^{For more information about the TCC or to submit your feedback on the first design visit www.tamilcentre.ca}

The first design of the groundbreaking Tamil Community Centre (TCC), to be built in Toronto, has been released. 

The TCC will be located in Scarborough, Ontario, at 311 Staines Road. The design is inspired by traditional Tamil architecture (a central courtyard), the Tamil language and concepts from ancient Sangam poetry (landscape), and the Tamil people's history of migration, refuge and asylum (a ship).

The design for the TCC follows five main guidelines;

(1)    Programming space based on consultations 
(2)    commitments to the environment, 
(3)    respect to Indigenous communities
(4)    solutions to resident concerns
(5)    Tamil culture and history

Renderings of the TCC design show several amenities that will be available to the public. Cultural components include a library, archives and museum, which will pay "homage to the Tamil people's modern histories of migration, refuge, and asylum." The TCC will also be connected to several hiking trails. 

The building incorporates the Mullai and the Kurinci rising from a flat service with trees to a higher point like a hill. The TCC structure is reminiscent of a glimmering ship run aground on a welcoming shore. As the ship goes from opaque to transparent material, it faces the homelands, providing a symbolic gesture of people's minds clearing as they look homeward

The roof will be designed as a green roof providing people with an opportunity to walk and enjoy elevated views of the Rouge National Urban Park.

For more information about the TCC or to submit your feedback on the first design visit www.tamilcentre.ca

In July, the Canadian government granted $26.3 million for the building of the TCC. The share of this investment will be approximately $14.3 million from the federal government, $11.9 million from the provincial government and $ 9.6 million is expected to be raised from the community.

At an event to announce the funding for the construction of the TCC, Gary Anandasangaree, MP Scarborough Rouge Park, said the TCC "will be a unifying space that will bring this vibrant community together under one roof. It will be a space to learn, to showcase, to gather and to reflect."

Read more here.