Proposals by Chris Hardwicke for Ravine City and Farm City integrate visionary ideas for an urban ecosystem of collective housing that restores and enhances the ravine system of Toronto with a new kind of architecture that would enable the city to feed itself. The Toronto Ravine System is the defining natural feature of the city housing diverse ecosystems and running like fingers through the city. Ravine City creates housing development that runs along the top edge of the existing Toronto ravines, creating artificial ravines by connecting the terraced roof levels of the housing to create a continuous connected ecosystem. The artificial ravines function much like the natural ravines - controlling water flow and regeneration as well as cleaning the air, creating habitat and biomass. This new topographic infrastructure is connected to the natural ravine system and provides public open space. Farm City extends this concept to create agricultural areas integrated into new housing towers. By putting housing and farms in the same building, Farm City creates symbiotic relationships between energy, water and waste. Heat generated from the greenhouses is used to heat the housing units. Biomass from the greenhouses is used for energy. Solar energy is generated from the large glazed surface. Grey-water and compost generated from the housing is used in the greenhouses.
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