Canadian Architect December 2015

CANADIAN ARCHITECT DEC/15 2015 CANADIAN ARCHITECT AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE

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2015 CANADIAN ARCHITECT AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE

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CANADIAN ARCHITECT

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Bjarke Ingels Group, DIALOG and James K.M. Cheng Architects

RDH Architects

RDH Architects

KANVA and NEUF architect(e)s

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MASS Design Group

D’Arcy Jones Architecture

DIALOG with Snøhetta

Perkins+Will Canada Inc.

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Batay-Csorba Architects

Ja Architecture Studio

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11 AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE Many of this year’s selected projects grapple with challenging sites, turning obstacles into opportunities for aesthetic, material and compositional innovation.

COVER Rendering of Vancouver House by Bjarke Ingels Group (design architect), DIALOG (architect of record) and James K.M. Cheng (advising architect).

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17 THE WINNERS Profiles of the 2015 award recipients.

50 LIST OF ENTRANTS

THE NATIONAL REVIEW OF DESIGN AND PRACTICE/THE JOURNAL OF RECORD OF THE RAIC

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CANADIAN ARCHITECT 12/15­

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VIEWPOINT

­­EDITOR ELSA LAM, MRAIC

Shirley Blumberg, FRAIC, and Barry Padolsky, FRAIC, advocated against the planned Memorial to the Victims of Communism.

LEFT TO RIGHT

Behind the Controversy As the year comes to a close, the misguided plans for a Memorial to the Victims of Communism adjacent the Supreme Court have happily changed (see CA, February 2015 and May 2015).

The new federal government has announced it will relocate the Memorial from its contentious site, and restart the competition process on a new site.

This is not a simple case of reason prevailing, but rather a hard won victory led by a coalition of design-sector individuals and organizations.

Shirley Blumberg of KPMB, Ottawa architect Barry Padolsky, and the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) were key players in a strategic campaign opposing the memorial, and delaying critical decisions surrounding it until the new government came into place.

Padolsky first raised the alarm over a year ago, when he realized that a large-scale memorial was slated to land near the Supreme Court— on a site that he knew to be reserved for a major judicial building. He wrote an open letter to then Prime Minister Stephen Harper, which was published in the Ottawa Citizen. Blumberg added her clout as soon as the competition results were announced; as a jury member, she was under a confidentiality agreement that prohibited her from speaking out sooner.

A group of architectural organizations rallied together around the cause. The RAIC, Ontario Association of Architects, Canadian Society of Landscape Architects, Canadian Institute of Planners, Council for Canadian Urbanism, and Heritage Ottawa issued statements asking that the government respect the area’s Long Term Vision and Plan and move the memorial to a different site.

National and international news media brought the memorial to public attention—criticizing the misallocated site, brutalist design, ballooning costs, corrupt process, and partisan politics behind the project. A petition opposing the memorial gathered over 5,000 signatories.

Padolsky was the public face of much of the opposition—the “memorial man,” as the Globe and Mail put it in a recent profile. He fielded

EDITORIAL ADVISOR IAN CHODIKOFF, OAA, FRAIC ART DIRECTOR ROY GAIOT CONTRIBUTING EDITORS ANNMARIE ADAMS, MRAIC DOUGLAS MACLEOD, NCARB, MRAIC REGIONAL CORRESPONDENTS HALIFAX CHRISTINE MACY, OAA REGINA BERNARD FLAMAN, SAA MONTREAL DAVID THEODORE CALGARY GRAHAM LIVESEY, MRAIC WINNIPEG LISA LANDRUM, MAA, AIA, MRAIC VANCOUVER ADELE WEDER PUBLISHER TOM ARKELL 416-510-6806

questions from journalists and led weekly conference calls with a growing group of core stakeholders opposed to the monument.

Behind the scenes, Blumberg was figuring out how to prevent shovels going into the ground before a fall election was announced.

Consulting with politically connected contacts in Toronto, she determined that legal action would be needed. With Padolsky and the RAIC, she lined up Ottawa lawyer Paul Champ to take up the case. Heritage Ottawa also joined as a litigant, and Canadians nationwide provided financial support.

When the NCC decided to allow site decontamination to start in late June, the litigants pulled the trigger and filed suit. And not a moment too soon—the papers were filed in court at noon the day after the NCC board meeting; that morning, Public Works staff had already staked out the site for digging.

The lawsuit pointed out that according to the National Capital Act, site preparations couldn’t begin until final design approval had been issued for the project. It was enough to hit pause on the backhoes, preventing the memorial from moving forward for a crucial few months before the beginning of an election campaign.

My folder of e-mails related to the Memorial to the Victims of Communism topped 1,000 items some months ago. And while the issue of the memorial now seems to be safely resolved, the coalition of design organizations isn’t done yet. It’s now advocating for new measures that would protect the Long Term Vision and Plan for the area around Parliament Hill—and require meaningful public consultation for modifying those plans.

Their efforts set an inspirational roadmap— showing how, by engaging in public policy, architects have the capacity to influence government decisions and public opinion.

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PUBLIC PRESENCE

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CANADIAN ARCHITECT 12/15­

2015 AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE

JURORS JOHANNA HURME, MAXIME FRAPPIER AND PAT HANSON SELECTED A DOZEN WINNING PROJECTS THAT BRING ADDED VALUE TO UNLIKELY SITES AND CREATE A SENSE OF ENGAGEMENT IN THE PUBLIC REALM. 2015 marks the 48th year of the Canadian Architect Awards of Excellence program. As the awards approach their 50th anniversary, we’re giving new polish to the program’s professional profile.

This year, we presented our awards at the IIDEXCanada show in Toronto—the first time in the memory of our staff that a public awards ceremony has been held. After, we hosted the winners for a private dinner at Shim-Sutcliffe’s stunning Integral House. It was a memorable evening. We hope to build on this success in the coming years, with the ultimate goal of achieving broader recognition for our award winners.

The program’s core remains unchanged: it identifies and awards Canada’s best projects, on the boards or under construction. By doing so, it focuses on a particularly hopeful stage of design—when a project has a real program and client, but before it has fully weathered the challenges of value engineering, client committees and cost-cutting contractors.

Design excellence entails a superlative handling of program, form and materials. This year’s jury showed particular interest in projects that displayed a high degree of programmatic innovation, including several that made a virtue of unusual or unlikely sites. They identified projects whose aesthetic “comes from the programmatic requirements and things that cannot then be shaved off through the value engineering process,” says juror Johanna Hurme, MRAIC. The entries—and several of the winning projects—included a notable number from Canadian architects working abroad, as well as from international architects working in Canada (both of which are eligible under

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the entry criteria). Cross-cultural teamwork can lead to intriguing results, according to juror Maxime Frappier, MIRAC. “The Asian approach is to build from the interior, to build a space contained from the centre through the exterior,” he says. “In a few projects that we saw, there is a similar intention to slowly start creating a dramatic sense of interior space, even space with a spiritual feeling.”

Achieving this quality of space in institutional work, the jurors say, is extremely challenging. “We have a limited set of tools with which to build institutional buildings,” says juror Pat Hanson, FRAIC. Adds Hurme, “How do we move away from just detailing things carefully, and have something bigger to say? How do we infuse a project with atmosphere?”

In several entries, this ephemeral atmosphere was achieved inside, although the jury felt that the exterior was not developed to the same level.

They were drawn to a swimming pool in Richmond, British Columbia, for instance, because of “the sensibility and the feelings evoked from that space,” says Hanson. A library in Drummondville, Quebec, was particularly notable for a spectacular staircase. “It’s part of the soul that we’re talking about to have something that is so striking and amazingly beautiful that it creates a centred masterpiece in the building,” says Frappier.

“There were many libraries in contention,” adds Hurme. “The library building is happening everywhere, regardless of predictions that books would die off. There’s a clear need for people to connect at the social level, regardless of the existence of the physical book or not. We’re creating libraries as a framework, a new sort of public living room.”

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2015 AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE

“Before, people used to go to church every Sunday,” says Frappier. “That’s where you communed with your neighbours, found jobs for your kids. And you were confronted with quality architectural space. Imagine that every week you were going into a space with soul: grandiose, light coming through the stained glass. We need to bring that back to our civic buildings.”

“The libraries we’ve selected today achieve this,” says Hanson. “They actually engage. It’s been so long since buildings positioned themselves in a way that people actually notice them, that users respond to them as something ‘other.’ That’s critical for our profession.”

The jury also saw several entries related to Toronto area transit infrastructure. “Through the next decade of transit investment, we know that Metrolinx is committed to design excellence. It’s another example

of uplifting the human spirit with everyday buildings,” says Hanson.

However, balancing their hope for public buildings that raise the bar, the jury also noted that not all sites are suitable places for iconic structures. “There is a recognition that not every building has to be a signature building,” says Hurme. Equally important, she says, are “fabric buildings that act as a background.”

This is the case for dense urban contexts as well as rural areas.

The jury pointed to a barn-inspired project on the main street of Canmore, Alberta, as a good example of a building that blends contextual appropriateness with contemporary design. “Architects also play a role in smaller towns and precincts, where intelligent interventions are possible and should be pursued,” says Hurme.

Maxime-Alexis Frappier, MIRAC, graduated in 2000 from the Université de Montréal, winning the Canadian Architect Student Award of Excellence for his thesis work. Since starting ACDF Architecture in 2006, Frappier has been involved with numerous projects across Canada and abroad. ACDF Architecture’s team of 40 architects and related professionals merges the quality of a young, dynamic design firm with rigour and experience. As the firm’s lead designer and president, Frappier tackles each project as a new narrative, translating its program into a clear, articulated and dynamic proposition where architecture is seen as a source of social, cultural and economic wealth. Frappier and ACDF ’s projects have received awards including recognition from the Ordre des architectes du Québec and a Governor General’s Medal in Architecture. In 2012, ACDF was selected to compete against Mecanoo, Asymptote Architecture, and Neil M. Denari Architects for the Keelung Harbour Terminal International Competition in Taiwan. More recently, Frappier was honoured with the RAIC’s Young Architect Award. He is currently heading the design team of a 40-storey mixeduse project in Vancouver, and is also working on two major mixed-use projects in downtown Montreal and on a 35-storey hotel and apartment tower in Surrey, British Columbia.

public consultation processes, as well as the realization of competitionwinning designs. She has spearheaded many institutional education projects that bridge beyond architecture into urban design and landscape. Under Hanson’s leadership, gh3 has steadily grown in capacity since its inception, winning multiple awards from its peers. The ability to mentor and direct the work of a young, enthusiastic and deeply talented staff has been key to Hanson’s accomplishments and success in international competitions. She has lectured on the work of the firms she has been partner at throughout North America and Europe. She maintains a strong commitment to architectural education and has served as an adjunct studio professor at the University of Toronto and the University of Waterloo. Hanson is presently a member of the Waterfront Toronto Design Review Panel.

Pat Hanson, FRAIC, is a founding partner of gh3, a practice that explores the overlap of architecture, landscape and sustainability. Hanson has deliberately staked out a broad practice in the belief that design encompasses the entire spectrum of the built environment. During 30 years of practice, she has contributed design leadership to the firms at which she was a partner. A versatile designer and a strong visual communicator, Hanson has directed a number of architecture, urbanism and planning projects which have involved complex programs and extensive

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Johanna Hurme, MRAIC, is an architect and a cofounder of Winnipeg-based 5468796 Architecture, established in 2007. In the past eight years, the firm has achieved national and international recognition and its work has been published in over 150 books and other publications.

Project-specific awards include the 2014 WAF Future Project of the Year, Progressive Architecture Awards, Awards for Emerging Architecture and the Future Project Award from Architectural Review, Governor General’s Medals in Architecture, Awards of Excellence from the RAIC and Canadian Architect, and placing as a finalist for IIT ’s emerging MCHAP award. Firm recognitions include the 2014 Rice Design Alliance Spotlight Award, the RAIC Emerging Practice Award, the WAN 21 for 21 Award, the Architectural League of New York’s Emerging Voices Award, and being named in Architectural Record ’s Design Vanguard. In 2012, 5468796 represented Canada at the Venice Biennale and in 2013 they were selected as the recipient of the Professional Prix

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OPPOSITE Designed by HCMA, the Minoru Complex in Richmond, BC, includes a long-span hybrid steel and glulam roof system. ABOVE A new addition in Canmore designed by Calgary firm MoDA takes inspiration from the local vernacular. RIGHT A dramatic double-spiral staircase anchors Chevalier Morales’ Drummondville Public Library in Quebec.

de Rome in Architecture. In addition to practice, Hurme is an activist and an advocate. She is passionate about making architecture an integral part of broader culture by spearheading ventures like Table for 12 + 1200 and Chair Your Idea. Hurme currently serves on the Board of Directors of Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce, on the Council of Manitoba Association of Architects, is a Chair and founder of the WCC ’s Creative Council, and is the President of the RAW Gallery Board of Directors. In 2010 she received a Manitoba Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Emerging Business.

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Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) is made up of architects, designers and thinkers operating within the fields of architecture, urbanism, research and development in the firm’s offices in Copenhagen and New York City. BIG has created a reputation for completing buildings that are programmatically and technically innovative, and demonstrate a high sensitivity to the particular demands of site and context. It is currently designing Google’s main campus, World Trade Center 2, and numerous other residential, commercial and cultural projects around the world.

Bjarke Ingels, Thomas Christoffersen, Beat Schenk, Agustin Perez-Torres, Melissa Bauld, Francesca Portesine, Ange Rapkeviciute, Amina Blacksher, Aran Coakley, Alexandra Gustaffson. SECOND ROW: Alina Tamosiunaite, Arash Ahmadian, Armen Menendian, Barbora Srpkova, Bennett Gale, Ben Zunkeler, Birk Daugaard, Blake Smith, Brian Foster, Brian Rome. THIRD ROW: Carlien Schippers, Christopher Junkin, Christopher Malcolm, David Brown, David Dottelonde, Doug Stechschulte, Edward Yung, Elena Bresciani, Gabriel Hernandez, Hector Garcia. FOURTH ROW: Ivy Hume, Jan Leenknegt, Janice Rim, John Kim, Julian Liang, Julianne Gola, Karol Borkowski, Lauren Turner, Lucia Santos, Marcella Martinez. BOTTOM ROW: Martin Voelkle, Michael Taylor, Sean Franklin, Spencer Hayden, Terrence Chew, Terry Lattak, Tobias Hjortdal, Tran Le, Yaziel Juarbe, Yoanna Shivarova.

TOP ROW, LEFT TO RIGHT:

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WINNERS

DIALOG was created as a cross-disciplinary collaborative to tackle the increasingly multi-faceted challenges confronting communities. The team includes architects and interior designers, landscape architects, urban designers and planners, and structural, mechanical and electrical engineers. The firm practices across Canada and beyond, from studios in Vancouver, Toronto, Calgary and Edmonton. Its work includes design for urban vibrancy, health and wellness, transportation, arts and culture, retail and commercial, residential, education and research, as well as mixed-use solutions incorporating an increasing number of these program types. DIALOG has been designing positive change in communities since 1960, and its work has attracted many awards over this span.

TOP ROW, LEFT TO RIGHT: Joost Bakker, Doug Cinnamon, Bruce Haden, Vance Harris, Marion LaRue, Cameron Veres, Aida Aguilar, Stan Bury, Alexa Bustamante, Marcello Caula, Evan Dysart. SECOND ROW: Kyle Elderhorst, Lauren Fehr, Doris Fischer, Wellington Hau, Laura Herbert, Carole Hoveland, Richard Innes, Ken Johnson, Janay Koldingnes, Tim Lazaruk, Tracy Liu. THIRD ROW: Gary McCauley, Martin Neault, Erin Parchoma, Brad Phillips, Ken Rea, Sara Remocker, Pallavi Sangwan, Blaire Schille, Rey Tadifa, Mahsa Tashakor, Trevor Thimm. BOTTOM ROW: Justin Tompson, Sheldon Ublansky, Ivy Usi, Oskar Winnat, Jiameng Zeng.

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WINNERS

JIMMY HAMELIN

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RDH Architects (RDHA) is a Toronto-based studio specializing in the design of public architecture. Founded in 1919, RDHA is one of Canada’s oldest practices. Over the last century, the firm has produced a wide range of work, from turn-of-the-century residences and corporate headquarters to industrial facilities, academic buildings and libraries.

The core of its current work is dedicated to the public realm. RDHA is an intergenerational practice led by principals Tyler Sharp, MRAIC, Bob Goyeche, MRAIC, Robert Boyko, MRAIC, and Geoffrey Miller, MRAIC. The current partners have transformed the firm over the last decade, redefining the office structure, the creative design process and the mission to produce architecture of the highest calibre.

Tyler Sharp, Bob Goyeche, Carlos Tavares, MIDDLE ROW: Soo-Jin Rim, Simon Routh, Sanjoy Pal. BOTTOM ROW: Jacques Bergeron, Peter Osborne, Luc Johnston.

TOP ROW, LEFT TO RIGHT:

Founded in 2003, KANVA is a Montreal-based multidisciplinary collective led by Tudor Radulescu, MRAIC, and Rami Bebawi, MRAIC. The firm is made up of passionate architects, who also act as art directors and educators dedicated to a methodology of leading every aspect of a project, from concept to final inhabitation. KANVA’s work demonstrates architecture’s transformative power through a range of disciplines and scales, spanning from ephemeral art installations to institutional buildings.

KANVA has been recognized with the 2015 RAIC Emerging Architectural Practice Award, a 2013 RAIC Award of Excellence, multiple OAQ Grand Prix du Design Awards and an Illuminating Engineering Society Award. Last year, KANVA was a winner in Winnipeg’s Warming Huts competition and this year, the team was nominated for two awards at the World Architecture Festival as well as a Shenzen Young Designer Award, demonstrating the broad scope and reach of its work.

NEUF architect(e)s is a team of creative professionals that has been contributing to Montreal’s urban landscape since 1971. With offices in Montreal and Ottawa, NEUF architect(e)s has a diverse portfolio, with projects including the Mont Tremblant Four Seasons resort, the headquarters for the CBC and Canada Post in Ottawa, and many of the towers animating Montreal’s skyline, including the in-progress Nouveau CHUM. Its expertise spans many sectors, with a portfolio including industrial, office, institutional, residential, commercial, urban design, hotel, resort and interior design projects in Canada, the United States, Europe and Asia.

FRONT ROW, LEFT TO RIGHT: Eloïse Ciesla, Marina Socolova, Dina Safonova, Minh-Giao Truong, Katrine Rivard, France Moreau, Joyce Yam, Olga Karpova, Gabriel Caya. SECOND ROW: Léon Dussault-Gagné, Azad Chichmanian, Tudor Radulescu, Rami Bebawi. BACK ROW: Dale Byrns, Killian O’Connor.

MASS Design Group is a non-profit design studio with offices in Kigali and Boston. For the past five years, it has worked to create a new practice of architecture that promotes dignity, opportunity and health. Its projects throughout sub-Saharan Africa, in Haiti, and in the United States have proved the effectiveness of best-practice design to help otherwise under-resourced communities thrive. MASS’s model of impact is two-pronged.

As an architecture and design firm, it identifies the potential for infrastructure to improve delivery outcomes (in health, education, housing and other sectors) and then works with partner organizations to provide high-quality, innovative and dignified design. The designers have observed the success of their buildings as regional catalysts for a new type of architecture, and have scaled these ideas up by creating national policy standards.

Secondly, as a research and training lab with a dedicated research team, MASS uncovers and evaluates new best-practice methods of designing for impact, and trains architects and designers to grow the next generation of builders in the regions in which it works.

LEFT TO RIGHT: Sierra Bainbridge, Kyle Barker, Christian Benimana, Kelly Doran, Patricia Gruits, John Maher, Amelie Ntigulirwa, Alan Ricks, Chris Schovel, Theophile Uwayezu, Christian Uwinkindi.

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D’Arcy Jones Architecture is a Vancouver-based architecture and design studio. Through competitions, design panels, teaching, lectures and juries, the studio strives to be a critical contributor to contemporary culture. Honours include the Ronald J. Thom Award for Early Design Achievement from the Canada Council for the Arts and the inaugural Arthur Erickson Memorial Award from the Arthur Erickson Foundation. The studio has won awards from Canadian Architect, Western Living, Canadian Interiors and Architizer. Its projects appear regularly in national and international publications, with features in Dwell, Wallpaper* and Häuser.

LEFT TO RIGHT: D’Arcy

Jones, Matthew Ketis-Bendena, Craig Bissell, Rebecca Boese, Jessie Nguyen.

Snøhetta is a firm that puts human interaction at the core of its approach. With studios in Oslo, New York, San Francisco and Innsbruck, it strives to create work that enhances people’s sense of place, identity and relationship to others and the physical spaces they inhabit, whether natural or human-made. For over 25 years, Snøhetta has designed some of the world’s most notable public and cultural projects. Snøhetta was thrust into the spotlight in 1989 with its competition-winning entry for the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt. This was followed by the commission for the Norwegian National Opera in Oslo and the National 9/11 Memorial Museum at the World Trade Center in New York City. Since its inception, the practice has maintained its original trans-disciplinary approach, integrating architectural, landscape and interior design in all of its projects. Among its many honours, Snøhetta has received two World Architecture Festival Awards, the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, the Mies van der Rohe European Union Prize for Architecture, the Environmental Design Research Association Great Places Award, the European Prize for Urban Public Space, the International Architecture Award and the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture.

Snøhetta (above). TOP ROW, LEFT TO RIGHT: Vanessa Kassabian, Anne-Rachel Schiffmann, Ben Matthews, Dennis Rijkhoff, Jeffrey Cheung. BOTTOM ROW: Justin Shea, Mathieu Lemieux-Blanchard, Mia Kang, Michelle Delk, Samuel Brissette.

DIALOG (at right). LEFT TO RIGHT, TOP TO BOTTOM: Rob Adamson, Janice Liebe, Alan Collyer, David Maksymec, John Lyons, Antonio Gómez-Palacio, John Do, Don Buschert, Chris Heinaranta, Erin Parchoma, Matt Jordan, Wayne Yarjau, Mark Wallace, Tim McGinn, Matt Parkes, Trevor Cleall, Adam Howes.

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WINNERS

Perkins+Will Canada is an interdisciplinary design firm, globally recognized as a leader in sustainability, research and social responsibility. With a staff of 1800 and 24 offices around the globe, Perkins+Will balances the capability and resources of a large firm with a culture of local studios that offer unique perspectives in their regions. Established in 1945, the Toronto studio is recognized as one of Canada’s leading designers of public architecture. The studio is currently led by seven principals with areas of focus in higher education, civic architecture, sports and recreation, transportation, urban design and corporate interiors. Under the management of D’Arcy Arthurs, MRAIC, and the design direction of Andrew Frontini, MRAIC, Perkins+Will Toronto has developed an extensive portfolio of award-winning projects that focus on building communities and rich public realms around their clients’ sites. Unique approaches to form and material investigation evolve out of the specific narrative for each project, rooting them to their place and to the people that use them.

LEFT TO RIGHT:

Aimee Drmic, D’Arcy Arthurs, Andrew Frontini.

Andrew and Jodi Batay-Csorba, MRAIC, established Batay-Csorba Architects (BCA) in 2010 as a collaborative, R&D-based design studio.

The practice was created in Los Angeles, and moved to Toronto, bringing with it a fresh outlook to designing in Canada. Before founding BCA , Jodi and Andrew designed, directed and managed over 86 internationally celebrated projects in 38 cities and 11 countries, both on their own and at Pritzker Prize-winning offices. The work of BCA ranges from small-scale installations, graphic visualization and multi-media design to interior design, architecture and large-scale urban planning.

The firm approaches each project by questioning established typologies and premeditated ideas, in search of contemporary alternatives to how projects are approached, and to how they function and perform. Accolades include the 2014 OAA Concept Award and the AIA 2x8 Award (Los Angeles). The firm has lectured at the Festival Abierto in Panama City, presented work in the 2012 Venice Biennale Migrating Landscapes exhibition, and was featured in the 2013-2014 Proteiforme Architecture Parametrique exhibition in Montreal and Quebec City.

Ja Architecture Studio is a Toronto-based firm with a strong interest in the role that design-oriented practices can play in bringing vigour to urban development. The firm is committed to engaging with ambitious projects that are both buildable and have cultural relevance. Founded by architect Nima Javidi and landscape designer Behnaz Assadi, the studio was later joined by urban designer Hanieh Rezaei. Ja Architecture has participated in a range of successfully realized projects of different scales and has been featured in numerous international publications. The firm is interested in finding ways in which form and geometry can inform each project as they interact with a site’s zoning constraints, natural boundaries and daylight. Engaged in real as well as speculative projects, the firm seeks to maintain a practical approach while keeping an eye on the future of progressive architecture around the world.

LEFT TO RIGHT:

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Nima Javidi, Behnaz Assadi, Hanieh Rezai, Sally Kassar, Arittro Noor, Zhou Tang, Kyle O’Brien.

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OMA is a leading international partnership engaged in architecture, urbanism and cultural analysis. Responsible for OMA’s operations in the Americas, OMA New York was established in 2001 and has since overseen the successful completion of several buildings across the continent, including Milstein Hall at Cornell University, the Wyly Theater in Dallas, the Seattle Central Library, the IIT Campus Center in Chicago and Prada’s Epicenter in New York. The office is currently overseeing the construction of the Musée National des Beaux-arts du Québec and the Faena Arts District in Miami Beach, as well as a studio expansion for artist Cai Guo Qiang in New York. The New York office has recently been commissioned to design a number of residential towers in San Francisco, New York and Miami, as well as two projects in Los Angeles, the Plaza at Santa Monica and the Wilshire Boulevard Temple.

Provencher_Roy is a multidisciplinary firm offering services in architecture and architectural planning, urban design and urban planning, interior design, industrial design, sustainable development and communication. The firm brings together nearly 200 professionals working in all areas of the built environment in Canada and abroad. Its portfolio includes remarkable accomplishments in the institutional and cultural sectors, particularly museums. The agency has also realized numerous mixed-use projects integrating office, hospitality and retail programs. For over 30 years, the group has taken an approach of emphasizing holistic gestures and concepts of openness rooted in Modernity, resulting in projects that form an integral part of urban landscapes. Over the years, Provencher_Roy has earned more than 80 awards and distinctions recognizing the excellence of its projects in Quebec, Canada and abroad.

Shohei Shigematsu, Jason Long, Ceren Bingol, Patrick Hobgood, Luke Willis, Rami Abou Khalil.

LEFT TO RIGHT: Matthieu Geoffrion, Pascal Lessard, Layla Macleod, Danielle Dewar, Réal Baril, Konstantin Demin.

LEFT TO RIGHT:

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Clothilde Caillé-Lévesque is a designer based in Montreal. Working at the intersection of architecture, nature and technology, her research engages speculation and fiction as design tools and explores digital fabrication through a wide array of experiments. Prior to completing her professional degree at McGill University, she gained extensive design experience working in New York, Paris and Montreal. She currently teaches design studio and digital representation classes at McGill University, and has given workshops at the Conf luence Institute for Innovation and Creative Strategies in Architecture in Lyon, France.

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Creating Toronto’s New City Hall, 1952-1966

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AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

VANCOUVER HOUSE

Bjarke Ingels Group (design architect), DIALOG (architect of record), James K.M. Cheng Architects (advising architect) Vancouver, British Columbia

ARCHITECTS LOCATION

Vancouver House negotiates a difficult site trisected by the Granville Bridge. The base of the tower is conditioned by two neighbouring elements. First, a 30-metre setback from the bridge greatly cuts down the area of the site. Second, concerns for sunlight reaching an adjacent park limit how far south the site can expand. As a result, the footprint is restricted to a 540-square-metre triangle—almost too small to build on.

The tower ascends as a simple extrusion of this triangular footprint.

Thirty metres above the bridge, it begins to reclaim the lost area from the setbacks by expanding into a rectangular f loor plate. This gradual cantilever protects residents at the lower levels from the noise, exhaust and traffic of the bridge. At the higher levels—beyond the bridge’s zone of inf luence—the massing maximizes real estate for the most desirable apartments.

This movement not only turns the inefficient triangle into an optimized rectangular floor plate, but also frees up a generous public space at the building’s base. The resultant silhouette resembles a curtain being drawn aside, welcoming people as they enter the city.

The 52-storey Vancouver House will house 375 residential units and will be Vancouver’s fourth tallest building when completed. The tower is situated on a 9-storey podium base, housing a mixed-use urban village offering intimately scaled commercial, retail, recreational and public spaces.

Beyond its role as the defining infrastructural element of the site, the Granville Bridge functions as an urban umbrella for the street life

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underneath. Local artists will turn the underside of the bridge into an outdoor gallery, transforming the perception of this area as a new form of public space. What used to be an unfortunate side effect of a piece of infrastructure—the overpass—is re-envisaged as a vibrant covered street for a reinvented neighbourhood.

The project targets both LEED Platinum and LEED Certification for Neighborhood Development. Each façade uses high-performance, triple-glazed insulating units and all balconies are fully insulated at the top, bottom and slab edges. The envelope is designed to provide a 60-40 glazing-to-solid ratio.

The building’s shape necessitates a unique structural system. It will be the first project in Vancouver to employ vertical post-tensioning and a robust walking-column system. Stepped columns merge as they move towards the base of the building. Each offset column induces lateral thrusts into the horizontal, post-tensioned slabs at each floor, which in turn transfer this load to the core and to vertically post-tensioned shear walls.

Vancouver House’s form is a result of its circumstances: a trisected site, existing infrastructure, and concerns for neighbouring buildings and parks. City regulations were applied to the site and hidden opportunities uncovered through analyzing current urban conditions. The sculptural silhouette is not the result of formal excess, but rather the outcome of design and real estate optimization. The building appears different because it performs and responds differently.

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OPPOSITE Creating value from a previously neglected infill site, Vancouver House squeezes up and out from the residual spaces at the base of the Granville Bridge. BELOW, LEFT TO RIGHT The underside of the bridge is reinvented as an urban art gallery and covered street; the twisting tower is a striking presence in downtown Vancouver’s skyline.

:: MF :: Many “leftover” sites in our cities are nice found opportunities to develop new types of buildings. That’s what this project is doing.

It’s a focal point for people that arrive from the bridge. Even if the building is quite spectacular, this site can take it. To balance the sculptural aspect of the tower, the external façade is quite simple and subtle. :: PH :: This is a developer’s dream because the largest f loor plates are on the top—that maximizes the number of units that will sell for the most. The cantilevered form is in line with the profit centre of the building, and those profits probably pay for the structural gymnastics.

It’s really quite brilliant. :: JH :: We often see geometric moves in the work of architectural offices today. But in this case, it’s actually coming from the zoning requirement; it’s responding to a real site condition. In addition to finding an opportunity to build on an urban residual site, the project reimagines the spaces under the freeway ramps as active urban conditions. These places are often simply ignored and are in need of innovative solutions.

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CLIENT WESTBANK | ARCHITECT TEAM BIG—BJARKE INGELS, THOMAS CHRISTOFFERSEN, BEAT

SCHENK, AGUSTÍN PÉREZ-TORRES, MELISSA BAULD, AMINA BLACKSHER, ARAN COAKLEY, ALEXANDRA GUSTAFSSON, ALINA TAMOSIUNAITE, ARASH AHMADIAN, ARMEN MENENDIAN, BARBORA SRPKOVÁ, BENNETT GALE, BEN ZUNKELER, BIRK DAUGAARD, BLAKE SMITH, BRIAN FOSTER, BRIAN ROME, CAROLIEN SCHIPPERS, CHRISTOPHER JUNKIN, CHRISTOPHER MALCOLM, DAVID BROWN, DAVID DOTTELONDE, DOUG STECHSCHULTE, EDWARD YUNG, ELENA BRESCIANI, FRANCESCA PORTESINE, GABRIEL HERNANDEZ SOLANO, HECTOR GARCIA, IVY HUME, JAN LEENKNEGT, JANICE RIM, JULIAN LIANG, JULIANNE GOLA, KAROL BORKOWSKI, LAUREN TURNER, MARCELLA MARTINEZ, MARTIN VOELKLE, MICHAEL TAYLOR, SEAN FRANKLIN, SPENCER HAYDEN, TERRENCE CHEW, TERRY LALLAK, TRAN LE, YOANNA SHIVAROVA. DIALOG—JOOST BAKKER, DOUG CINNAMON, BRUCE HADEN, VANCE HARRIS, MARION LARUE, CAMERON VERES, AIDA AGUILAR, STAN BURY, ALEXA BUSTAMANTE, MARCELLO CAULA, EVAN DYSART, KYLE ELDERHORST, LAUREN FEHR, DORIS FISCHER, WELLINGTON HAU, LAURA HERBERT, CAROLE HOVELAND, RICHARD INNES, KEN JOHNSON, JANAY KOLDINGNES, TIM LAZARUK, TRACY LIU, GARY MCCAULEY, MARTIN NEAULT, ERIN PARCHOMA, BRAD PHILLIPS, KEN REA, SARA REMOCKER, PALLAVI SANGWAN, BLAIRE SCHILLE, REY TADIFA, MAHSA TASHAKOR, TREVOR THIMM, JUSTIN TOMPSON, SHELDON UBLANSKY, IVY USI, OSKAR WINNAT, JIAMENG ZENG. | STRUCTURAL GLOTMAN SIMPSON CONSULTING ENGINEERS | MECHANICAL INTEGRAL GROUP | ELECTRICAL NEMETZ & ASSOCIATES | CIVIL HUNTER LAIRD ENGINEERING LTD. | GEOTECH GEOPACIFIC CONSULTANTS LTD. | ENVELOPE MORRISON HERSHFIELD | LANDSCAPE PFS STUDIO | INTERIORS BIG | CONTRACTOR ICON WEST CONSTRUCTION CORP. | SUSTAINABILITY & ENERGY MODELING INTEGRAL GROUP | CODE LMDG | TRANSPORTATION BUNT & ASSOCIATES | SIGNAGE ZACHARKO DESIGN | ELEVATORS GUNN CONSULTANTS | WIND GRADIENT MICROCLIMATE ENGINEERING | AREA 716,000 FT 2 (ABOVE GRADE) | BUDGET WITHHELD | COMPLETION 2018

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AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

SPRINGDALE LIBRARY AND NEIGHBOURHOOD PARK

RDH Architects (RDHA) Brampton, Ontario

ARCHITECT LOCATION

This project creates a new branch library and community park for the neighbourhood of Springdale, in the City of Brampton, just outside Toronto. The building provides 1860 square metres of library program space along with a 465-square-metre multi-purpose community room.

The neighbourhood park includes areas for children’s play equipment, a splash pad, parking and a contemplative garden.

The four-acre greenfield site is bordered by Bramalea Road to the south, a new commercial plaza to the east, and a natural ravine to the north and west. The ravine forms part of the tributary system for the West Humber River.

To connect the building to its landscape, the conceptual parti uses two primary devices: first, the notion of an organic, undulating perimeter joining building and courtyards; and second, the creation of an artificial topography within the flat landscape of the park, the floor slab of the interior, and the ceiling and roof planes of the library structure.

Responding to the library’s request, the new facility is located as close to Bramalea Road as possible. This maximizes the library’s street presence, and forces parking to the rear of the site, adjacent to the new entry drive and commercial plaza. The remainder of the site— immediately next to the ravine—provides an ideal location for the neighbourhood park with its contemplative gardens.

The building and façades work together towards two seemingly opposing strategies: they aim to be formally controlled and formally expressive. The building envelope is amorphous, undulating in and out to create entry and procession spaces from the street, parking and contemplative gardens. These undulations represent one aspect

SKETCH

of how the building expressively relates to its natural, organic setting.

On the other hand, the building footprint is controlled and contained within the overall triangular form. The negative spaces of the triangle convey a sense of order, while serving to provide canopy, lighting and screening functions, and to define three perimeter courtyard spaces.

The layers of the façade are predominantly vertical and consist of the following: the undulating perimeter of glass; a striated, solar-responsive ceramic frit pattern; an aluminum framing system that supports the glazed units; a series of linear LED light fixtures integrated into the aluminum framing system; and, finally, a screen of stainless steel tubes on the exterior. This last element provides an additional layer of solar resistance, varying in density depending on solar orientation. The combination of these vertically striated elements is conceived as a functional abstraction of two combined metaphors: the trunks of trees in a forest and the turning pages of a library book.

From a distance, the roof is shaped to present a hill-like profile. Inside, this area is accompanied by a topographic ceiling ascension marking the skylight over the active reading atrium. A quiet reading atrium is delineated by a minor ceiling rise, while the ceiling descends over a children’s area to create a sense of intimacy.

A hill-like green roof hints at the dramatic ravine landscape just beyond the library. Inside, the ground and ceiling planes are inflected to create tailored spaces for kids’ programs and socializing. OPPOSITE TOP The central reading area is covered by a tent-like ceiling, topped by a skylight. OPPOSITE BOTTOM The multi-layered façade incorporates solar screening, lighting and visual patterns that evoke the turning pages of a book.

ABOVE

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:: MF :: The quality of the mountain-like roof, the oculus at its centre,

and the way that light will spread within the library—all of these are going to enhance the feeling of being covered and sheltered when you are inside this building. :: PH :: The building looks to the larger site to inflect the basic move

of proposing an orderly, well-planned, rectilinear box. It’s inflected in its ground plane through a notion of topography, and equally inflected in section through the raising of the green roof so that it creates a hillscape that can be seen from the street.

1 ENTRY AREA 2 MULTI-PURPOSE ROOM 3 ENTRY VESTIBULE 4 FEMALE WASHROOM 5 MALE WASHROOM 6 GROUP MEETING ROOMS 7 CREATION SPACE 8 QUIET READING ATRIUM 9 ADULT COLLECTION 10 ACTIVE READING ATRIUM 11 STAFF WORK AREA 12 CHILDREN’S COLLECTION 13 BOOK DROP 14 GARDEN COURTYARD 15 CONTEMPLATIVE GARDENS 16 REFLECTING POOL 17 ENTRY COURT FROM PARKING AREA 18 ENTRY COURT FROM STREET

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:: JH :: There’s recognition of the reality of what actually happens in a building: for instance, the hill is only part of the roof, and the rest is a white reflective surface. The plan also includes gardens carved into it, which create very specific zones for different types of function and program.

CLIENT CITY OF BRAMPTON AND BRAMPTON LIBRARY | ARCHITECT TEAM TYLER SHARP, BOB

GOYECHE, SANJOY PAL, SIMON ROUTH, CARLOS TAVARES, SOO-JIN RIM, ANDREW CRANFORD |

STRUCTURAL HALSALL/WSP ENGINEERS | MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL JAIN CONSULTANTS | LAND-

SCAPE NAK DESIGN GROUP | INTERIORS RDHA | CIVIL VALDOR ENGINEERING INC. | AREA 2,500 M2

| BUDGET $17 M | COMPLETION MARCH 2017

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AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

EGLINTON GO STATION

RDH Architects (RDHA) Toronto, Ontario

ARCHITECT LOCATION

This project is a redevelopment of the existing Eglinton GO Transit commuter rail station in Scarborough, located between McCowan and Markham Roads. The primary program for the building includes upgraded passenger platforms and enhanced pedestrian and cycling access, as well as such completely original interventions as a new station building, tunnels and stairs, a structure for housing mechanical, electrical and IT services, and an elevated pedestrian bridge linking the station to overflow parking located across Eglinton to the north. It is the intention of the design team to create a facility that will raise the profile of the station within the neighbourhood and attract new users through its architecture and design.

The architectural concept began with an acknowledgement of the irregular, wedge-shaped site, whose topography allows for both a main street-level area and an upper platform-level area. The conceptual design for the station was inspired by linear movement, forced perspectives and lines vanishing into the distance. The idea of a two-storey wedge-shaped building receding into a tight corner appeared to have an appropriate and interesting formal dynamism for a transit station.

Beyond the initial formal response, notions of transparency, reflection and view have become important concepts to convey the visual and spatial experience of being at a train station. Transparency allows for visual communication of the building’s use and GO Transit’s overall aspirations to the street, the platform and to train passengers. The formal prominence of a transparent, glowing station building along Eglinton draws attention to the facility as potential users pass by the site.

Reflection—through the use of glass and other reflective materials— accentuates the initial ideas associated with perspective and movement, and offers the potential to further display the experience and program of the train station.

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Finally, views have become an important conceptual design consideration. These include views from the outside into the facility, and from the inside to the exterior—but also views from cars and pedestrians travelling along Eglinton, and from the various levels of the trains that approach and pass by the station building.

The design team has been studying an initial material palette including high-performance glazed curtain wall incorporating a custom ceramic frit patterning. This would maximize views into and out of the station building, increase the amount of overall daylighting, and reduce the overall demand for artificial lighting. The suggested palette also includes polished aluminum panels for above-ground solid wall cladding, extensive green roofs for the majority of the station building, sedum tray planting fixed to exterior faceted concrete surfaces, and exposed cast-in-place concrete for the exterior retaining walls and other hardscape elements. :: MF :: There’s a quiet elegance to this project. We appreciated the

functionality and simplicity of the plan. It’s a gateway in the way it has been designed, and it is going to participate well in the landscape along the highway.

:: PH :: It’s a building about passage and threshold, and an example

of what you can do with a utilitarian infrastructure that we haven’t paid attention to for decades.

:: JH :: This building has to be understood at two different speeds: from the automobile passing by as well as from the pedestrian point of view, when you get out of your car to catch a train. We look forward to seeing how the screen develops and how it can answer to that condition.

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EG

1 NORTH PARKING 2 WESTBOUND BUS STOP 3 EASTBOUND BUS STOP 4 PEDESTRIAN BRIDGE 5 STATION BUILDING 6 KISS AND RIDE 7 NORTH PLATFORM 8 SOUTH PLATFORM 9 UTILITY BUILDING 10 CNR BRIDGE 11 SOUTH PARKING

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The new commuter rail station is designed as a transparent, glowing box that projects a dynamic and elegant image for regional transit. ABOVE, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP The project integrates the design of the surrounding site, including elements such as a new pedestrian bridge; view from inside the station; rendering showing the main stair accessing the wedge-shaped station building.

OPPOSITE

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CLIENT METROLINX | ARCHITECT TEAM TYLER SHARP, BOB GOYECHE, JACQUES BERGERON, PETER

OSBORNE, SIMON ROUTH, LUC JOHNSTON | STRUCTURAL HALSALL/WSP ENGINEERS | MECHANIC-

AL/ELECTRICAL MOON-MATZ LTD. CONSULTING ENGINEERS | LANDSCAPE ELIAS AND ASSOCIATES

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS | INTERIORS RDHA | AREA 575 M2 (STATION BUILDING ALONE) | BUDGET $3 M (STATION BUILDING ALONE) | $27 M (TOTAL SITE DEVELOPMENT)

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AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

BIODOME MUSEUM RENEWAL PROJECT

ARCHITECT LOCATION

KANVA (concept architect and architect of record) and NEUF architect(e)s (collaborating architect) Olympic Park, Montreal, Quebec

Montreal’s Biodome was built as a velodrome for the 1976 Olympic Games and was converted into a natural science museum in 1992. The Biodome includes four ecosystems: the Tropical Rainforest, the Laurentian Maple Forest, the St. Lawrence Gulf, and the Sub-Polar Regions.

Together, these host over 4,500 animals from 250 different species.

As part of a citywide plan to celebrate Montreal’s 375th anniversary in 2017, the museum last year launched an international competition to renovate the Biodome interior. KANVA and NEUF ’s winning entry rethinks the relationship between humankind and nature, and bolsters the centre’s educational mission.

The revitalization strategy treats the existing facility as a living organism. A continuous curved wall f luidly wraps each ecosystem like a skin. Referencing the building’s history of hosting cycling races, the floor-to-ceiling walls sweep through the interior space, serving as a canvas that accompanies visitors through the building’s many pathways and leads them back to a new central hub.

Pure in both form and colour, the white skin isolates the ecosystems and contrasts with the robust concrete architecture of the velodrome.

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The skin becomes a neutral yet bold intermediary between two important elements—the building and the exhibition zones. The clean membrane invites introspection in the moments between visits to the sensory-stimulating, animal-filled environments.

Within the ecosystems, the new conceptual strategy creates immersive and intimate experiences, bringing more awareness to visitors during their journey. Outside of the ecosystems, the plan reorganizes many of the public spaces on the main floor, freeing up the grand hall and extending a new central hub to the ceiling. Making use of the Biodome’s height, a mezzanine is added above the redesigned Sub-Polar Regions, framing the impressive ceiling structure and offering new vantage points for visitors and staff. New passages from two of the ecosystems service this mezzanine, allowing visitors a more diversified trajectory and additional points of rest to punctuate their visit.

The skin is made from a textile that can curve and take on many forms, preventing unnecessary demolition of the fragile ecosystems and existing infrastructure, including a newly optimized mechanical system. The textile’s flexibility allows it to occupy residual and awkward spaces, unifying the irregular perimeters of each exhibition. The skin disguises most of the Biodome’s unsightly mechanical equipment, redirecting the visual focus of visitors up to the heritage structure’s luminous skylights.

The system’s thin profile and lightweight structure allow for installation with little noise, keeping disruption to the animals and their environments to a minimum.

In addition to making better use of the velodrome’s skylights, the design celebrates the existing heritage building in several ways. The amphitheatre is relocated along the building’s edge to free up the central hub, and makes use of the velodrome’s original spectator stands for seating. In the newly opened atrium, two concrete staircases from the velodrome become important anchors in the space.

Overall, the scheme offers a comprehensive and multi-disciplinary approach that both enhances the existing heritage building and expands the programmatic functions of the Biodome.

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OPPOSITE TOP In the renovated Biodome, the entrance area opens to the ceiling, and a new mezzanine creates additional opportunities for resting between exhibits. OPPOSITE BOTTOM A system of membrane-like walls weaves through the building, wrapping each ecosystem like a skin. ABOVE The atrium includes a new viewing window to the popular penguin exhibit in the Sub-Polar Regions ecosystem.

:: MF :: The challenge that the designers had to face in reorganizing the existing main components was very difficult. Their solution brings a sense of playfulness to circulating around this building. They have chosen a good strategy to create a strong promenade. :: PH :: This project inserts strategically sculpted walls that capture views of the sky like a James Turrell structure, editing what is already present. The intervention is a kind of syncopation as you move through the four exhibits—your sensory experience is completely different when you’re passing through the paired walls. Understood in relationship to the ceiling structure of the existing building, the plan with its extruded walls is quite profound.

:: JH :: There’s a consistency and clarity to the overall approach that adds legibility to the existing piece. It’s a good example of how to intervene with such a specific building. We have many big, iconic buildings across Canada that would benefit from new intervention and reuse strategies with this kind of sensibility.

CLIENT SPACE FOR LIFE (CITY OF MONTREAL) | ARCHITECT TEAM KANVA—RAMI BEBAWI, TUDOR RADULESCU, MINH-GIAO TRUONG, KATRINE RIVARD, OLGA KARPOVA, KILLIAN O’CONNOR, LÉON DUSSAULT-GAGNÉ, DINA SAFONOVA, JOYCE YAM, DALE BYRNS, FRANCE MOREAU, GABRIEL CAYA, ELOÏSE CIESLA. NEUF ARCHITECT(E)S—AZAD CHICHMANIAN, MARINA SOCOLOVA. | STRUCTURAL NCK | MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL BOUTHILLETTE PARIZEAU | INTERIORS KANVA + NEUF ARCHITECT(E)S | MUSEOLOGIST NATHALIE MATTE | SIGNAGE/BRANDING BRUCE MAU | AREA 15,472 M2 | BUDGET $13 M | COMPLETION 2017-2018

LEVEL 1 1 MAIN ENTRY HALL 2 TICKETING 3 BOUTIQUE 4 HUB 5 MECHANICAL 6 LABS AND OFFICES 7 SECONDARY ENTRY HALL 8 AUDITORIUM FOYER 9 CAFETERIA

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AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

MUNINI DISTRICT HOSPITAL

MASS Design Group Munini, Nyaruguru District, Rwanda

ARCHITECT LOCATION

Over the past 20 years, Rwanda has undergone incredible transformation, and its healthcare sector is but one example. The nation currently has plans to build several district hospitals. Working with the Ministry of Health, MASS developed a set of design-driven principles to improve health outcomes that can be adapted to the specific needs of each district’s context, demographics and programmatic requirements. To aid the Ministry’s infrastructure team in sizing, specifying, procuring and evaluating future designs, this included Program and Design Standards and a “how-to” guide to shape future renovation and construction.

In parallel with the development of the National Standards, MASS designed a 300-bed facility in Nyaruguru, one of Rwanda’s poorest districts. The project site, typical of Rwanda’s mountainous topography, is on a hilltop marked by centuries of human history: the terraced hillside is shaped by years of agricultural production, the buildings sit atop a former colonial military control point, and at the hill’s crest, a mass grave and memorial commemorates an especially bleak chapter of the country’s history: the 1994 genocide.

To adapt the plan to a relatively tight site, the program’s three bars are bent in accordance with the natural contours of the hill, and are strategically opened up to allow prevailing winds to pass through the buildings. Given that the majority of outpatients arrive by foot or public transport, the primary entrance is a landscaped path with multiple places for open air seating to combat infection, along with green spaces for a tranquil healing environment. Emergency services are vertically

separated from the reception to allow for ease of flow across the ER , operations, ICU, imaging and post-op areas—each connected by a bridge that ties the three bars to the core. Due to the frequency of power outages, the building’s vertical circulation incorporates two centrally located ramps that also serve to animate the central courtyard.

Rwanda’s equatorial climate allows for the building to be almost completely open to the surrounding environment. The hospital’s largest program elements—private rooms and open wards—are set back from the edge to provide shading as well as dedicated balconies and outdoor spaces.

To prevent airborne infection, all internal hallways are removed, displacing user movement to the exterior where the risk is much lower. Working with mechanical engineers, MASS ensured adequate natural ventilation, and designed nursing stations that minimize risk to staff.

The building has a cutting-edge maternity suite, including delivery, OR , ICU, and NICU wards to assist Rwanda further reduce rates of infant and maternal mortality. These steps build upon the impressive strides the country has made in achieving those aspects of the Millennium Development Goals.

Through its work, MASS has found that one of the most under-leveraged opportunities to achieve impact through building is in redesigning the building process to foster social engagement, training and equitable hiring. At Munini, they specified brick produced within 10 km and stone quarried from the immediate region to encourage contractors and suppliers to directly engage Munini’s community.

ABOVE The hospital’s curved bars follow the contours of its hilltop site, overlooking farmland below. OPPOSITE, LEFT TO RIGHT The building is constructed of concrete frame, exposed and rendered brick, and locally quarried stone; a view of the pedestrian-oriented entry courtyard.

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1 RECEPTION AND CASHIER 2 PHARMACY 3 LAB 4 MATERNITY RECEPTION 5 PRE-DELIVERY 6 DELIVERY 7 POST-PARTUM WARD 8 CHAPEL 9 MATERNITY SURGERY 10 NICU AND KANGAROO CARE 11 POST C-SECTION 12 OB/GYN WARD 13 POST-TRAUMATIC DELIVERY WARD 14 MATERNITY TERRACE 15 WAREHOUSE AND SERVICE ENTRY 16 AUDITORIUM (BELOW)

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:: MF :: There’s a finesse in the research and the materiality of this

design—the building composition is solid and well-grounded. It sets new, high standards for the area.

SITE ORIENTATION FOR SOLAR CONTROL

:: PH :: Many projects in the third world are bereft of architectural

ambition—a loss for building users but also for the architects involved.

This project demonstrates what can be accomplished when architects take on that responsibility. There’s consideration of how solid and void balance in the façade. The building is planned in narrow bars in a way that harnesses the microclimate of the site for ventilation.

30° EAST OR WEST

30° 20°

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:: JH :: Architects have the responsibility to provide sufficient, inspiring

and appropriate responses to global issues such as health. In this project, we particularly appreciated the sensitivity to the local context. There’s an understanding that with simple means, you can achieve a lot.

MAX. ROTATION MAX. ROTATION

MAX. ROTATION

MAX. ROTATION

SITE ORIENTATION FOR NATURAL VENTILATION

CLIENT RWANDA MINISTRY OF HEALTH | ARCHITECT TEAM KELLY DORAN, ALAN RICKS, MICHAEL

MURPHY, CHRISTIAN BENIMANA, CHRIS SCHOVEL, PATRICIA GRUITS, JOHN MAHER, AMELIE NTIGULIRWA, THEOPHILE UWAYEZU, ANNIE PEYTON, MARCELA LAVERDE, KYLE BARKER, GARRET GANTNER, MATTHEW SWAIDON | LANDSCAPE MASS—SIERRA BAINBRIDGE, MARTIN PAVLINIC | STRUCTURAL NOUS ENGINEERING—OMAR GARZA; MASS—TIM WHITE, CHRISTIAN UWINKINDI | MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL MAZETTI—ARASH GUITY, DREW CHITWOOD, BRIAN HAGEMAN, RON BOURGAULT | CIVIL FALL CREEK—ROBYN COOPER, PAUL MYER | AREA 16,500 M2 | BUDGET WITHHELD COMPLETION JUNE 2017

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AWARD OF MERIT

HA-HA HOUSE

D’Arcy Jones Architecture Agassiz, British Columbia

ARCHITECT LOCATION

This low-slung house is located on a 14-acre farm in British Columbia’s Fraser River Valley. The region is not protected with dikes, so bylaws require any new structure’s first f loor to be six feet above the existing ground. In addition, an active railway runs parallel to the site. The area is further battered from above, as storms with fierce winds funnel through the valley.

Despite these challenges, the site is naturally stunning, with panoramic views of a hazelnut orchard, Mount Baker, Mount Cheam and hills that cradle thermal hot springs. In fact, the hurdles of the site are transformed into assets in this home for an extended family that runs an organic sheep husbandry.

Depending on how one approaches it, the building’s massing is either muscularly hovering above or heavily embedded into the ground, articulating the duality of the temporary and the permanent that characterizes farming in a harsh landscape. Similar to traditional family farm compounds, three generations live under one roof in two adjoining houses.

One family member uses a wheelchair, so the creation of a single stairfree plane allows her full access to the house.

The requirement to build the house on six feet of structural fill created an opportunity. To avoid unsightly fences between the yard and the sheep pasture, cost-effective concrete lock-block walls encircle the house. This is a modern reinterpretation of the ha-ha wall. Sheep are so friendly they will walk inside open doors and defecate on terraces and lawns. With a simple plane change, they can be near and far simultaneously. They are

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extra near in the main office, where a hole in the floating floor allows close views of the herd as they gather under the house to avoid the sun or rain.

At night, the sheep sleep in a space inspired by medieval farms, where the barn and house were one single structure. A green roof ’s soil protects them from train noise to the north. This intentionally blank elevation also provides visual privacy from the road.

Inside, single-loaded corridors enable long one-point perspectives, each aimed at a particular natural feature or at an internal courtyard.

In the main living area, roof beams exaggerate the space’s long dimension. The result is a feeling of expansiveness and solitude.

The site’s high water table provides optimal conditions for a shallow loop geothermal system; heat transfer is more effective when pipes are within saturated soil. Exterior finishes are robust: the north berm is ‘clad’ in a wild grass pasture, exterior walls are made of untreated concrete, overhangs and fascias of untreated cedar, and infill panels of weathering steel. Since the client is a civil contractor, all insulation, cladding and earthwork materials consist of recycled construction waste from other sites.

Core-insulated concrete slabs that cantilever over the sheep pasture rest on twin columns, identical to common highway overpasses. Sandwich panel construction provides strong acoustic separation for interior spaces.

Triple-glazed laminated glass blocks train noise that makes it past the sloped acoustic berm. All interior partitions are built with concrete block, adding a third layer of noise protection for a good night’s sleep.

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The family’s sheep are free to wander underneath the raised house for shelter. OPPOSITE BOTTOM, LEFT TO RIGHT Long vistas give the interior a sense of solitude; ceiling beams span the living room’s long dimension. ABOVE Berms cover the north side of the house, sheltering the residents and sheep from the noise of the adjacent railway. BELOW Sheep can gather under the house, and be glimpsed from the study.

OPPOSITE TOP

:: MF :: This is a multi-generational, multi-legged house that is clearly different from what we have been used to seeing. It creates visual dialogue between its wings. The various strategies used to bring in light— whether from the ceiling, skylights, or the bottom of walls—gives a dramatic sense to the promenade. It’s a house with a spiritual aspect. :: PH :: Essentially, it’s a farmyard—a large part of the house is actually

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a barn for the sheep. There’s a sensitive analysis of the ha-ha strategy to keep the sheep penned in, and to allow for observing them from inside. :: JH :: The house takes cues from the train track in its siting. There’s a provocative contrast between being sensitive to the site and then also occupying so much of it, all while covering itself with ground. Inside, it’s a house of boundaries—it’s an interesting typology.

CLIENT WITHHELD | ARCHITECT TEAM D’ARCY JONES, AMANDA KEMENY, CRAIG BISSELL, MATTHEW

KETIS-BENDENA | RENDERING/PRESENTATION BECKIE BOESE, JESSE NGUYEN | STRUCTURAL DAVID LEE, FRASER VALLEY ENGINEERING | MECHANICAL ROBE POPE, ECOLIGHTEN ENERGY SOLUTIONS | LANDSCAPE D’ARCY JONES ARCHITECTURE | INTERIORS D’ARCY JONES ARCHITECTURE CONTRACTOR BY OWNER | ENVELOPE JRS ENGINEERING | AREA 4,300 FT 2 (MAIN HOUSE) / 1,600 FT 2 (FAMILY SUITE) / 3,500 FT 2 (BARN) | BUDGET WITHHELD

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10 MASTER BEDROOM 11 TERRACE 12 POOL 13 RAISED LAWN 14 BARN ENTRANCE 15 BARN 16 SOUND BERM 17 SHEEP PASTURE

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AWARD OF MERIT

NEW CENTRAL LIBRARY

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DIALOG (architect of record/prime consultant) with Snøhetta (design architect) Calgary, Alberta

ARCHITECT LOCATION

Following a two-year process of community engagement, the design for Calgary’s new civic and cultural centre realizes the city’s vision for a technologically advanced downtown public space for innovation and research.

The landscape and architectural design embraces the city’s diverse urban culture and unique climate. The site, where downtown Calgary intersects with the East Village, is transformed into a terraced topography inspired by the nearby foothills; it is made to rise up and over the exiting Light Rail Transit (LRT) line that runs through it.

Like mini-amphitheatres, the resulting terraced seating areas will be used by the city and the library for informal events and as outdoor classrooms, while also providing the community with generous spaces for outdoor reading and pop-up performances. Plantings that reference the native landscape—including elms and aspens lining the plaza’s surrounding streets—draw Calgary’s mountains and plains into the cityscape.

Upon entering the library, visitors encounter a lobby awash with natural light. The eye is drawn up through the skylit atrium, where the library’s public program and circulation along the atrium’s perimeter are clearly visible. The latter acts as an intuitive wayfinding strategy from the main entrance and on each floor.

The library’s program is organized on a spectrum of “fun to serious” as visitors climb the building, starting with active public programs on the ground f loor, and spiraling up to quieter, focused study areas on the third and fourth f loors. This strategy accommodates the extra activity created by the LRT ’s passage underneath the building.

The façade distributes clear and fritted glass to control desired daylight levels for the interior spaces. Dramatic, highly transparent zones attract public interest to activities inside, while closed areas house more focused study spaces. The facade’s geometric patterns are inspired by snowdrifts, creating a field of polygonal shapes that efficiently nest together and can easily approximate soft, natural transitions.

The building and its plaza serve as a mixing zone that reconnects the East Village and downtown, and restores the flow of downtown’s main pedestrian spine. The site where these two neighbourhoods meet is bifurcated by the path of the LRT line as it transitions from aboveto below-grade. The lifted library, with an open entry at the heart of the site, allows for a visual and pedestrian connection between the two neighbourhoods. Framed by wood-clad arches that reference the Chinook arch cloud formations common to Alberta, the entry will open up a new outdoor civic space within the city. By re-imagining the streetscape as part of an aggregated public realm surrounding the library, this area will become an accessible, walkable and important civic space in the heart of Calgary.

One of the project’s most challenging technical considerations is the bridging of the LRT. A concrete structure approximately 160 metres in length encapsulates the LRT tracks where they exit the existing tunnel portal. The library building above spans across the 12.1-metre track width so that column loads are supported vertically, rather than resting on the encapsulation structure’s roof.

ABOVE Bridging over an existing LRT line, the new central library is designed as a civic hub that incorporates a pedestrian passage across the site, along with terraced outdoor seating and gathering areas. OPPOSITE TOP The vibrant central atrium offers views of all levels of the library, allowing for intuitive wayfinding through the building.

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6TH AVE

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SITE PLAN

1 MUNICIPAL BUILDING 2 NEW CENTRAL LIBRARY 3 EAST VILLAGE (UNDER DEVELOPMENT) 4 NATIONAL MUSIC CENTRE

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:: MF :: This project offers nice urban connections between the streets.

The shape is driven by the curve of the rail line, which gives rationale to the plan and overall organization. :: PH :: From the inside, the reading of the structure against the façade creates visual interest. We had some concerns about whether the building could be more specific in its identity as belonging to Calgary. :: JH :: The interior atrium is an inviting, generous civic space, at a nat-

ural centre point within the eye-shaped volume. The strategy of concentrating interior and exterior circulation routes at this point is clear and completely appropriate in this context.

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SECTION

CLIENT CALGARY MUNICIPAL LAND CORPORATION, CALGARY PUBLIC LIBRARY AND CITY OF CALGARY | ARCHITECT TEAM SNØHETTA—VANESSA KASSABIAN, ANNE-RACHEL SCHIFFMANN, BEN MATTHEWS, DENNIS RIJKHOFF, JEFFREY CHEUNG, JUSTIN SHEA, MATHIEU LEMIEUX-BLANCHARD, MIA KANG, MICHELLE DELK, SAMUEL BRISSETTE. DIALOG—ROB ADAMSON, JANICE LIEBE, ALAN COLLYER, DAVID MAKSYMEC, JOHN LYONS, ANTONIO GÓMEZ-PALACIO, JOHN DO, DON BUSCHERT, CHRIS HEINARANTA, ERIN PARCHOMA, MATT JORDAN, WAYNE YARJAU, MARK WALLACE, TIM MCGINN, MATT PARKES, TREVOR CLEALL, ADAM HOWES. | PROJECT MANAGEMENT MHPM PROJECT MANAGERS | STRUCTURAL ENTUITIVE | CIVIL DECLAN CORPORATION | MECHANICAL DIALOG | ELECTRICAL SMP ENGINEERING | LANDSCAPE SNØHETTA/DIALOG | INTERIORS SNØHETTA | CONTRACTOR STUART OLSON | ACOUSTICS FFA CONSULTANTS IN ACOUSTICS AND NOISE CONTROL LTD. | IT/AV MCSQUARED SYSTEM DESIGN GROUP INC. | SECURITY SMP ENGINEERING | ENVELOPE BUILDING ENVELOPE ENGINEERING INC. | COST HANSCOMB | GRAPHICS/WAYFINDING SNØHETTA DESIGN/ENTRO | AREA 240,000 FT 2 | BUDGET $245 M | COMPLETION 2018

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AWARD OF MERIT

ALBION DISTRICT LIBRARY

Perkins+Will Canada Inc. Toronto, Ontario

ARCHITECT LOCATION

A fixture of Rexdale, Albion Library sits within a mix of low-rise buildings along a busy four-lane road, where it has played a vital role for many decades. Physically, it buffers a residential neighbourhood from a road and mall to the north. Programmatically, it offers patrons a wide range of services that go beyond lending—including cultural orientation, social integration, employment skills, and access to technology and knowledge. During consultations for a new library to take the existing one’s place, community members described the library as the “Switzerland” of a troubled urban realm.

While residents recognized that the existing building was no longer fit for its purpose, they were concerned about the closure that would be required to undertake a renovation. In response, the project team proposed to build a new library on the adjacent parking lot, allowing the existing building to remain open over the two years required for construction. Once the new library is complete, the existing building will be demolished and replaced with a landscaped parking lot that will double as a public space and market square.

The design concept for the new building reflects the library’s dual role as a refuge and a resource. In plan, the multi-room building is a pure square punctuated by three courtyards and four interior pavilions. Its perimeter is marked by a polychrome terracotta tile screen, creating a richly

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textured mass. The screen is lifted at its corners, creating an entry forecourt for the library and articulating key program areas, including an urban living room and lounges for teens and children. The lifted corners also give a sloping form to the green roof, bringing light and water to the courtyard gardens.

Internally, the courtyards and pavilion-like elements divide the square plan into a series of open zones beneath a sloping timber roof.

Careful composition of positive and negative space creates a rich and varied plan that accommodates open, cellular and private areas, while ensuring ease of access and supervision throughout.

The trio of courtyards bring nature and sunlight deep into all parts of the library. They provide protected outdoor areas and allow for peaceful contemplation, offering a respite from the busy arterial context of Albion Road, while respecting the privacy of adjacent residences. Each garden has a variety of planting and surface treatments, inspiring use and providing visual interest throughout the year.

The new parking lot is designed as a multifunctional public space capable of accommodating a public market and wide variety of cultural events. The relationship between building and plaza extends the project’s exploration of positive and negative composition to encompass the site as a whole.

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OPPOSITE A multicoloured terracotta tile screen surrounds the library, lifting like a curtain to welcome patrons in. ABOVE The interior includes a large central lantern and three courtyard gardens that bring natural light and calming views of nature into the community-oriented space.

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:: MF :: I appreciated the compactness of the plan—which is very effi-

cient with regard to minimizing the quantity of envelope—and the way the designers decided to bring light in at the centre. :: PH :: The fenestration moves around the perimeter of the building,

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CLIENT TORONTO PUBLIC LIBRARY | ARCHITECT TEAM D’ARCY ARTHURS, ANDREW FRONTINI, AIMEE

DRMIC, JASON NELSON, STEPHEN VAN DER MERE, INGA KANTOR, YASMEEN BEBAL | STRUCTURAL BLACKWELL STRUCTURAL ENGINEERS | MECHANICAL HIDI RAE CONSULTING ENGINEERS | ELECTRICAL MULVEY & BANANI INTERNATIONAL | CIVIL MMM GROUP | LANDSCAPE DUTOIT ALSOPP HILLIER | ACOUSTICS SWALLOW ACCOUSTIC CONSULTANTS | INTERIORS PERKINS+WILL CANADA INC. | CONTRACTOR AQUICON CONSTRUCTION COMPANY LTD. | COMMUNICATIONS/BAS/SECURITY/AV MULVEY & BANANI INTERNATIONAL | QUANTITY SURVEYING TURNER & TOWNSEND CM2R INC. | AREA 29,000 FT 2 | BUDGET $12 M | COMPLETION SPRING 2017

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dropping down and getting closer to the ground in places to create intimate spaces. This gives a sense of scale to a large building. The coloured baguettes also lend a more friendly, softer nature to the library. :: JH :: This project organized its interior program very clearly, and then extended this logic to spill out and deal with the surrounding spaces on the site. The strategy of a parking area that doubles as a market suggests all kinds of potential.

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MAIN LEVEL 1 MAIN ENTRY 2 SELF CHECK-OUT 3 SERVICE / REFERENCE DESK 4 BUSINESS CENTRE 5 ADULT AREA 6 URBAN LIVING ROOM 7 LARGE COMMUNITY ROOM 8 SMALL COMMUNITY ROOM 9 STUDY ROOMS 10 CHILDREN’S AREA 11 COMPUTER LEARNING CENTRE 12 CREATIVE TECHNOLOGY

13 ADULT LITERACY OFFICE 14 STAFF ROOM 15 WORK ROOM / SORTING 16 DELIVERY 17 BICYCLE PARKING 18 COMMUNITY GARDEN PLOTS 19 PARKING LOT / PLAZA 20 BARRIER-FREE PARKING 21 NEW PEDESTRIAN ROUTES 22 PARKING ACCESS 23 BUS STOP 24 STORMWATER WETLAND

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AWARD OF MERIT

DOUBLE DUPLEX

Batay-Csorba Architects Toronto, Ontario

ARCHITECT LOCATION

Double Duplex was created in response to the city’s growing need for alternative housing models. This need arises from the rising cost of urban real estate and the consequent push for densification within Toronto’s sought-after residential neighbourhoods.

The infill project is located on Melbourne Avenue in Parkdale, an area notable for its century-old Victorian and bay-and-gable mansions. The existing double-wide site is severed into two separate properties, with a four-storey, 3,500-square-foot detached duplex residence on each site. This allows property owners to either rent out one of their units or use it as a live-work space.

Double Duplex pays tribute to the artistry of its surroundings by making contextual relationships through massing, geometry, texture and detail. The project reinterprets the pervasive bay-and-gable typology by abstracting its architectural elements. These include the front balcony, large bay massing, steep roofs and sharp vertical lines. Also playing up this relationship are the high ceilings and large windows, which allow light to reach deep into narrow f loor plates.

Leveraging digital fabrication techniques and new material technologies, the project translates the crafted historic brick façades by way of a two-storey brise soleil. The brise soleil encloses the front and rear upper balconies, providing controlled lighting conditions and privacy.

Individual pieces of bio-enhanced, rot-resistant, sustainable softwood are organized to create a large-scale dynamic façade. During the day, sunlight

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is filtered through, illuminating the interior spaces with ephemeral dappled light effects. At night, the screen reads as a decorative glowing lantern.

The project also offers strategies for the dynamic spatial integration of exterior and interior spaces within a with a narrow and deep infill lot, which is typical in Toronto. Each duplex residence consists of a twostorey lower unit and a two-storey upper unit. The lower unit is carved out in the front and back with double-height volumes that flow out to sunken courtyards, maximizing the amount of daylight entering the unit. Brightly painted murals by local artists wrap its courtyards.

The upper unit is organized around a double-height atrium that brings natural light and ventilation into the centre of the apartment. Two exterior courtyards punctuate either end of the f loor plate: a doubleheight balcony overlooks the street at the front, and the master bedroom enjoys a rear terrace.

Double Duplex creates an activated urban environment on the busy residential street. In contrast to a static building façade, which would be out of context adjacent to ornate historic residences, the project acts like a large art installation with material and spatial depth. The two-storey brise soleil is angled so that multiple images appear to passersby as they walk past it, and the screen catches the light’s movements throughout the day. Composed based on cloud images, the screen evokes loose, variable associations and emotions. The effect is somewhat akin to the cloud animals that we have all seen as children, losing ourselves in daydreams.

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Digitally fabricated screens made of treated softwood enclose the front balconies of the upper units. The screens are a key element in a design that reinterprets the 19th-century style and craftmanship of neighbouring dwellings using contemporary materials and techniques.

ABOVE, LEFT TO RIGHT Central atria pierce the upper units, bringing light and a sense of spaciousness to the main living areas; rear sunken courtyards for the lower units are lined with murals painted by local artists.

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:: MF :: The façade is simple but very sophisticated. It’s composed and

it’s subtle, it doesn’t look artificial. It also contributes to the legibility of the duplex: you understand that the lower storeys are one unit and the upper storeys are another unit.

:: PH :: This project proposes a sensitive solution to infill. The screen

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draws inspiration from the masonry detailing of the existing Victorian houses on the same street. The approach is intelligent in providing two very amenable units per building by excavating and using the lower level of the basement as a principal living space. than just a façade: the units are well connected vertically and light enters the spaces in a dynamic way.

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:: JH :: I appreciated the volumetric play. There is more to the project

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CLIENT THE MADA GROUP | ARCHITECT TEAM ANDREW BATAY-CSORBA, JODI BATAY-CSORBA, LOLA

ABRAHAM | STRUCTURAL SECANT ENGINEERS INC. | MECHANICAL FRANZESE MECHANICAL LTD. |

CONTRACTOR THE MADA GROUP | AREA 6,850 FT 2 | BUDGET WITHHELD | COMPLETION SPRING 2016

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AWARD OF MERIT

111

Ja Architecture Studio Toronto, Ontario

ARCHITECT LOCATION

111 is located on the vibrant, dynamic streetscape of Queen Street West. The quickly developing area is a highly sought-after place to live, due to the diversity of building typologies, the neighbourhood’s rich character, and an ingrained sense of community.

A third of the 233-square-metre lot is occupied by an existing building that Ja Architecture Studio renovated and reprogrammed in 2013, outfitting it with a restaurant on the ground floor, a residential unit on the second storey and an architecture studio on the top floor.

The new rear addition—111—includes three programs: a flexible commercial unit, three residential units and a two-car garage. The new building asserts its presence through a clear geometric form. Set on top of the commercial podium, the residential units project their pitched roofs from behind adjacent buildings and invoke a familiar figure: the traditional house icon. This comforting shape fits in naturally with the nearby residential neighbourhood. Yet, 111’s austere envelope sets it apart from its ornate neighbours as an alluring anomaly.

While vehicular and commercial service access is provided through the rear laneway, the main point of entry to the mixed-use development is through a breezeway that connects the busy public street to a semiprivate courtyard. Much of the ground f loor is occupied by a two-car garage, so the design of the commercial space capitalizes on the basement level and provides a mezzanine above the garage, connected to the existing main floor. While this design can suit a variety of programs,

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its current form has been conceived in collaboration with a local chef, who envisions a private dining and bar area on the mezzanine, a grand occupiable staircase for congregating and informal dining, and a large open kitchen on the basement level.

Three distinct volumes—each a nearly identical three-storey residential unit—sit atop the commercial podium. Access is via a set of stairs from the courtyard. At the top of the stairs, an outdoor platform overlooks adjacent balconies, inviting interaction. Direct entry into each unit gives them a townhouse-like feel.

Careful attention has been paid to enabling natural light to penetrate deep into the units. Each f loor includes windows on the north and south walls, and light also enters through a large cutout on the third floor, traveling into each unit through cutouts on every floorplate. Even though each unit is only 48 metres square, the loft-like design and abundance of natural light gives them a larger feel.

Overall, the project is an exercise in architectural massing and typology. It aims to create change in this sensitive historic context without falling into either extreme of aggressive development or low-rise domestic conformity. It expresses a scenographic desire to use architecture as a stage for an urban drama, which unfolds in the building’s breezeway, communal courtyard and elevated balconies. As such, the building becomes a silent witness to fleeting moments and strange encounters in the depth of an urban block in this layered neighborhood.

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FOURTH FLOOR 1 BEDROOM 2 CLOSET

2 1

THIRD FLOOR 1 LIVING SPACE 2 EXISTING PATIO 3 EXISTING OFFICE

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A rendering shows the three peaked roofs in the context of the Queen West roofscape. OPPOSITE BOTTOM 111’s design deftly inserts a trio of residential volumes into a tight infill site. ABOVE A sectional rendering shows the compact interior, laid out over three stories for a loftlike feel. RIGHT, TOP TO BOTTOM View of the top floor study; intended for a restaurant, the commercial unit slips over a two-car garage.

OPPOSITE TOP

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the composition of the three units as staggered, sculptural objects.

1 MEZZANINE 2 STEPS

:: PH :: Long term, there’s a question of how small a space people can live in. But this is an area in the city with a more transitory, younger population. It would be a study in living with less, which is not a bad place for any of us to be. The presentation skillfully evokes a spatial clarity and beauty, while maintaining the grit of the city. :: JH :: This project proposes something new in terms of the typology of mixed-use infill in Toronto. It imagines how you could squeeze three additional dwelling units on a very small, tight site. The verticality of the units and their relationship to the commercial spaces below is clever. It feels fresh, although we are concerned about whether it resolves practical issues such as exiting and providing sufficient light and views to the suites.

1

FENNING ST GROUND FLOOR 1 GARAGE 2 STEPS 3 ENTRY 4 EXISTING COMMERCIAL 1

CLIENT 2105167 ONTARIO INC. | ARCHITECT TEAM NIMA JAVIDI, HANIEH REZAEI, BEHNAZ ASSADI, KYLE O’BRIEN, ZHOU TANG | STRUCTURAL TORONAMA STRUCTURAL ENGINEERS | MECHANICAL/ ELECTRICAL THOMAS TECHNICAL | LANDSCAPE BEHNAZ ASSADI | CONTRACTOR ARTA DESIGN AND BUILD | AREA 285 M2 | BUDGET WITHHELD

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:: MF :: I very much like very much the silhouette of the building, with

5M

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AWARD OF MERIT

PIERRE LASSONDE PAVILION

OMA (design architect) with Provencher_Roy (associate architect) National Battlefields Park, Quebec City, Quebec

ARCHITECT LOCATION

The new building for the Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec— the museum’s fourth building in an increasingly complex site—is a subtly ambitious addition to the city. Rather than creating an iconic imposition, it links the park and the city, bringing new coherence to the museum campus. Mimicking the topography of the hills beyond, the cascading museum extends into the park on one side, while creating an open room adjacent the city’s grand boulevard on the other.

Questions relating to context underpinned the design: how to extend Parc des Champs-de-Bataille while inviting the city in? How to respect and preserve Saint-Dominique church while creating a persuasive presence on the Grande Allée? How to clarify the museum’s organization while simultaneously adding to its scale? The architects’ solution was to stack the required new galleries—temporary exhibitions, permanent modern and contemporary collections, and design exhibitions and Inuit art—in three volumes of decreasing size that ascend from the park towards the city.

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The stacking creates a 14-metre-high Grand Hall, sheltered under a dramatic cantilever. The Grand Hall serves as a central hub: interfacing with the Grande Allée, serving as an urban plaza for the museum’s public functions, and ringed by gateways into the galleries, courtyard and auditorium. While they step down in section, the gallery boxes step out in plan, framing the existing courtyard of the church cloister and orienting the building towards the park.

The staggered volumes open up sightlines from the beginning to the end of the building, juxtaposing the different volumes and their art.

Within the gallery boxes, mezzanines and overlooks link the temporary and permanent exhibition spaces. On top of each gallery, green roof terraces provide space for outdoor displays and activities.

Complementing the quiet ref lection of the galleries, a chain of programs along the museum’s edge—foyers, lounges, shops, bridges and gardens—offer a hybrid of activities, art and public promenades.

The brief for the museum emphasized the importance of natural

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SECTION

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20M

The museum cantilevers over an outdoor plaza. OPPOSITE BOTTOM, LEFT TO RIGHT View of the Grand Hall with link to the historic presbytery; the ticketing area adjacent entrances to the exhibitions. ABOVE, LEFT TO RIGHT A grand staircase connects to the second floor; one of several outdoor terraces.

OPPOSITE TOP

light, but standard glazing systems were inadequate for Quebec’s winters. The solution was a translucent façade system that could provide natural light along with thermal insulation. The system uses tripleglazed panels with low-E coatings, two layers of fritting and a layer of diffuser glass. In the galleries, insulated walls are located behind the translucent galzing system, with a gap between for illuminating the building like a lantern at night.

The new pavilion links to the museum’s existing buildings by a passageway rising 8.2 metres over a 55-metre length. By virtue of its length and change in elevation, the tunnel creates a string of rooms with a dramatic range of spatial and lighting conditions. Each of these serves as a gallery—a series of visually interconnected volumes that lead the visitor, as if by chance, to the rest of the museum complex. :: MF :: What is the best way to build next to a heritage structure?

This project proposes to clear out a space with a gigantic cantilever over a public gathering area. It works well in inviting the adjacent building to contribute to a common plaza. :: PH :: The success of this project is in its sectional diagram, as a snaking form that connects through the principal public spaces and suggests links to the rest of the city. We still had questions about how the interior spaces of the building were being developed in relationship to the exterior spaces. :: JH :: The cantilever creates an urban room, framed by trees on two sides and by the cantilever itself on top. It puts the forecourt and the glazed atrium behind it on display, and pulls you into the building.

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SAINT-DOMINIQUE CHURCH

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CLIENT MUSÉE NATIONAL DES BEAUX-ARTS DU QUÉBEC | ARCHITECT TEAM OMA—SHOHEI SHIGE-

MATSU, JASON LONG, CEREN BINGOL, PATRICK HOBGOOD, LUKE WILLIS, RAMI ABOU-KHALIL, RICHARD SHARAM, TSUYOSHI NAKAMOTO, SANDY YUM, SARA INES RUAS, TED LIN, MARKUS VON DELLINGSHAUSEN, ANDY WESTNER. PROVENCHER_ROY—CLAUDE PROVENCHER, MICHEL ROY, MATTHIEU GEOFFRION, PASCAL LESSARD, LAYLA MACLEOD, DANIELLE DEWAR, RÉAL BARIL, KONSTANTIN DEMIN, VÉRONIQUE DE BELLEFEUILLE, FANETTE MONTMARTIN. | STRUCTURAL SNC LAVALLIN, BPR | MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL BOUTHILLETTE PARIZEAU / TEKNIKA HBA, EXP | LANDSCAPE FAHEY + ASSOCIÉS | LIGHTING BURO HAPPOLD ENGINEERING | PUBLIC ARTIST M. LUDOVIC BONEY | LOCAL ADVISOR LUC LÉVESQUE | INTERIORS OMA + PROVENCHER_ROY | CONTRACTOR EBC | AREA 14,850 M2 | BUDGET $103.4 M | COMPLETION JUNE 2016

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STUDENT AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS

STUDENT

Clothilde Caillé-Lévesque, McGill University

Close Encounters: A New Post Industrial Landscape is an architectural film that uses time-based media as a generative design tool. It outlines the potential of using technological artwork as a means of spatial production, rather than as an after-the-fact representation device.

The project imagines the fictional appropriation of an industrial landscape at the edge of Montreal. Pointe-aux-Trembles is densified and rehabilitated while maintaining the area’s current industrial activities, including petrochemical plants, refineries and metal recycling. The thesis proposes an autonomous ecosystem of quasi-spontaneous architectural and urban elements, addressing the tensions arising from the close proximity of habitable spaces and toxic landscapes.

Through repeated digital experiments, the project sets up a parasitic architectural infrastructure woven into the industrial fabric. Architectural narratives materialized from an obsessive study of the East Montreal industrial park. Rich imagery and fictional processes opened the ground for investigating a future built environment in this part of the city.

By exploring the interaction between different milieus, the interventions also begin to unveil the social and political roots of “the natural.”

The new environment navigates the boundaries between binaries: pure/toxic, landscape/architecture, natural/man-made, nature/culture.

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This project leads toward a contemporary rethinking of the role of architects in the shaping of our urban environment. It proposes using the rough edges and cast-offs of design processes, seeking imperfection to pursue the anachronistic and unknown.

The video for this project can be viewed at vimeo.com/145638598

:: MF :: This is a study of how we can use computer modeling tools to create space and atmosphere in better, more involved ways. This is a very good start to studying a new way of doing things. :: PH :: The research project’s primary goal is to use a time-based digital program as a way of generating architectural form. The time-based quality creates an opportunity to imbue the project with emotive qualities and a sense of place. :: JH :: The project is really alluring: it’s bold, atmospheric and potent.

Unlike typical parametric architecture, this project has a sensibility that’s unique and powerful. There’s a recognizable reference to the gothic, but there’s also something in the aesthetic that is entirely new.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

LIST OF ENTRANTS

Student Awards of Excllence In addition to this year’s winners, the following architecture students were chosen by their schools to enter their thesis projects in the 2015 Student Awards of Excellence program:

Microclimat, ARCHITEM, atelier big city, BGLA architecture + design urbain / NEUF architect(e)s, Brian Elsden Burrows Architecte, CannonDesign + NEUF architect(e)s, Cardinal Hardy Architect / Jodoin Lamarre Pratte in consortium and Lemay+CHA / Jodoin Lamarre Pratte in consortium, Chevalier Morales Architectes, Consortium Lupien + Matteau et L’A rchitecte Jacques Plante, FABRIQ architecture, Fugere Architecture, Jean Pierre Bart Architects, Lapointe Magne architectes / NIP paysage, Laroche architecte, Lemay, Marc Blouin architecte, Provencher_Roy, TBA Thomas Balaban Architect, the marc boutin architectural collaborative inc. and Atelier TAG.

1x1 architecture inc., h5 architecture, OS1 Architecture, Peter Sampson Architecture Studio Inc. Stantec Architecture Ltd., Syverson Monteyne Architecture.

Baird Sampson Neuert Architects, Bogdan Newman Caranci Inc. + Andrew Incorporated Architects, BORTOLOTTO, CannonDesign, CORE Architects Inc., CSV Architects, Daniel Karpinski Architect, Denegri Bessai Studio, Design Workshop Architects, Diamond Schmitt Architects, dkstudio architects inc., E2 Studio Inc., EBA[M] EBA[C], Edward J. Cuhaci and Associates Architects Inc., ERA Architects, G. Bruce Stratton Architects, Giaimo, Ian MacDonald Architect Inc., IBI Group Architects, James Macdonald Architect, JET Architecture + VPANG Architects + Lisa Cheung, Kleinfeldt Mychajlowycz Architects Inc., L. E. Glazer Architect Ltd., Lett Architects, Masri O Architects, McCormack Architects, Montgomery Sisam Architects Inc. in association with Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, Moriyama & Teshima | Montgomery Sisam Architects In Joint Venture, Moriyama & Teshima Architects, Moriyama & Teshima Architects / Barrie and Langillle Architects, N45 Architecture Inc., NORR Ltd., PARTISANS, Paul Johnston Architect, Pitropov Architecture, PLANT Architect Inc., Quadrangle Architects Ltd., RAW Design, Rebanks Pepper Littlewood Architects, Stantec Architecture / KPMB Architects in Joint Venture, Stantec Architecture Ltd., Steven Fong Architect, Sweeny &Co Architects Inc., Thier + Curran Architects Inc. (TCA), Williamson Chong, Zak Ghanim Architect Inc.

ONTARIO

QUEBEC

HONG KONG

2015 Awards of Excellence In addition to this year’s winners, the editors thank the following individuals and firms for participating in the 2015 Canadian Architect Awards of Excellence: BRITISH COLUMBIA

Acton Ostry Architects Inc., B+H Architects, bau studio + architecture inc., Billard Architecture, Campos Studio, Craven / Huston / Powers Architects, DYS Architecture, HCMA Architecture + Design, Helliwell + Smith Blue Sky Architecture, McFarland Marceau Architects Ltd., PUBLIC Architecture + Communication, Stantec Architecture Ltd., Urban Arts Architecture, W3 Design Group Inc. ALBERTA

Arney Fender Katsalidis + DIALOG, AVID Architecture Inc., DIALOG, Dub Architects Ltd., MoDA (Modern Office of Design + Architecture), O2 Planning + Design,Stantec Architecture Ltd., Stantec Architecture Ltd. and HCMA Architecture + Design in association, the marc boutin architectural collaborative inc., the marc boutin architectural collaborative inc. with Krzysztof Wodiczko.

MANITOBA

Atelier Reza Aliabadi (rzlbd),

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Andrew King, Architecture

NEW BRUNSWICK

Acre Architects NOVA SCOTIA

MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects, Omar Gandhi Architect Inc. NEWFOUNDLAND

Woodford Sheppard Architecture.

WISCONSIN

The Miller Hull Partnership.

NEW YORK

Davidson Rafailidis, Hany Rizkalla Architect.

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

Stephen J Denyer.

Lead 8.

Apollinaire Au (University of Manitoba), Caitlin Biggar (Dalhousie University), Ashley Brooke Biren (Ryerson University), Petra Bogias (University of Waterloo), Michael Bootsma (University of Waterloo), Philippe Charest (Université Laval), Lara Chow (Carleton University), Ariane Côté-Bélisle (Université de Montréal), Frédérique Cournoyer-Derome (Université Laval), Sarah Cree (University of British Columbia), Desirae Cronsberry (Carleton University), Maxime Duval-Stojanovic (McGill University), William Elsworthy (University of Waterloo), Janelle Fillion (Dalhousie University), Marie-Andrée Groleau (Université Laval), Alexandre Hamlyn (Université Laval), Daryl Holloway (University of Manitoba), Kailey Kroeker (University of Manitoba), Leon Lok Hin Lai (University of Toronto), Gabriel Légaré-Bisaillon (McGill University), Claire Lubell (University of Waterloo), Rob Machida and Mark Woytiuk (University of British Columbia), Julia Manaças (McGill University), Ryan Marques (University of Manitoba), Jose Miguel Navarrete (Dalhousie University), Will Kipping Perkins (Dalhousie University), Karen Piché (Université de Montréal), Alixandra Piwowar (Carleton University), Yves Poitras (University of Calgary), Kevin Pu (Ryerson University), Nilakshi Roy (Carleton University), Jonah RossMarrs (University of Toronto), Dina Sabie and Samar Sabie (University of Toronto), Joomi Seo & Yan Luo (University of British Columbia), Narelle Sookorukoff (University of British Columbia), Philip Staszewski (Université de Montréal), Matt Stewart (University of Calgary), Gen Sugiyama (University of Calgary), Matthew A. Suriano (Ryerson University), Audrey Touchette (Université de Montréal), Siavash Vazirnezami (Ryerson University).

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