The swimming area enjoys generous natural light from skylights above, and two fully glazed exterior walls. The ceilings are shaped to diffuse light and frame the pool basins below.
PROJECT Churchill Meadows Community Centre and Sports Park, Mississauga, Ontario
ARCHITECT MJMA Architecture & Design
TEXT Elsa Lam
Photos Scott Norsworthy, unless otherwise noted
Toronto-based MJMA has steadily evolved the typology of the aquatic centre since its competition win for the Grand River Aquatic Centre in Kitchener, Ontario, in 1988. In the 36 years since, the firm has been awarded three Governor General?s Medals in Architecture for pool buildings. And this spring, one of its recent projects cinched Ontario?s top architecture prize: the Lieutenant Governor?s Award for Architecture went to Churchill Meadows Community Centre, located at the suburban western edge of Mississauga, Ontario. The new facility shows how MJMA is not content to rest on its laurels, but rather, has been continuing to innovate from the basis of its successes. Churchill Meadows Recreation Centre shares a similar planning approach to MJMA?s Pam McConnell Aquatic Centre in Toronto?s Regent Park, which was acclaimed for its generous natural light and new-to-Canada introduction of universal change rooms. Both facilities have window-ringed pools, flanked by a block of universal change rooms, and edged with an access corridor set alongside a glazed façade; to this parti, Churchill Meadows adds a triple gymnasium and...