Vad är äkta? : Platsidentitet och autenticitet i The Well, Toronto

Sammanfattning

This thesis examines how The Well, a large-scale mixed-use development completed in Toronto’s Wellington Place neighbourhood in 2024, constructs place identity and perceived authenticity in the absence of historical material continuity. Drawing on four site visits, archival research, and expert interviews with architect Michael Conway and urban planner Corals Zheng, the study analyses how The Well produces a sense of place through materiality, scale, and spatial organization rather than through historical continuity. Six theoretical frameworks structure the analysis: John Ruskin’s truth to materials, Alois Riegl’s Alterswert, Walter Benjamin’s aura, Christian Norberg-Schulz’s genius loci, Robert A. Beauregard and Andrea Kahn’s place-to-site transformation, and Sharon Zukin’s curated authenticity. The first four define authenticity as historically grounded and accumulated over time; the latter two analyze what happens when authenticity is produced rather than inherited. The Well operates as a curated reconstruction – referencing vanished industrial heritage through brick, reclaimed Douglas fir, subway tiles, and spatial choreography. The sole named historical fragment, the Globe and Mail art deco door portal, remains hidden in a semi-public space. Designed authenticity is proposed as an analytical category for privately managed environments in which historical reference functions as atmosphere rather than narrative.