Loyalist College, Community-Integrated Learning Centre (Design Competition)
Belleville, Ontario
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Theatre, Performer's Backstage, Classrooms, Labs, Offices, Childhood Education Program, Kitchen, Meeting Area, Outdoor Rain Garden, Tree Grove and Pollinator Garden, Open Lawn, Gathering Circle
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Theatre: Novita
Structural: Blackwell
Mechanical / Electrical: MCW
Landscape: MJMA
Situated on the western edge of the city of Belleville, Loyalist College is nestled within the bucolic Potter’s Creek Park conservation area. While MJMA’s proposal for Loyalist’s Community-Integration Learning Centre (CILC) makes the most of this natural setting, it also fulfills the College’s academic mandate: Loyalist takes pride in its small size, which gives students opportunities for skills-based and hands-on education that is integrated with regional businesses and the wider community. Along with collaborative and community-focused learning spaces, the CILC has two levels of classrooms and labs that increase in size and number those of the campus’s end-of-life Pioneer Building. The project also proposes that key elements be developed by working with Loyalist’s Indigenous Services and other local Indigenous groups, meeting the College’s commitment to honour the deep history of the site.
Circulation through CILC’s interior and exterior spaces connects with the existing Kente Building and to campus pedestrian and vehicle routes. The project adds walking and cycling trails that tie into the surrounding park’s 7-kilometer-loop system, as well as a variety of landscaped areas that join a network of green campus spaces.
Just as the CILC’s purpose is to foster the growth of each student and the broader community, its design takes inspiration from the waterlily, historically a source of sustenance and medicine for local Indigenous peoples. Clad with petal-like panels and glass curtainwall, the building incorporates curved canopies and courtyards.
The large adaptable theatre and event space has flexible seating for up to 800.
Facilitating the College’s mission to build relationships beyond its walls, the CILC’s accessible ground level houses early childhood and elder care centres as well as spaces for collaboration with industry and community partners. A commercial kitchen allows for everyday use, teaching, and events.
Overlooking the central lobby-gathering space are open mezzanines that offer places to study and socialize. Visibility between programs puts learning on display, creating an environment that is at once energized and intimate.
The use of mass timber, recycled materials, and low-carbon-intensity concrete support the College’s desire to target a carbon-neutral building. Abundant soft daylighting, wood finishes, and views out to the landscape make the CILC inviting and comfortable throughout.
