Not only do these malls disconnect us from our past, they also keep us disengaged from the present. Day to day in the suburbs there is little chance of casually interacting with the existing population or other immigrant communities. The car is the all- consuming mode of transportation; the mall is predetermined and the journey becomes a commute. Our lives are planned down to the minute and spontaneity goes out the window. Changes to how we get around is coming however, indirectly led by all of us immigrants. The many malls that have proliferated have created enough traffic woes to fortunately translate to a demand for an improved transit system. York Region Transit, of which Markham and Richmond Hill are a part, has invested in developing a rapid transit system since 2006. From strip mall to cluster mall to full-blown indoor mall, I watch Hong Kong street life being unsuccessfully reproduced, to feebly imitated, to being turned outside in. The next phase seems to be the competition for bragging rights to be the biggest Chinese mall, with Pacific Mall as a candidate proposing to triple in size. Is bigger always better? More importantly, is that how our generation of immigrants define ourselves? With its many neighbourhoods, Toronto has established itself as a very successful multicultural city. It allows each immigrant group to celebrate its culture, yet its street grid forms a coherent fabric that facilitates casual wandering and discovering. A parallel version for the suburb still needs to be conceived. If there is enough of a critical mass to drive changes in transit, surely we can demand better in our built form. We can take a page from our
lives in Hong Kong, one that emphasises street development and the public realm. Scale and density need to be recalibrated but our attention should be focussed on turning the street into public space: for shopping, travelling, socialising and meandering. Imagine turning a mall inside out and carving out blocks through its parking lot. Each block would have medium-density apartment buildings with shops and offices on the ground and second level. Instead of being cocooned by only-Chinese shops, others would set up shop because the perception of for-Chinese-shoppers-only is gone. The area can be stitched to the neighbouring lower density residential fabric rather than being separated by a fence. Shops in strip malls may suffice in the beginning when immigrants first land, however as we find our footing in Canada and develop our identity as Chinese-Canadians, our architectural expression needs to adapt, mature and innovate. We know transit will come, but what will it support? Whatever form it takes, one thing is for sure: mall typology has run its course. Little Hong Kong will never be Hong Kong, nor should it be. My family and I did not move half way across the world expecting to find the same thing. This next wave of development will define immigrants of my time and my generation. We have to design and build it recognising that we are part of a multicultural community in the suburbs of Toronto. We have to infuse it with our contemporary, Canadian, immigrant soul. /
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