In collaboration with TAXI Toronto, United Way and KPMB Architects, the #UNIGNORABLE tower brings attention to the shocking reality of the size and scale of poverty in the Toronto area. Imagining the tower needed to house the 116,000+ individuals and families in Toronto struggling to put a roof over their head, the tower, if it were real, would be the world’s tallest building.
Toronto, with its beautiful skyline, is a prosperous and thriving city. However, the hidden truth is that the city—and the entire Greater Toronto Area-- is the poverty capital of Canada, with 1 in 7 residents currently struggling. Poverty can be hard to see, especially because it comes to life in many forms. “We know stats can be easy to ignore,” said TAXI Executive Creative Directors Alexis Bronstorph and Kelsey Horne. “But by changing our skyline using something everyone can understand – the world’s tallest building – we can visualize data in a way that hits close to home.”
Ultimately, this campaign is a call for donations to help United Way fight poverty in the Toronto area. “As someone who has benefited greatly from the real estate wave that’s swept over Toronto the last two decades, it was really important to me that our team give back and support this great cause,” said Norm Li.
The #UNIGNORABLE Tower is purely a way to visualize the problem, without taking into consideration any elements a real building would have, like hallways or elevators. Its size was calculated by representing 116,317 units with an average unit size of 700 sq ft. With a footprint of approximately 410 feet by 410 feet, each floor contains 240 units for a total of 484 storeys. This brings the tower’s total height to 1480 metres.