The subway was not intended to accommodate housing; for a five-day exhibition opening on September 24th, seven Toronto studios are proposing new ideas for what kinds of facilities a TTC subway station could have above the tracks—for example, a daycare on the roof or a screen of moving light.

Every September, for one weekend, something strange and wonderful happens on the streets of Toronto. Metered parking spots — usually reserved for idling cars and the occasional ticket dispute — sprout sod, folding chairs, art installations, and impromptu yoga classes. It is called Park(ing) Day, and it is part protest, part block party, part design experiment.

On a secluded peninsula in the Ontario wilderness, where the lake is too still and too protected for motorboats to disturb it, a new kind of cottage has taken shape. It doesn't announce itself. It settles in, low against a ridge of exposed bedrock, before rising into the tree canopy on the other side. The effect is quietly dramatic: a home that seems to have grown out of its site rather than been placed on top of it.