PFS Studio was part of KPMB Architects’s multidisciplinary team responsible for the winning design for the new research building at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto. The project forms part of CAMH’s broader transformation of its historic Queen Street West campus into an open, integrated urban district dedicated to mental health care, research, and community engagement. Although the competition focused on a single building site, the proposal approached the project at the scale of the broader campus, positioning the research building and its landscape as a catalyst for the campus’s continued evolution.
Inspired by the park-like character that once existed on the site, the design reimagines the CAMH grounds as a cohesive green campus. A connected network of landscapes and open spaces links buildings across the campus, shaping a shared public realm that brings together research, care, and community.
The landscape supports a wide range of users from both the CAMH community and the surrounding neighbourhood. A variety of spaces, from intimate contemplative gardens to larger open areas that support collaboration and events, create a flexible outdoor environment that encourages interaction, reflection, and everyday use.
A key element of the design is the reinterpretation of the historic Heritage Wall. Once a symbol of separation, the wall is reframed as a welcoming threshold into the campus with the integration of a reflective water feature that creates new opportunities for gathering and interaction. Together they mark CAMH’s ongoing transformation from a historically isolated institution into an open and inclusive civic landscape.
