Add To Collection
Add to Collection
Wildseed Centre for Art & Activism
Wildseed Centre for Art & Activism
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
Other Projects by SOCA | Studio of Contemporary Architecture
Wildseed Centre for Art & Activism
Type
STATUS
Under Construction
SIZE
10,000 sqft - 25,000 sqft
BUDGET
$10K - 50K
The Wildseed Centre for Arts and Activism project revitalizes and expands a pair of Listed Heritage houses to provide space for art, culture, education, recreation, and gathering. This community-informed facility focuses on enriching the diversity of Black experiences in Toronto, nurturing creative experimentation and enterprise, and deepening practices of justice and joy.
The design of the Wildseed Centre is deeply rooted in Black diasporic narratives. Both the name of the centre and the building’s new vestibule are a nod to the prolific Afrofuturist sci-fi writer Octavia Butler, whose text “Wildseed” exhibits the ethics of care and healing embodied by this community. Butler based her protagonist, Anyanwu, on a Nigerian Onitsha mythological legend of Atagbusi, a shapeshifting healer. The legend of Atagbusi recounts how, after crises, a tree shrine is planted as a gateway granting protection to the community, especially to the women. Wildseed’s new entrance is designed to offer an acoustic, visual, and experiential threshold welcoming visitors into a space of collective resilience and repair.
The Wildseed Centre project applies an ethical, ecologically-tuned approach to materials and space, and the expansion is on target to achieve Net Zero and PassiveHouse EnerPHit standards, and minimized grid-sourced energy requirements through the use of a ground-source geothermal system and rooftop photovoltaics. The Heritage Listed facade is maintained while providing an airtight super-insulated building design.
With the Phase I interior renovation complete this year and Phase II addition underway, the Wildseed Centre is set to be an enduring, lively core for cultivating more just, equitable, and joyful futures for Toronto and beyond.
The design of the Wildseed Centre is deeply rooted in Black diasporic narratives. Both the name of the centre and the building’s new vestibule are a nod to the prolific Afrofuturist sci-fi writer Octavia Butler, whose text “Wildseed” exhibits the ethics of care and healing embodied by this community. Butler based her protagonist, Anyanwu, on a Nigerian Onitsha mythological legend of Atagbusi, a shapeshifting healer. The legend of Atagbusi recounts how, after crises, a tree shrine is planted as a gateway granting protection to the community, especially to the women. Wildseed’s new entrance is designed to offer an acoustic, visual, and experiential threshold welcoming visitors into a space of collective resilience and repair.
The Wildseed Centre project applies an ethical, ecologically-tuned approach to materials and space, and the expansion is on target to achieve Net Zero and PassiveHouse EnerPHit standards, and minimized grid-sourced energy requirements through the use of a ground-source geothermal system and rooftop photovoltaics. The Heritage Listed facade is maintained while providing an airtight super-insulated building design.
With the Phase I interior renovation complete this year and Phase II addition underway, the Wildseed Centre is set to be an enduring, lively core for cultivating more just, equitable, and joyful futures for Toronto and beyond.
Product Spec Sheet
Were your products used?
Join as a manufacturer to add your products.