WINNER OF A 2023 CANADIAN ARCHITECT AWARD OF EXCELLENCE
A masterful composition of texture and natural light, with places for social interaction as well as spaces for repose. The delicate building skin adds magic to an otherwise simple and economical building massing. The juxtaposition of the building massing and large refined spaces with the highly textured landscape approach is magnificent. – Omar Gandhi, juror
A great contemporary interpretation of Islamic architecture. A refined and simple plan, combined with a restricted palate of materials, has been detailed and elevated into something serene and spiritual that recalls the richness of Persian architecture. I can imagine that the thoughtfully controlled sunlight in the buildings will make the spaces quite magical.
– Michael Heeney, juror
Ismaili Centres mark the community presence of the Ismaili branch of Shi’a Islam in more than two dozen countries throughout the world. Located in the Toronto suburb of Thorncliffe Park, the Don Mills Jamatkhana and Ismaili Community Centre will mark the site of the first Ismaili prayer hall in Ontario, and will also contain a gymnasium, library, food drop-off area, administrative offices, and multi-purpose teaching spaces. Built and supported directly through the contributions of the community it serves, the Jamatkhana will welcome the wider community. The plan divides the building into four quadrants, reflecting traditional principles of Persian garden design, and alluding to this building’s identity as a place for worship, respite, recreation, and community life.
The centre’s Overlea Boulevard site is something of a no-context context: buildings in the vicinity include low-rise offices, strip malls, and a Greek Orthodox church and theological academy. Across the street, a huge, isolated residential tower looms skyward. To the rear, however, the centre will have a lush, forested view of the Don Valley.
Two principal volumes, bisected by the main entrance, address Overlea Boulevard. The simplicity of these paired forms, clad in a double façade of pierced metal and vision glass, cuts through the surface noise of the site. The volumes reveal and conceal, with a patterned screen inspired by the principles of unity and proportion found in Islamic numerology and geometry. Also intrinsic to the massing and orientation is the particularly Islamic architectural principal of introversion, whereby the face of the building exposed to the street gives way to the revelation of a vibrant and complex social space within.
The central corridor that is visible from the street extends north through the building and is bisected by a secondary east/west corridor. Reflecting the Ismaili emphasis on education, community, and good works, the library (‘healthy mind’) and gymnasium/multi-purpose room (‘healthy body’) flank the main entrance. A visitor continuing north along the central corridor enters the sacred northeast quadrant by passing through the wide, low entrance archway that is the threshold to the expansive, double-height prayer hall.
Conventional materials are sensitively deployed to endow this community-funded project with poetry. On the exterior, the space between the perforated metal screen and the glazing creates light-dappling effects. The strategic direction of natural light extends into the core of the building, with fritted glass roof panels that illuminate the circulation corridors.
The three-storey roof height along Overlea Boulevard drops down to two storeys in the northeast quadrant, allowing for the insertion of a roof garden. The sculptural forms of the sawtooth clerestory skylights that illuminate the prayer hall project up into the roof garden. In plan, this garden is a microcosm of the Jamatkhana itself: a pocket paradise that provides views of the Don Valley ravine.
A spiral staircase rises at the western terminus of the secondary corridor, symbolizing, in its geometric perfection, the divinity’s role as a creation-unifying focal point. This staircase provides a gracious route to second-floor community rooms, third-floor offices, and the roof garden.
CLIENT Imara National | ARCHITECT TEAM Robert Cadeau, Nushin Samavaki, Javier Vitieri | STRUCTURAL The Mitchell Partnership | MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL Mulvey & Banani | LANDSCAPE Martin Wade Landscape Architects | GEOTECH Grounded Engineering | ENERGY MODELLING EQ Building Performance | CIVIL LEA Consulting | TRANSPORTATION WSP | ARBORIST Urban Forest Associates | AREA 4,454 m2 | BUDGET Withheld | STATUS Design development | ANTICIPATED COMPLETION 2026