Text description provided by the architects. A rigorous modern language and urban sensibility are used to create a unique sense of place and civic destination for this sport and recreation facility in the rapidly developing community of north Brampton, Ontario, Canada.
The design of the Brampton Soccer Centre reflects the changing demographics of many Canadian metropolitan areas. The facility meets the needs of its emerging South Asian community by delivering both a citywide soccer centre and a community gathering space through a modern vocabulary focused on urbanity and civic place making.
Bright, open, and colourful spaces reflect the community identity and the aspirations of ‘Sport’; and establish a landmark presence which endorses ‘Community’ and the ‘City Brand’. Full facade glazing and laminated glass graphics create ‘Suburban Billboards’ for sport. Glazed bays to the streets allow views into the fields and animate the streetscape. Strips of coloured glass are used dynamically throughout the building curtain wall to create motion and activity. Saturated colours, familiar to both the South Asian community and the vibrancy of soccer attire, are selected to offset the austere silver and white base palette.
Urban Approach to Suburban Site – The design applies an urban approach to a prototypical suburban site by engaging the street and planning framework with meaningful spatial relationships. Shifting pairs of arena boxes help to break down scale and define a corner ‘Civic Space’ and an internal ‘Arrival Courtyard’. These spaces identify movement on site and create a sustainable pedestrian realm.
Sliding Boxes + Floating Planes – The four indoor soccer fields are paired in two masses and shifted to create two outdoor spaces; ‘Arrival Court’ and ‘Civic Corner’, connected by a ‘skylit’ circulation. The Civic Corner houses a vibrant community playground and splash park, while the Arrival Court defines the drop off and interior working of the site. The Main Lobby and Community Wing, defined by floating wooden planes, flank these exterior spaces and filter people in. A language of interlocking metallic shells and cedar linings dispatch the site through clerestory towers and hooded overhangs, framing views, filtering light and creating visually interpenetrating program areas.
Convertibility + Flexibility – Originally planned as a ice hockey venue, but with the growth and shifting demographics in Brampton, the client requested sporting arenas that were instead purpose-built for indoor soccer – a favoured sport of the South Asian community. Despite this change in program mandate, the design objective was to conceive a building that could, however, still be 1) flexible for other activities, 2) operated independently and 3) adapted to other sports in the future. The building is designed to be convertible to hockey and other indoor sports, and is sized and scaled to operate with 4 independent programs running concurrently, including trade show events with a host of ongoing community functions.
