LISA ROCHON From Saturday’s Globe and Mail
“For another kind of approach to the making of civic space, one that is icy-cerebral for its formal restraint, see the new Ottawa embassy and public reception hall of Prince Karim Aga Khan, the spiritual leader of the world’s 15 million Ismaili Muslims. Set on a black granite plinth above the off ramp of the Macdonald-Cartier Bridge and the uneven topography of a one-hectare Sussex Drive site, the Delegation of the Ismaili Imamat has been designed by Japanese modernist Fumihiko Maki as a fortress of glass walls which would be soporific if it weren’t for its multifaceted glass roof. At night, viewed from the river, the roof ignites the Ottawa skyline. Inside, though, the attempt is to disappear the materials (pale maple inlaid flooring, a veil of grey cast aluminum hanging within the main atrium space) so that the play of inner and outer courtyards becomes more visible. In keeping with the diffident Maki, a veil of fabric hangs below the rock-crystal roof, the better to disguise the audacity of spanning 40 tonnes of glass across a 25-metre space.”
via globeandmail.com: Jewel-like interventions and hope for the Olympics.
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