Here in Toronto, we have The Green Line, which is a hydro corridor or an overhead transmission line. It is basically a pathway of empty space that stretches across the city, weaving in and out of neighbourhoods, linking communities. Some of these communities have taken advantage of the corridor’s public spaces and use them as green links to other areas, but more often than not, the spaces aren’t being used as well as they could be.

The Canadian Council for the Arts, The Ontario Association of Architects, and Astley Gilbert are launching a competition to get people thinking about a vision for The Greenline.

Green Line Ideas Competition

parkpeople.ca

“Architects, landscape architects, designers, planners, artists and community members are invited to create visionary design proposals for the public use of an overhead transmission line corridor (a.k.a. hydro corridor) in midtown Toronto. We encourage bold ideas and practical solutions to address important issues such as alternative transportation and safety concerns. Multi-disciplinary teams are encouraged.

This design competition aims to demonstrate the potential of the particular hydro corridor site and also to foster a discussion on public use of other similar spaces in North American cities. Imagine the electricity infrastructure as a Green Line — a pedestrian and cycling link across the middle of the city and a public space and recreational amenity to the many neighbourhoods across Toronto that it links.

This is an open, international ideas competition whose purpose is to gather a range of possibilities for the Green Line site in order to stimulate dialogue and action. The ideas will not be built, but they are meant to get the communities who live, study and work near the site to start thinking about its future. Also, the intent is to demonstrate the value of creating a unified vision along the length of the entire hydro corridor, rather than to have this space develop in a piecemeal way.

The competition results will be showcased in Spacing, an online and print magazine that reaches a wide and diverse audience interested in urban issues across Canada. Also, we intend to exhibit a selection of the competition entries along the Green Line site itself.”

Read all of the details here.

For some inspiration, take a look at these deer-shaped hydro-tower concepts by DesignDepot in Moscow.

via Epundit