Sidewalk Labs

Project team

Client
Sidewalk Toronto

service

Completion

2019

The Project

Human Space collaborated with Alphabet City’s Sidewalk Labs – a Google-based company – with a goal to improve urban infrastructure through technological solutions in a built environment. The plan for Sidewalk Toronto was to provide an inclusive gateway into Toronto’s eastern waterfront and to connect the city fabric together.

The team provided various consulting services to Sidewalk Labs. This work included the onsite accessibility review and recommendations of Sidewalk Labs’ 307 Lakeshore Blvd., which housed meeting areas, interactive spaces and exhibition spaces. We informed the guidance and principles for accessibility and inclusion within the Master Innovation and Development Plan; hosted co-design jams with stakeholders, the public and user groups to explore the accessibility parameters for the fabrication of hexagonal street pavers; the integration of audible, visual and tactile sidewalk posts to support wayfinding and researched options for dynamic curbs to create flexible and adaptable pick-up and drop off zones.

While the master-planned community is no longer moving ahead, the project served as an experimental testing ground for what is possible when integrating new accessible innovations into the physical environment, with the ultimate goal of improving people’s lives.

Project Images