Project Overview
Ādisōke is a modern, sustainable cultural and library center in Ottawa that brings together the OPL and LAC. It focuses on storytelling, history, and community connection through innovative architecture, making it a standout destination in the region.
Cicada was engaged early in the schematic design process, collaborating closely with Diamond and Schmitt Architecture to help bring the project vision to life. Throughout this journey, we crafted highly detailed, photorealistic imagery and videos that vividly communicated the future space.
We also developed an immersive WCAG 360-degree tour and produced video interviews with the design team, showcasing key innovations through advanced technologies such as augmented reality. This comprehensive visual approach ensured a dynamic and accessible presentation of the project from conception to completion.
Unveiling With
360 Immersion
Aligned with the project’s emphasis on creating an accessible, inclusive, and welcoming space, we designed the VR experience to meet WCAG standards, ensuring accessibility for all users while maintaining visual harmony with the existing branding.
Accessibility features include voice guidance, high-contrast interfaces, bilingual support, multiple input options, and text-to-speech functionality; creating an inclusive experience that upholds accessibility, usability, and visual integrity.
Community Engagement
Cicada Design’s renderings, animation, and 360 tour helped the community take an active role in shaping the Adisoke design by giving residents a clear, shared picture of how the project was evolving.
These visuals made complex ideas easy to understand and discuss, allowing people to respond to real spaces rather than abstract plans and strengthening their sense of ownership in the final direction.
Alongside this, we coordinated video capture throughout the public workshops, ensuring the voices, reactions, and collaborative moments from these sessions became part of the larger documentary story of how the building’s design came to be.
Behind the Camera
For the Ottawa Public Library project, we captured the story across two shoots. One centered on public engagement sessions in Ottawa, documenting the conversations and community input shaping the vision in real time.
The second brought us into DSAI’s studio, grounding the narrative in the people behind the work by filming inside their boardroom and day-to-day workspace to show the depth of thought, collaboration, and iteration driving the design. Inspired by process-focused storytelling, we highlighted the journey from concept to form through physical samples, working models, and the interplay between digital and tangible representations.
The result is a film that connects civic ambition to human-scale craft, showing how design evolves through participation, testing, and making.
Project Questions
How can users view Cicada’s 360° virtual tours?
Our 360° virtual tours are fully interactive and accessible on Meta/VR headsets, tablets, smart TVs, computers and smartphones, allowing anyone to explore a project in immersive detail. Whether onsite or remotely, the tours adapt seamlessly to each device for a smooth experience. Our tours can also be available offline so that they can be accessed without an ongoing internet connection.
How are the 360° tours hosted and displayed on a website? Do we need a subscription?
Our 360° tours are developed in-house to be web friendly, allowing them to be hosted directly on your website. We work to integrate your visual identity in the interface to make a seamless branded experience for your audience.
What was Cicada Design’s role in the Ādisōke Library project?
We delivered renderings, animations, immersive 360° experiences, and video interviews for the Ādisōke Library, translating the architects’ vision into compelling visual media. Our work was so effective that we later worked directly with OPL and LAC to create content tailored to their audiences and convey their mission.
When did Cicada get involved in the project?
From the schematic design phase onward, Cicada Design has partnered with the project team across multiple phases, producing renderings, animations, immersive 360° tours, and architect interviews to showcase and realize the vision of the Ādisōke Library.