Accentuated by the industrial revolution, climate change is aging our cities, which are now facing an ecological, economical, and political imbalance resulting in the degraded quality of urban living. Not only has global warming altered the earth’s natural patterns, but it also altered the economic and socio-cultural urban patterns. With the growing needs of rapidly expanding urban population due to the industrial revolution, the cities underwent unplanned sprawling of urban agglomerations. However, our globalized economic system has evolved the way we live, work, and play, transforming the modern infrastructure growth models significantly. Our architects, urban planners, and policymakers are powered by the environmental scientist’s years of research and analysis, yet are struggling to replenish the post-industrial age rust belt mayhem with sustainable solutions. As the transition from industrial to ecological age become eminent, by investigating in the natural intelligence’s survival techniques, we could extract practical solutions to using clean and renewable energy systems to support life.

This research project aims at analyzing the current trends in redesigning and retrofitting the urban-systems with the eco-systems at the micro- and macro- scales, thus providing sustainable solutions to the new city center of the sixth largest town in Canada, Mississauga. Caused by rapid urbanization, population growth & migration, increased emission of greenhouse gases, and overuse & pollution, our deteriorating infrastructure is grappling for mitigation against climate change, and global warming. Using natural intelligence to shift from linear to a closed-loop system, the solutions provided herein aims at increasing the infrastructure’s resource efficiency and changing from fossil fuel to solar economy. Catalyzed by the proposed Midwestern high-speed rail line, the project in Mississauga (Ontario, Canada) seeks to introduce the hybrid, mixed-use, transit-oriented development to instigate the shift towards eco-cities. These intermodal transit infrastructure aims to bring a strategically sustainable change at a neighborhood scale, thus eventually refurbishing the entire city, one territory at a time. The idea of these utopian cities may seem unachievable at a larger scale, but the cities like Hammarby Sjöstad, Tianjin, and Dongtan seem to lead, inspire, and equip the ignorant with their sustainable approach to growth. By transitioning towards an ecological age, there seems a way to negating the effects of human-induced climate change, and make our planet sustainable for the future generations to survive.