Density drives our lives. From the decisions of planning officials to the viability of corner stores, the implications, pre-conceptions and enabling potential that derives from density shapes decisions that affect our present and our future.

Urban environments have the potential, like ecosystems, of getting more diverse and complex as density increases, generating interdependencies, feedback loops and specializations that make the overall system more dynamic and resilient, but this is not always the case. Unlike natural systems, urban environments are the result of decisions that, in many cases, stem from preconceptions and biases, lacking a deeper analysis and understanding of the implications, opportunities, and challenges of density.

The 21^st century has been heralded as the first of the “Urban Age”. While the methodologies and theoretical frameworks used to define it as such have raised criticism and spurred significant academic debate, the fact that patterns of urbanization are changing is beyond dispute. Since most of that change comes as the result of net changes in density, understanding the implications of this phenomenon becomes an important first step to designing better urban environments.

Density has different implications at different scales, from a lofty objective defined in large-scale, long-term planning instruments to the challenges of dealing with hyperlocal conditions and design and implementation challenges. Equally important, density becomes an enabler of experiences, services, and amenities.

As pervasive as the concept is, planning instruments traditionally reduce density to a quantitative description, usually using only 2 numbers to quantify it (population per land area unit and/or building area per land area unit), to the extent that these 2 numbers become, almost exclusively, the foundation of policy planning frameworks, with little regard for the qualitative aspects that density entails. Translating high-level visions into rich urban environments is far from straightforward and the shared responsibility of community members, practitioners, developers, and designers.

Density also has different faces depending or where in the world we look. Developing countries differ substantially in the way they accommodate denser urban environments from developed countries. In addition to the need to understand different contexts and be able to develop critical positions that lead to design solutions, the analysis of case studies in developing countries provides an expanded palette of options and a magnified perspective on the benefits and challenges derived from unregulated densification processes.

The studio will explore the topic of density in 3 segments:

1. Understanding: working in teams and through targeted research and mapping exercises of selected case studies from Toronto and around the globe, students will critically address the concept of density. Through a series of presentations by biologists, designers, practitioners and public officials, students will be exposed to different ways to understand density and its environmental, cultural and economic implications, and how is expressed both in developed and developing countries.
    
2. Measuring: continuing the teamwork from the previous segment, students are expected to develop a quantitative understanding of the implications of density by further analysing the different case studies introduced in the previous segment, by understanding both development metrics, environmental impacts, social and political dynamics, urban form and building typologies prevalent to each case study. Results will be presented in a series of 2D, 3D, and 4D diagrams.
    
3. Designing: the longest segment in the studio, by transposing and hybridizing the case study models into the designated study area(s) and understanding the spatial, environmental and cultural implications of significant changes in density, students will be expected to develop an urban design proposal that provides a vision for a denser, more humane and sustainable future, that includes the understanding of development proformas, built form and typological responses and the implications in services, amenities and sustainable strategies.