{"id":42467,"date":"2026-05-12T20:34:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T20:34:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/42467\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T20:34:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T20:34:15","slug":"sla-designs-ambitious-car-free-space-in-torontos-port-lands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/42467\/","title":{"rendered":"SLA designs ambitious car-free space in Toronto’s Port Lands"},"content":{"rendered":"

Danish landscape studio SLA<\/a> is among the designers of a neighbourhood on an island in Toronto<\/a>‘s Port Lands district, set to advance after receiving the all-clear from planning officials in the city.<\/p>\n

The latest piece in Toronto’s multipronged waterfront redevelopment<\/a>, Ookwemin Minising \u2013 or “place of the black cherry trees” \u2013 covers 98 acres in total, with activated public greenspace and a variety of car-free areas.<\/p>\n

SLA<\/a> and the project’s engineering lead GHD<\/a> are teaming with Ontario-based designers Trophic Design<\/a> and British architects Allies and Morrison<\/a> to complete the concept on the formerly industrial site.<\/p>\n

The team says its concept, which establishes a pedestrianised identity for the new manmade island at the mouth of the Don River, “reimagines streets as dynamic, living systems that evolve like ecosystems over time”.<\/p>\n

\"SLAA team including SLA has designed Ookwemin Minising for Toronto’s Port Lands District<\/p>\n

It also said the design merges “Scandi-style green liveability, quirky density, and long-forgotten indigenous values”.<\/p>\n

The design shifts between five sitewide strategies (Living Legacy, Local Character, Prioritise Nature, Strategic Density, and Everyday Mobility) and finds its expression through six distinct “character” spaces, according to SLA.<\/p>\n

Among them, a 760-meter-long dissecting pedestrian route called Centre Commons anchors the development as “Canada’s longest and most ambitious year-round car-free space.”<\/p>\n

Another, dubbed Sandbar Trail, traces the outline of a prominent isthmus that was historically used for trade and congregation.<\/p>\n

\"SLAThe design features “living” aspects such as green streets<\/p>\n

The entire development is expected to hold more than 12,000 homes and include climate-safe infrastructure features meant to retain and reuse stormwater and increase protections against flooding and the impacts of urban heat islands.<\/p>\n

Through the incorporation of inlaid stonework, native planting strategies, and other interpretive elements, the design intends to reflect a \u2018Living Legacy’ approach that combines Indigenous storytelling and spatial practices.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Icolo<\/p>\n

Foster + Partners designs vast aerotropolis for Angola\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

“In Ookwemin Minising, we start with life between buildings,” said SLA design principal and senior partner Rasmus Astrup.<\/p>\n

“‘Growing Streets’ is about designing urban spaces that evolve over time, that invite people in, and that allow both community and ecology to flourish together,” he added.<\/p>\n

“This is urban design at its most alive.”<\/p>\n

Among the key deliverables is a stated 27 per cent increase in density compared to the initial precinct-size framework from the public development agency Waterfront Toronto called Villiers Island, which was first adopted in 2017.<\/p>\n

A total of 3,000 affordable units are included, according to the plan.<\/p>\n

\"SLAThe current plan increases density from early conceptions of the project<\/p>\n

In terms of its financing, the team says a first phase $975 million CAD investment has been made through a tri-government investment by the City of Toronto, the Government of Canada, and the Province of Ontario.<\/p>\n

Occupancy on Ookwemin Minising will ramp up slowly beginning in 2031.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere in Toronto, Sn\u00f8hetta unveiled plans for the new home of the Ontario Science Centre with Hariri Pontarini Architects<\/a>, which is also working on the country’s tallest building<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Away from the Harbourfront, an expansive underground rail line has been completed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The imagery is by SLA.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Danish landscape studio SLA is among the designers of a neighbourhood on an island in Toronto‘s Port Lands…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42468,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[17,18570,4133,12991,18567,1606,1607,18569,48,18568],"class_list":{"0":"post-42467","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto","8":"tag-canada","9":"tag-car-free-developments","10":"tag-housing","11":"tag-landscape-and-urbanism","12":"tag-landscape-architecture","13":"tag-sectionall","14":"tag-sectionarchitecture","15":"tag-sla","16":"tag-toronto","17":"tag-urban-design"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}