ZAS Architects + Interiors & Denmark’s CEBRA celebrate UTSC’s new home for active & inclusive learning
Sam Ibrahim Building official ribbon cutting at UTSC with Sam Ibrahim, UofT dignitaries, ZAS Architects + CEBRA
TORONTO — The University of Toronto Scarborough—along with major gift donor, Sam Ibrahim, President of Arrow Group of Companies—have officially inaugurated the Sam Ibrahim Building. Envisioned by lead design architect CEBRA and lead architect ZAS, the 19,300 m² (208,000 ft²) building aspires to improve academic well-being through architecture. It establishes a sensory-forward, inclusive landscape that extends learning beyond the classrooms and blends study, collaboration, and social activities with the surrounding campus.
Pictured is ZAS Founder and Senior Principal Paul Stevens with UTSC major gift donor, Sam Ibrahim in the Arrow Innovation Hall
The Sam Ibrahim Building will act as a central campus hub. It houses the Sam Ibrahim Centre for Inclusive Excellence in Entrepreneurship, Innovation & Leadership; offices and related spaces for Student Services; and academic spaces for the Department of Computer and Mathematical Sciences. The five-storey building features 20 flexible, technology-enabled classrooms, 124 faculty and staff offices, and several active-use spaces such as welcome areas, a café, lounges, and informal collaboration spaces.
As a response to UTSC’s efforts to enhance student well-being, the architectural design invites students to experience a diverse array of sensory-forward educational experiences. The 20 varied classrooms facilitate active participation, accommodate different ways of thinking, and support inclusive learning and social exchange. These spaces range from a campfire-like theatre-in-the-round to a collaborative auditorium of geometric banquettes.
“At ZAS, we apply a user-centred inclusive design approach to our work, and for the Sam Ibrahim Building the priority is student impact and wellbeing,” says Paul Stevens, Founder and Senior Principal of ZAS Architects + Interiors. “Acknowledging the unique and diverse requirements of UTSC’s student body, our design focuses on asynchronous learning, social interconnectivity, and health and wellness. The result is a holistic and welcoming hub that embraces intersectionality and supports 21st century learners and future leaders. As a proud University of Toronto alumnus, this was an extraordinary opportunity to collaborate with my alma mater in achieving its strategic vision of inspiring inclusive excellence.”
“An important element of the building is the intentional, accessible areas, reinforcing our ongoing commitment to inclusive learning experiences for all. This has been a focus of our campus since its inception and now represents the evolution this comment to the student experience here at the University of Toronto Scarborough,” says Andrew Arifuzzaman, Chief Administration Officer, University of Toronto Scarborough Campus.
“Translating into practice the University of Toronto’s progressive stance on young adult education, we have designed a building that creates diversity in teaching and learning situations. Applying insights from neuroarchitecture, the design supports activity-based, socially engaging and peer-to-peer learning through an interweaving arrangement of classrooms, student service facilities, and the open public domain,” says Carsten Primdahl, Founding Partner of CEBRA architecture and lead designer of the project.
Notably, the building reduces energy consumption in alignment with the Toronto Green Standards. This includes high-performance thermal insulation, a local geothermal system, and triple-glazed operable windows that improve energy use and indoor comfort.
Learning through feeling
“Architectural means and qualities greatly affect our senses, behaviour, and our ability to receive, process, and apply information. Therefore, the 20 classrooms are designed to create a distinct setting for learning with a unique atmosphere to accommodate specific learning needs. Together, they form a range of spatial qualities, which create a sensory stimulating learning environment and provide faculty with a specialised set of tools for organizing different learning situations,” Carsten Primdahl says.
Sam Ibrahim Building design team of ZAS’ Paul Stevens and Alex Fehertoi and CEBRA’s Carsten Primdahl outside the Collaboratorium.
The classrooms are connected by an interior landscape of both open common areas that stimulate social activities and more intimate zones for informal meetings and study. This allows students to seek out the setting that best matches their personal preference or the activity at hand, thereby increasing the experiential value of the learning environment and student engagement.
A mosaic-inspired exterior
The architectural concept is inspired by a 19th-century printer’s tray, a compartmentalized tool historically used to organize letterpress letters. The complex arrangement of rooms and open public spaces across multiple floors, many of which are sectionally interlocked, forms a three-dimensional composition, much like the compartments of the type case. Together, the building’s classrooms form a collection of memorable spaces, each providing a unique context for learning.
At ground level, the design envisions a 360° campus ‘living room’ that merges with the surrounding public realm. Drawing inspiration from the Highland Creek ravine that weaves through the campus, the landscape is extended indoors, with sloping mounds, embedded seating, and planting beds forming a natural terraced base. This terraced foundation extends upwards across the building’s five storeys.
The building’s facades display interior activities to the outside. Resembling the compartments of a printer’s tray, this mosaic-like exterior establishes a central beacon for UTSC’s northern campus.
Classrooms: The Arrow Group Innovation Hall, the Cave, & the Collaboratorium
The Sam Ibrahim Buildings combines different volumes, scales, surfaces, and spatial qualities as a response to the diverse student community that it serves. It was designed with comprehensive insights from CEBRA’s R&D unit, WISE, which draws on neuroarchitecture: the study of how spatial design influences cognition and well-being.
The 20 classrooms include the large Arrow Group Innovation Hall – a theatre-in-the-round hexagonal space with surrounding digital screens. Like gathering around a campfire, the 500-seat space positions the presenter at the room’s center, rather than front like in a conventional auditorium, thereby minimizing the distance from the back rows and promoting face-to-face exchange. This layout dissolves hierarchy and encourages dialogue and active participation.
Image: doublespace photography
Among the medium-sized, tiered learning spaces, the Cave is a calm retreat from the building’s lively ground floor. The interior surfaces, reminiscent of natural stone crafted from sound-absorbing material, engage the sense of touch and enhance student focus and concentration.
The Collaboratorium offers a cooperative environment that supports frontal teaching and group work. The layout consists of tiered niches that, drawing inspiration from nightclub booths, accommodate up to six people around a table and establish engaging coworking spaces, rather than the feeling of a typical lecture hall. Each booth includes tech with access to digital learning and online collaboration. The booths are lined with acoustic fabric to enhance in-person sound quality.
Among the smaller, tiered classrooms is the Keystone. Its horseshoe layout and warm wooden interior combine the effectiveness of traditional tiered classrooms with the intimate setting of a seminar room. Visible from multiple locations, its distinctive wooden shell makes it a landmark space within the building’s interior landscape.
About Sam Ibrahim
The noted Scarborough-based business leader Sam Ibrahim has invested $25 million to establish the instructional centre housing the Sam Ibrahim Centre for Inclusive Excellence in Entrepreneurship, Innovation & Leadership. Ibrahim is the President and General Manager of the Arrow Group of Companies, which provides strategic consulting and talent solutions to various industries. He is also a familiar face at UTSC as the Co-founder of the Scarborough Shooting Stars, the first-ever Greater Toronto Area-based franchise of the Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL).
The new Sam Ibrahim Centre will be an incubator for student entrepreneurs at the UTSC, set to strengthen the region’s innovation ecosystem by providing the tools and resources to advance their ideas. Drawing on the university’s extensive research, development competencies, and global networks, the centre will encourage and support students to develop their ideas directly in Scarborough, contributing to economic growth in the Eastern GTA.
