Moriyama Teshima Architects / Acton Ostry Architect Inc. in collaboration
Limberlost Place combines design and structural innovation with advanced prefabricated tall building façade systems, as well as an optimized use of decentralized mechanical systems working in consort with passive systems, to produce a building that is the healthiest environment for both its users and for the planet. This building, presently under construction in Toronto, is a mass timber structure, and achieves the highest levels of municipal targets, well in advance of the 2030 TEDI, TEUI, and GHGI reductions.
Together with Acton Ostry Architects Inc., the Moriyama Teshima Architects team has designed Limberlost Place – a highly aspirational scheme which has introduced mass timber into the Toronto lexicon of public buildings and has achieved sustainability targets a decade in advance of the city’s step plan to 2030 carbon reductions (Toronto Green Standards Tier 4). The remarkable aspiration of this building is the use of exposed mass timber in an educational building where the assembly occupancies and the teaching spaces occupy the full verticality of the building, as well as the custom-designed, exceptionally efficient, prefabricated envelope system.
RENDER - MORIYAMA TESHIMA ARCHITECTS
PHOTO - SALINA KASSAM PHOTOGRAPHY
RENDER - MORIYAMA TESHIMA ARCHITECTS
RENDER - MORIYAMA TESHIMA ARCHITECTS
RENDER - MORIYAMA TESHIMA ARCHITECTS
RENDER - MORIYAMA TESHIMA ARCHITECTS
Limberlost Place is an elegant example of mass timber hybrid construction and thoughtful systems integration to produce an exemplary project on the path to a more sustainable architecture. Together with their client, the architects have persevered through the complex regulatory, constructability and technical issues of delivering this large academic building in mass timber in a jurisdiction new to this type of construction. The team’s perseverance alone is worthy of innovation accolades, but the project is also ambitious in investigating sustainable approaches throughout the project—from prefabricated façade systems to passive heating and cooling strategies.
The architects have skillfully demonstrated that the most aspirational environmental goals can be achieved in a building that is also inspiring for its beautiful and joyful spaces. Limberlost Place is what architecture should be in Canada.
2023 Annual Awards Jury