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Aga Khan Museum and Ismaili Centre a dramatic intrusion of elegance: Hume

United Kingdom Architecture News - Mar 25, 2014 - 14:29   3131 views

Aga Khan Museum and Ismaili Centre a dramatic intrusion of elegance: Hume

Toronto’s next important cultural institution, the Aga Khan Museum and the Ismaili Centre next door will open this fall on Wynford Dr.

 

It isn’t every day, or decade, that the city gets a beautiful new museum, not just paid for and fully stocked, but located in a part of town where architectural excellence is rare.

Toronto’s next important cultural institution, the Aga Khan Museum, and the Ismaili Centre next door will open this fall on Wynford Dr. near Eglinton Ave. and the Don Valley Parkway. The two stone-clad structures sit in a formal Islamic garden adapted to one of the most visible sites in Toronto, a 6.8-hectare high point known to countless commuters.

Until recently, this was the location of the Bata Shoe headquarters, a John Parkin masterpiece from the ’60s. Its disappearance upset many; at the same time, how can one argue with buildings by one of the India’s most respected architects, Charles Correa; Japanese master and Pritzker Prize winner, Fumihiko Maki and landscape architect Vladimir Djurovic?

The trio has transformed a high-profile suburban plot into a place of high culture, spiritual renewal, social gathering and tended landscape. In a terrain of broad strokes and left-over spaces, the detail will go unnoticed until one gets out the car and wanders around the new complex. That won’t be possible for some time, but a quick tour reveals a series of large interior rooms designed for maximum flexibility. The main prayer hall, capped with a magnificent glass dome and filled with light, is the heart of the centre. Other rooms, more social than sacred, radiate out from the hall.

Connected but separate, the Aga Khan Museum is a medium-sized facility spread over two floors and a series of galleries. Some will be programmed for the long-term; others for temporary exhibitions.

The aesthetic is clean — teak floors, white walls and windows broken only by Islamic screens. The granite on the exterior, soft-looking and creamy white, provides the perfect foil for the rows of trees and black reflecting pools that have turned the site into green oasis....Continue Reading

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