Jennifer Greens
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Sep 16/05) - A Yellowknife architectural firm has a bright idea for re-designing part of Geneva.

Faced with making space for 50,000 new residents, the city has invited architects to submit ideas.

An illustration of a new Swiss neighbourhood Guy Architects designed for Geneva 2020, an international competition. The community's layout increases density and minimizes commuting.

The winning design in Geneva 2020 will get 140,000 Swiss francs.

Guy Architects submitted a design organized around a central transportation hub which floats a pedestrian concourse above the railyards and takes parking underground. The dense, mixed-use area includes 20,000 housing units, 20 kindergartens, 14 primary schools, a theatre and a museum.

The centuries-old city built on agricultural land is a far cry from our 20th century mining town built on granite. But planning the Geneva expansion brought issues of quality of life and character of neighbourhood to the front for Wayne Guy, and highlighted some of Yellowknife's more blatant design oversights.

"What we're doing here in terms of municipal planning are mistakes from the 1960's," he said. "Southern Canada tried them and they didn't work."

Improvement would be as simple as learning to put services where people are, said Guy.

"Everybody is forced to either go to Wal-mart or come downtown," he said. "The burbs are by themselves."

Guy said Geneva's call for ideas is something our city should emulate. "What's Yellowknife going to look like in 40 years? Nobody has a clue," said Guy.

Ideas don't cost a lot but a poorly planned development can be expensive in the long run, he said.