The temple?s daring cantilever recalls the measured balance of a tai chi pose.
LOCATION Markham, Ontario
ARCHITECT Shim-Sutcliffe Architects Inc.
PHOTOS James Dow
The Wong Dai Sin Temple is a modern sacred space that houses a dynamic Taoist community, committed to their inner spiritual development through the ancient physical practice of tai chi. The Fung Loy Kok Institute of Taoism needed a new spiritual home in suburban Toronto that had to reflect not only the heart and soul of their religious beliefs, but also the modern contemporary world of their congregants. This place of worship is located on a major suburban arterial road, surrounded by a shopping mall and cul-de-sacs lined with oversized single-family residential mansions. The new temple building demonstrates asymmetry and counterbalance while maintaining its equilibrium, much like a measured tai chi pose. The building?s south elevation, visible from the busy roadway, reveals a major and minor cantilever supported on slender concrete piers. Stringent on-site parking requirements necessitated elevating the spiritual space and providing surface parking below it. This sacred space is supported on a two-way concrete slab integrated with seven rectangular poured-in-place structural concrete piers, tied to a robust raft foundation. The post-tensioned concrete slab system, with its 10.2-metre cantilever on the west, hovers over the parking area. A smaller 5.2-metre cantilever on the east side of the post-tensioned st...