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A �nal project which looks at the possibilities of a portable gallery in Toronto and imagines the social void it �lls in the streets of downtown.

The project looked at the importance (if any) of a temporary structure in a city full of permanent spaces and patterned lives.

Questions were posed at the beginning in an attempt to solicit answers that were both engaging and useful to future architectural endeavours.

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Location

Structure

Technology

Precedence

Research

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What is the point of a portable gallery? What IS a portable gallery? Why does it need to be portable? In what way is the gallery temporary? Where is it? When is it? Who is it for?

The portable gallery o�ers Toronto a chance to collect information from the streets of Toronto. A city that walks around and engages in cultural community activities is a healthy city. The gallery treats Toronto as an artwork. An artwork that needs to be fostered, maintained, and encouraged to grow. Having a temporary structure suggests change. It also suggests engagement. The portable gallery exists to be movable in a selected area of downtown Toronto. It is highlighted around one of the most engaging portions of the city that is connected to main transit lines and is situated on an easily navigated grid. This portion of Toronto is culturally well developed with a strong history and an even more engaging future.

The best way to gather information of a portable structure is to look at precedence of the some of the past portable galleries.

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Some of the questions I asked during the process of looking for precedence were: How does the gallery appear to be temporary (time? location?), Is the gallery public, private, or commercial? What does is provide?

When I was �rst looking at all the galleries, I organized them into di�erent categories, but no obvious patterns emerged. I realized that it wasn’t the di�erences between the examples I had found that was important, but instead it was the one similarity they all shared;Despite how or why the portable galleries were tempo-rary, they all had the same quality to them-they were like an event.

Events have the interesting quality of engaging a large audience in a short amount of time because what they have to o�er is not something that is experienced very often. It is the rarity that people are drawn to. After I determined this, I felt more con�dent that a traveling event that brings excitement to people is exactly what Toronto needs. Torontonians need to be excited about their city so that they will motivated to put time and energy towards helping it grow.

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The Bot Pod:Location: Melbourne SydneyDesigner: Andrew Maynard Architects

Sublime Art Gallery:Location: New Hampshire, USADesigner: Nicole Caul�eld

Milan Mobile:Location: MilanDesigner: Andrew Maynard Architects

Aesop Pop-Up Stop:Location: New York, USADesigner: Tacklebox

The shape of the structure leaves room for a bench �lled with the daily newspapers and magazines of Toronto on the sidewalk side of the structure.

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Container Art, Pressure:Location: Geneva, ItalyDesigner: Nicola Villa

Sublime Art Gallery:Location: New Hampshire, USADesigner: Nicole Caul�eld

Sketchbook Project:Location: North AmericaDesigner: Art House Co-op

St. Lawrence Market:Location: Toronto, CanadaDesigner: City of Toronto

Nebula:Location: AustraliaDesigner: Andrew Maynard

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Toronto is the home to one of the most inspirational and interesting cities I have ever been to. Not only is it my home-base, but it also has the unique quality of making everyone feel like a local. The city is bustling with people living, working, and playing all at the same time. The maps identify important factors to consider when selecting locations for the Portable Gallery.

The portion of Toronto that serves as the project’s base is downtown. The main streets are identi�ed in black. With major intersections having a black dot on them.

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The red dots on this map indicate the most important spots to have a portable gallery as they are directly on the most geographically popular intersections.

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The red line is the subway transit line in the city. Transpor-tation is one of the most important aspects of the city as it connects the extremities to the core- and the people to the city.

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The second red line shows the night line (and busiest) streetcar routes in this area. Street cars have a more direct relationship with the street and so are a better indication of what the local culture is like.

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The highlighted red spots indicate art galleries that are permanent. A permanent gallery indicates that there is a culture or social structure that has been built in place to last. In my opinion, when there is art in a culture, it is an indication that there exists freedom, and dedication to creating a better world.

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The Portable Gallery o�ers Torontonians a chance to explore and experience the city by creating their own itinerary of events, restaurants, and local hot-spots. The Gallery sees Toronto as an art gallery that is curated by the people who live in it.

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The �at-bed truck is the base for the structure. They are sized at 21’ long and have been recently used in the architecture �eld as the base for tiny homes, ( a new fad of building single residences).

21’

9’

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The frame of the structure uses the most widely available form of lumber that is typically used is framing structures - 2x4’s. These pieces of wood ignite a feeling of simplicity and familiarity. The structure, while portable, should still feel at home in the Toronto City.

Street Side

Sidewalk Side

Entrance

Entrance

Elevations

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Entrance

Entrance Street Side

The openings are for screens that the projectors project images onto that can be seen while driving by.

The outside layer leaves room for windows on the sidewalk side, and projection screens on the street side. The simple �at surface leaves the structure looking clean but also free for future addictions such as murals, notice boards...etc.

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The shape of the structure leaves room for a bench �lled with the daily newspapers and magazines of Toronto on the sidewalk side of the structure.

Movement throughBuilding.

The bench on the outside of the structure invites people to engage with the architecture without having to commit to the process of entering. People are territorial and so they are wary to encroach on other people’s space. The bench creates a relationship between the people and the structure.

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Movement throughBuilding.

The structure has an interesting and inviting interplay between the street and the sidewalk. Pedestrians can access the portable gallery from the sidewalk by using the unfolding steps.Passing cars can observe the projections so as to engage, but not be distracted from the road.

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There is one projector placed on the outside of the structure (removed at night for security) that projects art, community videos, twitter feeds, pictures of the neighbor-hood onto the sidewalk side of the structure. There are two projectors on the inside that project through screens on the street-side of the structure.

Inside has a open view to street and touch screens to curate Toronto itinerary.

Projectors on inside of structure.

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Projectors

Printers

Touch Screens

The technology of the structure helps to modernize ad make relevant the simplistic and traditionally built structure. The materials may be from one of the most familiar ways of the building, but the technology helps to keep the structure up to date with the ever changing technology culture of Toronto.

Projectors: Project art onto the structure so there is a visual stimulus on both the sidewalk and the street.

Touch Screens: Allow pedestrians to interact with the portable gallery and to curate their own experience of the city by making a personal itinerary of cultural events, restaurants, transportation, services, and parks.

Printers: The printers allow people to print a hard copy of their itinerary.

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