Project Spotlight: Poplar Road

Ontario is looking to put all the right pieces together to solve school shortages. The Poplar Road K-8 Public School in Scarborough, set to break ground this year, is poised to be a pioneering example of mass-timber construction, blending sustainability, speed, and flexibility. It’s not just another school. The team will utilize a modular, prefabricated "kit-of-parts" approach, allowing for customizable designs while adhering to standardized components. This approach aims to address Ontario's school construction backlog by providing a quick, repeatable and remixable solution, while minimizing environmental impact. The school will serve roughly 340 students and include a child-care center. It not only highlights the potential of mass-timber construction in educational buildings but also serves as an educational tool for students and the wider construction industry. Once completed, it could inspire other school boards to adopt similar approaches for future school developments. But it’s not just schools in Ontario. The kit-of-parts approach that has been embraced by Quebec based design giant WSP, who used to great success on the Manchester Airport in the UK. They say it cuts out repetitive decisions – accelerating productivity and freeing teams to focus their creativity where it can really make a difference. It’s industrialized construction concepts like this that could hold the key to rapidly building out the community infrastructure we need.