National Arts Centre Rejuvenation / Diamond Schmitt Architects

The National Arts Centre was a Centennial project, built in the Brutalist style. It is a robust concrete structure of rigorous geometry but sits like a dark fortress in the centre of the nation’s capital. For Canada’s 150th anniversary, the National Arts Centre’s rejuvenation project reorients and opens up the building to the city. The transformation of the NAC is an exploration in architectural transparency, relieving the opaque mass of the original and offering a new material palette. Every design decision was based on the inherent logic embedded in the original Brutalist structure, as a reinterpretation of its geometry, texture, and rigor.