Northern design: Creating a four-season city

This article is part of a series on the future of architecture and design. We hope to inspire conversations about creating a better world for tomorrow, together.

Par Audrey Girard

The reason why we have cities today is the same as it was centuries ago – to bring people together. However, in the pursuit of generous private spaces and the rise of the vehicle, we’ve lost some of the elements that make urban living great. With over 75% of the world’s population expected to reside in cities over the next 30 years, investing in the urban form – particularly in adapting the urban form of our Northern cities – is more important than ever. So what does a well-designed Northern city of the future look like?  

In order to increase liveability in both what we will build and in what we already have built, all cities need to consider important climate-resilient paradigms for the urban form and comfort, especially in northern countries like Canada. At the same time, the Canadian urban form should embrace and reflect our behaviours, desires and needs throughout all four seasons.

As an urban designer, I believe it’s important to create generous and quality spaces for people to grow and thrive in their own urban context. Urban design needs to be catalyst for positive change, towards cities that are liveable all year long.

The urban form’s role in liveability

Starting with a baseline, the urban form is defined in essence by the relationship between the street network, open and green spaces, and the built environment. The scale, nature, and rhythm of these three elements at play compose any given urban form, and their combinations are practically infinite.

When we talk about liveability in the urban form, we’re talking about the equitable, physical and mental wellbeing of the people who live in cities. The urban form can support liveability which in turn affects the everyday lives of those who live there, determining things like why and how far we travel and the space we occupy. It is also narrating a story, a history shared by inhabitants and forged over time through its materials and technologies, that translates the cities’ key social and individual aspirations.

Liveability through seasonal extremes

Designing for Northern cities demands that we, as urban designers, address extreme temperature fluctuations through climate-resilient urban design. How can design encourage people to reconnect with the outdoors, without jumping into their cars during colder months? Urban comfort, supported by great design, looks very different in the winter than the summer; how can the same space be useable in both plus 30 and minus 30-degree weather?

Through harsh winters, encouraging people to go outside and engage with the city during colder months can be incredibly challenging, but adaptive urban planning and design can be pivotal in addressing various elements including the cold, wind, light and materiality to make spending time outdoors during winter months more enjoyable.

Meanwhile, the summer months pose an entirely different challenge to our cities’ urban forms and expressions, where design can help in mitigating high temperatures and provide spaces to enjoy the outdoors on hot days. This challenge has become increasingly relevant with climate change driving temperatures higher over the past decade. Creating well-designed outdoor urban space is especially important during the hot summer months where certain city dwellers may not have access to air conditioning or bodies of water to cool off.

Great design can start now

Canadian winters and summers present their own respective design challenges that need to be addressed through one overarching design approach, and prioritizing climate-resilient urban designs will allow us to create more liveable cities.

Urban centres are in a constant state of evolution and building upon themselves. We need to contemplate past mistakes and have the courage to reshape our urban centres to respond to future needs through a climate-resilient approach. By embracing and celebrating the qualities of our cities through a sensible lens while staying open to rethinking current elements, we can envision better cities for future generations – that includes making our northern cities liveable and enjoyable throughout all four seasons.

Read the full article on Lemay.com where we explore design tools for +30 and -30 degree weather to make the city more liveable all year long.