Overview
The new student residence at University Toronto Mississauga is a response to the significant demand for more undergraduate housing on campus. The residence comprises 400-beds across an equal number of single and double rooms. It will house mostly first-year students, with select single bedrooms for upper year students serving as Dons and a ground floor apartment for a live-in Residence Life professional.
The design is a long, narrow, six-storey building situated next to Oscar Peter Hall among the campus’ existing stock of student residences. Vertically, the residence is conceived in two parts. The first part is a generous podium that houses the community functions of the building – the lobby, conference room, music room, games room, laundry facility and event hall. The second part is a multi-level, multi-unit assembly that accommodates the residential functions of the building – student bedrooms, shared washroom facilities, common lounge areas and study rooms. Horizontally, the building is broken down into three volumes. These volumes are inflected to moderate the overall mass of the building. At grade, an opening between two of the volumes creates a walkthrough condition that connects a newly enhanced pedestrian plaza with new and existing pathways through the natural green.
This design draws inspiration from the UTM’s beautiful ravine setting and the natural amenities it enjoys at its doorstep. The podium is clad in wood. Where the podium ends, tree crowns begin to give students’ the illusion of living in the treetops. The upper levels are clad in a copper-toned aluminum that, together with the vertical fins, play off the sun as it travels around the building. The highly efficient bioclimatic envelop also supports an aggressive energy mandate set by the University. With an impressive energy end-use breakdown, the New Student Residence is set to become a benchmark building on campus for energy performance.
Montgomery Sisam Architects in association with Christensen & Co. Architects
www.montgomerysisam.com
