The Malvern EarlyON Childhood Education Centre is a comprehensive, high-quality re-imagination and retrofit of an existing community commercial space in Malvern Town Centre, an aging and under-used mall in suburban Toronto. The site was chosen for its proximity to the large and active Indigenous community in this part of East Scarborough and for the opportunity to help re-consider the mall as a community hub, expanding the existing, outdated commercial model to include an array of social services such as TDSB classrooms and Immigration Services.

Located in a former hardware store, the completed EarlyOn community centre project includes an open and teaching commercial kitchen, offices, counseling rooms, Elders’ room with a sacred objects display cabinet wall, washroom facilities, child play, and education areas, and a community gathering space. The program called for a space that was at once welcoming and secure. Programs offered at the centre include a parent and child drop-in, scheduled community programs, and full time office space. The project scope included the addition of a new entrance vestibule, redesign and cladding of the exterior façade, addition of family, accessible, and staff washroom facilities, acoustic separation and mechanical isolation for smudging from the neighbouring units, addition of a commercial kitchen, provision of child height art and kitchen areas, and large windows to visually incorporate the design and installation of the substantial outdoor garden with play spaces for children, an Indigenous medicine garden and larger community welcome. (In collaboration with VTLA Landscape Design).

Aesthetically, these priorities are reflected in the innovative choice of materials, colours, and textures, and in the integration of traditional Indigenous symbols and motifs within the design. SSA’s design takes cues from the natural world, referencing both land and sky. The vibrant, but subtle colour palette meets an extensive use of wood. A sculptural installation hangs under a large new circular skylight. This marks the drumming circle, ceremonial and meeting space below.  Spatially, the design prioritizes communal, community-building activities such as food preparation and consumption, crafts production, and music.
Delivered on a tight budget accountable to public funders, the project was delivered under a Construction Management model. Continuous monitoring ensured it remained on-budget and on-time, even through the logistical difficulties of COVID!