Our design brief for the New Canada Bread facility outlined a typical challenge. Our team successfully integrated an organization’s fundamental programming and operations within the context of a sustainable site design that would be capable of complying with LEED Gold — or higher — standards. The focus of the design was on natural habitat protection and ecology restoration. 

Our iterative design phase was aided by consistent collaboration with civil and hydrological engineering consultants. This led to the implementation of multiple site adaptations with key design strategies: filtered groundwater recharge by way of extensive bio-swales on a large scale and micro-ecological strategies facilitated in water-catchment areas within naturalized site locations of native prairie and wet-meadow habitats.

The Community Plan for West Park Village was developed on the principles of New Urbanism, with a focus on preserving and enhancing the area’s natural heritage features. Designating parks, protected natural systems, open space corridors, and infrastructure for stormwater detention facilities organized the community to integrate with and complement existing natural heritage features.

Fletcher’s Meadow represents a 2,100-acre residential area located in Northwest Brampton. Our community designs responded to emerging housing needs. Key to our inclusion throughout the policy, proposal, and development phase was enabling planning stability by maintaining cohesive visioning between the individual community district plans of various stakeholders. The concept wove a vision for progressive community planning that combined traditional neighbourhood frameworks while incorporating a variety of housing tenures, shopping, and employment opportunities, as well as a hierarchy of open space and civic facilities for the compact community areas that were both functional and desirable.
 

Our team focused on a restorative approach to the ecological functions of the site appropriate to the significant scale of the proposed infrastructure, balancing minimal impact on the landscape and natural heritage with optimal functionality. The outcome established a path for restorative remediation and natural regeneration.

The process we outlined for constructively advancing the client’s vision was deeply rooted in intensive exploration and articulation of contextually fit design strategies that matched the local contexts of policy, natural heritage, and ecological stability.  

A comprehensive strategic plan incorporated local natural and agricultural heritage: interfacing adjacent rural plots and employing restoration strategies to secure long-term stability and vigour of existing native forests while re-establishing wetland and meadow areas. These initiatives became key components in our public consultation processes toward garnering the support of the local community and town council.