Canadian Architect August 2023

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4 VIEWPOINT

The provincial government’s plans for the redevelopment of Ontario Place and the Ontario Science Centre.

6 NEWS

Love Park opens; designer of Nunavut Inuit Heritage Centre announced; Quebec unveils plan to implement its Architecture Policy.

11 RAIC JOUNAL

The new social value of architectural quality; previewing the RAIC’s 2023 fall Congress.

40 REVIEW

20 WELLESLEY INSTITUTE

AGATHOM revamps a pair of Victorian Toronto townhomes into the headquarters for a public health think tank. TEXT Jason Brijraj

24 LE 1500 RUE MÉTIVIER

An office building in Lévis, Quebec, by Anne Carrier architecture lends urban sophistication to a cooperative of poultry farmers. TEXT Odile Hénault

28

FOCAL ON THIRD

A carefully detailed envelope raises the bar for spec office buildings in this design by ph5 architecture. TEXT Bruce Haden

32 RENEWING SFU

A series of new projects by Public Architecture and Perkins&Will refreshes Simon Fraser University’s iconic Burnaby campus. TEXT Trevor Boddy

Adele Weder reviews the Canadian Pavilion’s Not for Sale! exhibition at the Venice Architecture Biennale.

44 PRACTICE

Key findings and recommendations from Rise for Architecture’s industry-wide, eight-year-long study of the state of the profession in Canada.

50 BACKPAGE

Taylor Noakes explores a virtual reality model of Moshe Safdie’s original design for Habitat 67.

COVER Simon Fraser University Plaza

Renewal by Public Architecture. Original design by Arthur Erickson and Geoffrey Massey. Photo by Upper Left Photography

THE CASE FOR ONTARIO PLACE

This year, the Ontario government has continued to unfold plans for Ontario Place, on Toronto’s waterfront. In 2021, the province pledged to retain Eberhard Zeidler’s 1971 Cinesphere and Pods. But in the scheme currently going through approvals, two private developments occupy prime spots on the property: an aquatic recreational facility run by Austrian company Therme, and a 20,000person concert venue run by LiveNation.

While the East Island will boast significant parkland and the public area encircling the Therme facility on the West Island has been expanded from its initial design, the prominence of the private facilities is still significant. In a submission to a joint City of Toronto and Waterfront Toronto Design Review Panel in late March, the Therme development occupies over half of the West Island, and its greenhouse-enclosed pools top out at 45 metres 50 percent taller than the Cinesphere. The panelists were largely supportive of the public realm master plan for the East Island, but raised concerns about the “fortress-like” Therme buildings and their “dominant scale and massing,” according to meeting minutes. “The main Therme building feels oversized for the West Island, overwhelming the proposed public realm and the existing heritage attributes, including the ‘pods’ and Cinesphere,” the panelists report. (Architects Diamond Schmitt will be resubmitting a refined design to the City in August.)

The proposal for the site as a whole includes necessary public investment $200 million will be spent on the repair of infrastructure, erosion, and flooding damage, along with restoration of the site’s heritage structures. And initially, a suggestion that the Ontario Science Centre would occupy the Pods and Cinesphere seemed a positive fit. But this spring, the province announced that the Ontario Science Centre would be entirely relocated to Ontario Place, occupying the heritage structures and topping a new underground parking garage. The proposed Science Centre Pavilion site is a fraction of the size of the Therme and LiveNation developments, and only provides half the space of the Science Centre’s present facility. The existing Ontario Science Centre, a Centennial project completed in 1969 by Raymond Moriyama, would be demolished.

The ministerial announcement of this plan was accompanied by reference to a business case for the move, but at the time of going

to press, Infrastructure Ontario had not yet been able to provide that document to me. (It seems unlikely that such a business case would have explored a full range of options. In response to a request for estimates of the costs to update the current Ontario Science Centre, the ministry responded that they “are currently developing feasibility and options for stabilization and rehabilitation, and do not have any information to share at this time.”)

In the meanwhile, the province has moved with alacrity, issuing a call for proposals for a planning, design, and compliance consultant for the relocated Ontario Science Centre, setting the stage for a P3 competition.

Bureaucratic processes may slow down the timeline to allow for reconsideration. A provincially led environmental assessment, issued in July, only covered the public realm of Ontario Place, excluding the large tracts slated for redevelopment by Therme and LiveNation. Advocacy group Ontario Place for All is appealing to the federal government to conduct an impact assessment on the entire site.

Toronto’s new mayor, Olivia Chow, is opposed to the redevelopment, and the City owns 16 acres of land necessary to access and redevelop Ontario Place. The province has indicated that they would expropriate the land if needed, but Chow has suggested she wouldn’t give it up without a fight. “Expropriation is a blunt instrument and it takes time also because what we don’t want is to waste a lot of money in court, but that is available and hopefully we wouldn’t get to a stage where we have two levels of government seeing each other in court,” she has said.

When they were constructed, both Ontario Place and the Ontario Science Centre exemplified the innovation and sensitivity to landscape that put Canadian modern architecture on the global map. In an era when environmental sustainability is of paramount concern, Canada once again has the chance to show leadership in caring for its heritage, while crafting places that foster meaningful interactions between built and natural environments. The future of Ontario Place and the Ontario Science Centre may initially seem to be a local matter, but we would be wise to take a bigger picture of the significance of these sites, and what they are able to offer to Canadians and the world both now and for the future.

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Dorte Mandrup to design Nunavut Inuit Heritage Centre

The team of Dorte Mandrup Architects and Guy Architects Ltd., is the winner of an international architectural competition to design the Nunavut Inuit Heritage Centre.

Located in Iqaluit, the Nunavut Inuit Heritage Centre (NIHC) will be constructed to honour the Government of Canada’s dedication to the Nunavut Agreement and Bill C-15, the UNDRIP Act.

Spanning 55,000 square feet, the facility will facilitate the return of the Nunavut Collection, consisting of ancestral and cultural items that are currently stored in southern facilities. The centre will also offer a venue for exhibitions, performances, workshops, and other programs, and foster healing and reconciliation.

Additionally, the NIHC will provide training and assistance for the development of cultural facilities in other communities across Nunavut.

According to architect Dorte Mandrup, the design of the Nunavut Inuit Heritage Centre was inspired by “the landscape and the movement of the snow and the wind.”

“Following the topographic curves and distinct longitudinal features of the terrain, the building sits parallel to the prevailing northwestern winds. It carves into the rocky hillside overlooking Iqaluit with the large roof continuing the lines of the landscape and forming a new public space and a viewing platform from which visitors can enjoy the uninterrupted views towards Frobisher Bay and Iqaluit Kuunga [formerly Sylvia Grinnell Territorial Park],” said Mandrup.

“By taking advantage of the protective rock, the building naturally creates a shelter over the sensitive collections and exhibitions while the

expansive window gesture offers a space filled with daylight and generous views towards the southwest for future gathering and activities.” www.ihti.ca

DIALOG and Two Row Architect Reveal Seneca College Health & Wellness Centre Design

Reimagine the Outdoor Experience

DIALOG in partnership with Two Row Architect has been selected to work with Seneca College on the pre-design of a new Health & Wellness Centre.

Drawing inspiration from the medicine wheel, the Health and Wellness Centre will be a destination for students and employees to support their physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual wellness.

Seneca’s vision is to transform the decades-old Sport Centre at the east end of Newnham Campus into a dynamic multi-storey health and wellness complex that includes traditional medicines, counselling, recreation and varsity sports facilities. The Centre will also incorporate a new home for the Seneca Student Federation (SSF).

The circular shape of the design references the drum circle. The drum circle symbolizes balance, equality, wholeness and connection. At the centre of the complex, the drum circle represents a source of positive energy, bringing with it a natural rhythm to the world around it.  “It’s such a wonderful way of not only connecting and reconciling Indigenous and settler cultures, but also of providing a gateway to imagine what the reconciled future Canada might look and feel like,” shares Craig Applegath, partner and architect at DIALOG.

Subject to approval by the provincial government, demolition of current facilities is slated for winter this year, with an estimated building completion in 2026. www.senecacollege.ca

ABOVE Dorte Mandrup Architects and Guy Architects have been selected to design the Nunavut Inuit Cultural Centre in Iqaluit.

Love Park opens in downtown Toronto

Designed by CCxA in collaboration with gh3*, a park centred on a heartshaped pool has opened in downtown Toronto.

The 8,000-square-metre Love Park, located at the southern foot of York Street and Queens Quay, responds to the need for flexible public space in the southern Financial District and Harbourfront neighbourhood. The park site formerly housed an off-ramp of the Gardiner Expressway. The ramp was removed and the site reclaimed for public use in 2017.

The new park design centres on a large heart-shaped pool, edged in crimson tiles. A single catalpa tree sits on a small island in the centre of the pool. The park also features rolling, elevated grassy mounds that act as a buffer from the adjacent roadways, while also offering space to relax and enjoy the park from different vantage points.

The five-metre-high pavilion, led by gh3*, is made of mirror-finish stainless steel arches, shaped as a trellis to support climbing vines. www.waterfrontoronto.ca

Canada Council awards winners announced

The Canada Council for the Arts has announced the winners of its Prix de Rome, Ronald J. Thom, and J.B.C. Watkins Awards.

Studio Junction Inc. and Studio of Contemporary Architecture are the winners of the Prix de Rome Professional. The Prix de Rome in Architecture – Professional is awarded to a young practitioner of architecture or an architectural firm that has completed their first built works and has demonstrated exceptional artistic potential. The prize money enables recipients to travel abroad to develop their skills and their creative practice,

and to strengthen their position in the international architecture world.

Julia Nakanishi, Ivee Yiyai Wang and Paulette Cameron are the winners of the Prix de Rome in Architecture – Emerging Practitioners. The Prix de Rome in Architecture – Emerging Practitioners is awarded to recent graduates from Canadian architectural schools who demonstrate exceptional potential in architectural design. The prize helps recipients visit architectural buildings and carry out an internship at an international architectural firm.

Halifax-based architect Peter Braithwaite is the winner of this year’s Ronald J. Thom Award for Early Design Achievement, given to a practitioner of architecture in the early stages of a career or practice, who demonstrates creative talent and exceptional potential in architectural design.

Caitlin Jakusz Paridy was awarded the J.B.C. Watkins Architecture Award. The J.B.C. Watkins Award: Architecture is offered to an architectural student from Canada wishing to pursue postgraduate studies in another country.

canadacouncil.ca

WHAT’S NEW

Implementation plan unveiled for Quebec’s National Policy on Architecture and Land-Use Planning

Quebec Minister of Municipal Affairs Andrée Laforest and the Minister of Culture and Communications, Mathieu Lacombe, have unveiled the 2023-2027 implementation plan for the province’s National Policy on Architecture and Land-Use Planning, with a budget of $360.4 million.

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The core interventions of the policy include the publication of new government guidelines and directions in land use planning in 2024 and ongoing consultations on the preliminary document.

An Act adopted on June 1, 2023 the first major overhaul of the law in over 40 years will modernize land use planning practices. This will enable municipalities to better plan their development and effectively respond to the present and future challenges facing Quebec.

The policy includes the introduction of a monitoring system to measure the result of planning decisions, and mechanisms to ensure that government projects contribute fully to the quality and vitality of living environments.

The policy establishes an Office for the Promotion of Architecture, which will play a central role in raising architectural quality in Quebec. This office will collaborate with stakeholders, particularly the municipal sector and the population, to foster a shared vision of architecture that garners support and represents a source of pride. The regulatory framework will be modernized to create conditions conducive to the development of innovative and creative architecture, relying on expertise and talent. A comprehensive knowledge of the state’s heritage real estate inventory will be developed to effectively plan and prioritize asset maintenance for optimal and sustainable management. quebec.ca

International Garden Festival at Reford Gardens opens for 2023

The 24th edition of the International Garden Festival, entitled RACINES | ROOTS , is now open to the public. Since its establishment in 2000, over 250 gardens have graced the grounds of Grand-Métis and other locations in Canada and worldwide.

Taking place at Reford Gardens, situated at the entrance of the Gaspé Peninsula, the festival occupies a site adjacent to the historic gardens originally created by Elsie Reford, forging a connection between the past and present while fostering a dialogue between conservation, tradition, and innovation.

This year, the event’s artistic director, Ève De GarieLamanque, invited designers to imagine a present and a future that was “ecologically, economically, and culturally responsible” by drawing on the teachings of past generations.

“In an era marked by digital advancements, globalization, and rapid technological progress that have transformed our perception of time, the physical world, and our connections with one another, the theme ‘ ROOTS ’ challenges the mindset imposed by the industrial revolution and embraces an approach that seeks nourishment from a shared heritage,” writes Festival organizers. “It calls for a return to the essential by integrating native plants, local materials, whether reused or with minimal environmental impact, and traditional construction methods, all combined with a contemporary vision that encompasses regional communities and ecosystems.”

The festival’s 22 on-site gardens include five new designs: Le Jardin des quatre colonnes by architect Vincent Dumay, Maillage by Friche Atelier, Matière-Matière by Studio Haricot, Rose-Marie Guévin and Vincent Ouellet, and Racines de Mer by Cassandra Ducharme-Martin and Gabriel Demeule. It also includes the off-site exhibitions Mer du Vent and Absolues Jardin.

The 2023 edition is open until October 1, and a call for contemporary garden designs for next year’s International Garden Festival will be issued in the fall. ontarioplaceforall.com

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Improving Procurement

The recent article about Edmonton City Architect Carol Bélanger’s Advocate for Architecture Award (CA , May 2023) states that the City of Edmonton’s procurement process is “unique to Canada.” While Edmonton’s process has some distinct characteristics, similar qualitybased selection processes exist in other jurisdictions.

15 years ago while working at the City of Vancouver, we introduced a two-stage process of procurement for all public building projects, including the Park Board building projects. The first stage, Expression of Interest, evaluates quality (competency, skill, relevant experience) and interest only nothing else. Once teams are shortlisted, they respond to RFPs with more detailed proposals, including firms’ capacity, specific teams, work plans, and other details around relevant experience, as well as commercial proposal submission. We have typically weighted fees at 30% of the evaluation, although in some unique projects, that was adjusted to a lower percentage. Evaluation criteria and weighting would be shared in RFP documents too.

Many post-secondary institutions are also adapting a quality-based selection process, including the British Columbia Institute of Technology.

In my experience, Quality-Based Selection indeed makes a significant difference in the quality of design process and community engagement outcomes, and to the ultimate goal of having functional, inclusive and beautiful buildings. It is particularly important that all public community buildings are delivered with the Quality-Based Selection process, as benefits to the community are significant, and frankly risk to the project delivery teams is reduced.

Danica Djurkovic, Architect AIBC, Vice-president, Campus Planning + Facilities British Columbia Institute of Technology

On DAP and Tony Jackson

I was pleased to read that Dalhousie Architectural Press (DAP) received this year’s RAIC Architectural Journalism & Media Award.  However, the evolution of DAP is neither fully nor accurately conveyed. The text states that “Dalhousie Architectural Press began in the mid-1980s as Tech Press at the Technical University of Nova Scotia.”   This is not correct. Tech-Press (with a hyphen) was founded at Nova Scotia Technical College, forerunner of the Technical University of Nova Scotia, around 1978 by Professor Anthony Jackson (1926-2015).

I was at Nova Scotia Technical College from 1975 to 1980 when Tony Jackson published numerous books on a shoestring budget and with no staff. They were extremely modest little books, but they somehow got done. The series was titled “Library of Canadian Architecture” and consisted of: The Democratization of Canadian Architecture, by Anthony Jackson (Tech-Press, 1978); The Future of Canadian Architecture, also by Jackson (Tech-Press, 1979); my monograph Larry Richards Works, 1977-1980 (Tech-Press, 1980); and A Pictorial History of the Basilica of St. Mary, Halifax, Nova Scotia, by J. Philip McAleer (Tech-Press, 1984).

Tony’s groundwork in establishing an architectural publication initiative in Halifax Tech-Press, which then got restarted as Tech Press and evolved into Dalhousie Architectural Press is important and laudable; and it should not be lost in the shuffle of history.

Larry Wayne Richards, Professor Emeritus and former Dean, Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, University of Toronto

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Register for Congress 2023

The RAIC Congress on Architecture is back this fall! Join us on October 2-3, 2023 in Whistler, BC, for this special gathering focused on the theme of Climate Action and Architecture. For details and to register, visit raic.org/2023-congress-architecture

Inscrivez-vous au Congrès 2023

Le Congrès sur l’architecture de l’IRAC est de retour cet automne! Joignez-vous à nous les 2 et 3 octobre 2023 à Whistler, C.-B., pour cette rencontre spéciale axé sur le thème de l’action climatique et l’architecture. Pour vous inscrire, visitez raic.org/2023-congress-architecture

RAIC x International Union of Architects (UIA)

The RAIC was honoured to support the UIA Indigenous Peoples Work Programme activities at the UIA World Congress in Copenhagen on July 2-6, 2023. As Secretariat, the RAIC supported a Congress session and an exhibit both focused on Indigenous Architecture.

IRAC x Union internationale des architectes (UIA)

L’IRAC a eu l’honneur de contribuer aux activités du Programme de travail Peuples autochtones de l’UIA lors du Congrès mondial de l’UIA à Copenhague, du 2 au 6 juillet 2023. À titre de secrétariat, l’IRAC a apporté son soutien à une séance du Congrès et à une exposition explorant la signification de l’architecture autochtone.

Conference 2024: Save the Date

Our next Conference on Architecture is happening on May 14-17, 2024, in Vancouver, BC. Conference provides inspiration, insights and ideas with practical applications, and is a great chance to connect with colleagues from across Canada. For updates about registration, visit www.raic.org.

Conférence 2024 : Réservez la date

Notre prochaine Conférence sur l’architecture se tiendra du 14 au 17 mai 2024 à Vancouver, en Colombie-Britannique. Vous y trouverez de l’inspiration, des perspectives et des idées en plus d’applications pratiques, et c’est une excellente occasion d’entrer en contact avec des collègues de partout au Canada. Pour les mises à jour concernant l’inscription, visitez le site www.raic.org/fr.

RAIC Journal Journal de l’IRAC

One of the venues for the RAIC Congress on Architecture in October, 2023, is the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre in Whistler, BC, designed by Formline Architecture (formerly Alfred Waugh Architect) in association with contract administration architect Ratio Architecture.

Le Centre culturel Squamish Lil’wat à Whistler (C.-B.), conçu par Formline Architecture (auparavant Alfred Waugh Architect) en association avec la firme Ratio Architecture, chargée de l’administration du contrat, est l’un des endroits où se tiendra le Congrès sur l’architecture de l’IRAC en octobre 2023.

Melonie Fullick

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More and more the complex problems we face not only in Canada but globally— including climate crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, an aging population, and the housing crisis—will demand creative solutions that come not only from experts in many fields, but also from the everyday experiences and specific knowledge of communities and their members.

De plus en plus, les problèmes complexes auxquels nous sommes confrontés— notamment la crise climatique, la pandémie de COVID-19, le vieillissement de la population et la crise du logement—exigeront des solutions créatives qui ne proviennent pas seulement d’experts dans de nombreux domaines, mais aussi des expériences quotidiennes et des connaissances propres aux communautés.

The RAIC is the leading voice for excellence in the built environment in Canada, demonstrating how design enhances the quality of life, while addressing important issues of society through responsible architecture. www.raic.org

L’IRAC est le principal porte-parole en faveur de l’excellence du cadre bâti au Canada. Il démontre comment la conception améliore la qualité de vie tout en tenant compte d’importants enjeux sociétaux par la voie d’une architecture responsable. www.raic.org/fr

In this issue of the RAIC Journal, the thread of community knowledge and communitybuilding ties together discussions about events and initiatives including Congress 2023 and the Climate Action Plan, the Longterm Care Working Group, and the Quality in the Built Environment project. These initiatives highlight how collaboration and inclusivity can lead us to a vision of the future that takes into account people’s diverse experiences, helping us build the resilience to cope with major shifts in our environment, our demographics, and more.

The RAIC is always looking for more voices to include and ideas to explore in these pages. If you’d like to find out more about writing for the RAIC journal, please contact us at communications@raic.org.

Dans ce numéro du Journal de l’IRAC, le fil conducteur de la connaissance et de la construction de la communauté relie les discussions concernant les événements et les initiatives, notamment le Congrès 2023 et le Plan d’action climatique, le Groupe de travail sur les établissements de soins de longue durée et le projet sur la qualité de l’environnement bâti. Ces initiatives montrent comment la collaboration et l’inclusivité peuvent nous mener à adopter une vision de l’avenir qui tient compte des diverses expériences des gens et qui nous aide à développer la résilience nécessaire pour faire face aux changements profonds qui surviennent dans notre environnement, notre démographie et bien d’autres domaines encore.

L’IRAC est toujours à l’affût de nouvelles voix et d’idées à explorer dans ces pages. Si vous souhaitez en savoir plus sur la rédaction d’un article pour le journal de l’IRAC, veuillez communiquer avec nous à l’adresse suivante : communications@raic.org

Building knowledge through community Acquérir des connaissances grâce à la communauté

Garry Fieghan

Celebrating Excellence in Architecture at Conference 2023

La Conférence 2023 célèbre l’excellence en matière d’architecture

Melonie Fullick Marketing and Communications Manager Gestionnaire du marketing et des communications

Each year, the RAIC Conference on Architecture provides a national forum for architects and professionals from related fields to gather, exchange ideas, spark innovation and new collaborations, and celebrate achievements in Canadian architecture. This May, the Conference on Architecture took place in Calgary, Alberta. It was a great success—and a celebration of meeting colleagues in-person again, after three years of events held virtually.

As always, learning was at the heart of this year’s Conference. The continuing education sessions provided in-depth, leading-edge knowledge on current issues in architecture, and followed eight themes including Climate Justice and Resilience, Sustainability, Adaptation and Mitigation, Indigenous-Led Architecture, and History, Heritage and Culture. Our expert presenters brought these themes to life, engaging participants in conversations

that are happening at the forefront of the field. Our inspiring guest speakers took Conference 2023 to another level with their shared insights and experiences. The event was kicked off with a welcome from Mayor of Calgary Jyoti Gondek and Kate Thompson, Hon. FRAIC, President and CEO at Calgary Municipal Land Corporation. They outlined the urban development plans for Calgary and the impact of projects that are transforming the downtown area—including the new Public Library (Snøhetta in association with DIALOG), the 9th Avenue Parkade + Innovation Centre (5468796 in collaboration with Kasian), and the BMO Centre expansion (Stantec, Populous, and S2 Architecture). At the Lunch with a Fellow, we welcomed special guest speaker Wanda Dalla Costa, Hon. FRAIC, founding principal and director of Tawaw Architecture Collective, professor at Arizona State University, and the first First Nations woman architect in Canada. Her trailblazing work in collaboration with Indigenous communities has brought Indigenous ways of knowing and being into the built environment—a vital contribution to re-imagining the kinds of futures we might create as we respond and adapt to climate change.

A particular highlight of this year’s Conference was being together again for our Celebration of Excellence, at which awardwinners from both 2022 and 2023 were honoured for their remarkable achievements. The event also included the RAIC College Convocation and Syllabus Convocation. While we recognize the legacy of established practitioners with the Annual Awards and induction of new RAIC Fellows and Honorary Fellows, with the Syllabus Convocation, we look to the future of architecture in Canada and to the promise shown by the talented, dedicated people who are moving forward in the profession.

While the Conference on Architecture is a national event, every year it’s also a chance to learn more about local architecture and the people who create it. The 2023 Conference’s special events gave participants an inside view of the diverse and thriving architectural scene in Calgary—including an evening event with local architecture firm The Marc Boutin Architectural Collaborative (MBAC), and a closing party highlighting the work of students at the University of Calgary’s School of Architecture,

Fellows preparing for the College of Fellows Convocation (May 5, 2023).

Les fellows se préparent à la cérémonie d’intronisation du Collège des fellows (5 mai 2023).

Ismail El Aboudi

Planning, and Landscape (SAPL). A studio crawl gave participants a look at the dynamic environment that the city’s architects are working in, and the innovative projects they are creating. Architectural tours led by guides with deep local knowledge provided further opportunities to learn about the history and significance of local landmarks, showcasing both older and more recent buildings.

The RAIC is deeply thankful to everyone who contributed to the success of this year’s Conference, including volunteers, staff, session presenters, special guest speakers, sponsors, and the local architectural firms and other partners who co-produced the Conference special events. Let’s meet again next year in Vancouver for more great connections at Conference 2024!

Chaque année, la Conférence sur l’architecture de l’IRAC offre un forum national aux architectes et aux professionnels des domaines connexes pour qu’ils se réunissent, échangent des idées, suscitent l’ innovation et de nouvelles collaborations, et célèbrent les réalisations de l’architecture canadienne. En mai dernier, la Conférence sur l’architecture s’est tenue à Calgary, en Alberta. L’événement a été un grand succès et a permis de retrouver les collègues en personne, après trois années de rencontres virtuelles.

Comme toujours, l’apprentissage était au cœur de la Conférence de cette année. Les séances de formation continue ont permis

d’acquérir des connaissances approfondies et de pointe sur des enjeux d’actualité dans le domaine de l’architecture, et se sont organisées autour de huit thèmes, dont la justice et la résilience climatiques, la durabilité, l’adaptation et l’atténuation, l’architecture dirigée par des Autochtones, ainsi que l’histoire, le patrimoine et la culture. Nos conférenciers experts ont donné vie à ces thèmes, invitant les participants à prendre part à des discussions qui se déroulent au premier plan dans ce domaine.

Nos intervenants inspirants ont fait passer la Conférence 2023 à un niveau supérieur en partageant leurs points de vue et leurs expériences. L’événement a débuté par le mot de bienvenue de la mairesse de Calgary, Jyoti Gondek, et de Kate Thompson, Hon. FRAIC, présidente et directrice générale de la Calgary Municipal Land Corporation. Elles ont présenté les plans de développement urbain de Calgary et l’impact des projets qui transforment le centre-ville, notamment la nouvelle bibliothèque publique (Snøhetta en association avec DIALOG), le 9th Avenue Parkade + Innovation Centre (5468796 en collaboration avec Kasian) et l’agrandissement du BMO Centre (Stantec, Populous et S2 Architecture). Lors du Déjeuner avec un fellow, nous avons accueilli une invitée spéciale, Wanda Dalla Costa, Hon. FRAIC, directrice et fondatrice de Tawaw Architecture Collective, professeur à l’Arizona State University et première femme architecte des Premières Nations au Canada. Son travail novateur en collaboration avec les communautés autochtones a permis d’intégrer les modes de connais-

sance et de vie autochtones dans l’environnement bâti, une contribution essentielle pour réinventer les types d’avenir que nous pourrions créer en répondant et en nous adaptant aux changements climatiques.

Cette année, l’un des points forts de la conférence a été de se retrouver pour la Célébration de l’excellence, au cours de laquelle les lauréats des années 2022 et 2023 ont été honorés pour leurs remarquables réalisations, la cérémonie d’intronisation au Collège de l’IRAC et la cérémonie de remise des diplômes du programme Syllabus. Tout en reconnaissant l’héritage des professionnels établis par la remise des prix annuels et l’intronisation des nouveaux fellows et fellows honoraires de l’IRAC, nous nous tournons vers l’avenir de l’architecture au Canada et vers les promesses des personnes talentueuses et dévouées qui font évoluer la profession.

Si la Conférence sur l’architecture est un événement national, elle est aussi chaque année l’occasion d’en apprendre davantage sur l’architecture locale et sur ses créateurs. Les événements spéciaux de la Conférence 2023 ont permis aux participants de découvrir les coulisses de la scène architecturale diversifiée et florissante de Calgary, notamment dans le cadre d’une soirée avec les membres du cabinet d’architectes local Marc Boutin Architectural Collaborative (MBAC) et d’une fête de clôture mettant en lumière le travail des étudiants de l’école d’architecture, de planification et de paysage de l’Université de Calgary. Une visite d’atelier a permis aux participants de découvrir l’environnement dynamique dans lequel travaillent les architectes de la ville et les projets innovants qu’ils créent. Des visites architecturales animées par des guides connaissant parfaitement la ville ont permis de découvrir l’histoire et l’importance des monuments locaux, en mettant en valeur des bâtiments anciens et récents.

L’IRAC tient à remercier chaleureusement tous ceux qui ont contribué au succès de la Conférence de cette année, notamment les bénévoles, le personnel, les présentateurs des séances, les conférenciers invités, les commanditaires, les bureaux d’architectes locaux et les autres partenaires qui ont coproduit les activités spéciales de la Conférence. C’est un rendez-vous l’année prochaine à Vancouver pour d’autres rencontres formidables à l’occasion de la Conférence 2024!

RAIC President Jason Robbins and Presidentelect Jonathan Bisson at the President’s Dinner and award ceremony (May 4, 2023).

Jason Robbins, président de l’IRAC, et Jonathan Bisson, président élu, lors du dîner des présidents et de la cérémonie de remise des prix (4 mai 2023).

The RAIC’s Statement on Long-Term Care Déclaration de l’IRAC sur les soins de longue durée

Melonie Fullick Marketing and Communications Manager Gestionnaire du marketing et des communications

In April 2023, The RAIC published a statement on the standards of design in LongTerm Care (LTC) facilities and retirement homes, and their effect on the well-being of seniors and staff—particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. The statement specifically highlights the problem of grouping residents into rooms together with shared bathroom facilities, which facilitates the spread of infection. The RAIC’s recommendation is to create design and building standards that prevent further outbreaks of COVID-19 and avoid a repeat of past mistakes in a future pandemic. Shared bedrooms and bathrooms need to be eliminated, and these changes are vital for the protection of vulnerable seniors now and in years to come.

The devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on seniors in Canada has revealed profound weaknesses in the way Canadians are accommodated as they age and require more support. The design of the buildings in which seniors reside greatly affects the health and safety of both residents and staff members, and current standards allow for the spread of not only COVID, but also other pathogens including Clostridium difficile, Febrile Respiratory Illnesses, Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and Vancomycin-resistant enterococci. Research has shown that shared bedrooms and bathrooms create conditions ideal for the spread of such diseases, and that infections would spread far less easily with separate facilities. Yet recent changes and recommendations from several Canadian organizations, including the National Building Code of Canada (NBCC), The Health Standards Organization (HSO), and the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) do not adequately address urgent issues involving building design and the crowding of residents.

The hard-learned lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic must be used to make changes to the standards and codes used to govern the design and operation of the next generation of LTC homes and the renovation and upgrading of existing ones. The RAIC recommends that shared bedrooms and bathrooms

be prohibited in all new facilities and, over time, eliminated in existing facilities—for the protection of residents’ physical health, but also for their overall quality of life. The RAIC calls for revision of the HSO standard to address the important factor of crowding, and also for the CSA standard to mandate single-occupancy bedrooms and bathrooms. Once updated, both standards should be adopted by Provincial and Territorial governments as compulsory standards governing the design and operation of LTC homes.

As Canada’s seniors population percentage increases to more than 20% over the next decade, the issues with safe and healthy accommodation for seniors will only become more urgent. Yet most Canadians would prefer not to live in a long-term care home as they age, for the very reasons outlined in the RAIC’s statement: exposure to health risks is their main concern. There are home and community models of support that have proven to be much more humane and cost-effective, preventing the sequestering of seniors in facilities where they may lose connections with their friends, families and neighbours. The RAIC’s position is that alternative approaches to the accommodation of aging Canadians needing support are essential, and are a human rights and social justice issue.

Architects can and should advocate for a future that will be healthier and more inclusive for everyone. If we are fortunate, aging is something we will inevitably experience; sensitive design offers a range of greatly improved accommodation options that promote well-being as we age. Architects have a key role to play in building for a future where ageing Canadians live with dignity, respect, and as much independence as possible.

The full statement is available at www.raic. org/news/raic-statement-long-term-careand-inadequate-standards-and-codesmay-2023

niqué souligne en particulier le problème du regroupement des résidents dans des chambres avec des salles de toilette communes, ce qui facilite la propagation de l’infection. L’IRAC recommande de créer des normes de conception et de construction qui préviennent l’apparition de nouvelles épidémies de COVID-19 et évitent de répéter les erreurs du passé lors d’une future pandémie. Les chambres et les salles de toilette communes doivent être supprimées, et ces changements sont essentiels pour la protection des personnes âgées vulnérables, aujourd’hui et dans les années à venir.

Les conséquences dévastatrices de la pandémie de COVID-19 sur les personnes âgées au Canada ont révélé de profondes faiblesses dans la manière dont les Canadiens sont pris en charge lorsqu’ils vieillissent et ont besoin d’un soutien plus important. La conception des bâtiments dans lesquels vivent les personnes âgées a une grande influence sur la santé et la sécurité des résidents et des membres du personnel, et les normes actuelles permettent la propagation non seulement de la COVID, mais aussi d’autres agents pathogènes tels que le Clostridium difficile, les infections respiratoires fébriles, le Staphylococcus aureus résistant à la méthicilline et les entérocoques résistants à la vancomycine. Des recherches ont révélé que les chambres et les salles de toilette communes créent des conditions idéales pour la propagation de ces maladies, et que les infections se propageraient beaucoup moins facilement avec des installations séparées. Pourtant, les récentes modifications et recommandations de plusieurs organisations canadiennes, dont le Code national du bâtiment du Canada (CNB), l’Organisation des normes en santé (HSO) et l’Association canadienne de normalisation (CSA), ne répondent pas de manière adéquate aux problèmes urgents liés à la conception des bâtiments et à la promiscuité entre les résidents.

En avril 2023, l’IRAC a publié un communiqué sur les normes de conception des établissements de soins de longue durée (SLD) et des maisons de retraite, et leur incidence sur le bien-être des personnes âgées et du personnel, en particulier pendant la pandémie de COVID-19. Le commu-

Les enseignements durement tirés de la pandémie de COVID-19 doivent être mis à profit pour modifier les normes et les codes régissant la conception et le fonctionnement de la prochaine génération de foyers de SLD, ainsi que la rénovation et l’amélioration des foyers existants. L’IRAC recommande d’interdire le partage des

chambres et des salles de toilette dans tous les nouveaux établissements et, au fil du temps, de l’éliminer dans les établissements existants, afin de protéger la santé physique des résidents, mais aussi leur qualité de vie en général. L’IRAC demande que la norme de l’Organisation des normes en santé soit révisée pour tenir compte du facteur important qu’est la promiscuité, et que la norme de la CSA rende obligatoires les chambres et les salles de toilette à occupation simple. Une fois mises à jour, ces deux normes devraient être adoptées par les gouvernements provinciaux et territoriaux en tant que normes obligatoires régissant la conception et le fonctionnement des établissements de soins de longue durée.

Comme la population des personnes âgées au Canada augmentera de plus de 20 % au cours de la prochaine décennie, les problèmes liés à la sécurité et à la salubrité des logements qui leur sont destinés deviendront de plus en plus urgents. Pourtant, la plupart des Canadiens préféreraient ne pas vivre dans un établissement de soins de longue durée lorsqu’ils vieillissent, pour les raisons mêmes énoncées dans le communiqué de l’IRAC : l’exposition aux risques pour la santé est leur principale préoccupation. Il existe des modèles d’aide à domicile et de proximité qui se sont révélés beaucoup plus humains et rentables, et qui évitent de confiner les personnes âgées dans des établissements où elles risquent de perdre le contact avec leurs amis, leur famille et leurs voisins. L’IRAC est d’avis qu’il est essentiel d’adopter d’autres approches pour loger les Canadiens vieillissants qui ont besoin de soutien, et qu’il s’agit d’une question de droits de la personne et de justice sociale.

Les architectes peuvent et doivent plaider en faveur d’un avenir plus sain et plus inclusif pour tous. Si nous avons de la chance, le vieillissement est une expérience que nous vivrons inévitablement; une conception adaptée offre une gamme d’options d’hébergement grandement améliorées qui favorisent le bien-être au fur et à mesure que nous vieillissons. Les architectes ont un rôle clé à jouer pour bâtir un avenir où les Canadiens vieillissants vivront dans la dignité, le respect et la plus grande autonomie possible.

Le communiqué complet se trouve à l’adresse suivante : https://raic.org/fr/ news/communique-de-lirac-sur-lesetablissements-de-soins-de-longueduree-et-les-normes-et-codes

The New Social Value of Architectural Quality

La nouvelle valeur sociale de la qualité en architecture

David Down, architect for the City of Calgary, addressing the participants during the closing session at the Calgary Central Library.

David Down, architecte pour la Ville de Calgary, s’adressant aux participants lors de la séance de clôture à la bibliothèque centrale de Calgary.

Jean-Pierre Chupin Canada Research Chair in Architecture, Competitions and Mediations of Excellence, Université de Montréal.

Chaire de recherche du Canada en architecture, concours et médiations de l’excellence, Université de Montréal

How can we determine new ways of understanding architectural quality that are sufficiently comparable and socially representative to be able to guide decision-making and policy frameworks? This is the question that ran through the first year of the Quality in Canada’s Built Environment Research Partnership, supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Since April 2022, we have been engaged in a five-year collaborative project that brings together 14 universities and over 60 organizations. By mobilizing more than 20 disciplines and as many professions, the aim is to understand how to improve the quality of built environments by making them more accessible, more equitable, and more respectful of the natural environment. Quality is not only the responsibility of professionals, designers, clients and experts in the built environment. It is also the responsibility of users and residents—a shared responsibility in a democratic society where no one is left behind.

But current definitions of architectural quality are still dictated either by the disciplines of the built environment, or by project management principles of a quantitative nature.

Traci Berg

Between these, the voice of users tends to get lost. More and more resident groups and professionals, as well as students and scholars, are calling for a re-evaluation of normative frameworks and procedures for realizing the built environment. More generally, there is a need for definitions of quality that meet new expectations in terms of accessibility, reconciliation with Indigenous cultures, social inclusion and sustainability.

While we are moving in the right direction as far as sustainability is concerned, we still have a long way to go to make our built environments accessible to all. Our schools, museums, public parks, social housing and libraries must no longer stigmatize or segregate people with visible or invisible disabilities, as they too often do.

For the Partnership’s second annual convention in Calgary, in May 2023, we chose to approach quality through the diversity of lived experience. We sought to understand how best to capture the multiplicity of feelings, viewpoints, experiences and emotions encountered in buildings and places. While awards for excellence are the traditional indicators of quality in architecture, they are generally incapable of taking into account the lived experience of users and residents—let alone explaining quality in terms of such experiences. That’s exactly what emerges from the 300page document we compiled in less than three months, based on the testimonies of more than 135 members of the partnership.

These are tough questions, and if we ask them in the closed circles of academic research, training and the architectural profession, we will never find meaningful answers. Instead, we will be reasoning in an echo chamber of our preconceptions and assumptions. Sharing a real-life experience of the pleasure felt in a public library, during an hour or two of reading on a winter Saturday morning, is not easy. Talking about the time spent in hospitals, in places dominated by technology but nonetheless protective when you are worried about the health of a loved one, is not self-evident. In such cases, it is natural to think of thanking the nurse rather than the architect. Oddly enough, it might be easier to share a beautiful experience in a heritage or historic place than in a contemporary building. It may also be more acceptable to appreciate a natural place than a built space. Starting from early childhood and school, we were not prepared to talk about our emotions in architectural places, even though we may have been encouraged to talk about the beauty of natural spaces.

How can we encourage non-experts to talk about their lived experience? The notion of lived experience has become something of a reference point among groups working with people living with disabilities—a helpful reminder that this is an inclusive concept, because we all experience some form of limitation. The document we have produced provides access to a trove of personal stories, potential data that is both unpublished

and highly reliable. How can we best extend such an exercise to the whole population, beyond the research partnership? This is the purpose of our platform under construction: the Living Atlas of Quality in the Built Environment (livingatlasofquality.ca).

We will soon be inviting Canadian architects and students to share their positive experiences of architectural quality.

In parallel to this, the university-led research clusters are continuing their work. Over the next few months, 14 roadmaps towards new definitions of quality will be sketched out in 14 very different situations from coast to coast. These will help us to more specifically understand how quality can be articulated in terms of the values to be respected, the targets to be achieved, the means, resources and approaches to be implemented, and the different roles and their articulation in the timeline of architectural works. The roadmaps will not only include principles likely to improve practice frameworks, they will also reflect on educational programs still inaccessible to certain equity-deserving groups. This will enable us to align training with new social expectations, new public and municipal frameworks, and new needs expressed by citizen groups. The fact that some of the main public and professional players—both provincial and national—are partners in this collective research in itself testifies to the need for a profound change in our understanding of architectural quality.

During a plenary session, four participants were invited to share their “positive lived experience of quality” walking through the different stages of the wheel of awareness. This alternative approach was proposed by Indigenous scholar Josie C. Auger, Rick Hansen Foundation CEO Doramy Ehling and Lyne Parent, directrice générale at Association des architectes en pratique privée du Québec.

Au cours d’une séance plénière, quatre participants ont été invités à parler de leur « expérience positive vécue de la qualité » en parcourant les différentes étapes de la roue de la conscience. Cette approche différente a été proposée par Josie C. Auger, universitaire autochtone, Doramy Ehling, directrice générale de la Fondation Rick Hansen, et Lyne Parent, directrice générale de l’Association des architectes en pratique privée du Québec.

Traci Berg

Comment déterminer de nouvelles façons de comprendre la qualité en architecture qui soient suffisamment comparables et socialement représentatives pour pouvoir orienter la prise de décision et les cadres stratégiques? C’est la question qui a été posée au cours de la première année du Partenariat de recherche sur la qualité de l’environnement bâti au Canada, soutenu par le Conseil de recherches en sciences humaines du Canada.

Depuis avril 2022, nous participons à un projet de collaboration quinquennal qui réunit 14 universités et plus de 60 organisations. En mobilisant plus de 20 disciplines et autant de professions, l’objectif consiste à comprendre comment améliorer la qualité de l’environnement bâti en le rendant plus accessible, plus équitable et plus respectueux de l’environnement naturel.

La qualité n’est pas seulement la responsabilité des professionnels, des concepteurs, des clients et des experts de l’environnement bâti. C’est aussi la responsabilité des usagers et des résidents - une responsabilité commune dans une société démocratique où personne n’est laissé pour compte.

Mais les définitions actuelles de la qualité en architecture sont encore dictées soit par les disciplines de l’environnement bâti, soit par des principes de gestion de projet de nature quantitative. Entre les deux, la voix des usagers tend à se perdre. De plus en plus de groupes de résidents et de professionnels, ainsi que d’étudiants et de chercheurs, réclament une réévaluation

des cadres normatifs et des procédures de réalisation de l’environnement bâti. En général, il faut définir des critères de qualité qui répondent aux nouvelles attentes en matière d’accessibilité, de réconciliation avec les cultures autochtones, d’inclusion sociale et de durabilité.

Même si nous avançons dans la bonne direction en ce qui concerne la durabilité, nous avons encore un long chemin à parcourir pour rendre nos environnements bâtis accessibles à tous. Nos écoles, nos musées, nos parcs publics, nos logements sociaux et nos bibliothèques ne doivent plus stigmatiser ou isoler les personnes souffrant de handicaps visibles ou invisibles, comme c’est trop souvent le cas.

Au deuxième congrès annuel du Partenariat, qui a eu lieu à Calgary en mai 2023, nous avons choisi d’aborder la qualité sous l’angle de la diversité des expériences vécues. Nous avons cherché à comprendre comment saisir le mieux possible la multiplicité des sentiments, des points de vue, des expériences et des émotions rencontrés dans les bâtiments et les lieux. Même si les prix d’excellence sont des indicateurs habituels de la qualité en architecture, ils sont généralement incapables de prendre en compte l’expérience vécue par les usagers et les résidents, et encore moins d’expliquer la qualité en fonction de cette expérience. C’est ce qui ressort du document de 300 pages que nous avons élaboré en moins de trois mois, à partir des témoignages de plus de 135 membres du partenariat.

Ce sont des questions difficiles, et si nous les posons dans les cercles fermés de la recherche universitaire, de la formation et de la profession d’architecte, nous ne trouverons jamais de réponses significatives. Au lieu de cela, notre réflexion se limitera à faire écho à nos idées préconçues et à nos suppositions. Partager le plaisir ressenti de lire pendant une heure ou deux dans une bibliothèque publique, un samedi matin d’hiver, n’est pas chose facile. Parler des moments passés dans les hôpitaux, dans des lieux dominés par la technologie, mais néanmoins protecteurs lorsqu’on s’inquiète de la santé d’un proche, ne va pas de soi. Dans ces cas, il est naturel de penser à remercier l’infirmière plutôt que l’architecte. Curieusement, il peut être plus facile de partager une belle expérience dans un lieu patrimonial ou historique que dans un bâtiment contemporain. Il peut également

être plus acceptable d’apprécier un lieu naturel qu’un lieu bâti. Dès la petite enfance et à l’école, nous n’avons pas été préparés à exprimer nos émotions dans des lieux architecturaux, même si nous avons été encouragés à parler de la beauté des espaces naturels.

Comment encourager le commun des mortels à parler de leur expérience vécue? La notion d’expérience vécue est devenue une sorte de point de référence pour les groupes travaillant avec des personnes handicapées - un rappel utile qu’il s’agit d’un concept inclusif, car nous connaissons tous une forme ou une autre de limitation. Le document que nous avons produit donne accès à une multitude d’histoires personnelles, à des données possibles qui sont à la fois inédites et très fiables. Comment étendre ce type d’exercice à l’ensemble de la population, au-delà du partenariat de recherche? C’est l’objectif de notre plateforme en construction : l’Atlas vivant de la qualité en architecture et dans l’environnement bâti (livingatlasofquality. ca). Nous inviterons bientôt des architectes et des étudiants canadiens à partager leurs expériences positives en matière de qualité en architecture.

Parallèlement, les groupes de recherche dirigés par les universités poursuivent leurs travaux. Au cours des prochains mois, 14 feuilles de route vers de nouvelles définitions de la qualité seront esquissées dans 14 situations très différentes d’un océan à l’autre. Elles nous permettront de comprendre plus précisément comment la qualité peut être formulée en termes de valeurs à respecter, d’objectifs à atteindre, de moyens, de ressources et d’approches à mettre en œuvre, ainsi que des différents rôles et de leur organisation dans la chronologie de l’œuvre architecturale. Les feuilles de route comprendront non seulement des principes susceptibles d’améliorer les cadres de pratique, mais aussi une réflexion sur les programmes éducatifs encore inaccessibles à certains groupes méritant l’équité. Cela nous permettra d’aligner la formation sur les nouvelles attentes sociales, les nouveaux cadres publics et municipaux et les nouveaux besoins exprimés par les groupes de citoyens. Le fait que certains des principaux acteurs publics et professionnels, tant provinciaux que nationaux, soient partenaires dans cette recherche collective témoigne à lui seul de la nécessité d’un changement profond dans notre compréhension de la qualité en architecture.

As an ongoing exercise during the coffee breaks, participants were asked to capture their “non expert” definition of quality in one word.

Pendant les pauses café, les participants ont été invités à exprimer en un mot leur définition de la qualité en tant que « non-experts ».

Climate Action Takes Centre Stage at the 2023 RAIC Congress

L’action climatique au cœur du Congrès 2023 de l’IRAC

Giovanna Boniface Chief Implementation Officer Agente de mise en œuvre en chef

For the first time since the Congress on Architecture was launched in 2021, this year’s event will take place in person. Gathering in Whistler, BC, on October 2-3, 2023, Congress is the culmination of 18 months of work by the RAIC Climate Action Engagement and Enablement Plan Steering Committee, alongside working groups who have been actively engaging the architectural community to ensure they have their voices heard in the development of the RAIC Climate Action Plan.

The two-day event will bring participants together for important discussions and education on the theme of Climate Action and Architecture with the following activities:

• On October 2, the RAIC Congress on Architecture will focus on informing the development of the RAIC Climate Action Plan. Beginning with a conversation on Indigenous perspectives and ecological knowledges in relation to climate action, the day will also include a look at engagement themes to-date and close with an interprofessional discussion focused on collaboration to accelerate action. This event takes place at the Squamish – Lil’wat Cultural Centre, designed by Formline Architecture (formerly Alfred Waugh Architect) in association with contract administration architect Ratio Architecture in 2008 to showcase the two First Nations communities that lived in the Whistler area.

• The evening of October 2, the Congress World Architecture Day Reception will be held at the Audain Art Museum, designed by Patkau Architects and opened in 2016. Architect John Patkau will share insights on the architectural challenges, design development, and

sustainability goals of the building in the context of the demanding mechanical and environmental requirements for a museum.

• On October 3, the Low Carbon Education Workshop takes place at the Fairmont Chateau Whistler. This architect-specific workshop consists of modules that will provide knowledge of low-carbon principles in the following areas:

1. Climate Change Literacy Foundations

2. Climate-Responsive Design Foundations

3. Making the Case for Change

4. Integrative Design Thinking and Regenerative Design

This workshop has been developed in collaboration with the Low Carbon Education Advisory Group and key subject-matter experts, and is part of a broader project to train and upskill the building design and construction workforce in low-carbon skills. The RAIC is pleased to offer free registration to this workshop for architects, interns, technologists and students.

Join us in Whistler for two days of igniting action, strengthening connections, and sharing ideas about climate action and architecture, with the goal of creating a better future for people and the planet. Events have limited capacity, so early registration is encouraged. Learn more today at www.raic.org/congress

Pour la première fois depuis le lancement du Congrès sur l’architecture en 2021, l’événement de cette année se déroulera en personne. Le Congrès, qui se tiendra à Whistler, en Colombie-Britannique, les 2 et 3 octobre 2023, est l’aboutissement de 18 mois de travail du comité directeur du Plan de mobilisation et de mise en œuvre de l’action climatique de l’IRAC, ainsi que des groupes de travail qui ont mobilisé activement la communauté architecturale pour qu’elle fasse entendre sa voix dans l’élaboration du Plan d’action climatique de l’IRAC.

L’événement de deux jours rassemblera les participants dans le cadre de discussions importantes et d’une formation sur le thème de l’action climatique et l’architecture, et comprendra les activités suivantes :

• La journée du 2 octobre du Congrès sur l’architecture sera consacrée à l’élaboration du Plan d’action climatique de l’IRAC. La journée débutera par une discussion sur les perspectives autochtones et les connaissances écologiques en relation avec l’action climatique. Elle comprendra également un exa-

men des thèmes de mobilisation à ce jour et se terminera par une discussion interprofessionnelle axée sur la collaboration en vue d’accélérer l’action. Cet événement se déroule au centre culturel Squamish - Lil’wat, conçu en 2008 par Formline Architecture (anciennement Alfred Waugh Architect) en association avec Ratio Architecture, architecte chargé de l’administration du contrat, afin de mettre en valeur les deux communautés des Premières Nations qui vivaient dans la région de Whistler.

• Le soir du 2 octobre, la réception de la Journée mondiale de l’architecture dans le cadre du Congrès se tiendra au Musée d’art Audain, conçu par Patkau Architects et inauguré en 2016. L’architecte John Patkau présentera les défis architecturaux, le processus de conception et les objectifs de durabilité du bâtiment dans le contexte des exigences techniques et environnementales d’un musée.

Cet atelier destiné aux architectes se compose de modules qui permettent d’acquérir des connaissances sur les principes de sobriété carbone dans les domaines suivants :

1. Fondements de la connaissance des changements climatiques

2. Fondements de la conception adaptée au climat

3. Arguments en faveur du changement

4. Pensée intégrative et conception régénératrice

• L’atelier de formation sur la sobriété en carbone du 3 octobre aura lieu au Fairmont Château Whistler. Cet atelier a été créé en collaboration avec le Groupe consultatif sur l’éducation en matière de sobriété carbone et des experts en la matière. Il fait partie d’un projet plus vaste visant à former et à perfectionner la main-d’œuvre dans le domaine de la conception et de la construction de bâtiments afin qu’elle acquière des compétences en matière de sobriété carbone. L’IRAC a le plaisir d’offrir gratuitement l’inscription à cet atelier aux architectes, stagiaires, technologues et étudiants.

Joignez-vous à nous à Whistler pendant deux jours pour susciter l’action, renforcer les liens et partager des idées sur l’action climatique et l’architecture, dans le but de créer un meilleur avenir pour les gens et la planète. Le nombre de places étant limité, nous vous invitons à vous inscrire à l’avance. Pour en savoir plus, rendez-vous sur www.raic.org/congress

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HEADING BACK HOME

AGATHOM CRAFTS A HUMBLE HOME FOR EQUITABLE HEALTHCARE VISIONARIES IN TORONTO.

PROJECT Wellesley Institute, Toronto, Ontario

ARCHITECT AGATHOM Co. Limited

TEXT Jason Brijraj

PHOTOS Scott Norsworthy

ABOVE The back façade of the renovated pair of townhomes faces a neighbourhood laneway. A custom rainscreen system, including weathering steel panels, was developed as an economical alternative to a more expensive off-the-shelf system. OPPOSITE The townhomes’ exterior stairs were removed and the reception set at street level for accessibility. A retained fireplace marks the previous home’s main floor.

Toronto’s Moss Park neighbourhood is a rough part of the city but a perfect fit for a recent project by AGATHOM for the Wellesley Institute. Led by husband-and-wife team Adam Thom and Katja Aga Sachse Thom, AGATHOM prides itself on working closely with clients, their in-house team, builders and craftspeople to make buildings that contribute to the well-being of their occupants. It was no surprise the public health-focused Institute approached the firm in 2018 to manage the repurposing of two recently purchased townhouses, backing onto a dodgy neighbourhood laneway, on a tight budget.

The Wellesley Institute has a longstanding history of providing healthcare to the neighbourhood. Founded by members of the long-demolished Wellesley Hospital’s Central Health Corporation, the Institute was the developer responsible for the mix of park space, residential and healthcare buildings now occupying former hospital lands. After their successful stint as developers, staff relocated to leased office spaces in Yorkville and shifted their direction, becoming a think-tank. However, their location in the upscale Toronto neighbourhood was at odds

with their goals of finding tangible ways to overcome the social determinants of health to make healthcare more equitable. This prompted the move to be closer to their target clientele, and a short walk away from the original Wellesley Hospital site.

The resulting project combines the two townhouses, balancing between preserving existing elements and intervening where necessary. This starts at the entrance, where the original front stairs were removed and the entrance foyer rebuilt at grade, providing an accessible front door. Inside, the design celebrates quirky features resulting from the lowered ground floor datum, such as an oversized opening for the entrance door and raised existing fireplaces.

Within, strategic openings in partitions and in the original party wall make for spacious, well-lit spaces. The design deftly threads spaces together with deeper light penetration, while preserving privacy in rooms. On AGATHOM ’s recommendation, the offices are furnished with comfortable wooden furniture, replacing the corporate furnishings of the Institute’s Yorkville office.

A selective material palette creates a home-like atmosphere for staff. White-oak-trimmed countertops and thin steel edges contrast with heavier terracotta tile and aged brick walls. Scrupulousness with detailing and execution are evident throughout. Contractors Duffy & Associates “took immense care to make sure that bricks were re-toothed, instead of left messily sawed off,” notes Adam Thom.

The neighbourhood’s character comes into focus when peering out of the south-facing windows, to the rear of the building. Along with the noisy hilarity and range of questionable commercial activities that is typical of Moss Park, the views of Oskenonton Lane are constant reminders of the disenfranchised people the Institute aims to help with their research.

Much of the exterior intervention by the firm took place at the back of the building, so the south elevation became an opportunity for expression. By developing an in-house rainscreen wall assembly in lieu of an expensive off-the-shelf system the firm was able to use weathered steel panels that will age over time, while still meeting the project budget. The mosaic of solid metals and transparent glass reconciles the various interior program spaces. In the backyard, a newly planted London plane tree grows within a large concrete planter created in part

from the previous building’s retained foundation wall. This opportunity to reuse the existing foundation is one of what Adam and Katja describe as “little wins” for the project.

The back elevation, with its weathered materials and carefully considered composition, is designed to fit with the neighbourhood with all its grittiness as well as its profound humanity. Like Diamond and Myers’ Sherbourne Lanes and Hariri Pontarini’s Robertson House Women’s Shelter, which also back onto Oskenonton Lane with sensitivity to their site, it demonstrates how the architects and clients have not turned their backs on the people their work will impact the most. It signals a project that, overall, is a quiet triumph for AGATHOM, The Wellesley Institute, and for equitable healthcare in the city.

Jason Brijraj is an intern architect working in Toronto with Diamond Schmitt Architects.

ABOVE A series of carefully considered interventions aimed to connect the two previously separate buildings and introduce light into the floorplate, while preserving the character-defining elements of the Victorian homes. OPPOSITE TOP An enlarged front door sets the structure subtly apart from its residential neighbours. OPPOSITE BOTTOM At the back of the building, an exit stair and new opening were added, providing views to Oskenonton Lane.

BREAKING THE STEREOTYPE

THE NEW HEADQUARTERS FOR A COOPERATIVE OF CHICKEN FARMERS BRINGS CONTEMPORARY SOPHISTICATION TO A RURAL INDUSTRY.

The city of Lévis, population 150,000, sits at the juncture of two worlds: rural Quebec and the province’s capital city. Formed from an amalgamation of several small towns and villages initiated in 1989, the 444-square-kilometre territory is composed of 48 percent farmlands, and still revolves around the world of agriculture. This, along with the city’s location a 10-minute ferry ride away from Quebec’s seat of power, may explain why Exceldor, a 400-member poultry farmers’ cooperative, chose Lévis for its new headquarters.

The long journey from a group of little-known farmers’ cooperatives to a strong presence on the market started in 2013, when Exceldor hired well-respected advertising agency Cossette to rethink and revamp the brand’s visual identity. In 2020, a collaboration with lg2 another exceptionally gifted agency led to an energetic communication strategy involving a new website and unique promotional campaigns. These days, Exceldor’s abstracted rooster logo has become a familiar presence in the province’s supermarkets.

Selecting an architectural firm able to match the sophistication of the brand’s strategy was the next challenge, which coincided with

PROJECT Le 1500 rue Métivier

ARCHITECT Anne Carrier architecture

TEXT Odile Hénault

PHOTOS Stéphane Groleau

ABOVE A subtle bend in the volume of Exceldor’s new headquarters reflects a slight change in the street grid of the newly developed area surrounding the Convention Centre in Lévis, Quebec.

JEAN-LESAGEHWY QUARTIER MISCÉO

the desire to bring the cooperative’s employees into a single location. Just as Exceldor’s carefully considered branding is a far cry from the average city dweller’s perception of the rural world, the Cooperative set their sights on a design and location that would go beyond stereotypes. The chosen site was within a new development centred on Lévis’ Convention Centre, inaugurated in 2008. The district, called MISCÉO, has quickly expanded in the past fifteen years to include several mid-rise condominium complexes, a major hotel, a university building, and several low-rise commercial structures.

The four-storey structure at 1500 Métivier Street was purpose-built for Exceldor, which occupies the upper two levels. Two restaurants, a gym and several small businesses are on the ground floor, while forestry management agency Solifor occupies the second level. For locally minded developer AMT, the choice of Lévis’ Anne Carrier Architecture was an obvious one. The firm had amply proved its worth with the design of La Caisse Desjardins de Lévis’ headquarters. That project, which also involved ABCP Architecture, received a 2016 Governor General’s Award in Architecture (see CA, May 2016).

As the design team searched the surroundings for sources of inspiration, the site offered few cues. Finally, they picked up on a tiny shift in the street grid. This innocuous prompt evolved into a major organizing element as the plans developed, particularly the third and fourth levels to be occupied by Exceldor. Vertical movement was also introduced:

floors appear to be sliding above one another, breaking the scale and “making a visual connection with the nearby one-level structures,” according to the architects.

Another strategy, often used by Anne Carrier architecture, is the deployment of large metallic frames, which project from the buildings’ façades and bring them to life. The presence of Exceldor’s senior leadership is thus emphasized, as their fourth-floor offices reach forward from the northwest façade. From inside, the CEO and Board members enjoy a framed view of Lévis’ historic centre and Old Quebec City beyond.

At the other end of the building, a three-storey-high frame was introduced, breaking the monotony of the glass cladding. Similar thinking led to the insertion of dark spandrel glass panels on the two longer façades, which introduce visual rhythm while allowing for the flexible placement of internal partitions.

The interiors, also designed by Anne Carrier Architecture, were meant to encourage personal exchanges of crucial importance in a post-pandemic context. Here and there, glass partitions interrupt the otherwise open work areas, maximizing natural light for all users. The third-floor reception desk is integrated into a central core, where washrooms, storage areas, and other services are concealed from view. The oak-veneer panels lining the core bring a feeling of warmth and well-being to both floors; wood is also widely used in the employees’ cafeteria to similar effect.

ABOVE A perforated metal screen wraps around a feature stair connecting the two levels of the building occupied by the poultry farmers’ cooperative.

OPPOSITE The senior leadership offices sit on the top floor of the building, and project forward from the northwest façade. From inside, the CEO and Board members enjoy sweeping views of historic Lévis and, across the river, Old Quebec City.

The two Exceldor floors are linked by a voluptuous perforated metal spiral staircase, acting as a pivot between employees and management. Thin concrete slabs allow for higher ceilings and a clear articulation of the volumes. The exposed concrete also set the tone for this project’s sober colour scheme, light-years away from rural stereotypes.

Although well-designed workplaces may not be unusual in larger, more prestigious businesses, achieving this quality of design in a midscale commercial building, for a client group usually associated with rural settings, remains a rare feat. Despite its relatively small size, and in its own subdued way, Exceldor’s headquarters is a powerful reminder of how architecture can engage in place-making. While com-

mercial architecture is rarely recognized in awards, this is the kind of work that can be inspirational to architects and their clients showing how even the most ordinary of programs and locations can be elevated through design.

SHELL GAME

AN EXPRESSIVE STRUCTURE RAISES THE BAR FOR SPEC OFFICE BUILDINGS IN VANCOUVER.

PROJECT Focal on Third, Vancouver, BC ARCHITECT ph5 architecture inc.

TEXT Bruce Haden

PHOTOS Graham Handford

It can feel oddly refreshing when a good architecture practice is not focused on slick marketing. PH 5 is one such firm. The work and life partnership of Peeroj Thakre and Henning Knoetzele has been quietly producing thoughtful work in Vancouver for many years. Their care and attention to detail for the type of projects that often don’t have ambitious design agendas (or plump budgets) is a consequential contribution to the city. This is especially evident in PH 5’s most recently completed building, an office block named Focal on Third. My previous office was a close neighbour to this project, and I watched its construction with curiosity and appreciation. The building is at the southern edge of the developing North Mount Pleasant tech area, a zone anchored by Hootsuite’s offices, with many smaller-scale technology and design firms located nearby. In this neighbourhood of new corporate builds deploying

LEFT Focal on Third’s strong visual identity was developed within a volume heavily constrained by zoning requirements. ABOVE The façade includes two shades of terracotta panels.

multiple up-to-the-minute architectural strategies some good, some not so good the craft and confidence of Focal on Third stands out.

The strong presence of this small building was hard-won by PH 5 on a site with many limitations. Architecture can be thought of as created in the tension between external massing strategies and internal program needs. In this context, Focal on Third is an especially difficult challenge. First, the massing strategies were dictated to the centimetre by City requirements for setbacks and height limits on a constrained site. Accordingly, the massing of Focal on Third is a result of external proscription, not creativity. And the as-yet unoccupied program of speculative office shell space creates no real pressures for internal forms that are distinctive or special in a way that can set the stage for moments of architectural identity.

This means that for this particular building type, on this particular site, the range of possible expressions was very narrow. Once massing and program are excised, all that is left is the design of the shell to produce identity and character.

Fortunately, in the hands of PH 5, the shell is masterful, giving the neighbourhood a textured icon. The material palette is limited but expressive: in addition to the necessary glass, two earth tones of terracotta cladding panels are crisply bracketed by sharp chocolate-brown mullions, with the vertical mullions dominant. This colour combination creates a richness that is exceptional for Vancouver, where new towers are often cloaked in a nearly monotone dark blue-and-grey a too-dull palette in a climate

where the sky is often dull. In contrast, the warmth of Focal on Third’s terracotta creates a sense of solidity and permanence, while avoiding the trap of using splashes of bright colour as an appliqué to lend life to an otherwise drab building. The extended verticals provide a pleasing shadow play, further enhancing the texture and movement of the façade.

The framed blocks of terracotta are oriented vertically, allowing the building to further stand out: the concrete residential towers that dominate Vancouver’s skylines have a ubiquitous horizontal expression. This choice of orientation, combined with the pixelation of the panels, creates a rich proportion and rhythm on the façade. And although pixelated facades are becoming more common, the strategy also provides variety in the interior, and a contrast to the rigid five-feet-on-centre grid that dominates the design of office façades.

Focal on Third is a bit like PH 5 itself: neither the building nor the practice seek out attention, but both deserve it.

Vancouver-based architect Bruce Haden, MRAIC, is principal of FLUID Architecture.

ABOVE Extended vertical mullions lend a pleasing shadow play to the façades. The building acts as a visual anchor for the southern edge of the North Mount Pleasant district, an area that has attracted many tech and design firms.

Playhouse in the Park

External noise can disrupt any theatrical performance. Sirens, airplanes and traffic produce sounds that can infiltrate any space and are especially bothersome for performers and audiences in event spaces.

Architects specified five acoustical smoke vents from BILCO for the new theatre in Cincinnati. The 5-foot x 5-foot acoustical smoke vents have industry-high ratings of STC-50, OITC-46 and ISO 140-18. The OITC rating is especially critical for theatres, as it guards against low-frequency sounds such as vehicular traffic and airplane noise. Three thermally broken roof hatches from BILCO were also included in the new theatre.

Project Snapshot

• A new theatre, Moe and Jack’s Place – The Rouse Theatre, opened in March 2023 at the Playhouse in the Park in Cincinnati. The $50 million, 62,000 square foot project was designed by BHDP Architecture and built by Messer Construction.

• The 540-seat theatre replaces the 626-seat Marx Theatre at Eden Park. The Marx Theatre opened in 1968 and lacked the technological sophistication of today’s performing arts venues. The new theatre offers greater flexibility, improved comfort and better acoustics.

BILCO Acoustical Smoke Vents

• Acoustical smoke vents prevent noise intrusion from ex terior surroundings while providing the security of automatic venting.

• BILCO’s smoke vents feature an industry-high STC-50 and OITC-46 sound rating, and are found in many theatres and performing arts venues.

“The architect selected the BILCO product based on the product features and the requirements for this application.”

– Todd Wright, Senior Project Manager for Messer Construction Company

Experience. Innovation.

MASTERWORKS RENEWED

A SERIES OF MAJOR PROJECTS UPDATE SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY’S ICONIC BURNABY CAMPUS FOR A NEW GENERATION OF STUDENTS.

PROJECT Simon Fraser University Plaza Renewal, Burnaby, BC

ARCHITECT PUBLIC Architecture

PHOTOS Upper Left Photography, unless otherwise noted

PROJECT SFU Student Union Building

ARCHITECT Perkins&Will

PHOTOS Michael Elkan Photography, unless otherwise noted

TEXT Trevor Boddy

Recently, Canadian architects have had deep cause for worry about the fates of three of Toronto’s key modernist monuments: Eberhard Zeidler’s Ontario Place, and Raymond Moriyama’s Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre and Ontario Science Centre. Luckily, the news from Vancouver is more positive. In the past few years, massive public investments have ensured the continued presence of two standout design masterpieces the University of British Columbia’s Museum of Anthropology, and the core campus of Simon Fraser University.

The science of seismic design has advanced hugely since Erickson worked with engineer Bogue Babicki to complete the Museum of Anthropology in 1976. A seismic upgrade was long overdue for the Great Hall the huge room opening up to Pacific vistas that encloses totem poles, house frames and potlach bowls, with its concrete portals abstracting the details of ocean-flanking monumental houses built by coastal First Nations to the north. This prior need was turned into an urgent crisis when it was discovered that the angled crossbeams linking each of the main box beams demonstrated moisture in-migration; the resulting spalling of concrete around rebar increased the likelihood of catastrophic failure.

Surprising many of us here, during the pandemic, the university and senior government officials quietly came up with the nearly $40 million needed to completely rebuild Erickson’s Great Hall. The new frame of the Great Hall is now up, and it is all but indistinguishable from the original. Long-time Erickson associate Nick Milkovich working with Equilibrium Engineering has set all-new columns on base isolators to reduce structural damage from any but the most extreme earthquakes. Improved detailing for the crossbeams will result in a much longer service life. Moreover, new glass technology and advice from Arup means that the new ocean-facing windows will not need angled glass structural supports, enforcing and actually improving the visual relationship between Indigenous artifact and natural landscape at the heart of Erickson’s conception.

Minimal intervention into a superb existing design has also driven two recent commissions at the heart of Arthur Erickson and Geoffrey Massey’s Simon Fraser University campus. A new Student Union Building by Perkins & Will and a massive rethink of the university’s outdoor public spaces by Public Architecture both demonstrate how SFU can preserve and build for the future, without compromising the architectural asset that first earned it a global reputation.

LEFT Public Architecture’s rethink of the outdoor public spaces at Simon Fraser University aimed to update the areas for accessibility and durability, while respecting Arthur Erickson and Geoffrey Massey’s original vision for the campus.

While composing the 1963 design competition campus plan with partner Geoffrey Massey, Erickson drew upon his extensive travels to search for a precedent for a university on a flat mountaintop. He briefly considered the Acropolis and other Greek hill-topping ritual centres, but thought them too small-scale for an entire university. His thoughts turned to Monte Alban, the Zapotec ceremonial city he had visited just outside Oaxaca, in Southern Mexico. Monte Alban has a long axis, framing linear ball courts and ceremonial spaces, and a range of walls, pyramids and gateways defining its long line, with a continuous public space extending from mountain edge to mountain edge.

SFU does the same. Erickson once joked to me that despite the torrent of words written about the campus, noone got the Mexican reference: “We even built a pyramid up there to make it easy!” At the highest point is the Academic Quadrangle, a square ringed by a raised two-storey structure containing faculty offices, designed by Zoltan Kiss in conformity with Erickson’s plan (and yes, with his grass-covered pyramid set within it). The gap below the offices frames landscape views in all directions, and classrooms are set underneath the square of hard surface decks. After a half century, the membrane running above these classrooms was at the end of its service life. Down the grand stairs, the membranes had also failed all along the main axis including past the library-flanking core of Convocation Mall topped with its pioneering space frame, and continuing around a fountain and downstairs

to the transit hub. By and large, there is only a parking garage below these areas, but things leaked from day one. (SFU ’s first president returned to a soaked car after the building inauguration events.)

SFU ’s charge to Public Architecture’s team, led by design partner John Wall, was to renew this entire length of public spaces an astonishing 25,000-square-metre area with an equally astonishing final budget of $61 million. Public is a firm with an unusually strong interest in design communication, working with client groups to form a consensus and to document this in a Project Charter. For SFU, the Charter lists constitutional design principles such as “Enhance the Convocation Experience,” “Provide new Social Gathering Spaces,” and seven others. According to Wall, “Every firm should prepare a Charter for every project it really helps keep things on track.”

The first major design challenge Wall and his technical teammates from RDH Building Science faced was a replacement for the decking the right material, along with a design that would reinforce Erickson’s linear concept. They quickly ruled out a literal restoration of these surfaces: Erickson’s patterned blocks of ceramic tile framed by concrete boxes allowed too many opportunities for water ingress. The University requested a minimum 50-year service life, so hardy and utterly impermeable granite seemed best.

Chinese sources for the granite pavers would have been cheapest, but client and architects agreed on the importance of supporting

ABOVE Reflecting the master plan’s vision for a narrative of enlightened ascent, the new paving gradually shifts from a woven grid of darker tones at the base of the campus to lighter tones at the Academic Quadrangle at the top of the mountain. OPPOSITE Through Convocation Mall, a warm red stone works its way towards the main stage at the heart of the campus.

CONVOCATION MALL AND ACADEMIC QUADRANGLE PAVING AND URBAN FEATURE PLAN

1 PLAZA PAVING 24,665 M2 OF NEW WATERPROOFING AND DURABLE STONE TILES ON DRAINABLE MORTAR

2 RENOVATED PLANTERS 275 M2 OF GREEN SPACE REVITALIZED WITH NATIVE PLANTS AND NEW DRAINAGE

3 NEW PLANTERS 1,625 M2 OF NEW GREEN SPACE CREATED

4 PUBLIC ACCESS TO ROOF 1,070 M2 OF EXISTING ROOF MADE ACCESSIBLE TO THE PUBLIC, INCLUDING SHADING STRUCTURES AND SEATING.

5 FURNITURE 365 M OF NEW SEATING CREATED, 25 NEW TABLES AND 100 NEW CHAIRS INSTALLED

6 CANOPIES 170 M2 OF NEW CANOPIES CREATED OVER STAIRS AND GATHERING SPACES

7 SAFETY 975 M OF GUARDRAILS AND HANDRAILS BROUGHT UP TO CURRENT CODE STANDARDS TO IMPROVE SAFETY AND ACCESSIBILITY

8 WATER MANAGEMENT 150 AREA DRAINS CONCEALED BELOW PAVING TO REDUCE VISUAL IMPACT WHILE MAINTAINING MAINTENANCE ACCESS

9 ACCESSIBILITY 9 NEW RAMPS INTEGRATED INTO THE PLAZA TO IMPROVE ACCESSIBILITY, 4 PARKING ACCESS STAIRS REFURBISHED TO IMPROVE SAFETY AND WAYFINDING

10 LIGHTING AND FINISHES 1,900 M2 OF NEW WOOD SOFFITS AND 450 NEW LIGHT FI XTURES INSTALLED TO IMPROVE VISIBILITY IN HIGH TRAFFIC AREAS.

a Canadian supplier, so picked Quebec’s Polycor. From this source, they selected four shades of grey granite, ranging from a mottled offwhite to a cloudy dark grey. To evoke the warm-hued tones of the original earthen tile, they also selected a speckled pink-hued stone. Setting these new stones in the previous sequence of offset boxes made no sense, so instead the Public team developed a variegated patterning, with the highest concentration of dark granite set along the central axis of the Mall, a subtle visual cue from the ground plane to complement the powerful linear array of architecture above. The highest concentration of charcoal-coloured granite was placed at the lower levels of the transit hub, then lighter tones gradually introduced around the fountain and through Convocation Mall to the raised Academic Quadrangle, where the lightest colours predominate. John Wall waxes metaphysical when explaining these choices: “Erickson spoke of education as being a progress from darkness to revelation, so we chose to amplify his philosophy with our subtle phasing of different stones.” This approach is quiet, effective, and most of all, apt.

The choice of Public Architecture for the SFU commission rested in part on the strength of their renewal of UBC ’s Buchanan Courtyards, completed with landscape architects PFS Studio (see CA , March 2012). The showpiece of the Buchanan renewal is an elegant tapered trapezoidal pavilion a place to get out of the rain with a book or a dear friend and its formal differentiation from the surrounding blocky buildings makes

it an even more welcoming psychic refuge. For SFU, Public designed an analogous pavilion which is larger, and just as eye-catching in its nonErickson forms, set on one of the highest plazas of the axis. With its panoramic mountain views, the result is a magnificent place of repose a needed counterpoint to Erickson’s concrete frames. From the Filberg House to the Canadian Chancery in Washington, Erickson was more polyglot than dogmatic in his tastes, so I think he would have approved.

A similar panache is found in Public’s detailing of other interventions in SFU ’s public realm. For example, Erickson’s original rough concrete railings are maintained, but new metallic box structures are set within and behind them, raising the railings up to the heights demanded by contemporary safety codes. This is a fine example of sensitive upgrading: keeping the original intact, but subtly enhancing its function using low-key insertions. Glass balcony and stair rails are used whenever possible, and accessibility ramps are cleverly woven into the matrix of stone, all of these ensuring a continuity of light, view and movement. With their SFU Plaza Renewal, Public has risen to their firm’s chosen name: their sensitive interventions will guarantee a long and happy life for the university’s most important gathering places.

The results are more mixed for Perkins&Will’s new $35-million SFU Student Union, set on a prime slot opposite the library on Convocation Mall.

Led by project architect Jana Foit, there is a serenity in the new student quarters facing Public’s plaza renewal. A large multifunction

ABOVE LEFT Public Architecture’s light-handed renovations included refurbishing exterior stairs and upgrading 975 metres of guardrails and handrails to meet current safety standards. ABOVE RIGHT Perkins&Will’s Student Union Building steps down the mountain, creating generous outdoor terraces with panoramic views at each level. OPPOSITE The Student Union Building faces the renovated Convocation Mall. Along the Mall’s edges, new planters were created as part of Public Architecture’s renovation.

room at top is cantilevered out over the entrance, a silvery box that slips into the greater whole with surprising ease. It is set back, and is ringed by vertical fins, an appropriate reference to the ring of concrete fins that sets the architectural rhythm of the nearby Academic Quadrangle. The humility and thoughtfulness of Foit’s massing is also appreciated. The ballroom at the top offers magnificent views of Erickson’s handiwork; from there, the Student Union gradually descends down from Convocation Mall through four levels. These stages match, but are more elegantly proportioned, than similar tiers in Stantec’s Maggie Benston Centre next door.

The Student Union’s interior spaces are less convincing. Building costs were almost entirely funded by the student body, and the development of the program and some supervision of early design was aided by student volunteers. These factors contributed to a funding, programming, design and construction process that lasted a decade, and that predictably ground to a halt several times. Foit notes that it was the athletic clubs and sporting students that kept it going, building trust with the university to the point that SFU’s stadium was moved nearby, intending to complement the Student Union as a secondary campus hub. Here, a team led by Foit and colleague Max Richter worked with engineers Fast and Epp to fashion a handsome rank of bleachers under

the serene long brow of a hugely cantilevered roof proof of what the Perkins&Will team can do with a less encumbered site and more straightforward program. Unfortunately, SFU has recently disbanded its varsity football program, so the structure has become an elegant viewing stand without its main team.

Perkins&Will’s large firm resources include a staffer in their Atlanta office specializing entirely in student union buildings. The specialist, working with student groups, devised a building program remarkable for its many notes, but little music. The SFU Student Society website lists a baffling range of 72 campus clubs, ranging from the Biomedical Physiology and Kinesiology Student Society to the Mechatronic Systems Engineering Student Society. Most of these got their own permanent spaces, and the building is a warren of these little rooms. The select communal areas are devoted to computer gaming, the upholstered benches of a nap room, and an awkward tiered study zone but there are no music spaces or places for un-club-organized fun.

What’s more, there is no student pub or food service just a chain coffee kiosk at the front door. An atrium at centre provides welcome daylighting for a building landlocked on its sides; however, it’s largely occupied by a wood-covered wedge form that makes flanking spaces feel like leftovers. Reacting to student perceptions of the greyness

ABOVE At the top of the Student Union Building, an auditorium and adjoining atrium provide space for performances and informal study.

OPPOSITE During the design of the Student Union Building, a new SFU stadium was built at the southwest corner of campus. The grandstand structure, also by Perkins&Will, features a lightweight canopy that cantilevers over 16 metres to provide unobstructed view for spectators below.

of Erickson’s design, Perkins&Will’s early design documents include a photo of a jar of jellybeans as an interior design reference. That notion seems to have been adopted too literally as elevator lobbies in searing bright candy colours. More successful is the soffit of the multipurpose room facing Convocation Mall, covered with multiple bands in randomized bright colours a welcome, yet more appropriately understated, bit of fun at core campus.

Overall, the investments into Arthur Erickson’s works at Simon Fraser University and at the University of British Columbia is cause for celebration, even more so because of the subtlety and technical excellence demonstrated by the firms entrusted with their legacy. In an era when glowing showpieces and sculptural indulgences drive too much of the architectural press, the time has come to praise restraint and respect, along with the deep knowledge and experience that empowers these design approaches.

The renewal of the Museum of Anthropology will be completed in time for the centenary of Erickson’s birth in 2024. This, alongside the projects at Simon Fraser University and the recent restoration by Measured Architects of the second house Erickson designed for painter Gordon Smith, will give our architects all the excuse they need to come to Vancouver to see Erickson’s finest works.

SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY PLAZA RENEWAL

CLIENT SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY ARCHITECT TEAM JOHN WALL (MRAIC), ROBERT DREW (MRAIC), BRIAN WAKELIN (FRAIC), SUSAN MAVOR, MARTINA CANIGLIA, ALBERTO BULDON, ANDREA KOPECKA, HENRY POSNER, LUC DI PIETRO, COURTNEY HEALEY, LAURA KILLAM, MARTA NICOLAU, JAY ALKANA, CHRIS FORREST ENVELOPE RDH BUILDING SCIENCE INC. STRUCTURAL FAST + EPP | MECHANICAL AME

GROUP | ELECTRICAL AES ENGINEERING | LANDSCAPE ETA LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE | CONTRACTOR

LEDCOR GROUP OF COMPANIES | AREA 24,665 M2 BUDGET $45 M | COMPLETION MARCH 2021

SFU STUDENT UNION BUILDING

CLIENT SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY | ARCHITECT TEAM ANNA ATKINSON, LEAH BRINEY, DARCY COLLINS, DAVID DOVE (FRAIC), JANA FOIT, HARLEY GRUSKO, HAILEY HOLLOWAY, FANG-CHUN HSU, JADE LITTLEWOOD, RODNEY MAAS (MRAIC),

Trevor Boddy FRAIC is on the board of the Arthur Erickson Foundation. With colleague Barry Johns and Sticks and Stones Productions and the support of local sponsors, he is planning an event for Edmonton this fall that will include an all-new feature documentary premiere, panel discussion, and site tours of Erickson’s 1962 Dyde House. Details forthcoming at aefoundation.ca.

TOO MUCH AND NOT ENOUGH

TEXT Adele Weder

PHOTOS Maris Mezulis

AT THE VENICE BIENNALE, THE CANADIAN TEAM TILTS AT THE HOUSING CRISIS.

Any Canadian who agrees to exhibit at the Venice Biennale of Architecture deserves the Order of Canada for sheer pluck. Our mid-century pavilion a small glass-and-brick nautilus shell punctured by trees is notoriously difficult to work with. The selected architect-curators receive scant remuneration for weeks of labour, and almost always need to fundraise to cover exorbitant shipping, travel and installation costs. So I’ll start by doffing my hat to this year’s selected team, Architects Against Housing Alienation (AAHA), for choosing the important but quixotic task of addressing the national housing crisis.

Anchored by the University of British Columbia School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, the Venice installation, titled Not For Sale!, is offering up a manifesto of demands and a cornucopia of solutions. The curators are five architecture professors (UBC ’s Matthew Soules, Sara Stevens, and Tijana Vujosevic; David Fortin and Adrian Blackwell of Waterloo), and Nisga’a architect Simoogit Saa Bax Patrick Stewart.

Augmenting this contingent are ten organizations teaming with community leaders and activists, who have collaborated on this project with yet more architects from across the country. This latter group includes Susan Fitzgerald Architecture, LGA Architectural Partners, Haeccity Studio Architecture, SOCA (Studio of Contemporary Architecture), L’OEUF Architects, Atelier Big City and many others renowned for innovative social and communal housing design.

So, there is no shortage of brains, talent, design skills, and diversity within this illustrious collective of more than a hundred individual contributors. But it makes for many, many cooks in a very small kitchen. And that overcrowding makes for a hot mess of a project, a dog’s breakfast of good intentions.

Inside the pavilion, it’s quite the graphic riot: upon entering, a visitor is greeted with the 10-point manifesto, and then immersed in a farrago of posters, slogans, publications, blocks of texts, and to-do memes on sticky notes. Marinating in all those words are photographs, charts, some architectural renderings, plans, and a couple of rough models. The pavilion’s actual design transformation is modest, comprising two main features. On the outside: Patrick Stewart’s redefining of the pavilion’s back garden area into a “Land Back” mini-landscape, with

Pacific Northwest plant species. On the inside: a stick-frame mezzanine, designed and built to serve as a studio space for UBC and Waterloo students to research and promote the AAHA campaign throughout the spring and fall university semesters.

It looks and feels as though you’re walking through an end-of-year crit session. Actually, in some ways you are, since the students are working on Not For Sale! as their academic project for their studyabroad semester. I admire the practicality of converting that snail of a pavilion into a satellite classroom. But is an overwhelmingly two-

dimensional text-and-drawing exhibition an effective means of showcasing the power of architecture for a global audience? There is much to read, and no visitor spending the usual half-hour within the pavilion could absorb more than a small fraction of it.

The ten-point AAHA manifesto calls for the return of crown land back to Indigenous peoples; the building of culturally appropriate Indigenous housing, support services, and on-site manufacturing facilities; reparative architecture for historically exploited racialized communities; a new capital-gains tax earmarked for gentrified neigh-

ABOVE The exhibition Not for Sale! reconceives Canada’s pavilion at the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale as the headquarters for a campaign for equitable access to housing in Canada. Exhibition pin-up boards showcase the work of ten teams of activists, architects, and advocates from across the country. A newly constructed mezzanine provides additional workspace, intended to host architectural students travelling to Venice to join in the advocacy.

bourhoods; the conversion of surplus public property into housing; purpose-built communities for unhoused people; incentives for cooperative living and collective home ownership; commitment to repurpose surplus space into housing; “mutual aid” communities of inter-supportive elements; and the establishment of a process to increase the quality of urban environments and accessibility of social housing within them.

That’s the distilled version. The full manifesto text reads as you might expect from group authorship: a rhetorical sprawl that is frequently vague or incomprehensible, with scant mention of architectural design the most salient value that these and other architects could bring to the housing debate. Here is just the headline, for instance, of manifesto item #10: “We demand a vision and participatory process for housing development that upholds ambient urban ecosystems as a continuously accessible commons necessary for social housing. This process must lead to concrete action to improve the ambient commons.” The AAHA website tables a series of sub-demands for this

and other manifesto items. Still, not even the extensive website text offers much in terms of design advocacy, or how they will achieve their demands in the voter-led market economy of Canada.

Since words are the main public offering from the AAHA team, they should render their words as clearly and carefully as they would choose a building’s cladding or design its structural framework. The very term manifesto of demands is jarringly presumptuous for a list of diverse requests compiled by academics with no leverage to enforce such demands. The team will need to persuade voters and policy makers; vagueness and convoluted rambling will not help their cause.

Let’s consider AAHA’s primary demand: “Land Back.” A whopping 89 percent of Canada almost nine million square kilometres is crown land, nominally owned by the federal and provincial governments. Within the AAHA group itself, there is no consensus of what “Land Back” means. When I asked some members, they told me it would probably mean the return of a small percentage perhaps five, ten, fifteen percent of those 8,886,356 square kilometres.

TOP LEFT The pavilion is postered with screenprinted photos of encampments in Canadian cities. TOP RIGHT Banners created by artist Grey Piitaapan Mudoon announce the manifesto’s demands. BOTTOM LEFT One proposal, developed by LGA Architectural Partners, Parkdale Neighbourhood Land Trust, and Gentrification Tax Actions, examines rising housing costs in Toronto’s Parkdale neighbourhood. BOTTOM RIGHT Students and collaborators gather in the pavilion’s courtyard, renamed the Land Back garden.

To others especially, and not surprisingly, Indigenous participants it means exactly what the manifesto states: all crown land back, every square centimetre.

If and when that land and its income-generating resources revert to Indigenous stewardship, the Canadian political economy will transform in a major way. Even if the transformation involves co-ownership, the governments’ power and financial strength will almost certainly diminish. You can support that consequence wholeheartedly as historic justice a fair and necessary transition but you cannot then assume that our governments will have the wherewithal to bankroll the manifesto’s funding demands for housing, urban revitalization, and reparation payments.

Simoogit Saa Bax Patrick Stewart recognizes such a major transition cannot happen quickly or easily. “There will have to be discussion and consensus-making,” he told me. “Colonization has taken 500 years to take root, so it will take time to decolonize. If it doesn’t happen in my lifetime, it could happen in the time of my children, grandchildren or great-grandchildren.”

A realistic timeline and invitation to wide-open discussion, though, doesn’t quite align with Adrian Blackwell’s commandeering rhetoric at the Biennale. “Part of that is to grab attention,” responds Stewart. “We’ve been silent for so long; now’s the time to start making noise. I look at Adrian and Matthew as lightning rods, rallying the team.”

“There are ideological differences within and amongst some of the teams, for sure,” allows Soules. “The ambitions of the project are further ahead of where the project itself is right now.” He points out that the UBC and Waterloo students will spend the next two semesters researching and refining these manifesto points into more detailed and sophisticated directives. So perhaps over the next six months and beyond, the AAHA team will reach a consensus on the manifesto details and iron out the kinks. Still, a half-dozen university professors handing their students a prescriptive list of demands is not likely to result in a hard-nosed evaluation of that list.

Curiously, the AAHA team does not mention the effects of shortterm rental platforms or predatory lending policies by banks, both of which are major contributors to housing shortages in Canada and elsewhere. Nor does it explore or condemn how the new mobility of global capital has architecturally distorted our housing paradigms. That subject was brilliantly analyzed by Soules himself in his 2021 book Icebergs, Zombies, and the Ultra Thin: Architecture and Capitalism in the 21st Century. I’d surmise that if the entire pavilion was focused on this book alone, it would make for a stronger and clearer manifesto.

“We want to politicize architecture in Canada, where architecture tends to be seen as a service role only,” responds Soules. “Architecture as a discipline and architecture as a political entity can co-exist. Architects can play an active role in challenging the current housing system.”

Architecture is indeed political, not least because “form follows finance,” as architectural historian Carol Willis wrote in her 1995 treatise on skyscrapers. Delving into broader issues beyond form and outside the design profession’s core expertise, however, has its challenges. For instance, when I spoke to some of the core members of the AAHA team, they appeared to be seriously misinformed about the precedents, logistics, feasibility, and drawbacks of a hypothecated tax, the basis for the manifesto’s gentrification-tax demand. That’s hardly surprising, since tax law is not an architect’s day job. They might have presented a far stronger case if they had focused more on the value of architecture at which they excel.

The Biennale is an excellent place to raise questions, but a lousy place to claim to have answers or moral authority. For many residents of Venice, it’s us the foreign curators, collaborators, visitors, and journalists who are the interlopers, the economic colonizers, the sons-of-bitches dis-

placing longstanding residents from their homes through our prolific use of Airbnb and our usurping of their public gardens. They suffer as well as benefit from the economic activity generated by the Biennale and other international attractions, just as Canadians suffer as well as benefit from our own high-octane economy.

So how does one effectively showcase the sociopolitical power of architecture? At this year’s Biennale, no team did it better than the Austrians. Curated by the architecture collective AKT and architect Hermann Czech, their exhibition documents their efforts to transform Austria’s pavilion and the small patch of garden fenced off behind it into a freely accessible public space, via a steel-rod bridge over the Biennale wall. The Austrians’ correspondence progresses hopefully until six weeks before the Biennale opening, when the Venice authorities categorically deny them permission to bridge the wall, and the half-finished structure halts abruptly at the top of its stairway. When you climb up onto the platform and behold the curious passers-by a few metres away, you experience viscerally and directly how the built environment could foster inclusivity and equality, but is often thwarted in achieving these aims.

Meanwhile, a few hundred metres away on the other side of the Biennale wall, you can see, in response to the various international pavilions’ earnestly progressive exhortations, the local view. A pair of wooden park benches is festooned with a two-part graffito scrawled in chalk: AGAINST CULTURE SOLD / IN THE FORM OF INSTITUTIONALIZED ART. That would be us: the invasive foreign architects, activists, and journalists who are in their eyes not heroes, just rapacious vendors of culture.

Never mind. For several team members that I spoke with, what happens at the Biennale pavilion is largely beside the point. It’s not the physical installation but the campaign itself that will carry their variegated messages. “We always wanted what we physically did in Venice not to be the main thing,” says Soules. “The creation of this new group is the thing. You’re going to see a whole series of events unfold across Canada during the next three years.”

To be sure, the AAHA team can claim a few significant Biennale accomplishments. They persuaded the Canada Council to allow student work on and at the pavilion for academic credit, which could be a useful precedent for the future, given the Biennale project’s perennial funding struggles. Their workspace mezzanine shows an imaginative design solution to an awkward space, making active student research visible to the public.

So let’s wish this team well for it’s ongoing campaign: perhaps those students now at work in Venice will bring a reality check to their professors. It’s important to stir the pot. But in a capitalist democracy, presenting solutions on a platter will prove to be considerably more challenging.

Adele Weder is a contributing editor to Canadian Architect.

REGION; AFFORDABLE HOUSING ASSOCIATION OF NOVA SCOTIA; ALEX WILSON, UNIVERSITY OF SASKATCHEWAN; AT HOME IN THE NORTH; ATELIER BIG CITY; BÂTIR SON QUARTIER; BLACKWELL; CANADIAN COHOUSING NETWORK; CENTRE D’ÉCOLOGIE URBAINE DE MONTRÉAL (CEUM); COMITÉ LOGEMENT VILLE-MARIE; CP PLANNING; DAVID T FORTIN ARCHITECT INC.; FBM ARCHITECTURE INTERIOR DESIGN | PLANNING; GENTRIFICATION TAX ACTION; GROUNDED ARCHITECTURE INC.; HAECCITY STUDIO ARCHITECTURE; IDLE NO MORE; INTERLOGE; IPEK TÜRELI, MCGILL UNIVERSITY; KATLIA LAFFERTY, NATIONAL INDIGENOUS HOUSING NETWORK; KEELE EGLINTON RESIDENTS; L’OEUF ARCHITECTURE; LANCELOT COAR, UNIVERSITY OF MANITOBA; LGA ARCHITECTURAL PARTNERS; MAISON DU DÉVELOPPEMENT DURABLE; MAISON DU SAVOIR ET DE LA LITTÉRATURE; NAVIGATOR STREET OUTREACH PROGRAM; NISGA’A NATION; ONE HOUSE MANY NATIONS; OURI SCOTT, URBAN ARTS ARCHITECTURE INC.; PARKDALE NEIGHBOURHOOD LAND TRUST; SARAH SILVA, HIY’ÁM ’ HOUSING; SIMOOGIT SAA BAX, DR. PATRICK R. STEWART ARCHITECT; SOCA (STUDIO OF CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE); SOLO ARCHITECTURE; SVN ARCHITECTS + PLANNERS; SYLVIA MCADAM, WINDSOR UNIVERSITY; TABLE DE CONCERTATION DU FAUBOURG SAINT-LAURENT; THIS SHOULD BE HOUSING; TORONTO TINY SHELTERS; TUF LAB; XALEK/SEKYU SIYAM CHIEF IAN CAMPBELL, S KWX - WÚ7MESH ÚXWUMIXW, SQUAMISH NATION.

CONTRIBUTORS TO NOT FOR SALE! A BETTER TENT CITY WATERLOO

CALL FOR ACTION

EIGHT YEARS IN THE MAKING, A NEW REPORT OFFERS A COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW OF THE CURRENT PRACTICE OF ARCHITECTURE IN CANADA, AND CALLS ON STAKEHOLDERS TO CONTRIBUTE TO AN INSPIRED, EMPOWERED FUTURE.

SUSTAINABILITY AND RESILIENCE

LEADING BY EXAMPLE

COMPREHENSIVE ARCHITECTURE POLICY TARGET AREAS

INTERNATIONALIZATION OF ARCHITECTURE

ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE

URBAN PLANNING

TEXT Rise for Architecture

For the past eight years, a national, volunteer-led committee of architects, educators, advocates and organizations that regulate the architectural profession in Canada have been hosting conversations to learn what Canadians want and need in their communities. This has culminated in a report issued earlier this year that shares a comprehensive review of the current practice of architecture in Canada, with recommended actions for adoption across the profession. The research includes a national poll by the Angus Reid Institute, a public survey,  roundtables with the architectural profession, a series of architectural student forums, and independent research on the impact of architecture policies in Europe.

Here are some key excerpts from the report, entitled Architecture in Canada: A Vision for the Future, including its recommendations.

INTRODUCTION

Since 2014, we have been seeking input from both architects and the public to learn what concerns Canadians about the design of their communities and what needs to change. This report outlines a vision for a renewed future as well as a series of objectives and actions to improve the processes and policies that shape how Canada’s communities are designed and built. This report does not represent the end of a process but rather its beginning. It lays out a series of challenges to all those who are involved in building the cities, towns, and villages we live in.

The Rise for Architecture initiative grew out an awareness that, in a rapidly changing world, if we are to be successful in continuing to help address the needs of Canadians in the future, we must be willing to re-imagine the very framework within which architecture is imagined, designed, funded, regulated, and built. Many aspects

of this framework have existed, relatively unchanged, for almost three quarters of a century. It is time for change.

This report summarizes the work that we have undertaken over the past several years to understand the driving forces behind an erosion of public confidence. It also lays out a challenge to those actors who have agency in the creation of the built environment to imagine a new paradigm for this important work, one that prioritizes opportunities over risk reduction, value over cost minimization and ultimately the interests of the people and the planet, impacted by what we build. It urges immediate change within the profession of architecture while also calling for the establishment of an Architecture Policy for Canada to articulate a bold vision of what Canadians should expect from the built environment of their communities and to guide all who have a part to play to achieve it.

A key objective is to be a catalyst for the creation of an architecture policy for Canada. We acknowledge that any architecture policy in Canada must respect the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; advance the Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada; and acknowledge renewed commitments to nation-to-nation relations between Canada and First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples, based on recognition of rights, respect, co-operation and partnership.

WHY IS CHANGE NEEDED NOW?

We know that the design of the built environment can be a powerful agent for positive social and environmental change. We also know that the world is changing rapidly and the systems and structures supporting society need to be responsive to change while remaining focused on the collective good. If we approach the ongoing governance of architecture

BACKGROUND PHOTO BY TOM ARBAN

with broader potential in mind, architecture can empower Canadians to meet the pressing challenges of the 21st century; if not, it will be an obstacle to overcome in meeting these challenges. The work of architects is important. This initiative seeks to help renew the profession so that it will continue to serve Canadians to the maximum extent possible.

THE CHALLENGES

The economic impacts of the pandemic, the war in Europe, and climate change are issues that affect all Canadians. There is heightened interest by the profession in the challenges brought about by technological innovation, and by cultural, economic, and social upheaval, and in how the architectural community can effectively partner to bring about positive change.

For governments as well, the status quo is not fully effective. While the profession continues to do an excellent job protecting the public in terms of life safety, there are other governmental priorities, such as responding to the climate crisis or reconciliation, where the full potential of architecture is not yet realized. In this sense the public is not receiving the full potential of the collective efforts of the architectural profession.

Addressing and improving the outcomes related to these, and other, challenges will take a coordinated policy approach over an extended period. The community of design professionals that create our built environment have the knowledge and creativity to engage in collaborative research and cultivate design solutions that support more just, equitable and healthy communities. A formal and coordinated partnership between Governments and industry stakeholders is needed to maximize the potential of architecture to assist communities in moving forward.

THE PROCESS

To develop our recommendations, we started by examining the current state and discussing strengths and weaknesses of the status quo. We examined how the architectural profession in other countries has been dealing with these questions. In the process we identified the potential in an emerging global trend – the development of national architecture policies.

Where a building code sets minimum standards, an Architecture Policy for Canada would set ambitious goals for how the built environment contributes to our social, cultural, and economic wellbeing. It would also establish accountability for politicians, professionals, and the public on how to achieve inclusive, sustainable, and inspiring communities. Its value would be far-reaching.

It became clear that an architecture policy could provide both the opportunity to present a renewed vision for the profession and to galvanize the collective action needed to ensure better outcomes in the future. We also recognized that the development of an Architecture Policy for Canada would be the purview of the Federal Government. However, we recognized that our efforts could lead to much needed conversations within the profession, and with the public, while also outlining the benefits and key aspects that a future policy should address.

To supplement our own research and analysis, we started with a series of consultations within the profession of architecture. Simultaneously, a series of workshops with architecture students took place. Next, we participated in statistically valid public polling and conducted an open online public survey. To round out our information, we commissioned a research paper on the history, evolution, and impact of architecture policies in Europe.

Consultations Within the Profession of Architecture

Rise for Architecture committee members crisscrossed the country talking with architects, and collaborators, about their hopes for a new vision

for architecture in Canada. In a series of face-to-face workshops arranged with provincial and territorial associations of architecture as well as local and regional architectural organizations, we challenged architects to reimagine the practice of architecture and the built environment that Canadians inhabit. The conversations touched on why architecture matters, its potential for achieving better outcomes and what’s currently limiting that potential. Participants were drawn together by a shared sense of frustration that Canada’s architecture is being limited in its capacity to respond to the rapidly evolving needs of Canadian communities. In total, these workshops were attended by over 1,500 architects and members of the profession roughly 15% of the profession in Canada.

Key observations from the feedback received during the consultations within the profession identified the strong support for critical needed changes including:

There is strong belief that an Architecture Policy for Canada is needed and that it would have far-reaching benefits for all Canadians. There is consistent concern about need to accept greater responsibility with respect to reconciliation with indigenous people and thus a foundational acknowledgement of our responsibilities related to building on unceded and all traditional indigenous lands is needed. Issues of equity need to be foregrounded, including a need to strengthen commitments around inclusivity within the profession, for its processes and products of its designs.

The profession needs to make stronger commitments in response to the climate crisis.

The recommendations, as well as any potential architecture policies, need to recognize the value of Canada-wide approaches while respecting the strength of regional distinctiveness. Perception that the issues being considered are more relevant or biased towards urbanized areas. The importance of ‘building’ community in remote, rural, and suburban environments is also critical.

There is a need to raise public literacy around issues of quality and performance of architecture, including broad recognition of the benefit of early (childhood) education about architecture.

Strengthened national voices are needed for architecture, including those for advocacy, regulation, and education.

The culture within the profession of architecture, and the schools of architecture, needs to evolve to eliminate unhealthy practices and be fully grounded on principles of equity and respect.

The profession needs a stronger commitment to consistently encouraging and facilitating the involvement of the community in design processes and decision-making.

Long-term life-cycle costs and impacts need to be given far greater importance in the decisions leading to new buildings being built. Public procurement processes need to shift to be more value(s) based and public interest focused.

Architects need to strengthen their commitment to putting the needs of people (building users as well as the broader community) first.

The Voice of Students of Architecture

To engage students, and thus future practitioners, in the conversation, the Rise for Architecture initiative was extended to the Canadian Architecture Forums on Education (CAF És). Starting in 2019, the CAFÉ series brought together representatives from all 12 Canadian university schools of architecture at five campuses in Halifax, Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg, and Calgary.

Involving students, professors, and extended professional communities, the forums featured presentations and roundtable discussions oriented around questions of how to enhance the quality of the built environment.

Five top concerns emerged from Canadian architecture schools:

Climate change and environmental stewardship

Meaningful community engagement and long-term social value

Equity and inclusion

Public health and personal well-being

Culturally supportive and regionally appropriate design

Independent Polling

In January of 2022 the Angus Reid Foundation was commissioned to complete a national poll based on a survey of a randomized sample of nearly 1,900 Canadian adults asking a variety of key questions focused on a deeper understanding of how the issues raised in the professional consultation are seen by the public.

The results are detailed in a summary report prepared by Angus Reid. Canadians want more inclusive communities that are welcoming for everyone, and improvements to accountability for creating them. Canadians are nearly unanimous in prioritizing accessibility (96%), aesthetic beauty (92%), and sustainability (90%) in new building and infrastructure developments. They are also widely supportive of new roles which would be responsible for encouraging better design outcomes, such as a Chief Architect or similar title, in both their community (70%) and province (56%).

Three quarters of Canadians say culture and heritage should be key considerations in community design. Yet almost 30% don’t see themselves and their culture reflected in their community, with visible minorities and Indigenous far less likely than Caucasian Canadians to feel this way. Only 11% of Canadians believe their communities are doing a really good job of protecting the environment.

Research also shows that a well-designed built environment helps to create sustainable, socially equitable, and inspiring communities. And yet, in Canada, we haven’t always considered this. The poll found that 51% of Canadians say development in their community is poorly planned. A very telling statistic is that only 46% of Canadians asked have ever provided feedback about a proposed development in their community, and among those that had, only 7% felt their voice made a difference; 56% felt that when they did provide feedback, they were not listened to at all.

Public Survey

Following the Angus Reid opinion poll, Rise for Architecture developed an in-depth online survey, which was circulated through a variety of social media channels. Over 1,110 individuals responded to the survey and provided an extensive collection of over 8,000 detailed comments. Respondents made clear the challenges they see facing their communities, concerns about the people and processes that shape their communities, and their desires for inspiring spaces.

Key findings include:

Almost 65% of respondents were unsatisfied or very unsatisfied with the decision-making processes that shape their communities.

50% of respondents were dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with the performance of the people who design and plan their communities,

76% of respondents support the need for better policies to guide the planning and design of our communities, including the development of an Architecture Policy for Canada.

Collectively the public polling and survey confirmed the need for change and serves as a wake-up call for the profession, its institutions, and governments.

Independent Research

The development and implementation of architecture policies in Europe over the last 30 years demonstrates their general effectiveness in promoting well-designed environments. 28 administrations in the European Union have an official architectural policy at the national level, plus Iceland, Norway, and Switzerland.

Despite differences in character and jurisdiction, all policies seek to raise awareness of the role of architecture in creating high-quality living environments. According to researcher João Bento, all policies are underpinned by three main shared principles: (1) sustainability, or quality of the environment; (2) aesthetics, or quality of experience; and (3) inclusion, or social value, affordability, and accessibility.

Moreover, all documents encompass a broad notion of architecture, meaning “not only buildings, but also public spaces and all built elements that compose human settlements.”

WHAT WE HEARD

Canadians want more welcoming, inclusive communities and more accountability for creating them.

Canadians also recognize that architecture’s full potential for positive social and environmental change can only be achieved when projects are commissioned on a strong, public interest-driven framework. All decision makers have a role to play.

We heard that our profession’s governance needs to remain nimble and responsive to the constantly evolving challenges of our time. To achieve this, our governance processes need to be reviewed.

Similarly, the way architects are educated, trained, licensed, and regulated needs to adapt so that our skills and experience are appropriate for an expanded definition of the public interest. In short, Canadians broadly support the development of an Architecture Policy for Canada. A collective effort is required to achieve our vision of an inspiring future where all Canadians are supported by and are empowered to guide the design of their communities, where social and environmental justice shape every design decision, and where architecture is leveraged to celebrate diverse cultures, to lift the human spirit and contribute to a prosperous future. This collective effort will benefit all Canadians.

HOW DO WE GET THERE?

Bold actions are required to achieve our vision. Some of these actions will be best led by individuals, or individual organizations, and others will require meaningful ongoing collaboration between a broad range of organizations and stakeholders. This requires creating new partnerships both within the profession and between the profession and governments. This is what is needed so that all Canadians receive the lasting benefits of better-designed communities.

It is important to acknowledge that much good work is already being done, by many within the profession in Canada, that is focused on improving many of the outcomes desired by these actions. Identifying the need for these actions is not intended to diminish the value of the work already being done but rather to identify that more is needed, and that a broader and more coordinated response is in the public interest.

The actions needed vary in terms of scale and potential impact. This is to be expected given the complex and intersecting nature of architecture. We have developed a series of key recommendations or themes that capture the most fundamental need for change. It is these that are most pivotal for the future of architecture in Canada.

WE CALL ON ALL STAKEHOLDERS TO:

1 Renew the governance relationships between organizations within the profession, including regulators, Schools, and the RAIC, as well as with governments.

The key organizations that serve the public and the profession, such as the regulators, the schools of architecture and advocacy organizations including the RAIC, have a responsibility to collaborate and work together to support the advancement of the profession in the public interest. While some aspects of these intersecting relationships are constructive and effective, many are not. To fulfill our shared responsibility, a new and coordinated working relationship needs to be defined and established. This renewed relationship is to be based upon mutual support and recognition of the unique ways that each stakeholder organization contributes to better communities, and the ultimate aim of these collective efforts being in support of ambitions far greater than any one organization.

2 Collaborate to achieve the goal of an Architecture Policy for Canada.

Our consultations confirm that there is broad support, within both the profession and the public, for the creation of better policies to shape the built environment including consistently strong support for the creation of an architecture policy for Canada. This remains a key objective and achieving this will require coordination and collaboration by all industry partners. The process of obtaining a commitment from governments followed by further consultation and development will be lengthy. The professions’ governing organizations can play a key role, and this will require ongoing commitment, support, and collaboration.

3 Expand the definition of public interest.

While the range of professional responsibilities is wide, the emphasis for professional regulation is on conduct related to public interest. For this purpose, public interest tends to relate to life-safety and building code issues. While these elements remain critical, the impact of architecture extends far beyond these narrower issues. It is time to challenge this fundamental assumption that underpins professional conduct and hold us to a higher standard. Truly responding to the public interest should include having positive impact on a more complete range of factors that we influence.

4 Commit to dramatically improving equity within the profession.

It is understood that the profession is not reflective enough of the diversity of the community it serves. There are many reasons for this. However, this is not the time to focus on the constraints of the past. It is time to move forward with a clear goal of building a more equitable and diverse profession. This will involve reversing the long-standing gender imbalance as well as addressing a more complete range of equity imbalances. This also includes addressing issues such as the prevalence of unfair labour practices within some areas of the profession and the unique challenges faced by foreign trained architects. Equity issues within the profession extend beyond those specifically identified above. A comprehensive response is needed that not only addresses these issues but also seeks to identify and eliminate existing and future barriers and systemic problems impacting equity.

5 Facilitate the meaningful involvement of the public in the processes shaping their communities.

While public consultation has long been present in many architectural projects, we have heard repeatedly about the need for much more sig-

nificant and meaningful involvement by those utilizing and impacted by the built environment. The profession must shift its mindset and recognize that the broader social justice potential and responsibilities, impacted by architecture, can only be addressed with recognition that the voice of the user is a fundamental requirement. Achieving this will require a broad commitment from practitioners and support of all the institutions within the profession.

6 Make stronger commitments as individual Architects, Technologists and Firms to contribute to solutions to the big social and environmental challenges of our time.

There are many actions that can be undertaken by individual architects and architecture firms independently that will improve the positive impact architecture has on significant social challenges. These include challenges such as the climate crisis, reconciliation, equity and inclusion, and housing affordability. We can commit to greater attention to these issues without the need for intervention by governments or regulators. What is required is collaboration and a shared commitment.

In addition to the key recommendations, there are many other needed changes that require action. We have organized these actions by category of who should be involved and/or take the lead in pursuing them.

Actions for the entirety of the profession will require collaboration among the regulators (through ROAC), the schools of architecture (through CCUSA) and the key advocacy organizations (such as the RAIC). These groups should work together to identify how best to collaborate on implementation and who should take the lead on each initiative. Furthermore, while these actions are written with the profession of architecture in mind, they apply generally to and will require broader collaboration with the larger professional community engaged on the design of the built environment.

WE CALL ON THE ENTIRETY OF THE ARCHITECTURAL PROFESSION TO:

1 Strengthen collaboration and working relationship between the key stakeholders: the regulators, the schools and advocacy organizations.

2 Strengthen collaboration and working relationship between the full range of allied professional and stakeholder organizations related to the built environment.

3 Develop and implement strategies to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion within the profession.

4 Develop strategies to integrate Indigenous design perspectives and knowledge in response to the TRC Calls to Action.

5 Commit to a more urgent response to the climate crisis.

6 Participate in increasing the integration of education and experiential learning with the objective of streamlining pathways to licensure, including the consideration of expanding broadly experienced and Syllabus programs.

7 Examine the effectiveness of limiting architectural professional degrees to Masters level programs.

8 Evaluate and consider the adequacy and capacity within the educational system for both professional and technical degree programs to ensure that Canada has a sustainable level of architects and technologists.

9 Invest in ongoing public education and awareness campaigns aimed at imparting the importance of high-quality built environments.

10 Advocate with the Federal Government for the development and implementation of an Architecture Policy for Canada with the intention of improving accountability for architecture within government.

11 Establish and support an ongoing mechanism for identifying and implementing change as the needs of society evolve in the future.

WE CALL ON THE REGULATORS OF THE PROFESSION TO:

1 Review and expand the definition of public interest to be inclusive of broader societal and environmental concerns and extend expectations of professional conduct accordingly.

2 Review and adjust regulatory frameworks and policies to be more agile, timely, and responsive to the rapidly changing needs of Canadians and the Profession.

3 Ensure appropriate ongoing funding and support to sustain national regulatory committees and initiatives including the supports necessary to ensure ongoing succession of volunteers and protection of institutional knowledge.

4 Review and identify unnecessary barriers to licensure and implement changes to reduce them and streamline processes.

5 Review and share best practices for ensuring equitable access to licensure.

6 Define and defend an appropriate public interest advocacy role for the regulators.

7 Seek to eliminate unnecessary barriers to innovative forms of practice and emerging business models.

8 To the extent possible, encourage and facilitate membership, by architects, in local and national advocacy organizations.

9 Review unnecessary barriers that restrict fair public comment by architects on architecture.

WE CALL ON SCHOOLS OF ARCHITECTURE TO:

1 Enhance and diversify collaboration and knowledge exchange between academic and professional sectors.

2 Enhance and increase interdisciplinary collaborations and learning experiences within the university and with other educational institutions.

3 Re-imagine design studio cultures to foster collaborative skills.

4 Work with the regulators to assess and enhance professional practice courses.

5 Collaborate with regulators to create more agile systems of accreditation.

6 Collaborate with regulators to create more agile systems of licensure.

7 Review recruitment and admissions process for accessibility and non-traditional students.

8 Increase focus on teaching human behaviour and social outcomes within the curriculum.

WE CALL ON ADVOCACY ORGANIZATIONS, INCLUDING THE ROYAL ARCHITECTURAL INSTITUTE OF CANADA, TO:

1 Increase membership and engagement with registered architects.

2 Consider modifying the RAIC Board composition to increase understanding and awareness of current regulatory issues and constraints.

3 Support the establishment of additional organizations to fill gaps in advocacy or expand range of advocacy to include the business interests of architects.

4 Better define and communicate the limits of its advocacy mandate.

5 Redirect more funding to its core advocacy functions.

WE CALL ON INDIVIDUAL ARCHITECTS, TECHNOLOGISTS, AND ARCHITECTURAL FIRMS TO:

1 Commit to honouring a broader understanding of the public interest, through the quality of design and individual and practice behaviour.

2 Commit to active engagement of communities in design processes and outcomes and to strengthen diverse and equitable access to consultations.

3 Use their agency and voice to be stronger advocates for positive social outcomes.

4 Commit to a more urgent response to the climate crisis through the actions of their firms and the outcomes of their design work.

5 Commit to fair labour practices within the profession.

6 Commit to fair fee practices within the profession.

7 Commit to the ongoing support, mentorship, and development of future architects.

8 Improve diversity, equity, and inclusion in recruitment, hiring and promotion practices.

9 Pursue every design regardless of scale or prestige as an opportunity to improve the health and happiness of people and the planet.

10 Advocate, at the local level, for the need for better policies on Architecture, including an Architecture Policy for Canada.

WE CALL ON ALL LEVELS OF FEDERAL, PROVINCIAL AND MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENTS TO:

1 Create comprehensive architecture policies, including an Architecture Policy for Canada, that operate across all agencies of government that set out enhanced expectations from the built environment and strategies to achieve them.

2 Leverage the significant impact architecture makes in Canadian communities, including supporting the environment, economy, and Canadian cultures.

3 Recognize the potential of public projects to drive change and commit to delivering these projects as exemplars.

4 Enhance research, innovation and education that develops and supports Canadian expertise as world leaders in the design of inclusive, resilient, and sustainable built environments.

5 Develop education programs within grade school curriculums to encourage greater literacy of the built environment.

6 Strengthen programs that support the preservation of cultural heritage, retrofit and adaptive reuse.

7 Review and strengthen building codes and policies on the built environment in response to the climate crisis in view of national and international sustainability commitments.

8 Clarify and strengthen accountability for architectural quality within government ministries and departments.

9 Review and improve the effectiveness of procurement practices to support broader positive social and environmental outcomes.

10 Contribute to the celebration of the world-class quality of Canadian Architecture (promote Canadian architectural expertise abroad).

11 Rethink the definition of “public interest” to ensure that the profession has responsibility for the impact of their work on the health and wellness of people and the planet.

CONCLUSION

Our built environment is a powerful agent for positive social and environmental change. As the world rapidly evolves, the systems and structures supporting society need to respond and they must focus on the collective good. By renewing the social contract between the architectural profession and the public, Canadians will be better equipped to meet the challenges of the 21st century. Inclusive, sustainable, and inspiring communities are achievable. The time to act is now. To read the full report, visit roac.ca/future-of-architecture/

Deadline: September 11th, 2023

ARCHITECT INVITES ARCHITECTS AND PHOTOGRAPHERS TO ENTER THE 2023 AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE

CANADIAN

OPEN FOR ENTRIES

Architecture project entry fee: $195 *

Since 1967, our annual national awards program recognizes the architectural excellence of projects in the design and construction phases.

Submissions will be accepted in PDF format, up to 12 pages with dimensions no greater than 11” x 17” . Total file size is not to exceed 25 MB . There is also the option to submit a video up to two minutes in length.

This year, we are also presenting the sixth edition of the Canadian Architect Photo Awards of Excellence, open to professional and amateur architectural photographers. Winners of the architectural project and architectural photo competitions will be published in a special issue of Canadian Architect in December 2023.

For more details and to submit your entry, visit: www.canadianarchitect.com/awards

Architectural photo entry fee: $75 *

HILLSIDE HABITAT

TEXT Taylor C. Noakes

A VIRTUAL REALITY MODEL BRINGS SAFDIE’S ORIGINAL VISION FOR HABITAT TO LIFE FOR A NEW GENERATION.

“Under Louis Kahn’s care, I had become immersed in a world that had everything to do with the conception of buildings and also with the craft of building,” writes Moshe Safdie in his memoir, If Walls Could Speak. “Without this immersion, short as it lasted, I could have never led an inexperienced team of young architects to realize Habitat 67.”

Habitat 67—with its stacked concrete habitation modules, flying walkways, and rooftop gardens—was, by Safdie’s own admission, difficult to translate into a constructable proposition. Safdie, who in the early 1960s conceived what would become Habitat 67 as his university graduate thesis, relied on model-making as a principal tool to demonstrate his vision.He piled and stacked hand-cut wood blocks, and later Lego, into various configurations, trying to determine the optimal design for a building conceived as a radical solution to the crisis of urban housing.

The version of Safdie’s vision constructed for Expo 67 became Canada’s most iconic brutalist construction, but it was just a shadow of his

original vision. Safdie’s interest in what Habitat might have been evidently persisted throughout the last five decades, with traces of the original scheme found throughout the architect’s portfolio. Digital tools have now, of course, made it possible for Safdie Architects to realize a comprehensive virtual model of the original Habitat scheme, and they recently unveiled just such a model, created in collaboration with Epic Games and Neoscape. Dubbed Project Hillside, the VR environment demonstrates the sophistication of modern modelling tools—the model was created on Unreal Engine, a 3D computer graphics engine used by video game designers—permitting a photoreal immersion into an environment far more ambitious and fantastical than the real-life Habitat.

The Hillside model—which is based on the pyramid-like frames of Safdie’s thesis, intended to act as artificial hills—includes 1,200 dwellings, floating above a hotel, school, offices and other commercial spaces. All of these are linked with separated vehicle and pedes-

trian passageways, and unified through shared gardens and water features.

Though the original vision for Habitat is unlikely to ever be realized, the virtual model has the potential to inspire a whole new generation of architects all around the world, even if they never set foot in Montreal. Here at home, policy makers and those interested in finding long-term solutions to the housing crisis may also find inspiration in Project Hillside, and consider that affordable housing doesn’t necessarily have to be bland and unappealing. The presence of an immersive 3D model makes the aspiration for higher-density, highly integrated urban living tangible—if still not necessarily constructable in the exact form proposed by Safdie as a university student. If Habitat 67 asked 50 million Expo visitors ‘what if?’, Project Hillside demands to know ‘what are we waiting for?’”

Taylor Noakes is a freelance journalist and broadcaster based in Montreal.

ABOVE The original design for Habitat included dwellings stacked on massive hill-like frames, with public amenities underneath.

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