East Gwillimbury. An ideal location to create a village for the future. Close enough to learn from. Far enough to be self-sustainable. Our compact, complete, healthy community eco-system depends on an almost self-sufficient village. This village thinking, dictates a location, a place, for everything the community needs – various kind of mixed-use building. We are not aiming to gain efficiencies via “cookie-cutter” solutions, but rather efficiencies through diversity, innovation and a truly mixed development approach for this location.
Site Plan
“The damage that climate change is causing and that will get worse if we fail to act goes beyond the hundreds of thousands of lives, homes and businesses lost, ecosystems destroyed, species driven to extinction, infrastructure smashed and people inconvenienced.”
– David Suzuki
This is what our
Village looks like:
GEV Plan
Project Summary
We’ve all seen that diversity of housing in the context of urban planning is vital. As a society we should always have a “mixed-use“ lens on, when planning a community. This provides options for different standards of living, and as importantly, allows for mixed life-stages, sustainability efficiencies and infrastructure to create a more vibrant community & lifestyle. Residential homes & buildings need to coexist with retail, commercial and medical services.
Residential:
The residential mix should include homes that are Single Detached, Semi Detached, Townhomes. Various types of low rise buildings for things like Seniors Residences should be complimented by other mixed height, mixed use and mixed life-stage buildings.
Commercial / Office / Retail:
Servicing the community will not be an after-thought. Medical buildings of various size and height will need to have a convenient and holistic relationship with residence. Retail and commercial buildings need to be both smartly located at street level to encourage pedestrian and bike traffic and located above for efficiencies and lifestyle ease.
Integrated and Connected Green Network:
Neighbourhood Parks, Village Squares, Parkettes, Urban Square, Green Corridors, Bioswales, Open Space, Community Allotment Gardens, Orchards, Natural Environment.
Trails:
3.8+ km mixed use trails
Energy Centre:
Smartflower
Solar / Storage MicroGrid
Geothermal/Geoexchange