Ziibiing - Hart House Circle
Project Name: Ziibiing
Location: Hart House Circle, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario
Client: University of Toronto
Design Office: Brook McIlroy, Indigenous Design Studio & Landscape Architecture Team Project
Completion Date: 2022
Scope: Indigenous Design, Landscape Architecture, Architecture
Approximate Size: ~4,000 m²
Ziibiing, meaning “at the river” in Anishinaabemowin, reclaims the historical path of Taddle Creek and transforms one of the University of Toronto’s most visible gateways into a landscape for learning, gathering, and ceremony. Designed collaboratively with U of T Elders, faculty, and students, the space draws on cultural elements significant to Indigenous communities, including fire, water, stars, and land-based teaching traditions. The site features an open-air bronze pavilion with a sacred fire, Indigenous plant communities curated with plant medicine expertise, and immersive outdoor learning areas intended to support the University’s commitments to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action. Ziibiing represents both a symbolic and practical shift toward Indigenous visibility, culture, and stewardship within an otherwise colonial institutional setting.
Experiencing Ziibiing firsthand emphasized the landscape’s layered rhythms, ceremonial, ecological, and everyday. The elevated pavilion creates a moment of arrival and orientation, while the surrounding plantings shape microclimates that feel distinct from the surrounding campus. I observed how students flow around the paths, gather near the hilltop, and move through the immersive plantings in ways that subtly reflect the design’s intentions. These observations guided my representational choices: foregrounding the main Ziibiing pavilion and its role as a gathering space as a focal point; capturing the active landscape of teaching, visibility, and relational connection.
