At the mouth of Toronto’s newly renaturalized Don River, a new paradigm for waterfront urbanism is slowly beginning to take shape. The opening of Biidaasige Park last summer offered an early glimpse of the formerly industrial area’s potential, quickly drawing hikers, cyclists and kayakers to the reconfigured river landscape. For now, the park functions primarily as a destination for visitors from across the city. But as the surrounding Ookwemin Minising neighbourhood (previously known as Villiers Island) comes to fruition, it is also poised to become a defining public space for future residents. Formed through the Port Lands Flood Protection project, the new man-made island on the eastern waterfront will see parks, housing and ecological infrastructure developed in tandem. On April 30, the design — a collaboration between professional services firm GHD, Danish landscape and urbanism studio SLA, Indigenous consultants Trophic Design and architectural lead Allies and Morrison, among others — was unanimously approved by Waterfront Toronto’s Design Review Panel.

The early renderings already demonstrate a radical shift from Toronto’s typical planning patterns. The mixed-use community is planned around an ethos of ‘Growing Streets’, a holistic approach that treats streetscapes as living ecosystems that boost biodiversity, sequester carbon and offer vital connection to nature. Pedestrians will take priority over cars, and conventional grid-and-podium developments are reimagined as what SLA refers to as “quirky density,” a patchwork-like approach that makes for a more engaging public realm. Access to green space is integral to the design, reflecting the designers’ Scandinavian approach to landscape and urbanism and an embrace of Indigenous values. Of course, it goes without saying that this is the common-sense standard by which all urban communities should be planned.

The defining feature of Ookwemin Minising will be its 16 residential towers, which will range in height from 30 to 48 storeys for a total of 12,000 new homes (including up to 3,000 affordable units). This represents a 27 per cent increase in density compared to previous plans, and it adds much needed housing stock to a city bursting at the seams.

The promise is that none of this density will come at the expense of public space — both in quality and quantity. Here, nature, public realm and architecture have been conceived as one shared ecosystem. Perhaps the most ambitious example of this in practice is Centre Commons, the fully pedestrianized corridor that will run through the site (soon to be Canada’s longest such space, at 760 metres).

“What we heard from the community was a request for green, safe urban spaces, designed from the beginning to be the place where you feel welcomed every day, that connects the community as a daily commute, but also a daily place to enjoy. A corridor that celebrates all kinds of life, Indigenous values and placemaking,” said Rasmus Astrup, Design Principal and Partner at SLA, in a video shared by Waterfront Toronto on Instagram. “Walking east to west will be like walking in a forest in between buildings. It will be a journey of varied experiences that will adapt to the buildings next to it.”

Walking, cycling and gathering will not just be possible at Ookwemin Minising, but explicitly encouraged through the creation of spaces that are genuinely enjoyable to use year-round; a streetcar route is planned to run to the site, improving accessibility for a pocket that at present feels disjointed from the city centre.

The Sandbar Trail, meanwhile, will trace the historic shoreline, bringing Indigenous values to the forefront through materiality and the landscape itself. “It served as a historic route that was a sacred space for healing and for trade and harvesting for Indigenous peoples prior to the settlement of the City of Toronto. Without the sandbar peninsulas, you really would not have the harbour or Tkaronto,” noted Terence Radford, Principal Landscape Architect at Trophic Design, in another video released by Waterfront Toronto. “The design seeks to unbury these important landforms, these important histories. The sandbar trail and the story we’re trying to tell challenges what we typically see as heritage.”

Given the site’s proximity to the riverfront, which is prone to flooding, the streets act as resilient stormwater management infrastructure, while also alleviating urban heat islands and cleaning air pollution. Rather than relying on future technologies, the designers leveraged the tools inherently found in nature to address these challenges — integrating generous plantings, climate-buffering vegetation, and innovative water systems that make rainwater flows part of the design. The hope is that by putting these ecological processes on full display, it will build public awareness of climate-adaptive urbanism while also improving the quality of space.

“This is urban design at its most alive – where trees, water, wind, soil and people grow and flow together,” Astrup said in a statement announcing the project. “The streetscape design of Ookwemin Minising is not just about infrastructure, it’s about creating a living cityscape that breathes with the seasons, nurtures biodiversity and supports everyday life in inspiring, joyful ways. In Ookwemin Minising, every street becomes a celebration – of the land, of the water, of our heritage and of all the life of Toronto.” If the final result delivers on its ambitions, the project will honour the Don River’s heritage as a historic gathering place, prioritizing culture and ecology in equal measure.