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above, Hamburg:The S3 train on its way to the Hauptbahnhof
below,Toronto:The 504 King streetcar at Metro Hall
to an important structure or square, even City Hall and Nathan Philips Square are neatly integrated into the orthogonal system. The omnipresence of the grid is further repeatedly brought to mind when giving directions by listing the number of intersections and a cardinal direction rather than going by landmarks as is common in Germany. Hamburg is considered a beautiful city even by European standards, and I agree. While it is currently undergoing a giant urban development, the new HafenCity does not really feel like a part of the city proper, despite being immediately adjacent to the downtown area.To me, Hamburg is largely defined by its old buildings, parks, lakes and waterways. All these have been around for a long time and will be there whenever I decide to visit.The city has a lot to offer and I don’t even know half of it. New landmarks are created, but are integrated into the existing complex fabric in such a way that changes appear to happen slowly. Maybe it’s only because I am so far removed, but Hamburg seems settled and complete. Toronto is still new. It is stretching, cracking and new things emerge unexpectedly from out of nowhere.Though based on a strict layout, the way places are arranged within the grid seem almost random, the connections between them accepted as given fact, no brain power is needed to tie them together. On the one hand this will never fully let me transcend my abstract image of Toronto as a system of perpendicular lines, while on the other hand, it means that new things can pop up here and there as nothing really grows consistently in a predictable pattern. Its identity is constantly shifting and Toronto will continue to be a subject of exploration. g
Christoph Lange
network of the most colourful associations. One network I could physically explore on my own by foot, and another superimposed layer that I could only ever pass through as a voyeur, looking out of a train’s window. I left Hamburg for Toronto three years ago and have felt at home here ever since. I am growing quite familiar with this city and am treating my neighbourhood as an extended living room. But although frequently referred to as a city of neighbourhoods, to me Toronto is much less a city of adjacent and overlapping areas as implied in the term ‘neighbourhood’ than a city of long streets and large intersections.The presence of urban centres is not anticipated in the street layout. Streets basically never lead up
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