 | Videos | PACT Analysis | User Study | Requirements | Visualization