As large North American cities like Toronto densify, their barren and slapdash laneways are drawing renewed attention from urban planners. Their ultimate goal is to update these hinterlands with Jane-Jacobsian ideals by turning them into inviting, inclusive green spaces where local communities can gather. Public Laneway Puncture, led by landscape architect Victoria Taylor, is a prototype of an initiative that incises the impervious paved surface of a laneway with central channels filled with open-grid paving bricks. This more porous surface allows runoff to drain, and both planted and wild greenery to sprout. With the laneway’s hydrologic cycle restored, life can return.

Project: Public Laneway Puncture

Location: Toronto, Canada

Firm: Victoria Taylor Landscape Architect, Canada

Team: Victoria Taylor with Mike Layton, Robert Mays, Jode Roberts, Michelle Senaye and Jonas Spring