Room 215

This session offers a deep dive into blending nature into urban development in the multi-award-winning Downsview Framework Plan – a 520-acre city within a city. In 2019, Northcrest and Canada Lands Company embarked on a multi-year process to envision this future development; one of the key outcomes was to integrate proven strategies for green infrastructure and biophilic design across the project to create climate resilience, wellbeing, and unique placemaking, an approach Northcrest calls “City-Nature.” This session moves beyond theory to discuss how this concept transitions from vision to plan. By drawing on global design expertise and merging contemporary city-building with timeless ecological principles, it will showcase proven solutions, envisioning cities that are avant-garde in imagination and pragmatic in implementation. With design that considers both quality of life and living systems, this panel demonstrates how the Downsview Framework Plan embodies a holistic, scalable, and transformative approach, setting a new standard for sustainable urban development.

*NOTE: This 75-minute session will run 15 minutes longer than other workshops in this block, resulting in a slightly shorter lunch period for attendees.*