For Sunday's portion of the weekend Doors Open Toronto event I was going to drive to some of the locations further out from the city centre. First was the Aga Khan Museum and Ismaili Centre on the DVP highway by Eglinton Ave. The parking lot was completely full and the event was packed despite being in an isolated location.

The museum only opened a few months back to great publicity and I hoped to visit it soon. For the Doors Open event only 'the architecture' was part of the program. You still had to pay an entrance ticket to visit the museum.

Entrance is $20 or free on Wednesdays after 4pm. As I work nearby I can just come back on a Wednesday and see the exhibits for free.




One small room is free to the public and had many ceramics in wood carved display cases. The central glass cube atrium is free for the public to visit.

Finally the giftshop was quite interesting with many Persian style ceramics on display and for sale.

The Aga Khan Museum and Ismaili centre are separated by a public park. A major feature is the reflection pool to highlight the architecture of both buildings.

Entrance to the Ismaili Centre was by guided tours only and the lines were quite big. Despite lots of negative media stories about Mosques public interest from a diverse cross section seemed enthusiastic for the visit. The lines moved quickly as the group tours were moving fast.

This is only one of a few Ismaili centres, the others in Vancouver, London, and Beirut. It was designed I think by a Japanese architect to foster the atmosphere of cross cultural exchange.

The Ismaili Centre and city park were opened by the Aga Khan and the Prime Minister of Canada recently. Ismailis are from the minority Shia sect of Islam.

Many of the designs had the many names of God hidden into the geometric patterns. Some were made from small inlaid tiles.

There was an interesting plaster wall where workers are still working slowly to carve out the geometric shapes and designs out from the plaster.

Finally for the main prayer hall we were told to turn cameras off even though on their own website they have pictures of the interior. It is a glass pyramid designed to let in as much light as possible. At night the lighting gives it a glow making it a distinctive landmark from the highway beside.

It was nice to visit the Ismaili Centre as I dont think I've been to many Shia Mosques in my travels to mostly Sunni countries. I went back to visit the museum in a later entry.

See return visit to the Aga Khan Museum exhibits http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-en tries/londone7/28/1436817517/tpod.html