Earlier today, we published a piece mourning the death of the hallway. Now, Toronto’s city planners are preparing to rewrite the future of housing in Canada’s largest city—and we need to talk about it.
This week, Toronto is set to debate sweeping planning reforms that could bring over 850,000 new housing units into the pipeline. That’s not a typo. It’s a construction blitz unlike anything we’ve seen in decades. Mid-rise buildings, five-unit multiplexes, towers-on-towers—it’s a big, bold play to fix a very real housing crisis.
But here’s the catch: if we don’t build these homes with livability in mind, we’re not solving a crisis. We’re just deferring one.
More Units, Less Living?
Let’s be clear: we need more housing. But volume is not the same as vision. You can zone for sixplexes all you want—but if each unit feels like a broom closet with a hot plate and your bedroom still opens into your toaster oven, we’ve failed.
This isn’t just about where people sleep. It’s about where they exist.
Design isn’t a luxury. It’s the invisible architecture of your mental health. When we cut corners on space, we cut corners on quality of life. Bad design ages into bad neighbourhoods. Shoeboxes become tomorrow’s slums.
Toronto’s Reform Plan: A Double-Edged Shovel
Here’s what’s being proposed:
- City-wide zoning changes to allow multiplexes (up to 6 units) in traditionally single-family areas
- Mid-rise intensification (6–11 storeys) along major transit routes
- Infill housing on over 5,000 existing tower sites—sometimes by converting storage spaces
- Over 850,000 housing units in the development pipeline, with 285,000 targeted by 2031
On paper? Impressive.
In practice? It could go very wrong.
Toronto has the chance to lead by example—or accelerate the Airbnb-ification of daily life.
Build More—But Build Better
What we need is a new design contract: one that centres dignity, accessibility, and psychological comfort.
This means:
- Protecting transition spaces—like hallways or entry zones—even in small units
- Designing for people who live there, not investors who don’t
- Universal design standards that go beyond legal accessibility and into lived usability
- Preserving mental boundaries, not just physical walls
It’s not about square footage. It’s about square sanity.
The Time to Speak Up is Now
Toronto City Council is debating these changes on June 12. If you live in Toronto—or care about the precedent this sets—this is the moment to get loud.
Email your councillor. Show up. Share this. Demand that housing policy include design literacy. Because once the cement dries, it’s too late to add the hallway back in.
Want More Context?
Read our original editorial: “The Death of the Hallway: Why Your Bedroom Smells Like Garlic and Existential Dread“—a deeper dive into how we got here, and what happens when design forgets the human being inside the floor plan.
“We don’t just need more homes—we need homes that don’t strip away the humanity.”
