Diamond Schmitt and MVRDV reveal design of terraced research building for University of Toronto
Architecture studios Diamond Schmitt, MVRDV and Two Row Architect have revealed the design for the Temerty Building at the University of Toronto, a research building informed by Indigenous design principles.
The building will be located on the edge of a campus lawn at the University of Toronto St George campus and host the Temerty Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Arts & Science's Department of Cell Systems Biology.
At nine storeys, the building will contain two lower teaching floors and seven floors of labs, as well as a green roof and pocket terraces that will contain plantings associated with the four sacred medicines – cedar, sage, sweetgrass, and tobacco, according to the team.
Renders show a stepped, rectangular building with softened corners. An off-white, skeletal cladding of stone wraps the building, expanding and contracting depending on placement.
"The Temerty Building's design is about bridging worlds," said Diamond Schmitt principal Don Schmitt. "It prioritises functionality and durability but also ensures the building will be warm and inviting."
According to the team, the building was designed following Indigenous design principles, guided by Two Row Architect.
It's massing references regional geological formations, such as the Niagara Escarpment and historic shoreline of Lake Iroquois, while its medicinal landscape "embeds Indigenous knowledge and practices within the daily life of the building".
"We are designing with the land, not on it, guided by the original laws and teachings that shape how we live and care for one another," said Two Row Architect designer Erik Skouris.
Interior renders show a wooden structural system and cladded ceilings. On the ground level, double-height windows open onto the campus beyond.
The building will be organised around an atrium, which will be the "social heart of the building".
"Not only does the design provide excellent research and learning facilities, it offers generous and stimulating communal spaces for people to forge connections and exchange ideas – creating the productive friction that characterises many of the best research institutes," said MVRDV founding partner Nathalie de Vries.
Pre-construction on the project will begin later this year, according to the team.
MVRDV also recently unveiled designs for a Dubai skyscraper and a revamp to a Buddhist monastery in France.
The images are by MVRDV and Diamond Schmitt
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