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Competitor

Diller Scofidio + Renfro / Kasian

National Music Center of Canada / Centre national de musique du Canada

Presentation Panel

1

Presentation Panel

2

Presentation Panel

3

Presentation Panel

4

Presentation Panel

5

Presentation Panel

6

Perspective

View from the street

Perspective

View from the street

Perspective

Interior view of the Mixing Room

Perspective

Interior view of the Galleries

Perspective

Interior View of Exhibition Presentation & Performance Area

Perspective

Exterior View of the Performance Entry

Perspective

Exterior View From the King Eddy Roof

Perspective

Interior View in Vitrine

Perspective

Interior View of the Mixing Room

Perspective

Interior view of the King Eddy

Plan

Implantation

Section

King Eddy

Section

Looking West

Section

Looking North

Elevation

South

Elevation

West

Axonometric Drawing

Part 1

Axonometric Drawing

Part 2

Axonometric Drawing

Part 3

Construction detail

Southern wall part 1

Construction detail

Southern wall part 2

Schema

Urban Phasing Strategy 1

Schema

Urban Phasing Strategy 2

Schema

Urban Phasing Strategy 3

Schema

Programmatic / Formal Strategy 2

Schema

Programmatic / Formal Strategy 3

Schema

Programmatic / Formal Strategy 4

Schema

Programmatic / Formal Strategy 5

Schema

Programmatic / Formal Strategy 6

GENERAL INFORMATION ON THE COMPETITOR

Competitor	Kasian Architecture, Interior Design and Planning Ltd
	www.kasian.com

	Diller Scofidio + Renfro
	www.dsrny.com

Team	Bill Chomik
	Elizabeth Diller
Doc. level	75%

Description

The National Music Center

The National Music Center is an un-museum, a hybrid that merges cultural, educational and social space. The proposal bridges the King Eddy site and Site B across 4th St, producing a gateway to the East Village and anchoring the music master plan. The main building is conceived as the bountiful, younger partner of the Eddy. It leans toward the Eddy as if by magnetic attraction; its corner is undercut in solidarity with the Eddy's chamfered corner entry. The public enters the main building from the east and south.

The Mixing Room

The Mixing Room is the nerve center of the complex. It is a grand vertical space that slices across the main building partitioning the program in two; the large presentation spaces are to the north and the smaller, interactive learning spaces to the south. This atrium-like space is lined with floor-to ceiling, wall-to-wall super-vitrines that store and display the "living collection" of keyboard instruments. The live storage reveals a large portion of the collection to the public realm, out of dead storage. The north and south programs are stitched together by a network of stairs and mini-lounges (Living Rooms) that occupy expanded stair landings.

Living Collection

The enveloping walls of the super-vitrine are made up of occupiable display cases that hold one instrument or a grouping of instruments. The north wall is under the highest level of environmental controls; instruments can be seen from the Mixing Room or from gallery floors and accessed only in the company of authorized personnel. The south wall contains mostly replicas and demonstrable instruments that can be democratically accessed and played with and without supervision, depending on the sensitivity of the instrument. Each display case also contains a solo recording of that instrument playing period music appropriate to its time. Thus, the collection of instruments has an accompanying collection of sound environments, each in its acoustically isolated space. The roughly 100 sound environments at the north vitrine are inaudible unless a door opens for a patron entering a display case allowing that sound to bleed into the Mixing Room. The result is a space of chance encounters and chance sounds: a few bars of a French bourree from a Trasuntino Harpsichord, a drone from a Mellotron, the Bagpipe-like wail of a hurdy-gurdy, the circus-like excitement of a calliope melody, or the shattering rhythm of synthesized rock from an ARP 2500.

The Mixing Room will be a beehive of activity--visitors climbing and descending stairs, socializing in Living Rooms, entering and exiting display cases, and engaging instruments. Glass elevator cabs the size of display cases will transport people and instruments up and down. Music from different eras will randomly harmonize or produce cacophonic clamor. If the doors are all closed, the dynamism of a wall of instruments played at once can be seen in surreal silence. At several key moments of the day, a grouping of vitrine doors will automatically open to broadcast a short commissioned musical work by a contemporary composer written for a selection of instruments from the collection. The effect will be like the Rathaus-Glockenspiel of Munich--the recurrent public event will draw a crowd in the Mixing Room at predictable intervals. A succession of new works could be curated throughout the year.

All display cases are operable from behind so that instruments can be easily moved into the array of learning and demonstration spaces to one side or the galleries to the other. In combination with the nearby freight elevator, the ease of moving instruments allows the storage/display walls to be organized according to changing curatorial strategies. The display cases have insulating glass walls to ensure museum grade humidity and temperature controls. Sliding glass doors with interlocking seals permit access while maintaining a high-performance acoustic and climate envelope. Walls are non-parallel to eliminate acoustic flutter. Interior divisions alternate between fixed walls at fin columns and adjustable partitions, permitting variability in size. Interior materials provide acoustic warmth. Touch sensitive LCD displays provide interactive features for museum visitors: enhanced visualizations such as X-rays, magnifications, sound visualizations, histories, and technical information.

Other program spaces engage with Calgary and its public space: a passersby on 4th St can look into Presentation One a half level below the street; classrooms, orientation gallery, and discovery spaces are visible from the exterior and provide long distance vistas to the stampede grounds, while the demonstration space located on the top floor provides as its backdrop a dramatic view of downtown Calgary. The building envelope appears as a continuous folded skin with changing surface characteristics and modulating transparency, from light sandstone to gradients of fritted glass to clear glass, according to atmospheric, programmatic and technical requirements.

King Eddy

The largest artifact in the collection is the King Eddy. The architectural language of the Living Collection is extended across 4th St. The Eddy's outer skin is preserved and rebuilt on site, making sure to prevent ghosts and memories from escaping. A new music room is tipped into the shell; its floor is stepped for cabaret style seating for 200 diners. Wrap-around galleries adjoining the bar informally hold another100 patrons. Entry is from the east under the tipped volume, featuring surviving photos of the Eddy's past. An open-air void between the original south wall of the Eddy and its new liner provides a space for the street public to casually watch and hear performances from "backstage" through the glass rear wall. The tipped roof of the new Eddy makes an ideal surface to watch fireworks during the Stampede. The Rolling Stones Mobile Studio is modestly parked in the open space to the west and accessed from the "loading dock gallery," forging visual connections between the RSM, the broadcast studio and the stage. The Eddy is connected to the main building via two bridges emanating from the vitrine walls in the main building: the south glass bridge doubles as a coffee bar; the north opaque bridge is an anechoic chamber that clears the acoustic palette and, after hours, expands into a sound deadening very social extension of the bar. At night, the National Music Center will be a glowing beacon swirling with activity.

(From competitor's text)

Jury Report

List of accessible documents

50 scanned / 35 viewable

IMPORTANT NOTICE : Unless otherwise indicated, photographs of buildings and projects are from professional or institutional archives. All reproduction is prohibited unless authorized by the architects, designers, office managers, consortiums or archives centers concerned. The researchers of the Canada Research Chair in Architecture, Competitions and Mediations of Excellence are not held responsible for any omissions or inaccuracies, but appreciate all comments and pertinent information that will permit necessary modifications during future updates.
info@ccc.umontreal.ca

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