Teeple Architects are proud to announce that the Trent University Student Centre has been awarded an Ontario Association of Architects (OAA) 2020 Design Excellence Award.

Selecting from 79 eligible submissions, a jury of design and architecture experts chose the 10 winners, using criteria such as creativity, context, sustainability, business, and legacy. The biennial OAA Awards program offers Ontario architects an opportunity to present their work to the public and to a professional audience, demonstrating the excellence of both their work and the profession as a whole. This year, the program began requiring Energy Use Intensity (EUI) metrics for all submissions, reflecting that sustainable design is no longer a specialty, but rather a critical component of all building projects as the architecture profession strives for climate stability.

The Student Centre’s architecture fuses the building with the Otonabee River landscape; offers a respectful contemporary response to the materiality and formal logic of the Ron Thom campus; and draws students together to make meaningful connections. The building’s detailing – including strong horizontal expression, and judicious balance of generous glazing with photo-etched precast concrete – communicate with the university’s architectural legacy creating a dynamic backdrop to daily activities. Showcasing contemporary learning and teaching spaces around a central, three-storey atrium, the interior becomes a crossroads for daily student life and is a luminous and porous counterpoint to the original campus architecture.

Stay tuned for the People’s Choice Award online voting which opens Friday, September 18. An online Celebration of Excellence is scheduled to take place on October 1 from 4:30-6 PM EST.