areas. Within the framework of the city’s plans, Sidewalk hoped nightlife destination, balancing the stability of permanent to develop a data-driven planning and evaluation digital tool characteristics with the spaces that are open to ongoing that would identify opportunities for more open spaces within community programming and activities (Sidewalk Labs, the city to complement the existing park network. 2017a: 160-161); - With regard to Parliament Plaza, Sidewalk Labs believed 3.1.3 Maximizing public spaces using generative design that “this place could be flat in summer, allowing children The Villiers Island area of Toronto’s Port Lands has always been to have access to a splash pad while parents walk seen as an inspirational location that could be used to guide around the market” (Sidewalk Labs, 2017b: 146). Then, the transformation of an industrial area into a sustainable and in the evening, the splash pad could be converted into inclusive new neighborhood. In Sidewalk Labs’s project, Villiers a public art installation, “turning the whole space into Island was planned to be surrounded by one of the new parks an interactive open theatre” (Sidewalk Labs, 2017b: 146); (a sixteen-hectare park) through the Don River’s naturalization • Water-bound spaces: In Toronto, the “Port Lands Flood process (Sidewalk Labs, 2017b: 140). Sidewalk Labs intended to Protection works include a plan to increase water access use generative design14 to enhance the amount of quality open through a naturalized Don River mouth.”16(Sidewalk Labs, space while increasing density and, thus, facilitating access to 2017b: 148). A new park here could have provided beaches, more housing, economic activities, and jobs. kayak launches, and wetlands (Sidewalk Labs, 2017a: 294-297). The plan for Villiers Island aimed to break down the 3.1.5 Enabling an all-day ground floor “development blocks into a primary set of smaller buildings In Toronto, a good number of “start-ups start to show how with pedestrian or interior courtyards, supplying local tenants with different peak hours can more effectively share environments that are more private for inhabitants” (Sidewalk office spaces” (Sidewalk Labs, 2017b: 156). Toronto’s Flexday17 Labs, 2017b: 141). Using its generative design tool, Sidewalk “converts restaurants into co-working spaces during the Labs was able to increase the available open space and offer morning and early afternoon” (Sidewalk Labs, 2017b: 156), increased daylight access. Interior spaces would have played before dinner prep commences (Sidewalk Labs, 2017a: 165). an essential role in supplementing Toronto’s park network, Sidewalk Labs was developing an app that would allow digital “generating meaningful pedestrian connections across the city, leasing and operations services, with a view to helping to “co- and providing workers and residents with access to an open locate symbiotic businesses” (Sidewalk Labs, 2017a: 156), space right outside their door” (Sidewalk Labs, 2017b: 141). allowing them to share spaces and reduce their costs. 3.1.4 Multipurpose parks Sidewalk Labs proposed making this office sharing easier In the 2010s, cities started to make better use of their limited through a digital leasing platform and operations service (see park space through multipurpose design. For example, the Sidewalk Labs, 2017b: 164) that could help colocate similar Athletic Exploratorium in Odense,15Denmark, has a topography or complementary businesses or organizations with different designed to facilitate many different sporting events. Inspired service hours, such as a retail space and a coffee shop by many examples around the world that have been analyzed (Sidewalk Labs, 2017b: 140).18 by Smith and Soledad Garcia Ferrari (2012), Sidewalk Labs planned to collaborate with both Waterfront Toronto and the Furthermore, business demands and community access to City of Toronto to maximize the variety of potential uses within familiar places often fluctuate seasonally. To address this, urban parks. Some examples of its project ideas are (Sidewalk according to Sidewalk Labs, “Garage door-style systems . . . would Labs, 2017b: 144-149): make it easy to move stalls out into open spaces, helping tenants •Flexible Plaza: Sidewalk Labs planned to design a flexible stay active over the course of the year, and blend into bustling plaza similar to the Campo de Florio in Rome (Sidewalk street life,” thus keeping businesses as attractive as usual, even Labs, 2017b: 146), which is transformed from market to in poor weather conditions (Sidewalk Labs, 2017b: 156). (14) Generative design is defined as “a data-driven planning and evaluation tool . . . to identify opportunities for more open spaces that complement a city’s existing park network” (Sidewalk Labs, 2017b: 140). (15) https://keingart.com/portfolio/athletics-exploratorium/; https://runningmagazine.ca/the-scene/photos-the-ultimate-track-themed-playground-for-runners-in- odense/ (accessed on 9 June 2021). New Ways - The Athletic Exploratorium in Odense. International Association for Sports and Leisure Facilities website, May 2014. https://iaks.sport/awards-archive/award-2015 (Accessed on 22 July 2021). (16) https://www.colliersprojectleaders.com/projects/port-lands-flood-protection-and-enabling-infrastructure-project#gref (accessed on 9 June 2021). (17) https://www.flexday.com/ (accessed on 9 June 2021). (18) https://www.sidewalktoronto.ca/ 178 Quélin and Smadja | HEC PARIS | SMART CITIES | The sustainable program of six leading cities | 2021