Mehedi Khan
Geometric City: Islamic Art & Public Spaces | Toronto, ON
Mehedi Khan is an urban planner, city builder with a background in Urban Planning & Islamic Studies. Prior to being an 880 Cities’ Community Change Makers recipient, Mehedi’s research investigated the politics of public spaces in social housing projects in Toronto. Mehedi’s interest as a city builder lies in the challenges of developing and implementing equitable and participatory planning. In his pursuit to connect his commitment to community activism, he co-founded Muslims in Public Space (MiPs). MiPs is focused on using public art as a platform to improve the visibility of Muslim identities in urban spaces.
About the Project
Using public art as a platform, we hope to improve the visibility of Muslim identities in urban spaces. Public art adds meaning to our cities and character to our neighbourhoods. Public art humanizes the built environment—my project, Geometric City: Islamic Art & Public Spaces reclaims spaces of play.
We aim to integrate Islamic art and identities in the urban fabric of public spaces in the GTA. We believe that visual representation can foster a sense of belonging and be used as a catalyst to create a necessary conversation between Islamophobia in everyday life.