North East Scarborough Community and Child Care Centre in Toronto, Canada

Renderings: Perkins&Will

NET-ZERO OPERATIONAL CARBON COMMUNITY CENTRE

NORTH EAST SCARBOROUGH COMMUNITY AND CHILD CARE CENTRE IN TORONTO, CANADA

The North East Scarborough Community and Child Care Centre in Toronto, Canada will achieve net-zero status through energy-efficient design and renewable energy systems, while adding much-needed facilities that celebrate local community.

Located in one of the city’s most culturally diverse and rapidly growing neighbourhoods, the North East Scarborough Community and Child Care Centre was envisioned as a cultural hub that could meet a demand within the community for more social and recreational programming.

To accommodate such diverse programming on a restricted site, Perkins & Will incorporated vertical stacking into the building’s layout. By layering various amenities atop one another, the facility maximizes its capacity to serve the community while also acting as a new building model for future community centres across Canada.

A first-of-its-kind for Ontario, the recreation and aquatic centre is targeting net-zero energy and carbon emissions through mechanical efficiencies, such as air source heat pumps, an enhanced building envelope and innovative renewable energy systems.

Transforming public space into a beacon for resilience Driven by the City of Toronto’s 2019 declaration of a climate emergency, the comprehensive strategy integrates various energy reduction strategies into the design, including air source heat pumps and photovoltaic-thermal hybrid panels that generate electricity and heat. Outdoors, bifacial photovoltaic parking lot canopies increase the renewable energy generation of each PV panel when compared to more traditional systems.

Additionally, as part of the holistic carbon reduction approach, Perkins & Will considered the embodied carbon of the envelope and structure with an estimated 16 % embodied reduction upon completion.

Meeting a community’s needs through inclusive public infrastructure Over a multi-year process, Perkins & Will and the City of Toronto held community consultations with the Scarborough community – 50 % of whom are people of immigrant descent – and identified an unmet demand for inclusive community infrastructure and a collective need for amenities, programming and green space that far exceeds what is typical in most community centres across the city.

Together, they worked closely with the community to accommodate a specific set of cultural, social and economic needs. For example, the community used the site – parkland before design development – as a central spot for pick-up cricket games. In response, the gym was expanded to include the city‘s first purpose-built practice cricket pitch, reflecting the wishes of the predominately South Asian community in the area.

The team also created gender-neutral changerooms and strategically located the pool away from public view for Muslim women and women-only swims.

The surrounding parkland was preserved through a series of interconnected pathways and public gathering spaces around the building, including an urban skateboard park, an outdoor playground, a basketball court and a splash pad.

A new building typology for community centres across Canada Perkins & Will maximized the surrounding area for park use while incorporating all the facilities through an innovative stacked design, highlighted through four programmatic layers.

The lower level hosts both a lap pool and leisure pool with double-vaulted ceilings that reveal the pools to a spectatorship above. The main floor connects various atria. Common areas and childcare facilities make up the bulk of the main floor, creating a welcoming hub of activity.

The second floor plays host to the fitness centre and multipurpose studios encased in curtain wall windows that admit an abundance of natural light. Opening above to the upper level is a running track and access to an outdoor green roof.

Moving outdoors, the façade mirrors the interior program through three distinct material layers with variations in colour and texture.

Outdoor terraces help define the building’s various rooms, create visual breaks in the three-storey building, and bring light and park views well into the interior spaces.

Completion is estimated in 2023.

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