Junction Athletic Centre | Crystal R. Crystal

The idea for this gymnasium in the Junction area of Toronto is that of CONVERGENCE + DIVERGENCE. This idea has been formed from the surrounding site, where not only the streets come to a point, but where residential, commercial, and industrial areas collide. The site is rich with movement and flow of pedestrians, vehicles, bicycles, trains, and buses; as such we created an athletic centre that allows a variety of users to partake in both the facilities and the urban condition that we have created. The athletic part of the building is recreational in its use, though the rest of the building houses a variety of amenities ranging from commercial spaces, and offices and laboratories, to public park spaces. The entire building is formed around an exterior ramp condition that forms to the site and pushes towards the movement of the train yard adjacent, while acting to passively to bring people leisurely through the site and actively into the building. It works diachronically with the interior circulation to move people through spaces and into areas of pause and/or program. Options of convergence and divergence are prevalent in this project, where a “choose your own adventure” scenario has been created for multiple points throughout the building and urban strategy. As the building employs an idea of continuous movement, it grounds itself with moments of respite that interrupt both the vertical and horizontal flow. The initial form was produced from the main circulatory ramp to give the building motion towards the junction of the train yard, while the structure of the building works in tension providing a pull away from the form that is already pushing. Datum lines were implement along the diagonal grain of the site from the commercial area towards the junction of the trains. From the datum lines, implementation of both vertical and horizontal structure, landscape and courtyard conditions, program partitions, and various points of convergence and divergence were achieved. The structural integrity of the building is acting in tension, working to enhance the movement of the form, while simultaneously grounding it. The building skin, with its diagonal mullion curtain wall, also enhances the look of the building in motion. It is constructed with high efficiency glass and is pixilated in varying opacities depending on the programs within. The ramp is accessible to all users at all times of the day, bringing people through the site for leisure as well as brings people to specific destinations at various levels. All of our circulation, including the main ramp is wheelchair accessible. Though the ramp’s primary function is circulation, one of its secondary functions is to collect rain water runoff into recycling and remediation facility in the basement of the building, allowing this water to become grey water for functions of the building