The Canadian Urban Institute (CUI) and the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) have released the first set of submissions to their Main Street Design Challenge: a national challenge to generate responsible, sustainable, and resilient designs that can be implemented during COVID-19 recovery, and post-pandemic, for Canada’s hard-hit main streets.

Canadians from a variety of backgrounds – planners, architects, students and placemakers – have responded with imagination and pragmatism to the challenge of creating design solutions for main streets.  The first round submissions, which are posted online at www.bringbackmainstreet.ca/msdc-submissions, include:

• Publicly accessible outdoor workspaces that can take different forms depending on their locations – from parking lots to main streets, fields and office parks. These “eco nodes” are scalable and allow for the health benefits of being outdoors and near natural features, where possible, while allowing for seating that adheres to social distancing guidelines. (Designers: Morgan Dundas, John Homsy, and Lisa Mishko)  
• Temporary outdoor wall lamps that use a graphic code, specific to the visual identity of the main street, that allows passersby to identity what stores are open and closed and what type of businesss they are.  Called “LIGHTS ON”, it is a simple, effective, and fun tool that respects the built heritage of the street, makes streets safer in the evening, and allows users and residents to better understand the variety of services available. (Designers: Épigraphe)
• Guidelines for fully accessible outdoor patios. Say the designers “We’re seeing expansion of restaurant, café and bar patios onto sidewalks and into the streets and parking spaces. If we are redesigning, let’s fix the old barriers and Human Rights violations while we’re at it.”  The designs provide best practices for ensuring new patios meet human rights and accessibility legislation and codes. (Designers: DesignAble Environments)

Other submissions range from rethinking the design of the public bench and creating “reading huts” near libraries to broader masterplans and complete street designs for urban districts and roadways.

The Challenge demonstrates how design will play a key role in the revitalization of main streets, including kickstarting the economy, fostering vibrant, liveable, and healthy communities, increasing public safety, reducing social isolation, and restoring the public’s confidence to return to streets and public spaces.

It is also intended to foster knowledge-sharing, collaboration, and expand access to the tools communities need to rebuild during — and after — the global health emergency. 

“COVID-19 is having an unprecedented impact on Canada’s main streets. And as we look towards recovery, we know that the design community will play a critical role in developing creative solutions to help bring back our main streets,” said Mary Rowe, CEO of CUI. 

“The main street of any city, town, or urban centre, across Canada has the potential to be the vibrant and vital heart of the community,” said RAIC President John Brown, “Our organization supports the investment and promotion of design excellence in this core component of the built environment.”

CUI and RAIC encourage any who are interested to participate in future cycles of the program.   

An online portal is open for submissions now. The deadline for the second cycle is August 14, 2020, and for Cycle 3, the deadline is September 18, 2020.  All submissions that meet the project guidelines will be published online on a rolling basis to inspire action by any organization, municipality, or individual.  At the end of the project, all submissions will go into a free, open-access Main Street Design Playbook to be released in full on October 5, 2020 (World Architecture Day).

Full information and guidelines on the Main Street Design Challenge are available at www.bringbackmainstreet.ca/main-street-design-challenge . 

About

The Main Street Design Challenge is an initiative of Bring Back Main Street, a nationally coordinated research and action campaign by the CUI to ensure the people, businesses, and organizations that that call Canada’s Main Streets home can recover and emerge from the crisis more resilient than ever.    It is a partnership between the CUI and RAIC, with the following supporting partners:  Canadian Institute of Planners, Canadian Society of Landscape Architects, Council for Canadian Urbanism , ICOMOS Canada, National Trust for Canada, OCAD University, Rues principales, STEPS Initiative, Trinity Centres Foundation.