A Platform for the City

Schematic Design proposal | Social Housing

Team: Yunle Chen |  Zhong Zhu Li

Community Hub / Social Housing 

Size: 100,000 sq-ft

Location: Toronto

A Platform for the City is a social housing prototype that re-imagines a community hub as a hybrid social infrastructure. It brings together density, shared resources, and public life into a unified architectural gesture that supports both everyday use and long-term resilience.

At its base, the building functions as a civic platform, housing an event hall, library, gymnasium, childcare, workshops, and consulting areas. These public-facing programs are positioned to activate their immediate surroundings, encouraging both engagement and retreat. A sunken gym anchors one corner of the site, extending activity into the lane way and forming a vital edge.

Above, a duplex-based residential mass introduces a high-density housing model rooted in community values. Originally envisioned with skip-stop corridors and a single stair, the design evolved into a compact double-scissor stair configuration—balancing code requirements with spatial ambition. Strategic setbacks open visual and physical connections to the surrounding context, allowing the building to breathe while deepening its relationship with the public realm.

Structurally and symbolically, the project is elevated by a system of public piers—tilted columns and double beams that raise the shared platform above the ground. This gesture transforms the building into a table for the city: a space of gathering, care, and urban equity. It offers a replicate-able model for future development—one that lifts shared life upward while grounding new density in dignity.