CCT - University of Toronto
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- 2004
Photos: Marc Cramer
Located at the edge of the University of Toronto at Mississauga Campus, the new building assumes the role of an interface. Organized along the principal façade, it is closely bordered by a park on one side and a new courtyard garden on the other. Its main circulation creates a linear public space that provides a connection between the Student Centre and the Library as it links the landscape to the building's public and educational spaces. CCT becomes a place of transition, adjacency and inhabitation all at once.
The glazed vertical surface of this connection acts as a thickened membrane that serves a technological filter between the existing, natural material of the forest and the tamed, controlled environment of the building and its garden. At the level of the ground, the membrane is completely transparent; the line between exterior and interior disappears. The plane of the earth forms a continuous public room that slips into the building, flows through it toward the courtyard, onto the landscaped roof of the garage and into the campus beyond.
Like the bark of the London Plane trees conserved on the site, the layers of landscape detach and lift, establishing a new topography from which grow both the building and its garden landscape. Nestled into this landscape are the building's 'mineral' public functions (Multi-Media Studio Theatre, the E-Gallery and the Image Bar), each with its own identity but tied together by the new terrain. Continuous, interwoven strands of this topography lift and wind vertically through the structure, connecting spaces between the shifting program elements, which puncture the façade membrane at the upper levels. This in-between space, occupied by platforms, bridges, stairs and ramps, fosters openness and interaction between the occupants, program and the outside environment, each allowed to flow through the envelope by means of the shifting solids. Fluid public space is thereby created, highlighting the campus’ unique connection to its natural surroundings.