Trent University Student Centre | The Plan
  1. Home
  2. Magazine 2018
  3. The Plan 106
  4. Trent University Student Centre

Trent University Student Centre

Evolving with Respect

Teeple Architects

Trent University Student Centre
By Luca Maria Francesco Fabris -
Guardian Glass has participated in the project

Canada is one of those countries where education and research are held in high esteem, enjoying both government support and private patronage. As a result, this vast country’s many universities and colleges - almost in superabundance to population density - are being updated and equipped with new facilities to meet the ever-changing requirements of preparing the next generation. In this context architecture, in the widest sense of the term, has always been a key player, an agent working for the greater good - although architects have to do their work within increasingly constrained budgets. At the risk of appearing blasphemous, it could be said that like Italy, where even the remotest little village has a church with something of great beauty, similarly every Canadian university campus has an example of beautiful architecture. Whether part of an older urban fabric like Toronto or a unit unto itself, detached from an urban context - as is the case examined here - universities buildings clearly outline the trends and stylistic developments of Canadian architecture over the last fifty years as well as the connections maintained between past masters and the subsequent generation of architects. Whether pavilion, research center, library or student dorm, university buildings have long been a highly readable narrative of the formal research and practical implementation of the country’s architectural development. Trent University is no exception. Founded in 1964 in Peterborough - a city slightly to the east of Toronto - the university, created to give educational possibilities to the people of the Trent river valley, was designed by Ron Thom, one of Canada’s most renowned architects who died in 1986. Thom’s geometrical tetragonal architecture in the Brutalist style defines the “urban plan” of the whole campus. The centerpiece of the complex is the Bata Library. Located on the edge of the Otonabee River, its unrendered concrete...

Proceed with your preferred purchase option to continue reading
Digital

Digital

5.49 €
Printed

Printed

15.00 €
Subscription

Subscription

From 42.00 €
Choose subscription
Keep up with the latest trends in the architecture and design world

© Maggioli SpA • THE PLAN • Via del Pratello 8 • 40122 Bologna, Italy • T +39 051 227634 • P. IVA 02066400405 • ISSN 2499-6602 • E-ISSN 2385-2054