The federal government has granted $4.4 million to the Calgary Japanese Community Association (CJCA) to move forward with their plans to build a cultural centre later this year.
After receiving the grant, the association’s capital project, the Legacy Project, can press ahead to replace the association’s old building with a much larger space with expanded amenities like a community kitchen, rentable event spaces and a tatami room for meditation or tea ceremonies.
“This new facility will serve as a central gathering place for the Nikkei community in Calgary, a permanent home for our community and its activities,” said Roger Teshima, co-chair of the Legacy Project, at a media announcement Saturday in the Nutrien Western Event Centre. “It will be a welcoming and inclusive space where people of all backgrounds can come together to learn about experience and celebrate Japanese culture and traditions.”
Breaking ground
The association hopes to break ground in the fall with construction expected to last two years. While enough funding has been acquired to move ahead with construction, Teshima added the funding goal is always changing and the association will continue to work on fundraising goals to put towards replacing the old structure.
“We were perhaps looking into the $10-million mark,” Teshima said of their funding targets. “We’re reaching a point where we are ready to set a date where we can start to shut down our current operation and move forward.”
It has been a long journey to this point, starting in 2019 when ideas for a facility first came out when a feasibility study of the association’s current centre concluded that renovations wouldn’t meet the community’s needs.
Replacing the old structure in Killarney, the new centre will be shaped like an incomplete oval with a Japanese garden at the centre. Spanning two floors, it will include two large event spaces, a communal kitchen, a library and a tatami room which members of the community can use to host tea ceremonies.
Once built, the centre will host social, cultural and educational programming, including a day care and affordable housing.
Corey Hogan, Calgary MP and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, speaks with Roger Teshima, past president of the Calgary Japanese Community Association and co-chair for its Legacy Building Project, on Saturday.
“This is a very flexible centre that allows for all kind of programming,” said Ken Richardson, city advertising manager on Saturday.
For instance, it would include expanded space for a Japanese language sharing program that is currently attended by up to 100 people every week.
“Japanese cooking programs with our new commercial kitchen and event space are going to be huge,” he said. Being able to host a tea ceremony and flower arranging could also be popular go-tos for community members to try once the centre is built.
Beauty in imperfection
The design of the centre incorporates ‘wabi sabi,’ a Japanese aesthetic principle that perceives structures as part of the environment and aging as such.
“So it’s not perfect,” said Henry Tsang, architect of the new centre.
“Buildings are not the same as when they’re built. And over 10 to 20 years, how do they age, how does it start to be part (of the environment)?”
He advocated for beauty in imperfection, especially as something or someone ages.
The materials used to build the centre, he said, will be all natural. “The whole building is clad with cedar wood … so as it ages, the colour starts to change. The garden in middle will change over seasons. It’s how the building changes over time.”
Construction of the building will also include Japanese techniques, including open beam construction and the incorporation of local materials sourced in Alberta.
Maureen Coleman, past president of the Calgary Japanese Community Association and co-chair for its Legacy Building Project, speaks at a press conference announcing funding for the project on Saturday.
“It made sense that the building not only be an iconic building but something that actually exudes Japanese culture,” Richardson said. “So we’re very lucky to have an architectural firm that deep dived into the concepts and design principles of Japanese culture and incorporated (those) in the design.”
The building will also house eight residential suites, meant to serve as affordable housing for students or seniors, according to Kim Aban, a member of the CJCA’s board of directors. That’s double the housing complexes available in the current CJCA centre.
Currently it remains to be seen how the housing will be doled out, for what term and what price, Aban said.
The centre is a hallmark of the federal government’s priority to invest in infrastructure, according to Corey Hogan, MP for Calgary Confederation, on Saturday. “(Infrastructure) connects Canadians. It gets them to and from work, school and home. It makes our communities appealing places where people can and want to live, play and raise families, and modern sustainable infrastructure reduces harmful emissions and increases productivity, something increasingly important. It supports supply chains and propels Canadians to work as global leaders in a clean economy.”
ddesai@postmedia.com