Creativ­ity and Bold Explo­ration at Spark

TELUS Spark is Calgary’s newest cultural land­mark – a 153,000 square foot, purpose built science centre located in east Calgary near the St. Georges Island Zoo. Attract­ing half a million visi­tors a year, Spark’s mission involves creat­ing a posi­tive science and tech­nol­ogy culture to inspire and moti­vate people to learn about and contribute to advances in science and tech­nol­ogy.

Spark inte­grates four themed pavil­ions, Life Sciences, Space Earth and Envi­ron­ment, Tech­nol­ogy and Design, and Energy and Inno­va­tion, open studios, educa­tion labs, theatres, demon­stra­tion spaces and ameni­ties orga­nized around a dramatic central atrium space. Entro worked with Dialog Archi­tects and Studi­o­Lab to express the Spark iden­tity and enhance the visi­tor wayfind­ing expe­ri­ence at Spark.

Entro’s envi­ron­men­tal graph­ics features large exte­rior animated iden­ti­fi­ca­tion signs and a color­ful program of wayfind­ing and iden­tity signs that punc­tu­ate the inte­rior spaces. Tall totem signs iden­tify the name and theme for each of the major exhi­bi­tion halls and brightly coloured dimen­sional arrows paired with messages add a hit of colour and touch of whimsy. Inter­spersed through­out is a compre­hen­sive donor recog­ni­tion program of iden­ti­fi­ca­tion for exhi­bi­tion halls, theatres studios and educa­tion labs. The signa­ture donor recog­ni­tion instal­la­tion is a tapes­try of burnished metal type cut from a single sheet of aluminum and float­ing off of the massive central concrete stair­well.