Vision
Balance in a city leads to a richer, more livable quality of life. A self-sustained metropolis with a community of people contributing and living in it has a tremendous potential to prosper and build resilience. Today, the COVID-19 pandemic has reminded us of the lack of balance in our cities, especially large ones. Around the world, most metropolitan areas are not affordable, sustainable, or egalitarian. On the other hand, mid-size cities present us with an opportunity for better options to live in; it offers the sweet spot on the environmental, financial, and social spectrum. Sudbury in northern Ontario has the potential to be that kind of vibrant city. Sudbury has a history of a severe environmental disaster; but also has the experience of reversing it. Learning from it, this proposal treats downtown as an extension of the regreening program. Besides solving physiological needs like housing, Sudbury' s new core fosters an ecosystem of relationships between the spaces where people live, work, shop, learn, and enjoy. Through the use of the existing downtown space, the project produces a new natural backbone that that holds together old and new elements and create a new single city-landscape. This project is crafted in four points: urban fabric, transportation, energy, and housing. All of them, ruled by what economist Kate Raworth calls: regenerative and distributive design. The first one means to develop cycles where resources are used again without the need of a new input, and the second one to run away as far as we can from centralized wealth, knowledge, and power. Thus, the project creates options for energy, resources, and waste management, as well as spaces open for participation, so the community develops care and ownership.
Urban Fabric
The urban proposal focuses on redeveloping existing buildings for new mixed uses; densification through all the parking lots and repurposing the rails roads for new mixed-use buildings, a new arena, and a river park. The new river (the backbone) establishes a dialogue between the existing downtown, the new downtown extension, and the suburb in the south while connecting the city with Ramsey Lake. A linear park through both sides of the river produces a space that captures the pass of time through the seasons, and an urban place for meeting and appreciating the surroundings. The downtown as a whole fits into the 15 min city category, so it's very important to make it walkable and connected, thus, the project follows Jane Jacobs advice and creates small blocks between 50 and 100 meters. Inside the small blocks, flexible spaces generate courtyards that nurture the sports, recreational, and art programs of the city. Offering more urban options the city allows social distance recommendations if necessary. Sudbury should thrive with people without converting into a hyperdense metropolis. The project mirrors medium-sized, walkable, and livable cities, in countries with high social mobility. It avoids skyscrapers and proposes a controlled height of 7 levels (ground floor, 5 housing levels, and a greenhouse on the top), so the dwellers do not lose contact with the city's ground floor. A healthy density that instead of alienating Sudburians, invites them to move from the suburbs and reduces the city's footprint.
Transportation
Sudbury has a history related to driving and hitting pedestrians. So, to become a thriving city the project bans private cars in downtown (only emergency and delivery vehicles are allowed). Cars surround downtown and go through it in only two streets: Elm Street and Brady Street-the second one with a tunnel under the river. All vehicular traffic is separated on narrow roads of two-lane streets to discourage car use. The bus station is kept downtown, and a light train is proposed. The tram is connected to the Sudbury Jct, so the downtown has access to the Toronto-Vancouver route of Canada's railroads. The light train line establishes a connection between the large suburbs along LaSalle Boulevard, to downtown through Notre Dame Ave, to Bell park and Ramsey Lake, to the universitarian hospital, and the suburbs again. Once we take the courageous decision to remove cars, any kinesthetic experience of transportation becomes exponentially more interesting, diverse, cleaner, more social, and physically active, thus cultivating urban life. In the new Sudbury, you may use walking, roller skates, skateboards, scooters, bikes, e-bikes, bus, and light train to get to your destination. You can even swim, use a kayak or a small boat in summer and ice skating in winter.
Input / Output (Energy and resources)
The project turns the disrupted mining territory into an eolic and solar energy farm. Also provides greenhouse farms on the top of new mixed-use areas and green roofs on the existing buildings to use water of rain and snow. The project proposes underground containers, so the city collects separate waste, and reduces all the possible use of a landfill. 2020 also asks for rethinking the bathrooms, with compost toilets. It can help to reduce cost, time, and energy of treating black waters, and with the use of mass timber construction, the regreening program will be more active than ever, and composting can help with that. Also, the use of bidets in large apartments can help reduce waste; 2020 's toilet paper "crisis" was a low point in human behavior.
Housing
Sudbury's downtown needs people to become a vibrant core, old and new Sudburians with a diversity of incomes and backgrounds. The project considers small home studios for low wage workers, students, and graduates; lofts for creatives, entrepreneurs, and remote workers; options for different family structures; and apartments for seniors looking for downsizing. These diverse apartments are mixed in locations to create different price ranges. Overall the project praises affordable housing and offers an opportunity to Sudbury to not lose human capital. This project proposes a flexible housing system using cross-laminated timber.
Final thoughts
This project does not promote : cyberpunk utopias, nor corporation or tech monopolies to move in, nor casinos, nor skyscrapers, nor pretzel buildings for pretzel prizes. This project cultivates diversity and social mobility through the administration of existing space to foster urban life. Sudbury has the potential to become something greater and meaningful, the first carbon zero city in the world.
(Competitor's text)
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