Book · Scorgie Planning Press
The Parallel City
Rethinking the Urban Laneway
An exploration of the quieter network of work, living, movement and adaptation behind Toronto’s main streets.
Cities tend to describe themselves through main streets, centres and corridors. The Parallel City turns to the laneways behind them, where workshops, studios, servicing and everyday life occupy spaces still treated as secondary.
Drawing on the Mixed-Use Laneways Study, Blair Scorgie examines the gap between activity that works in practice and the categories planning systems use to understand it. The book follows questions of compatibility, access, affordability and public space without turning the lane into a single model for urban change.
Digital PDF + EPUB · ISBN 978-1-0678040-1-5
$5 CAD plus applicable tax
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CONTENTS Preface...............................................................................................................1 Chapter 1: Introduction..................................................................................3 Chapter 2: A Network Built To Be Invisible..............................................9 Chapter 3: Rear Space As Urban Infrastructure.......................................12 Chapter 4: The Long Life Of The Service Corridor................................16 Chapter 5: Informal Use, Formal Silence..................................................21 Chapter 6: The Back Door Economy.......................................................26 Chapter 7: Living Behind The Building.....................................................30 Chapter 8: Zoning That Stops At The Property Line.............................35 Chapter 9: Compatibility Without A Map.................................................40 Chapter 10: Small Scale, Heavy Process....................................................44 Chapter 11: Everything That Technically Works.....................................48 Chapter 12: Noise, Proximity, And The Fear Of Intimacy....................52 Chapter 13: Movement Without Traffic....................................................55 Chapter 14: Servicing At The Edge Of The System................................58 Chapter 15: Demand In The Wrong Place...............................................62 Chapter 16: Affordability Without Visibility.............................................66 Chapter 17: Why Small Spaces Matter.......................................................70 Chapter 18: What Counts As A Street.......................................................74 Chapter 19: Public Space That Isn’t Named.............................................77 Chapter 20: Pilot Projects As A Way Of Thinking..................................80 Chapter 21: How Cities Change Without Saying So...............................83 Chapter 22: Incremental Permissions And Quiet Precedent.................87 Chapter 23: Why Mixed Use Appears After The Rules Loosen............90
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