National Music Centre
Calgary, Alberta

Category: Recent Work
Architect: Kasian Architecture Interior Design and Planning Ltd. and Allied Works Architecture
Owner/Client: National Music Centre
Landscape Architect: Carson McCulloch Associates
Structural Engineer: Read Jones Christofferson
Mechanical Engineer: Stantec Consulting
Electrical Engineer: SMP Engineering
Civil Engineer: D.A. Watt Consulting
Heritage Architect: Simpson Roberts Architecture
LEED/Sustainability: Enermodal Engineering
Specifications: BookSpec
Contractor: CANA
Photographer: Bitterman Photography

Jury Comments

Goethe said, “music is liquid architecture, and architecture is frozen music.” This project literally embodies the performance aspirations of the program through spatial and formal architectural virtuosity. The building forms draw on the adjacent rolling foothills, and spaces are informed by the design of musical instruments. The volumes are composed to accommodate a generous program that simultaneously preserves and advances Canadian music. The material palette is minimal but luxurious, deftly weaving a rich terra cotta tile through the exterior and interior surfaces. As a result, the interior spaces have a particularly elegant quality; ambient lighting is used masterfully to enhance these spaces. This iconic project also contributes to its urban setting by bridging a street, carefully anchored on one side by a reconstructed circa 1905 hotel that boasted a blues music venue, while providing a gateway to Calgary’s East Village.