Bishop Strachan School Student Centre

The Bishop Strachan School is an all girls independent school located in Toronto. Our goal with the new student center for BSS was to expand the existing facilities with an open atrium where students could meet during academic down time. Fully glazed along its length, the building enters into a dialogue with the school’s historic facade across an open court. Set against this background, the ensemble of rough-hewn stone and warm woods respects the school’s architectural tradition while communicating a future direction.

The student center was an early building in our journey to understand and explore enriched environments. However, its glazing and hung ceiling share some DNA with the existing educational buildings. The student centre allowed us to investigate the layered multidirectional interplay of semicircular form as we continued to explore our interest in positive ambiguity.