Circular is a place for contemplation, gathering, and ceremony, set into a steep slope of Toronto's ravine bioregion, an ecosystem that decades of erosion have worn thin. We designed it in 2008 as a center open to anyone: a couple marrying, a neighbor on an evening walk, a community holding an event. It uses bio-based materials, runs energy-neutral and water-neutral, and closes its material loop entirely.
The core is a set of broken concentric semi-circular walls. They double as retention walls that hold the slope and stop the ravine eroding further, so the building gives something back to the ground it stands on. The broken pattern reads as fragmented time and the winding paths of a life, with seven entries leading into the core, some broad, some hidden. Rainwater collects in a basin at the top of the hill, runs in small channels alongside the walkways into the center, then infiltrates back into the ecosystem.
The building gives something back to the ground it stands on.
A hollow organ hangs at the heart of the core like a chandelier, the central void passing straight through it; we worked through its design with the organ builders at Kegg. Solar panels let the visitor center run off-grid, and heating, ventilation, and water treatment all work on-site without outside supply. Embedded on the ravine edge, the lit core reads as a beacon from the highway below, a landmark for the neighborhood and for Toronto. The bio-concrete walls outlast the wooden floors, so long after the building's use has ended the white walls still hold the ravine.