GREENBELT KILIM
Second Year Project, 2010
University of Waterloo School of Architecture
Ontario’s Greenbelt is one of world’s largest permanently protected designated forests at 1.8 million acres. The Greybelt is sprawling with fast-growing communities expanding beyond Toronto City but is now reaching its limits without further adjustment to its quality of community. These two belts exist now in a tension formed by a third belt; the Whitebelt. This third zoning of land has a great potential in forming a new type of community and development; connecting and controlling the urban sprawl, protecting farmlands, forests and wetlands as all part of what is considered Canada’s strongest characteristics.
This project began with a mapping and surveying out Ontario’s belts and property division. The mapping was not unlike a loom in tension, a sort of mechanical system placed for the potential of weaving new fabric. Weaving is a significant process employed differently by many cultures producing carpets or fabrics for trade, originating in the Near East almost 10 000 years ago. Just as the city fabric is produced in accordance to the city structure and its politics, so is the planning of the greenbelt. This project starts weaving forward a new pattern for tying these two belts together into a new type of community living - exploring a mental health community designed and centered around small scale gardening to large scale farming.
