a regenerative design for a mine-town
Open-air smelting (roasting yards) in Sudbury, circa 1900 - GSPL Archives
Photography Edward Burtynsky (Sudbury, ON)
Sudbury’s socio-environment has had a messy history…
Diorite St. site analysis sketch
Union Street Circa 1950 - GSPL Archives
…The Superstack (1970) helped divert inco’s acid rain problem and enabled the city to re-green and start anew;
our pre-1970 built environment still bears the visual scars of industry;
rusty stains and decay appear commonly in old, Predominantly disadvantaged.
Little Italy is a former mine shantytown located at the base of the Superstack.
The Lucky 7 is an abandoned convenience store in the heart of Little Italy
There are no more italian grocers and it is no longer a booming industrial neighbourhood…
…An adaptive reuse of a vacant convenience store is proposed.
Water is our most essential resource.
This regenerative project will harvest rain water as a free communal resource, using it to grow food in a community without a store.
Rust stains on houses is an environmental emblem of the past. Most buildings in Little Italy have not since been upgraded to properly manage water. A water management-based project will be the catalyst for community rainwater and water-retention improvements.
By Collecting Water, the act of ‘harvesting’ is reappropriated back into the former mining community for communal benefit: growing food.
In Little Italy, there is a unique appreciation for gardening and growing, one this is not shared by the average Sudburian. Despite decrepit retaining walls, ramshackle porches spaces, and the blurring of lot lines, people were finding space to grow and ways to handle water — while nickel and copper sustain our pockets, our other resources, food and water, sustain life.
Water collection as a gesture of community.
The building has used its existing form and central location in the community to grow into a working machine. It gathers and circulates water; it is a filter, it is a tap.
The building is a resource for water and within it, a place for food — storing, exchanging, discussing, enjoying.
Everything is in use, even vacant wall spaces; some are occupied by local goods sold on behalf of the public, others with community notices. Whether you are waiting in the bus shelter, renting the market space, or planning your next community build — just like with water, this is where growth begins.
A nearby bio-swale downstream from the building is a reminder that how we treat our water and our earth is one and the same — and to care for them is to care for the greater community.
