Churchill Meadows Community Centre
and Mattamy Sports Park
Mississauga, Ontario
The project transformed a 50-acre agricultural field into a pavilion-like building integrated with a richly textured park, to create a new vital neighbourhood landmark and city-wide destination. Like its other amenities, the facility’s aquatic centre is able to offer programming that draws in all members of the diverse community it serves, along with a biophilic and sustainable design that provides both plenty of natural light and strong connections between the building’s interior and its surrounding greenspaces.
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Structural: Blackwell
Mechanical / Electrical: Smith + Andersen
Civil: EMC
Landscape: PMA
Sports Field + Dome: JGA Inc
Program
Aquatic Centre (6-Lane 25m Lap Pool, Leisure Pool, Universal Changerooms, On-Deck and Lobby Pool Viewing)
Additional Program
Gymnasium, Studios, Multipurpose Room, Community Kitchen, Outdoor Basketball Court, Tournament-Quality Sports Fields, Seasonal Dome, Playground, Splash Pad, Skate Park, Skating Rink, Outdoor Fitness, Amphitheatre Lawn, Multi-Use Trails, Transit Station
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2025 Architizer A+ Award
2024 Governor General’s Medal in Architecture
2024 Lieutenant Governor’s Award: Design Excellence in Architecture
2024 Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize: Outstanding Shortlist
2024 Ontario Association of Architects (OAA): Design Excellence Award
2024 Canadian Interiors: Best of Canada Award
2024 Dezeen Award: Health and Wellbeing
2024 Dezeen Award: Civic
2023 World Architecture Festival (WAF) Award: Civic & Community Shortlist
2023 International Olympic Committee (IOC) / International Association for Sports and Leisure Facilities (IAKS): Architecture Prize
2023 ARCHITECT Magazine Award: Honor Award
2023 Mississauga Urban Design Award: Award of Excellence & Health by Design
2023 Athletic Business: Facilities of Merit Design Award
2023 Canadian Wood Council: Wood Design & Building Honour Award
2023 Ontario Wood WORKS! Design Award
2022 Architect's Newspaper Best of Design Award: Civic
2022 American Institute of Architects (AIA) Canada: Design Award of Excellence
2022 American Institute of Architects (AIA) International: Design Award of Merit
2017 Canadian Architect: Award of Excellence
Acting as a pavilion, the Community Centre is intimately integrated with its surrounding landscape both programmatically and formally — something often lacking in projects with separate building and park components.
The building’s deep exterior cantilevers offer shelter and shade for the walking track around its perimeter and for those using the park amenities. The striking canopy — an extension of the mass timber structure clad in an expanded aluminum mesh — shades the natatorium’s glazing, reducing heat gain and glare in the pools.
The building arranges its interior spaces into two bars along its length: the east includes wet and dry changerooms; the wider bar, on the west, houses the gymnasium and natatorium.
The building’s mass timber structural and curtainwall framing mediates between architecture and landscape: the panoramic views into the park through the array of glulam columns are reminiscent of looking through a screen of trees.
The double-height natatorium is covered with a stretched membrane assembly that has micro-perforations to let sound pass through to acoustic insulation. This ceiling has inverted peaks that form rhythmic loops across the length of the building. Their shapes function to control sound and diffuse the natural light from a series of large sawtooth skylights above. Practically, this eliminates glare and excess heat gain, while the overall effect evokes serenely-lit caverns.
