A Fresh Breath is about a new breath of opportunity and change in the completely altered 2050 landscape of Sudbury. With this project we wanted to work on breathing new life into the urban core of Sudbury; we want to transition the core from an industrial sprawl of wasted land, to an urban park that is developed for the community. We achieved this by looking at the rail lands of downtown Sudbury and how they can be better harnessed in the interest of the community. Additionally, A Fresh Breath is about ushering Sudbury into a new era of renew-able energy and environmentalism to better serve the community and Sudbury as a whole. Our solution is to tack-le the problem of limited green space and pedestrian friendly areas in the core alongside our renewable energy initiatives. We propose a city-wide shift towards independence against fossil fuels and therefore have no use for the rail yards that are predominantly utilized for the transport and exportation of minerals and fossil fu-els. Although we are proposing most of the rail lands to be repurposed, two rail tracks that run parallel with Elgin will be preserved to encourage public transit from VIA Rail.
To reduce fossil fuel emissions and core steps in the efforts of becoming a living city, circulation down-town is limited to pedestrians and cyclists via roads repurposed as enlarged pedestrian walkways. With this re-duction in traffic the excess of parking lots in the downtown area can be transformed into green spaces which not only reduces the carbon footprint of the city but poses as attractive features for the downtown area increasing activity and promoting business. An alternative solution for downtown parking as proposed is parking garages on the outer coasts of the downtown area. These garages hold a smaller footprint and allow for more parking in the same amount of space, which is more efficient.
In an effort to revitalize activity and sustainability and expand the downtown, we have proposed a new library in the rail lands area. This new public building acts as an extension to the downtown commercial area and reveals an opportunity for a marketplace. A new public library location on the repurposed railroad collection is proposed to provide an area that can be utilized and is welcoming of the entire community. The members of the community that are most neglected are the homeless and drug using people in Sudbury. To make this a for-ward-thinking public building all members of the community should benefit from it and therefore the public li-brary will function additionally as a place of shelter and a resource to rehabilitate the neglected members of the community. The library can be a place of gathering for the entire community and is available to public use 24/7 and is thus a greater asset to the community. The building is designed to act as a connection between the downtown area and expanded downtown/market area. Its general form facilitates this attraction from the downtown area as its acute triangular shape expands from the east to west faces of the building.
The narrow east entrance attracts the public and pulls them through the building into the vast opening of the west face of the building into the expanded downtown area. The shape of the building is mimicking a wind changeling device that channels a new breath into the city. The panoramic view created by curtain wall windows best showcases this and displays the repurposed land as an inspiration to expand and regreen. To reduce the carbon footprint of the building the entire roof space is converted into green roofs to return to the earth that land which it is on and provides opportunity to create roof top gardens for public use.
Overall the proposal looks to expand downtown core, involve community, create a central space for the whole community, develop a solar field to create a building that is "off the grid", use views to showcase expansion while paying homage to history, market is involved in recentring. A solar field on the far west side of the property will provide energy for the operation of the library and market buildings further reducing the footprint of this property while also giving back through the park area.
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