Urban Constellation: Sudbury, a dreaming city
This project offers a clear vision for downtown Sudbury in 2050: to be able to contemplate a starry sky. This goal may seem simple, even childish. However, it requires us to ask ourselves questions about the city, our lifestyles, and our relationship with the environment, and the landscape. We are living in a period of environmental and social transition. Sudbury is an ideal place to make that experiment.
Sudbury is a city with a lot of potentials. Situated in the heart of Canada, the city center is close to many remarkable natural areas, forests, lakes, and mountains. Besides, it bears the traces of a large mining and commercial exploitation. The railroad tracks split the city, making gigantic voids. This project does not propose a single image of what the «ecological» city should be, but rather to address the question of ways of living. Like a three-part tale, this project addresses many scales: architecture, urbanism, and landscape blend together to offer a comprehensive vision of Sudbury in 2050.
Much more than projecting the city here, it is about dreaming the city.
Part 1: Stars in the sky
One summer evening, a shower of shooting stars fell on Sudbury. With them, a question sprang up in the minds of the city's residents. «How do we protect the environment?» It's not easy to come up with a single answer. That's why we are going to bring eight points to protect the environment.
Protecting is: educate, study, manage, observe, limit, communicate, live. There are as many ways of doing things as there are buildings made in central Sudbury. These urban acupunctures are strategically placed. They are used to revitalize certain parts of the city but especially to raise awareness and anticipate the next phases. Like seeds, these buildings are the beginnings of questioning about the making of cities. Sudbury becomes a playground for experimentation. We try to cultivate on the roof of a parking lot. We live in a building perched on top of a rock. We free up space by putting cars in a parking silo. We change our habits little by little. These wooden buildings are built quickly. Their basic system in posts-beams allows them great flexibility of use. In these places we learn about the environment, we live differently, and we gather together as citizens to discuss the next steps of the project.
These eight architectures are fixed stars in Sudbury's landscape. They gravitate around an important point of this new center, the railway network. The second part is based on the relocation of the railway technical pole to the south of the city.
Part 2: A Starry Sky Park
After having been made aware of the beauty of the landscape and the environment, the inhabitants want more. You need a place in the city to contemplate where these shooting stars come from. The cluster of rails disappears from the city center to leave only one track. The emptiness will be the place for the making of a 15 hectares park, used for the observation of the celestial vault in the city center.
This Dark Sky Park is an opportunity for the City of Sudbury. In addition, linking the northern and southern part of the center, this park is a place propitious to dreams.This place is conducive to strolling and daydreaming. The landscaped strips follow the original layout of the rails. We walk between the trees on long way, we pass at the edge of a small channel, we make a break in a playground. For a moment, we forget that we are in the city.
The park is composed of two areas. Each one works on the same system. To the north, a railway line is left to allow the inhabitants to take the train from the city center and enjoy the tourism of their dreams. People come to Sudbury for its wonderful living environment. People come on warm summer nights to look at the sky or stop for a swim by the lake. To the south, the park boundary is made up with townhouses. They blend into the existing residential fabric. The houses have a backyard garden giving access to the park.
The park is equipped with many facilities: covered halls, a stadium, sportsgrounds, and playgrounds. We spend the whole day there. Time is flying and night is beginning to fall. Everybody is ready for tonight's heavenly show. Unfortunately, the sky is still invisible. All around, Sudbury emits a white light, it is the light pollution. It's all there, all that's left to do is to turn off the lights.
Part 3: Urban constellations
To see the sky you have to turn off the lights. This is not simple. Why ? Because this difficulty to turn off the light is linked to a fear deep inside us. We are afraid of the darkness. When the fire appeared, humanity stopped being afraid. We warmed up, we hunted, we felt safe.
There is no question of cutting off all the lights in the city. It's about limiting. If you think about it, it's not the dark that we are afraid of but the others. We are afraid not to be seen and not to see others. That's why streetlamps are placed at street intersections to be seen. In the end, we make a grid of light points. The new grid is copied on the existing grid fabric. These points are lights. The street lamps play an indispensable role in this phase. The light must be amber and thus limit the blue wavelengths. The light is directed towards the ground to be seen by motorists and cyclists.
These points of light can be put in relation to each other. By connecting two points, we make a line, therefore a street. By connecting three points, we make an area. As we go along, we connect points on the map of Sudbury. These new roads are made to pass in front of the city's remarkable places. Constellations were made. These paths become tourist routes. We go from constellation to constellation, each one having its specificities. We have fun dreaming about the city.
The lights are now limited, we land in the grass. Tonight, everyone in Sudbury hopes to see that famous shooting star shower again. It has opened their eyes to the potential of their city, to its landscapes and its unique environment. Waking up the day after the shooting star shower, nothing is the same as before.
These three phases propose a slow transition where nothing should be left aside. It is important to note that architecture, urbanism, and landscape intersect to create a complexity that brings diversity. Between a childish reverie and a social as well as environmental reality, this project lays the foundations for a new type of city. Dreaming is not synonymous with unrealizable. When we dream, we represent as real what we desire. This is our dream for Sudbury in 2050.
(Competitor's text)
Honourable Mention - "Urban Constellation"
(France)
Gaël Biache, Elise Dalmasso
"Urban Constellation inspires us to look at the bigger picture with a nightly reminder of the bigger world out there. Revealing the night sky within the urban core would nightly connect people to the natural environment and create a mind shift in thinking that could help lead us toward our community's goal to reach Net Zero by 2050." - Deb McIntosh, Competition Jury Member and Councillor, City of Greater Sudbury.
(From jury report)
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