Canadian Centre for Architecture

20th anniversary event / 20 continuous hours / 2009

To celebrate its 20th anniversary, the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) required a dynamic, seamless, cohesive environment with no sentimental allusions to the past.

Inspired by Gilles Deleuze’s Baroque house, the CCA became a space without a past, present or future. The entire museum became a porous and responsive membrane.

Front Façade
Using high-powered projectors, 60-foot-wide real-time views of the inside of the centre were projected on to the front facade. This digital technique created a “porous” façade. Projections transitioned from tableaux to tableaux to become a reflection of the city – as the CCA reflects urbanism and the city.

Back Façade / Maison Shaughnessy
Conceptualized as an immersive installation that was an allegory to 20 years of the museum, high-powered LED lights shone on the exterior windows of the Shaughnessy House, illuminating the interior. Four rooms were washed with color to depict a low-resolution sunrise and sunset. The speed of the sunset and the color changes were modulated by a live audio feed from the DJ.

Inside the gallery
The ‘Room of Experience’ was completely finished in matte black, fading to infinity. On the ceiling, a time-lapsed, subtle black and white responsive projection of the sky created an immersive experience for those watching the musical performances. As visitors moved through the responsive areas, their forms turned to ‘smoke’. When they stopped moving, their bodies reformulated.

Creative Director: Saulo Madrid
Producer: Micheal Kogan
Responsive Design: Morgan Sutherland, Navid Navab, Topological Media Lab
Music: Random Recipe, Elfin Saddle, Braids, DJ’s Mighty Kat, Vincent Lemieux, Mana
Video Artist: Martin Laporte