The National accessArts Centre (NaAC), Canada’s oldest and largest disability-arts organization, had a clear ambition for its new campus – to design beyond compliance.
The Joseph Chung Centre for Creativity, a key element of that campus, will be a home for performing arts that treats disability arts not as a special case, but as a central force in cultural life. Through careful design choices, such as gradients of light, sound, and material, it will be accessible for all and support a growing community of more than 400 artists through training, ideation, development, and exhibition opportunities across multiple disciplines.
Central to the pavilion will be the Osten-Victor Inspiration Studio, a two-storey rehearsal and performance space that will rise through both floors of the building. Like the inside of an instrument, the studio’s interior will be wrapped in acoustically tuned wood panels that gently taper in, elongating the space. Around it will be several peripheral and sensory areas: Event spaces and galleries supporting both traditional and experimental work; a wellness room that shifts into a green room; and a Sound/Audio/Tech Lab that doubles as a control booth. There will also be Joe’s Table Café – a social enterprise that will employ people with disabilities. Public-facing spaces will bring the neighbourhood into the campus and the campus into civic life.
The Centre has been selected as a Design for Freedom Pilot Project, becoming part of a global movement working to eliminate forced labor from building component supply chains. It will be constructed with transparent and responsible material choices, challenging the industry to rethink how and from where materials are sourced.
It will also be built to the highest standards of sustainable design, optimizing reductions in both operational and embodied carbon while targeting certification under the Zero Carbon Building – Design Standard v3 (ZCB-Design v3).
Architecture
Structural Engineering
Mechanical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Interior Design
Landscape Architecture
Access Dzn
ISL Engineering
Altus Group
BKL Consultants
Gunn Consultants
Yeo Consulting
Spyder SC
The Won and Hyon Chu Lee Plaza is where landscape, building and art are fully intertwined.
The cantilever defines and protects an outdoor public space nearly identical in scale and significance to its indoor counterpart.
Situated along the Bow River, the campus is envisioned as a gateway to the arts, integrated with the city’s landscape, pedestrian pathways, and cycling network.
Adjacent to each other, the Chung Centre and the Trico Accessible Arts Centre will form the new disability arts campus – the first of its kind in North America.
Inclusive design ensures that people of all abilities have complete freedom of choice when it comes to mobility: When to arrive; when to participate; when to pause; and when to exit.
The interior floorplan is intended to be simple and clear. It is identical on both floors – a key wayfinding element.
At the heart of the building is the two-storey rehearsal area. Acting as a wayfinding device, the wood-clad veil surrounding the studio body creates a service zone to support the technical requirements of the space.
A 1:20 model made of basswood of the Centre’s theatre wall and wood veil assembly.
The studio includes a 900-square-foot sprung floor, rectangular in proportion, with soft corners rather than hard edges.
The perimeter walls include storage and seating coves – places to rest and observe, out of path of travel.
Gallery, event, café, and learning spaces create a campus that is active beyond scheduled performances.
The Sound/Audio/Tech Lab doubles as a control booth, treating production as part of the learning and making ecosystem.
Gallery and exhibition spaces support both traditional and experimental work.
The Joseph Chung Centre (on the left) will complement the future Trico Communities Accessible Arts Centre (on the right), while also signaling the community’s new commitment to disability arts.
The design was influenced by input from the project’s Accessibility Roundtable.
Led by accessibility consultant Sean Crump of Included by Design, the Roundtable brought together allies and advocates for accessibility in the arts and the built environment, with participation from both inside NaAC and other likeminded disability communities.
The curved form of the canopy is expressed as an exterior and interior design element. The contour in the gallery wall creates new exhibition opportunities, while the oculus window frames protected views of Calgary’s Bow River.
Paul Valery, Notebooks, Volume 2“The wonder that is the essence of art…begins with movement”
Spotlight on ‘The Oculus’
A central feature of the DIALOG-designed Joseph Chung Centre for Creativity, the Oculus, located just above the main entrance, re-imagines the sun as a natural spotlight, transmitting the shifting path of daylight to the plaza and outdoor stage below.
Additional DIALOG Project Team Members
Gerrit Atkinson, Building Performance Consultant
Ashley Elias, Intern Architect
Stephanie Fargas, Sustainable Materials Specialist
Kirk Gomez, Intern Architect
Jeff Halashewski, Specifications
Cody Kupper, Intern Architect
Clive Lawrence, Mechanical Engineering
Olga Sereda, Landscape Architecture Technologist
Marvin Spitzke, Architecture Technologist
Kelcy Tolentino, Architecture Technologist
