Just outside Toronto, in a predominantly agricultural area, the construction of an "impossible" community is underway that could change the concept of what we now call "urban suburbs".
It is The Orbit, a futuristic-sounding district that will rise on the edge of Innisfil, a commuter town about a half-hour drive from Toronto. The Orbit will consist of a grid of streets radiating around a dense central neighborhood, with mid-rise skyscrapers, large open spaces and a mix of residential, commercial and civic buildings. The core of the plan is a commuter rail station that serves as a central hub.
Suburbs reloaded
Innisfil it is one of the classic suburbs of large cities. A population of around 40.000 inhabitants (practically the hinterland of cities like my Naples), which however should double within the next 30 years.
You know well that the outcome of many urban planning and environmental challenges of the near future depends on the management of this growth. Electric vehicles will not be enough: city services, public safety, parks, infrastructure they must be designed with criteria in anticipation of all future scenarios. The Orbit tries to understand how suburbs can be "designed" in view of upcoming changes, possibly avoiding the degrading "neighborhood, shopping center, neighborhood, shopping center" approach that we see today.
How did the idea for The Orbit come about?
The process began in 2017 when the city issued a request for proposals for a new neighborhood around a new, planned rail transit station. In 2019 the city authorities and the regional transit authority, Metrolinx, entrusted the architectural firm Supporters the development of The Orbit.
This "futuristic" plan for the suburbs of tomorrow is actually inspired, my architect friends teach me, by the concept of urban planning of the early 20th century, the "Garden City“. By distributing residents, commercial activities and agricultural land in a radiant form of joints and spokes, the garden city envisaged a type of suburban development very different from the terrible one we have witnessed since the Second World War. The Orbit is designed to accommodate approximately 100.000 people, all within a 1-mile (1,6 km) radius of the train station. In summary: 15 minutes on foot, and I'm not telling you with a bike.
It could be a way to make a clean sweep of how smart suburbs of the future could grow around transit hubs. An evolution of the "15 minute city" concept on which several metropolises are working, to place most of the things a person needs (from services to entertainment) within reasonable distances to travel on foot or by bicycle. And in low-emission areas.
It's not easy, and it doesn't even seem that easy
Of course, creating a new neighborhood from scratch is no easy feat. The first “operational” plans for The Orbit could be finalized by next spring, and the city of Innisfil is currently engaged in community outreach to ensure the plan aligns with residents' expectations.
As mentioned, the transit station is the heart of the project, both from a design and feasibility point of view. The start of work, initially scheduled for the end of 2022, was postponed due to the pandemic. It should start during 2023, and with it let the whole project flourish: it will take time, but everyone is confident that in the end this "prototype for the suburbs of tomorrow" will see the light.
“We have built a great prototype,” they say almost in unison Alex Josephson e Oliver Jerschow, respectively CEO of Partisans, the studio that designed the project, and the administrative director of the city of Innisfil. “It can be applied to any rural environment to make a community grow in a more just, organized and ecological way.”
Who knows if and when we will see such suburbs even in the old continent.
