Toronto Metropolitan University
2019
The design of this museum is a highly contextual response. Situated next to the Yonge and Dundas intersection, the site has a unique triangular configuration that faces the busiest commercial area in the city. Overwhelmed by the surrounding billboards and advertisements, the museum embraces the nature of media and explores architecture’s role as a medium of information. It is not erected as a still artifact, but instead a dynamic canvas where carefully-curated visuals are exhibited on its cascading façade, communicating with passengers and enticing them to visit.
A chaotic site like this calls for regulation and order. Thus, colonnades are employed to mediate the site constraints. The interior spaces of the museum are characterized by the rigidity of structures, the playfulness of the tectonics, and the abundance of materiality.