Toronto Metropolitan University – Daphne Cockwell Health Sciences Complex

Plots are scarce in the city centre of Toronto – which is why the planners opted for a vertical campus to accommodate several departments of the Faculty of Health Sciences, a technological research laboratory and student residences in a multi-purpose building. The highest standards of inclusivity and urbanity as well as sustainability were paramount in the planning and choice of materials, from a farm on the roof of the 28-storey complex, which supplies the ground floor restaurant and the nutrition labs with food, to a continuous public space highlighted in orange that creates zones for interaction and circulation. The prominent façade makes its contribution to Toronto’s dynamic skyline: It was clad with profiled ceramic panels on the ground floor and white aluminium panels on the upper floors, often accentuated with bright orange.