Century Gardens Youth Hub
Brampton, Ontario
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Service Provider Agency Offices, Consultation Rooms, Teaching Kitchen, Recording Studio, Esports Room, Artist Room, Games Room, Meeting Rooms, Multipurpose Room, Amphitheater Plaza, Community Garden, Picnic Area, Basketball Half Court, Soccer Box
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Structural: Blackwell
Mechanical / Electrical: Jain Engineering
Civil: Walterfedy / T.Y. Lin
Landscape: MJMA
Brampton is the fastest growing and one of the most diverse cities in Canada, with much of its large youth population living in intergenerational households. The Century Gardens Community Youth Hub (CGCYH) acts as a one-stop complex, providing a range of services and opportunities for youth aged 14 to 29. These centres provide a much needed ‘third place’ (beyond home and school) for young people to gather, learn, and grow in a community setting.
The CGCYH has a variety of flexible spaces that can accommodate a wide array of programmed and informal outdoor and indoor activities. Its design prioritizes accessibility, equity, and security, as well as sustainability with its mass timber stucture, among other measures.
Situated directly adjacent to the existing Century Gardens Community Centre and Park and the Gordon Graydon Public School, the Youth Hub is an essential component of a burgeoning city centre.
The exterior plaza-amphitheatre space is the generating form of the design and is embraced by the roughly L-shaped building. Generous sloped walkways alongside this Landscape Architecture lead to the main entrance porch.
The design emphasizes transparency, with expansive views from the fully glazed lobby to the plaza-amphitheatre and into a large multipurpose room. Both the e-sports area and teaching kitchen are open to the lobby, making it a vibrant ‘social heart’ that encourages participation as soon as one enters the facility.
As one moves further from the social core, the interior spaces, which include meeting rooms and a recording studio, become more quiet and intimate.
