Diamond Schmitt’s Ingenium Centre to offer public tours

The Ingenium Centre, designed by Diamond Schmitt in a joint venture with KWC Architects, will be offering guided tours this summer.

The Ingenium Centre, located in Ottawa, is a purpose-built museological storage and conservation facility. The facility integrates the artifacts of the Canada Agriculture and Food Museum, the Canada Aviation and Space Museum, and the Canada Science and Technology Museum for the first time, while also providing additional space for the National Gallery of Canada.

Located next door to the Canada Science and Technology Museum in Ottawa, the facility presents an opportunity for collection accessibility. The museum displays only approximately 10 per cent of the national collection, therefore, providing public access to the Ingenium Centre opens up over 150,000 objects and almost two million archival items to discover.

The Ingenium Centre frames the view to the Canada Science and Technology Museum and provides visitors with a covered promenade approach. A new public plaza provides shared amenities between the Museum and the Ingenium Centre.

Above this shared entry plaza, colourful fins represent each constituent museum: green for the Canada Agriculture and Food Museum; blue for the Canada Aviation and Space Museum; and red for the Canada Science and Technology Museum. These fins change colours, depending upon the viewer’s sightline and perspective.

The facility is home to a Research Institute, a Digital Innovation Lab, Conservation Laboratories, Conference Rooms, and a publicly accessible Resource Centre.

The architecture of the Ingenium Centre takes advantage of every opportunity to showcase the collection. Inside, a public lobby and sculptural staircase offer exhibition space, and a vertical gallery that winds up through the building.

On the exterior, the south façade features glazed vitrines to accommodate interpretive and digital exhibits to the park, while intimate display cases and views into the train storage hall animate the pedestrian promenade.

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