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A better Canadian neighborhood

October 24th, 2009 · 7 Comments · Better design

As a Canadian, it’s always bugged me how poorly our communities are designed.  There are two factors at play:

  1. We have lots of land, and so space is often abused
  2. Much of our urban design comes from warmer climates

With that said, here are ways to make a better Canadian neighborhood:

  1. Colored homes: Canada is white and grey for most of the year.  Why then, do we choose light pastels, greys and off-whites for the exterior of our houses?  We need to take the lead from countries like Norway, and build brightly colored homes to help us shake off the winter blues.
  2. Walkability: like much of North America, neighborhoods in Canada have abused the amount of space available to them.  We’ve built sprawling suburbs, where you need to drive to get anywhere.  Every neighborhood should have a corner store that’s accessible by foot.
  3. Winterized playgrounds: traditional playground equipment just doesn’t cut it up north: surfaces are often slippery, and are difficult to navigate when bundled up.  Furthermore, every community should have a sledding hill within walking distance.
  4. Mini indoor recreation centers: the current trend is to build huge rec centers on the outskirts of a city or town, forcing folks to drive there.  Why can’t we reduce the scope of these facilities and make them more accessible by making more of them?  A simple indoor playground for moms and smaller children, and some exercise equipment is all most families need.
  5. Warm bus shelters: bus shelters must be designed in California.  They consist of glass walls, and tin roofs, making them useless in the cold.  Let’s add some heaters or insulate these structures and encourage more Canadians to take transit.

The idea here is to reduce the need for driving, make things more accessible to people by moving amenities closer to home, and to take into consideration our long winters.

7 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Jennifer // Oct 24, 2009 at 2:20 pm

    amen.

  • 2 Joel // Oct 24, 2009 at 2:32 pm

    Good suggestions. In terms of #1, I think the bright colours would be fine, except I really am not a fan of bright colours. Just a personal preference.

    I’d be interested in what Winterized playgrounds look like, that sounds like an awesome idea for the depths of a cold winter.

  • 3 Sarah // Oct 25, 2009 at 11:03 am

    Agreed! If we actually built COMMUNITIES instead of suburbs, lives would be so much more joined, not to mention simpler….

  • 4 Erika Lofstrand // Oct 25, 2009 at 11:20 am

    I couldn’t agree more!

  • 5 Aaron // Oct 25, 2009 at 1:03 pm

    Top notch! Our city could do with more thoughts along these lines, as we are currently having a vote about increasing the city land base by more than DOUBLE!

  • 6 george // Oct 28, 2009 at 3:27 pm

    Very insightful.
    re: #2 – I strongly believe that if we built with living in mind first -with roads built as services to them -rather than how we build roads – then decide what can be built between & around them we could have much more livable and walkable communities.

  • 7 Adam Snider // Apr 8, 2010 at 4:34 am

    With regard to colourful buildings, Newfoundlanders had the good sense to do that—at least in St John’s—and it certainly makes the city look a lot more vibrant and beautiful than your average Canadian city. A couple of coats of paint and winter in this country could be a lot more bearable.

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