The Delegation of the Ismaili Imamat is located on a prominent site along the banks of the Ottawa River designated as “Confederation Boulevard,” a ceremonial route on Sussex Drive in Canada’s Capital City. Known as “the Mile of History” the boulevard is established with major national institutions including Parliament Hill, the Governor General and Prime Minister’s residences, civic and cultural facilities together with a number of embassies. Rich in tradition, this beautiful site provides the setting for a secular facility that establishes a formal and symbolic presence for His Highness the Aga Khan, the 49th hereditary Imam of the Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims and his institutions in Canada.
The mission of the building is to share the best of Islamic life and its spiritual dimensions with the heritage and cultures of the West. It will be a place where dialogue, intellectual exchange, and new partnerships will be fostered with the Canadian government, the private sector as well as with many other countries to engage in humanitarian programs to achieve a better world.
The vision of the Aga Khan is to connect the place symbolically to the Faith of Islam by creating a visual effect with a certain mystique around that of the mysteries of rock crystal. With multiple planes and angles, the object presents itself differently as light moves around it. It will be an appropriate symbol of the profound beauty and ever-unfolding mystery where in Islamic thought, beauty and mystery are interwoven with intellect.
Situated on an irregular site with a four meter level change, the building is conceived as a pavilion in an open park that is set on a granite podium giving it a stately presence. Configured in an elongated rectangular plan, it forms a “ring” whereby the program spaces create an “inner sanctuary” that is distinct from the outside world. Two symbolic spaces – an interior glass atrium and exterior landscaped courtyard recalling the traditional Persian-Islamic garden called a Chahr-bagh, serve to establish a central hub that integrate different functional parts of the program into a cohesive whole while allowing each space to retain its independence and privacy. From key vantage points around the site however, fragments of the atrium and courtyard become visible to the passerby.
Inspired by the aesthetic behavior of rock crystal, glass with varying degrees of transparency, translucency and white opacity have been displaced throughout the building to give it an ethereal quality. In addition to low-iron clear glass, glass with translucent ceramic frit has been utilized with Neoparies, white crystallized glass to achieve a building with subtle reflections of the surrounding environment. The elevations are arranged in alternating bands of transparent and translucent glass with large white Neoparies surfaces. The entire composition culminates in a 16 meter high glass atrium that is a symmetrically faceted glass dome. Its transparent angular planes create a distinct silhouette in Ottawa’s skyline. On the interior, an asymmetrical inner membrane made of triangulated glass fiber fabric panels hovers over the atrium space functioning as a large sun shade. Narrow slots between the suspended panels emit light so that the entire space behaves like a sun dial in light and shadow. The inner façade of the atrium is clad in Canadian maple and designed with a double layered network of geometrically patterned cast aluminum lattice screens that is inspired by Jali found in Islamic design. The entire composition of building components achieves an ephemeral spatial quality constantly behaving with light. As a whole, the building is interplay of visual clarity and opacity, overlaid with varying degrees of translucency created by gentle light patterns. Like the natural beauty of stone crystals that are a true wonder to the human eye, it is hoped that the Delegation Building will be a source of optimism, fascination and enlightenment.
