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Two groups of people sit in a fenced backyard. Both groups are composed of seven people and everyone in the group is seated on blocks painted in a variety of colours. In between the groups, a basket with balloons attached has been placed on the lawn.

Planting Imagination: Community Co-Design for Toronto’s Chinatown West

This two-year public education initiative pioneered the use of virtual reality technology to facilitate community participation in the design process.

Three people in a fenced backyard adjust giant 3D shapes. The blocks have been painted in green, yellow, and pink.
Planting Imagination modular furniture, April 30, 2023. Nominee for the 2024 Heritage Toronto Public History Award. Image by Michelle Ng. Courtesy of Project Planting Imagination.

Planting Imagination modular furniture, April 30, 2023. Nominee for the 2024 Heritage Toronto Public History Award. Image by Michelle Ng. Courtesy of Project Planting Imagination.

A group of people in a classroom using digital tablets. Two participants in the foreground of the image sit with their backs to the cameras. Their tablet screens show animated scenes of an outdoor space.
Planting Imagination workshop, April 30, 2023. Nominee for the 2024 Heritage Toronto Public History Award. Image by Michelle Ng. Courtesy of Project Planting Imagination.

Planting Imagination workshop, April 30, 2023. Nominee for the 2024 Heritage Toronto Public History Award. Image by Michelle Ng. Courtesy of Project Planting Imagination.

A close-up image of hands holding a virtual reality headset. The eye piece has been placed over a phone that shows a yellow image on the screen.
Planting Imagination Build-It-Yourself VR Headset, April 30, 2023. Nominee for the 2024 Heritage Toronto Public History Award. Image by Alice Huang. Courtesy of Project Planting Imagination.

Planting Imagination Build-It-Yourself VR Headset, April 30, 2023. Nominee for the 2024 Heritage Toronto Public History Award. Image by Alice Huang. Courtesy of Project Planting Imagination.

Project Lead: Professor Linda Zhang

Project Website 

Date of Release: April 30, 2023

Planting Imagination is a two-year public education initiative that pioneered the use of virtual reality (“VR”) technology to facilitate community participation in the design process. In collaboration with Cecil Community Centre, a non-profit multi-service neighbourhood centre located in Toronto’s Chinatown West, the team designed a community garden within Cecil’s rear courtyard.

The historical context of Chinatown West created through displacement and expropriation exemplifies the relationship between marginalized communities and public spaces. Planting Imagination’s co-design process asked current community members to think beyond their immediate wants for the courtyard and have an honest dialogue about how future generations can use the garden. As such, Planting Imagination asks participants to share the radical feeling of ownership and inspires further civic engagement. To do this work, the Planting Imagination project team built a web-based design platform that transposes Cecil’s rear courtyard into a digital simulation of the courtyard. Participants join the digital courtyard using a VR headset or computer, and the headset or computer displays an augmented reality of the space.

In this digital courtyard, participants interact with each other and virtual objects, placing objects in infinite configurations, talking and negotiating the placement of mahjong tables versus karaoke machines, in a collective imagining of what the real, co-designed courtyard space can look like and all the festivities that could now take place. The final design resulted in the fabrication of modular, lightweight furniture that could easily be rearranged, stacked, or put away. Bringing together diverse disciplines and practices, the Project Team builds on, and challenges, existing single-user architectural and gaming VR technologies and the appropriate contexts for their deployment, through a multi-user and mundane gardening exercise.

Additional Project Members:

Co-applicants from PROTECH (Pandemic Rapid-response Optimization To Enhance Community-resilience and Health):
Dr. Josephine P. Wong, Ph.D., Professor, Daphne Cockwell School of Nursing, Toronto Metropolitan University, PROTECH
Dr. Kenneth P. Fung, MD, Psychiatrist and Clinical Director, Toronto Western Hospital, University Health Network, Associate Professor, University of Toronto, PROTECH
Dr. Alan Tai-Wai Li, MD, Physician, PROTECH
Dr. Mandana Vahabi, RN, Ph.D., Professor, Daphne Cockwell School of Nursing, Toronto Metropolitan University,

Community partners:
Daniel Anckle & Beryl Tsang, Cecil Community Centre
Nadine Villasin Feldman & Sarah Tumaliuan, Myseum of Toronto
Veronica Ing, Asian Queer Alliance Toronto (AQUA)

Community organizers affiliated with various Chinatown grassroots organizations and community groups (not formal partnership):
Amy Wang, Long Time No See
An-Qi Shen, Cecil Plant Friends
Bryn Rieger, Cecil Plant Friends
Chiyi Tam, Friends of Chinatown Toronto
Christie Carrière, Tea Base
Dany Ko, Asian Community AIDS Services

Project collaborators:
Tyler Fox, Community Engagement & Impact Evaluation Consultant
Janak Alford, Technology Ecosystem Designer
Dr. Jimmy Tran, Research Technology Officer, Toronto Metropolitan University Library
Michael Carter-Arlt, Immersive Technology Specialist, Toronto Metropolitan University Library
Kelly Prevett, Social Worker (gender-based violence), Mental Health Counsellor, Humber College

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