Canadian Architect February 2021

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MAXIME BROUILLET

DOUBLESPACE PHOTOGRAPHY

TRANSFORMATIVE RENOVATIONS

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How can small architecture firms embrace greater equity, inclusion and diversity in their practices?

07 NEWS

Five colleagues pay tribute to Barry Sampson, 1948-2020.

18 LONGVIEW

Bortolotto wraps an OCADU pavilion in a stainless steel map of Toronto’s art and design communities.

40 INSITES 20

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20 THE OSLER SKI CLUB CLUBHOUSE

A carefully crafted addition to a 1970s ski lodge preserves the structure and characture of the original building. TEXT Elsa Lam

26 STANLEY A. MILNER LIBRARY RENEWAL A gut renovation and addition retains the structure of Edmonton’s central library, while revamping its contents for the 21st century. TEXT Trevor Boddy

34 GRAND MARCHÉ DE QUÉBEC ANDREW LATREILLE

A 1920s exhibition hall is reinvented as an urban farmers’ market. TEXT Olivier Vallerand

A recent graduate and a current architecture school director reflect on the current efforts to address systemic inequities in Canadian architectural education.

46 TECHNICAL

The dos and don’ts of retrofitting old masonry buildings by adding interior insulation.

48 BOOKS

New writings on a design-build hackathon in Nunavik, the designs of urban planners Peterson Littenberg, and the objects redefined by the pandemic.

50 BACKPAGE

Cohlmeyer Architects transforms a kit home into a bespoke community centre for the Seine River First Nation in northwestern Ontario.

Stanley A. Milner Library Renewal in Edmonton, Alberta,

by Teeple Architects with Stantec.

Photo by Andrew Latreille.

COVER

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THE NATIONAL REVIEW OF DESIGN AND PRACTICE / THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE RAIC

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VIEWPOINT

ACTING ON EQUITY Equity, diversity and inclusion have come to the foreground as issues of central importance in the past months. Architectural organizations are beginning to respond to the calls for action. Canadian architecture schools, too, are grappling with questions around equity (see Voices of the Unheard, page 40 and From the Ground Up, page 42).

Systemic racism, economic and social equity, and the need for greater diversity among architects often feel like topics best addressed by larger associations and firms.

But small architecture practices have a role to play as well. Their work and decisions affect their employees, consultants, and the communities for whom they work. How can Canada’s small firms advocate for greater equity and inclusion—in their own practices and in the larger AED sector?

One equity measure that can be taken by firms of any size is assessing their pay structure in terms of economic equity. British Columbia firms HCMA, Khôra Architecture + Interiors, and Ratio have taken an extra step in this direction by becoming Living Wage certified.

Living Wage Canada calculates hourly rates at which households can meet their basic needs— currently $20.68 per hour in Metro Vancouver.

Inclusion can also be part of a practice’s organizational structure. Quebec firm Pivot is set up as a co-operative business, meaning that all of its eight members are joint-owners and decision makers for the practice.

The horizontal leadership and transparent finances of the co-op bring inclusion to the heart of the practice, according to architect Colleen Lashuk. “We have different kinds of people making decisions about the practice,” she says.

Architect Khalil Diop adds that the co-op has prioritized ethical choices and mental wellbeing from the start, a model that seems to have naturally attracted a racially mixed and gender-diverse group of founding members. “We are a different kind of beast,” he says, adding that the members actively discuss which clients to take on—for both paid work and unpaid initiatives.

“Contrary to many emerging practices, I’ve been saying ‘no’ to many things,” says architect Reza Nik, who runs SHEEEP, a Torontobased studio that works through an equitability lens. He adds that many of his projects emerge after years of relationship-building with communities and collaborators. These projects include a series of small-scale “Mobilizers”—

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small pieces of mobile architecture that can temporarily occupy public spaces, making them more accessible to community members who may otherwise feel unsafe in those places.

Even on projects without an explicit equity agenda, architects can promote diversity through their consultant choices. Architect Heather Dubbeldam recently noticed how many of her sub-consultants had a poor representation of women on the teams they were presenting in response to RFPs. “I’ve asked them to increase the representation of women on their teams for the projects we are bidding on to at least 50 percent,” she says. “The women they are putting forward may not be the most experienced with the project type,” she adds. “But creating an opportunity to let them work under the tutelage of a more senior person will give them that experience— and help them to move up within their respective firms.”

Under-represented groups, such as women and BIPOC architects, have additional opportunities to lead by example. Architect Allison Gonsalves says that she and others at the firm she co-founded, StudioDOM, are making themselves available to mentor emerging practitioners of colour. “We believe that it is important to make POC students and recent immigrants aware of the processes and experiences that they may face in our profession,” she says.

The firm has also reached out to their city councillor to offer expertise on community planning matters, and approached a local area library to run an after-school architecture program. “We live in a community that is made up of mostly minority families. Educating kids about architecture gives them an equitable opportunity to be excited about a career in this field from an early age,” says Gonsalves.

“It’s not about the size of the firm, but about the substance of the effort and intention,” she adds. “Changing the course of our profession for the generations ahead relies on our dedication.”

Elsa Lam

EDITOR ELSA LAM, FRAIC ART DIRECTOR ROY GAIOT CONTRIBUTING EDITORS ANNMARIE ADAMS, FRAIC ODILE HÉNAULT DOUGLAS MACLEOD, NCARB, FRAIC ONLINE EDITOR CHRISTIANE BEYA REGIONAL CORRESPONDENTS MONTREAL DAVID THEODORE CALGARY GRAHAM LIVESEY, FRAIC WINNIPEG LISA LANDRUM, MAA, AIA, FRAIC VANCOUVER ADELE WEDER, HON. MRAIC SUSTAINABILITY ADVISOR ANNE LISSETT, ARCHITECT AIBC, LEED BD+C VICE PRESIDENT & SENIOR PUBLISHER STEVE WILSON 416-441-2085 x105 ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER FARIA AHMED 416-441-2085 x106 CUSTOMER SERVICE / PRODUCTION LAURA MOFFATT 416-441-2085 x104 CIRCULATION CIRCULATION@CANADIANARCHITECT.COM PRESIDENT OF IQ BUSINESS MEDIA INC. ALEX PAPANOU HEAD OFFICE 101 DUNCAN MILL ROAD, SUITE 302 TORONTO, ON M3B 1Z3 TELEPHONE 416-441-2085 E-MAIL info@canadianarchitect.com WEBSITE www.canadianarchitect.com Canadian Architect is published 9 times per year by iQ Business Media Inc. The editors have made every reasonable effort to provide accurate and authoritative information, but they assume no liability for the accuracy or completeness of the text, or its fitness for any particular purpose.

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Canadian Architect includes contributions from many places. The magazine is based in Toronto, which has been the traditional land of peoples including the Wendake, Anishinabewaki, Haudenosaunee, and most recently, the Mississaugas of the Credit. Today, it is still home to many Indigenous people from across Turtle Island. We are grateful for the opportunity to work on this land.

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PROJECTS

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Winning team announced for Art Gallery of Nova Scotia and Waterfront Arts District

The team of KPMB Architects with Omar Gandhi Architect, Jordan Bennett Studio, Elder Lorraine Whitman (NWAC), Public Work and Transsolar has won an international design competition for the new Art Gallery of Nova Scotia and Waterfront Arts District.

The new gallery and arts district is located on the Salter Block of the Halifax Waterfront.

“We proposed a sinuous building surrounded by regenerative gardens that will signal a radical new beginning for the AGNS, the waterfront, Nova Scotians, and the world of art,” said Bruce Kuwabara, Founding Partner, KPMB Architects.

The other finalist teams in the largest international design competition to be held in Nova Scotia were Architecture49 with Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Hargreaves Jones; and DIALOG, Acre Architects, Brackish Design Studio and Shannon Webb-Campbell.

The gallery and the province will work with the team and the public to shape a final design that is a meaningful and accurate reflection of the diversity of Nova Scotian communities. Formal public engagement will begin in early 2021. artgalleryofnovascotia.ca

Saskatoon Public Library announces central library design team

Saskatoon Public Library has announced that Formline Architecture, Chevalier Morales Architectes and Architecture49 will design the city’s new central library.

The library is intended to embody local First Nation and Métis identities, traditions and cultures, and express the aspirations of the Saskatoon community. “This library will be a space where oral tradition and the written word are combined, creating an inclusive and safe environment for sharing knowledge and ideas for all people,” writes Alfred Waugh, principal and founder of Formline.

Wide community consultations are an integral part of the design process and will begin in early 2021. The $75-million library is slated to open in 2026. saskatooncentrallibrary.ca

Montgomery Sisam Architects designs modular supportive housing in Toronto

Montgomery Sisam Architects has completed the construction of the first of two supportive housing complexes, at 11 Macey Avenue,

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ABOVE The winning design for the new Art Gallery of Nova Scotia features a peaked hat shape at the entrance, a reference to the strength and wisdom held by Mi’kmaw women.

to help Toronto’s overburdened shelter system, exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic.

A second complex at 150 Harrison Street has begun construction. The two buildings will provide a total of 100 new homes.

The two modular housing complexes were commissioned six months ago by the City of Toronto. Leveraging a rapid delivery model, the architectural response is based on a simple, functional module.

The design team has used the modular units to create a rhythm and mass that resonates with the local residential context. www.montgomerysisam.com

WHAT’S NEW Ontario Place to retain heritage elements

The Ontario government has announced that there will not be a wholesale destruction of Ontario Place.

In a white paper released in December, Lisa MacLeod, Minister of Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Culture Industries, promised that “key heritage and recreational features [of Ontario Place] will remain, such as the Cinesphere, the pods, Trillium Park and the William G. Davis Trail.”

Advocacy for the preservation of Ontario Place’s heritage elements has been led by community group Ontario Place for All and The Future of Ontario Place Project. The lat-

ter is a coalition between the World Monuments Fund (WMF), the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto, and Architectural Conservancy Ontario (ACO).

Bill Greaves, with Architectural Conservancy Ontario, says the government has come a long way from its “nothing can be saved” talk of 2019. “We look forward to working with the Ministry to develop a Conservation Management Plan to manage change and build on the value of what is already there.” www.ontarioplaceforall.com

AIBC transitions ministries

On November 26, 2020, the Architectural Institute of British Columbia was moved from the Ministry of Advanced Education, Skills and Training to the Ministry of the Attorney General, in anticipation of an eventual transition from the Architects Act to the Professional Governance Act. “This transition does not change the AIBC’s core function, mandate, or operations—the AIBC will continue to exist, and will continue to regulate the profession of architecture in British Columbia in the interest of the public,” explains the AIBC on a web page dedicated to the transition.

The AIBC’s website states that the Architects Act is outdated and in need of modernization. The newest professional regulation

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NEWS

legislation in British Columbia is the 2018 Professional Governance Act, which was designed to ensure that the highest professional, technical and ethical standards are being applied to resource development in British Columbia. The legislation sets consistent governance standards across the professions it governs.

Once fully in place, the Professional Governance Act and its associated regulations will replace the Architects Act. Until then, the Architects Act is still in effect. aibc.ca

UBC relaunches the Margolese National Design for Living Prize

The University of British Columbia’s School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA) has relaunched the Margolese National Design for Living Prize. The $50,000 award—an estate gift to UBC by the late Leonard Herbert Margolese—recognizes a Canadian making a profound impact on the built environment.

Since 2012, the Margolese Prize has recognized six individuals. Honorees include landscape architect Cornelia Oberlander, activist Sylvia McAdam, and architect and educator Anne Cormier.

In 2018, SALA paused the prize to review its terms and significance. With the relaunch, SALA hopes to attract nominations from a broader array of disciplines.

Nominations will open February 2021. Individuals may nominate themselves or someone else. Shortlisted candidates will be evaluated by a peer jury and notified in May 2021. A winner will be announced in September 2021. margoleseprize.com

IN MEMORIAM Barry Sampson, 1948-2020

Barry Sampson, my former partner in the firm Baird Sampson Neuert, died on Saturday, December 5. He is survived by his partner Judi Coburn and their two sons, Benjamin and Martin.

Barry was born in 1948 in Oshawa, Ontario, and spent his childhood and youth there, arriving at the University of Toronto in 1967 to commence his education in architecture.

I first met Barry the following year, when I joined U of T as a new faculty member.

He was never directly my student, but we knew each other at a distance. Then, upon their graduation in 1972, Barry, together with his classmates Joost Bakker, Bruce Kuwabara and John van Nostrand, proposed that they join my fledgling one-person architectural prac-

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tice. Donald MacKay, who was part of the same cohort at the University at Toronto, joined in 1973. After a few years, the other four left the practice for various reasons, but Barry stayed, and we worked together for the next 30 years.

In the early years of our professional relationship, Barry played an essential role in projects including the reconstruction of the DunbartonFairport United Church in Pickering, Ontario, and a study for the Ontario Heritage Foundation of “Ontario’s Main Streets.” In the late 1970s, he took a sabbatical and went to work in Paris for a year, on the understanding that upon his return to Toronto, he would become my professional partner.

On our 1982 entry to the Edmonton City Hall Competition and the 1983 Trinity Square Park competition, he continued to play the invaluable back-up role to my lead. But with our successful entry to the 1990 Bay Adelaide Park competition, our roles shifted.

We both participated in the formulation of the ambitious idea for the park, but it was Barry who was primarily responsible for the final design configuration. Our success at Bay Adelaide—now called Cloud Gardens Park— led to our obtaining the commission for the Niagara Parks Butterfly Conservatory, probably the last project on which we jointly participated in equal measures.

In the years that followed, the volume of work of the office expanded to such a degree that we began to divide projects amongst us— first between Barry and myself, and subsequently between Barry and our new partner Jon Neuert, after my academic responsibilities had reduced my ability to fully commit to the practice. Among the prominent projects on which Barry played the lead role are two much-admired university residence buildings at the University of Toronto’s Mississauga campus. Finally, I retired from the practice altogether, and Barry and Jon took it over entirely. Probably the project from this period of which he was proudest is the McEwen Building for the Schulich School of Business, a project with some of the highest environmental ambitions in Canada in recent years.

Barry’s role in architectural education was also an important aspect of his work. He was one of a cadre of younger designers that I invited to teach at U of T during my brief chairmanship in the mid-1980s. Barry discovered that he was a highly effective teacher, and carried on teaching over the years.

He became one of the most admired pedagogues in the entire recent history of architecture at U of T, as well as across Canada.

When he retired from teaching a year or so ago, his admirers founded a scholarship in his

COURTESY ROBERT WRIGHT, DANIELS FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE, LANDSCAPE, AND DESIGN

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name, and it is hoped that colleagues wishing to honour his memory will contribute to it.

George Baird is the founding principal of Baird Sampson Neuert Architects.

Barry Sampson, the architect From 1967—the year I met Barry as a first-year architecture student at the University of Toron­ to—to the last conversation I had with him in November 2020, he was the same person: deeply thoughtful, gently humorous, friendly, and courageous. His family has lost a loving partner and a father, while the world of design and education has lost a remarkable, ethical and creative architect and teacher.

As an architect of distinction throughout his life, Barry embraced and mastered a comprehensive, critical approach to architecture, landscape, interiors, integrated sustainability, and teaching. If you speak with his clients, colleagues, and students, you will get a sense of one of the best architects and educators of any generation.

The real significance of Barry’s contribution to Canadian architecture came home to me some years ago when I visited the Butterfly Conservatory with my children. We approach­ ed the elegant, chrysalis-like steel and glass enclosure emerging from the stone base.

Upon entering the pavilion, we were delighted and filled with wonder seeing the diversity of butterf lies f luttering and perching everywhere. In the wings of these butterf lies, the inspiration for Barry’s vision’s design and meaning was revealed.

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During the pandemic, Barry presented, on Zoom, the design concept for the new Robotics building at the University of Toronto Mississauga campus to the Design Review Committee. I saw right away that Barry’s vision for this research and workspace for robotics shared the same qualities of the Butterfly Conservatory: elegant, efficient and sustainable. Barry had let me know this would be his last building. Both are deeply grounded in their natural forest settings, and both have symbolically shaped roofs that give a distinct identity and expression to their respective programs. Similar to the Butterfly Conservatory, Barry envisioned a one-storey pavilion for the Robotics building. The roof will be an inverted light wood truss structure with cantilevered extensions on all sides. It seemed to me that Barry’s proposal to create a unique geometric form integrating the warmth of the wood and emphasizing transparency held a more profound purpose: to remind the users of the implications of their work on Nature, and all life.

One of the gifts of this pandemic has been the series of phone conversations Barry and I were able to have over the last nine months.

We talked about everything and everybody who had influenced us. We spoke of our formative years at the University of Toronto

during a moment of significant change and disruption of the status quo in the late 1960s.

We reminisced about our shared work experiences with George Baird, John van Nostrand, Joost Bakker, and Donald McKay during the 1970s. We laughed about the “crisis” of Post Modernism in architecture in the 1980s and how it challenged us to reclaim meaning in architecture during the 1990s. We shared ideas and philosophies about integrating deep, sustainable, and interdisciplinary thinking with the art of architecture to create social benefit for the 21st century. We talked about our families and children and compared our personal experiences with cancer. Most of all, I feel grateful that I had the opportunity to express my gratitude to Barry and to tell him how much I valued our lifelong friendship.

One of the last things I shared with Barry was a book, The Architect on the Beach. It is about Le Corbusier’s radical shift from creating architecture as “machines for living” to organic form-making, and how a collection of seashells ultimately led to the design of Ronchamp.

As a friend and an architect, I will always remember Barry leading the way, quietly, exploring the deeper meaning of sustainability long before the world began to pay attention to climate change. When architecture forgot

its connection to Nature, Barry was quietly setting the groundwork for remembering.

Dear Barry, I am going to miss you, your ideas, and our conversations.

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Bruce Kuwabara is a founding partner of KPMB Architects.

Barry Sampson, the teacher Barry Sampson: over forty years a teacher, rising through the ranks from sessional lecturer to full professor for the last fifteen years of his academic career. And in all that time, an architect—for thirty years of them a partner—in a critical and celebrated architectural practice.

For a high school season, I was a member of the wrestling team. I enjoyed it, even if, tall and thin, I was unsuited to it. By necessity, I learned to assess other people as wrestlers. The first time I saw Barry Sampson, I recognized a natural wrestler. That was 53 years ago last September.

A wrestler’s first inclination: stay in balance, take a broad stance and train to hold the ground. That is a place where Barry thrived.

He studied conscientiously and widely, and he embodied what he learned, applying it to his own work and sharing it with colleagues and students, always developing the gravity he

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NEWS

needed to ground the work. Teaching in parallel but never together, over the years I enjoyed reviewing student work with Barry. Characteristically, he would open his comments citing three or four principles or issues.

You understood, when he spoke, he drew these from a bindle sack of dozens and dozens of such principles, developed in theory and practice and applied daily to test their value in teaching and in the office.

Wrestlers train, mastering fundamental positions, and dozens of moves from those positions. They seem solid, but they are quick, and will surprise an opponent in an act of recoupage. All of Barry’s preparations, and a natural thoughtfulness, would lead him to a well-considered practice, but it does not mean he was unprepared for a change. After some consideration, however brief, he would always step in. His constant study and self-criticism gave him the leverage to advance the work when he understood where to apply the appropriate force, and what direction it should take.

Over his career, Barry’s natural inclinations put him at the centre of two teaching streams.

For a decade and a half—until the century turned—he was a foundation figure in first-year studios in the School of Architecture, where new students learn so much so quickly. In the emotionally chaotic environment of those first years, he was a steadying influence, not only in the programs he developed, addressing the architectural craft step-by-step, but in his nature—benevolent and compassionate and profoundly professional.

And, for at least a dozen years in the new century, in Daniels’ graduate program, he took responsibility for the comprehensive building studio, the exhaustive term-long exercise that draws on the full range of building skills and architectural gifts. It was a studio he prepared for, and renewed for himself, all his life.

And, in all that time, he never neglected his own self-development.

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Barry kept a place in his career for special studios, teaching from out of his own enthusiasms: for building in glass, for green building, and for educational institutions.

Unlike boxers, wrestlers are part of a team; the success of all is as important as the triumphs of one. Barry served his entire community in a wide range of ways, but most particularly, at the University of Toronto he nurtured two school buildings, seeing that each met the demands of the day while anticipating the future in architecture.

Handled badly, this can be a thankless responsibility, and the gratitude of that school community for what he accomplished there is the best evidence of the depth of his contribution.

Good teachers leave behind an intellectual and moral DNA of sorts.

Barry set a high mark for grace and integrity, for all of us. Generations of architects will, by his example, strive to meet it.

Donald McKay is Professor Emeritus at the University of Waterloo School of Architecture.

Barry Sampson, the professional We were all in first year at the School of Architecture in Toronto—beginning in ’67 and heading for graduation in ’72. We were all “from away”— Bruce Kuwabara and I from Hamilton; Joost Bakker from Curaçao; Donald McKay from Manitoba (via Etobicoke), and Barry from Oshawa.

Barry and I bonded early after I asked him what he had submitted as his portfolio. He took me over to his desk and pulled out his coloured drawings of new cars, including the hottest models of the period: Corvettes, GTOs, Camaros. They were precisely drawn and rendered in beautiful metallic colours. This left me pondering for another 40 years over whether cars were more important in our times than buildings (we had all visited Expo ’67). We all knew that a driver’s licence was our “ticket to ride,” and was preferably obtained within a week of turning 16, if you were really cool. Barry was really cool.

In 1967, the school of architecture at the University of Toronto had undergone a major change in leadership, under the guidance of Chair of Architecture John Andrews. He invited Peter Pragnell (from England) to move from Columbia University to the University of Toronto, to serve as the new Director of Architecture.

Peter had strong affiliations with Team X—a breakaway group formed in 1953 that challenged the modernist founders of CIAM, including Le Corbusier. Led by figures including Aldo van Eyck, Team X focused on architecture that addressed the everyday needs of real people. A weekly series of lectures led by Peter left us all in awe and confusion. We were asked to take our cameras out on the street to document “places where people gossiped,” or “places that supported human action and emotion.”

We were told we already had 18 years of experiencing buildings and cities, and that we needed to bring that experience to our work.

In ’69, Peter invited George Baird to the school. George had just returned from several years in London, where he had co-edited Meaning & Architecture with Charles Jencks, a book which introduced us to a completely new set of ideas, starting with “semiology.” As the book explains, “…the justification for semiology, the theory of signs […] contends that since everything is meaningful, we are in a literal sense condemned to meaning, and thus we can either become aware of how meaning works in a technical sense (semiology), or we can remain content with our intuition.”

From that point on, we lived in the midst of this juxtaposition of theory (George) with intuition and emotion (Peter). This was a situation in which Barry thrived. And with the subsequent establishment of George Baird Architect in 1972, it went beyond talking and “thinking and jumping” to projects—fascinating projects.

A student of Barry’s (who later became my business partner) recounted an experience from his thesis year. He selected Barry as his advisor and met with him at least once a week. Without fail, Barry would always end

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their meetings with a summary of his critique, telling him that it was not coming together, it lacked rigour, and that he needed to get his ideas and their outcome together. Then, after the formal presentation to an assembled set of peers and professors, Barry took him aside and told him it was a “pretty good” project that got its point across. Barry would go on to recommend him to some well-known practices in the USA and Europe.

Barry demanded perfection: of himself first, and then everyone else.

Ignoring Robert Frost, he took two paths at once—one as an exceptional teacher and the other as a practitioner who led the creation of exceptional buildings. Barry was both a social architect and a social activist (a whole other story). He was at the centre of both the city and its industrial and economic hubs.

With affection, we nicknamed him “Blue Barry.” When he looked gloomy, he was really just turning everything over, and over, and over again. He got it right, any way that you turn it.

John van Nostrand is a founding principal of SvN Architects + Planners.

Barry Sampson, the global community member People enter into our lives, even if only for a brief number of years, and become markers that reverberate throughout our life.

I was last with Barry, and our original “hopeful circle” in Toronto, on September 5, 2019. It was exactly 52 years ago to that day when this circle of friends and colleagues entered architecture school at U of T. We were gathered around that familiar dining room table at George and Elizabeth Baird’s, reminiscing and celebrating—Barry, John van Nostrand, Bruce Kuwabara, Donald McKay and our partners.

On day one of school, our circle was confined to De Stijl-like exercises: composing cut-out grey shapes on white cardstock. Within short months, we were suddenly unleashed into the tumultuous ’60s and ’70s, and empowering new design thinking deeply rooted in ideas of community. I have largely witnessed Barry’s unfolding from afar, having moved to Vancouver in 1974. From this vantage point, I have come to realize how deeply rooted Barry remained in community—as a person, professional, and educator.

“To travel far, far—and that first morning’s awakening under a new sky!

And to find oneself in it—no, to discover more of oneself there.” –Rainer Maria Rilke A Volkswagen van road trip in 1971 to Latin America uncovered another transformative awakening in our lives. I met up with Barry, John, Danny McAlister, and Norm Grey-Noble in Panama City, and we took our VW to Buenaventura on Colombia’s Pacific Coast. We encountered a deep multi-layered history with diverse cultural expressions and senses of public space, discovering a radically different world.

Together, we explored barridas on the mudf lats of Buenaventura.

We witnessed Inti Raymi—the ancient Inca festival of the Sun—in late June with bonfires proliferating on surrounding hills. We danced on the dark side of the moon with Pink Floyd blaring from a camped van’s roof in a seemingly endless Peruvian desert. We drove through devastated small villages and the town of Huaraz, places that had fallen victim to the Ancash earthquake the previous year.

For Barry, the trip awakened themes of lifelong interest, including a lasting love of travel. His travels continued throughout the ’70s, with studies in London and at the Sorbonne.

Over the ensuing decades, Barry crossed this country extensively while working on projects, design competitions, exhibitions and urban studies. His firm’s 1982 “Greening Downtown” study continues to define Vancouver’s Georgia Street, our main ceremonial street. “[Ursula Franklin] defined technology as practice: how things are socially and morally done. She saw technology as complex systems of methods, pro-

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cedures and mindsets rather than a collection of machines and gadgets.”

–Katrine Raymond, The Canadian Encyclopedia A life immersed in travel, study, building, education and family allowed Barry to excel as an insightful and holistic teacher of practice. The interconnectedness of environmental and architectural systems eventually led to a new mindset and focus on bioclimatic design. As a young colleague in my office reminisced: “Barry’s comprehensive building studio—weaving together structures, envelope and sustainability, acoustics, lighting sources and more—was a student favourite, particularly for those interested in architecture as a practice for designing and constructing buildings… something that sometimes gets lost in academia.”

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“I thought of the cottage as more of my home than the family home in Oshawa.

I just felt I belonged there.” –Barry Sampson, Cottage Life, May 4, 2020 The deepest and strongest root running through Barry’s life was his cottage in Haliburton. This faux-log structure was hand-built by his father at the end of the Second World War. There was growing pressure to renew this small aging structure and meet the needs of multiple generations. That offered Barry the opportunity to reflect on, and conceive of, a high-performance all-season space that fully expressed his lifelong values.

His father’s original timber cottage is now lovingly suspended and encased within a state-of-the-art sustainable glass enclosure. This transformed place on Beech Lake will remain a wonderful testament to Barry’s life and learnings, and his sense of belonging, while providing ongoing community for his partner Judi and their sons.

Joost Bakker is a founding principal of DIALOG.

For the latest news, visit www.canadianarchitect.com/news.

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13 Briefs En bref Membership renewal continues The RAIC has had a challenging and productive year amidst the global pandemic. We are continuing to fiercely advocate for our members and for the built environment, while proudly offering new and innovative ways to save you money, provide opportunities, and help keep you connected to the Canadian community of architects.

Renew online by credit card, or select the cheque option to be emailed an invoice. You can also renew by phone at 1-844-856-RAIC (7242) ext. 2000.

Vous pouvez maintenant L’IRAC a connu une année difficile et productive dans le contexte de la pandémie mondiale. L’IRAC défend farouchement nos membres et l’environnement bâti, tout en offrant fièrement des moyens novateurs de vous faire économiser de l’argent, de vous offrir des opportunités et de vous aider à rester en contact.

Renouvelez en ligne rapidement et facilement avec une carte de crédit ou sélectionnez l’option chèque pour recevoir une facture par courriel. Vous pouvez également renouveler par téléphone au 1-844-856RAIC (7242) poste 2000.

2021 Conference goes virtual Due to the continued need for social distancing in many regions of the country, the RAIC Conference on Architecture is returning for 2021 as a virtual event. Join your colleagues and peers in a virtual learning and networking experience. The RAIC Virtual Conference on Architecture brings together professionals at every stage in their career to learn, explore, and discuss the challenges and opportunities facing the practice. Additional details will be released in the coming months at raic.org La Conférence 2021 sera présentée en mode virtuel Comme les règles de distanciation sociale sont encore en vigueur dans de nombreuses régions du pays, la Conférence sur l’architecture de l’IRAC sera à nouveau présentée en mode virtuel en 2021.

Joignez-vous à vos collègues et à vos pairs dans une expérience virtuelle d’apprentissage et de réseautage ! La conférence virtuelle de l’IRAC sur l’architecture réunit des professionnels à toutes les étapes de leur carrière pour apprendre, explorer et discuter des défis et des possibilités qui se présentent à la pratique. Des informations complémentaires seront disponibles sur raic.org

The RAIC is the leading voice for excellence in the built environment in Canada, demonstrating how design enhances the quality of life, while addressing important issues of society through responsible architecture. www.raic.org L’IRAC est le principal porte-parole en faveur de l’excellence du cadre bâti au Canada. Il démontre comment la conception améliore la qualité de vie tout en tenant compte d’importants enjeux sociétaux par la voie d’une architecture responsable. www.raic.org/fr

RAIC Journal Journal de l’IRAC This jury-mentioned competition entry for the Bamiyan Cultural Centre in Afghanistan was co-led

by Taymoore Balbaa, winner of the inaugural RAIC Young Architect Award in 2011.

Taymoore Balbaa, lauréat du premier Prix du jeune architecte de l’IRAC en 2011, a codirigé ce projet soumis au concours pour le Centre culturel Bamiyan, en Afghanistan, dont le jury a fait mention.

Looking to the year ahead Coup d’œil sur l’année à venir Tanner Morton Editor, RAIC Journal Rédacteur en chef, Journal de l’IRAC

Writing with an eye on the future is a challenging balance of optimism and fortune-telling—even in less turbulent times. As we go to print in early 2021, the initial COVID-19 vaccine has been approved, and we are all waiting to see what happens next.

For the RAIC, the coming year will undoubtedly be full of unexpected challenges and opportunities—but here is a look at some of our plans.

In 2021, the RAIC wants to engage the community more than ever. We’ve already started launching new platforms and initiatives to encourage communication, like RAIC Connects, and more opportunities are on the horizon.

With uncertainty about in-person workshops, sessions, and lectures, we’ve extended our virtual classrooms and will continue to offer all Continuing Education events in a virtual format until at least June 30, 2021.

In the pages of the RAIC Journal, there will be more guest writers in forthcoming issues, as we aim to connect with as diverse an audience as possible in both the RAIC membership and greater architecture community. We’re aiming to make the scope of the Journal as dynamic as the audience we serve. If you have an article to pitch or want to learn more about writing for the RAIC Journal, please reach out to me at tmorton@raic.org

Écrire en songeant à l’avenir, c’est un exercice d’équilibre entre optimisme et divination – même dans des périodes moins turbulentes. Au moment de mettre sous presse, au début de 2021, le premier vaccin contre la COVID-19 a été approuvé et nous attendons tous de voir ce qu’il adviendra ensuite.

L’année à venir réservera très certainement à l’IRAC une foule d’occasions et de défis inattendus, mais voici un bref aperçu de certains de nos projets.

En 2021, l’IRAC désire mobiliser la communauté plus que jamais. Nous avons déjà commencé à lancer de nouvelles plateformes et initiatives pour favoriser la communication, comme IRAC Connects, et nous entendons poursuivre dans la même veine.

En raison de l’incertitude entourant les ateliers, les séances et les exposés en personne, nous avons étendu nos classes virtuelles et nous continuerons d’offrir toutes nos activités de formation continue dans un format virtuel au moins jusqu’au 30 juin 2021.

Dans les pages du Journal de l’IRAC, nous laisserons place à un plus grand nombre de rédacteurs invités dans les prochains numéros, car nous visons à diversifier le plus possible notre lectorat, tant parmi les membres de l’IRAC qu’au sein de la communauté architecturale élargie. Nous avons à cœur de rendre le Journal aussi dynamique que le public auquel nous nous adressons. Si vous désirez proposer un article ou voulez en savoir davantage sur la rédaction d’un texte pour le Journal de l’IRAC, veuillez m’envoyer un courriel à tmorton@raic.org.

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Revisiting the Young Architect Award with Taymoore Balbaa Revisiter le Prix du jeune architecte avec Taymoore Balbaa Taymoore Balbaa, MRAIC, won the inaugural RAIC Young Architect Award in 2011.

Taymoore Balbaa, MRAIC, a remporté le Prix du jeune architecte de l’IRAC à sa première édition, en 2011.

Axia’s design for the Photographic Art Museum in Seoul, South Korea, won third place in an international design competition.

Tanner Morton Editor, RAIC Journal Rédacteur en chef, Journal de l’IRAC

Awards can have a significant impact on an architect’s prospects—even more so when they come along early in a career. For Taymoore Balbaa, MRAIC, winning the RAIC Young Architect Award in 2011 was an early sign of the stellar career ahead of him.

Balbaa was the inaugural winner when the prize—now known as the Emerging Architect Award—was first established. He is the first in our series on award recipients past and present.

of the Canada Council for the Arts’ Prix de Rome in Architecture for Emerging Practitioners in 2005, and won the RAIC’s Medal for Outstanding Thesis after graduating with his master’s in architecture from the University of Waterloo.

Many of the same beliefs and motivations behind his thesis work can be found in Taymoore’s current projects and teaching. An important element of his thesis was conceiving of “bridges that were not only a way to connect, but could also be inhabited in some way,” says Taymoore. “I think they define me as a cross-cultural kind of person.”

plinary firm actively engaged at the intersection of design and research. The firm was established with Balbaa’s long-time friend Chris Wong.

Wong and Balbaa met as first-year undergraduates at the University of Waterloo.

Their collaboration extended beyond the classroom: while working at other firms and pursuing solo practices, the pair continued to submit to international competitions together.

Following early success in Toronto and seeing opportunities farther afield, Balbaa and Wong established a second office for Axia Design in Hong Kong, headed by Wong.

“It was extremely memorable—not only receiving the news, but also having my work adjudicated by people I highly respect across Canada in the worlds of design, academia and journalism,” said Balbaa.

Balbaa grew up in various places around the world on account of his father’s work as an engineer. He credits this, as well as his mixed heritage, to his understanding of architecture and design in a global context. These ideas continue to inform his work to this day.

One of the motivations for submitting to the awards competition was the way the prize criteria reflected his work at the time. Balbaa was a burgeoning architect and academic, and the award addressed both sides of his early professional career.

“I think this idea of bridging the divide still permeates my work as an architect and designer. I still throw myself into international design competitions in all parts of the world and trying to understand the context of the contest I’m designing for.”

When the pandemic disrupted the architectural profession, Axia was quick to adapt, with the greatest challenge coming from their small size and the need to juggle multiple projects.

This was not the first major accolade for Balbaa, who also was the inaugural winner

In 2010, Balbaa was a founding partner of Atelier3AM, now Axia Design, a multi-disci-

“We’re a very versatile firm,” said Balbaa. “ As a small firm, sometimes it’s all-hands-on-

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Le design d’Axia pour le Musée de la photographie à Séoul, en Corée du Sud, a remporté le troisième prix d’un concours d’architecture international.

The firm’s portfolio covers a wide array of projects in the built environment, from custom residential to social housing, transportation, and high-rise apartments in Hong Kong.

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deck to support another person at key moments and at key milestones of a project.”

In addition to co-leading Axia, Balbaa has continued working in academia. At the time of the award, Balbaa had led design studios at the University of Waterloo School of Architecture and the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto. Since 2012, Balbaa has taught at Ryerson University, where he currently holds the rank of associate professor.

“People strive toward academia for different reasons. For me, it’s a love of research,” said Balbaa. “I think in another life, I would have pursued my Ph.D.” Winning the Prix de Rome early in his professional practice was impactful because of the prize’s criteria, which blend research and professional work.

“That put me down a resolute path of juggling those two worlds,” said Balbaa, who used the prize to work and conduct research in Spain, West Africa, Greece and Egypt.

Balbaa has lectured at universities in Berlin, Napoli, Tunis, Istanbul, Halifax, Sardegna and Ottawa.

“I’m so fortunate to work with the young minds that I do, they keep me on my toes,” said Balbaa. “Not only for emerging trends, technologies and environmental and social concerns, but I can also give something back to them.”

“Academia is what allowed me to be a sole practitioner,” he says, recalling how he augmented his early design firm’s income with teaching as a sessional instructor in both Toronto and Waterloo.

Even though the name of the Young Architect Award has changed, the purpose of the honour remains the same. The Emerging Architect Award recognizes a talented architect for excellence in design, leadership, or service to the profession. The recognition aims to reaffirm a practitioner’s confidence in their work and push them towards greater heights.

“The RAIC has done a lot to embolden generations of architects in this country. I’m no longer a young architect, I can say, but I am still truly honoured with receiving the award,” said Balbaa. “I hope to make good with my work and practice.”

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Axia’s fifth-place proposal for the Creative Music and Sound Center in Seoul, South Korea balances teaching and performance spaces for a 21st-century music school.

La proposition d’Axia pour le Centre de création musicale et sonore de Séoul, en Corée du Sud, assure un équilibre entre les espaces dédiés à l’enseignement et aux spectacles dans une école de musique du 21e siècle.

Les prix peuvent avoir des incidences déterminantes sur les perspectives d’un architecte, surtout lorsqu’ils sont décernés en début de carrière. Le Prix du jeune architecte de l’IRAC remis en 2011 à Taymoore Balbaa, MRAIC, a été un signe précurseur de la brillante carrière qui l’attendait.

M. Balbaa a été le premier lauréat de ce prix qui porte aujourd’hui le nom de Prix de l’architecte de la relève. Il est aussi le premier dont nous dressons le portrait dans notre série sur le parcours d’anciens lauréats. « C’est un moment que je n’oublierai jamais. Non seulement j’apprenais l’excellente nouvelle, mais je voyais mon travail reconnu par des personnes que je respecte beaucoup dans les milieux du design, de l’université et du journalisme », a déclaré M. Balbaa.

Son travail de l’époque correspondait aux critères d’attribution de ce prix et c’est ce qui l’a amené à poser sa candidature. Il était alors un architecte et un universitaire en plein essor et le prix tenait compte de ces deux volets de sa jeune carrière professionnelle.

Taymoore Balbaa avait déjà été récompensé par d’autres prix d’importance. Il a été le premier lauréat du Prix de Rome en architecture, début de carrière, du Conseil des Arts du Canada en 2005 et il a remporté une médaille de l’IRAC pour le meilleur projet final de sa promotion à la fin de ses études de maîtrise en architecture à l’Université de Waterloo.

Les projets en cours et l’enseignement de Taymoore expriment encore aujourd’hui nombre des convictions et motivations qui l’animaient en réalisant son projet final dont la conception était centrée sur « la création de ponts qui ne servent pas seulement à créer des liens, mais que l’on peut aussi s’approprier d’une certaine façon », souligne-t-il. Son travail illustre toujours les principes fondamentaux de connexion et d’occupation qui lui sont chers.

M. Balbaa a grandi dans plusieurs pays, là où l’amenait le travail de son père qui était ingénieur. C’est à cette ouverture au monde et à ses origines mixtes qu’il attribue sa compréhension de l’architecture et du design dans un contexte mondial. Ces idées continuent d’orienter son travail.

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ils participaient ensemble à des concours internationaux.

Ayant connu rapidement le succès à Toronto et voyant des occasions à l’international, Axia Design a établi un deuxième bureau à Hong Kong, dirigé par Chris Wong.

La firme compte à son actif des projets de tous genres allant de la résidence privée aux immeubles de logement social, au transport et aux tours résidentielles à Hong Kong.

Lorsque la pandémie a modifié la donne en architecture, Axia s’est vite adaptée pour relever le plus grand défi découlant de la petite taille de la firme qui devait jongler avec de multiples projets. « Je crois que l’idée de combler les fossés imprègne toujours mon travail d’architecte et de designer. Je me lance encore dans des concours d’architecture internationaux partout dans le monde et j’essaie toujours de comprendre le contexte du concours auquel je participe. » En 2010, Taymoore Balbaa a été l’un des associés fondateurs de la firme Atelier3AM, aujourd’hui Axia Design, une firme

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multidisciplinaire activement engagée à l’intersection du design et de la recherche qu’il a créée avec Chris Wong, un ami de longue date.

Wong et Balbaa se sont connus en première année de leurs études à l’Université de Waterloo. Leur collaboration s’est étendue au-delà de l’université.

Tout en travaillant dans d’autres firmes et en poursuivant leurs pratiques en solo,

« Nous sommes très polyvalents », souligne M. Balbaa. « Comme nous sommes une petite firme, nous devons parfois nous aider les uns les autres à des moments clés et à des étapes importantes d’un projet. » En plus de codiriger Axia, il continue de travailler en milieu universitaire. À l’époque où il a remporté le prix, il dirigeait les ateliers de conception à l’École d’architecture de l’Université de Waterloo

An Axia-designed business jet passenger terminal is the first project for ApexAir’s complex in Nantong, China.

L’aérogare pour les passagers de jets d’affaires conçu par Axia est le premier projet du complexe ApexAir de Nantong, en Chine.

Axia is currently working on the redevelopment of Toronto’s Matador music club into a six-storey mixeduse building.

Axia travaille actuellement à un projet de réaménagement du club de musique Matador de Toronto en un bâtiment à usage mixte de six étages.

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et à la Faculté John H. Daniels d’architecture, architecture du paysage et design de l’Université de Toronto.

Depuis 2011, il enseigne à l’Université Ryerson à titre de professeur agrégé.

Education & practice support

« Diverses raisons amènent les gens à s’orienter vers le milieu universitaire. Dans mon cas, c’est un amour de la recherche », dit-il. « Je crois que dans une autre vie, j’aurais poursuivi mon doctorat. » Remporter le Prix de Rome aussi tôt dans sa carrière professionnelle a eu un impact considérable en raison des critères de ce prix qui allient la recherche et le travail professionnel.

MEMBERSHIP

FOR A STRONGER PROFESSION

Members receive discounts and exclusive offers on an innovative, interactive, and robust portfolio of Continuing Education programming.

We are your partners at every stage of your career with courses, content, and offers tailored to a variety of career levels.

« Cela m’a résolument amené à réfléchir à ces deux mondes », ajoute-t-il. Ainsi, il a profité du prix pour travailler et effectuer de la recherche en Espagne, en Afrique de l’Ouest, en Grèce et en Égypte.

Taymoore Balbaa a prononcé des conférences dans diverses universités à Berlin, Naples, Tunis, Istanbul, Halifax et Ottawa et en Sardaigne. « Je me trouve bien chanceux de travailler avec des jeunes. Ils me poussent à rester à l’affût des nouvelles tendances et des technologies émergentes tout en étant sensible aux préoccupations environnementales et sociales et en me permettant de leur donner quelque chose en retour. »

Amplified voice Pulse surveys, continued advocacy work, and community and legislative consulation have become pillars at the fore-front of our organization, supporting members and listening to their unique experiences of practicing in the built environment.

Leadership Lead the way at every level of your professional practice through volunteer opportunities with provincial chapters, committees, and task forces.

« L’enseignement universitaire m’a permis d’exercer comme praticien autonome », se rappelle-t-il, car le revenu tiré de ses charges de cours à Toronto et à Waterloo s’ajoutait aux revenus modestes de la firme à ses débuts.

Même si le nom du Prix du jeune architecte a changé, son objet reste le même. Le Prix de l’architecte de la relève récompense un architecte de talent qui fait preuve d’excellence en matière de conception, de leadership ou de service à la profession. Cette reconnaissance vise à renforcer la confiance d’un praticien dans son travail et à le pousser vers de plus hauts sommets.

Networking Connect with your colleagues and like-minded industry professionals across the country through local Chapters, events, workshops and through RAIC Connects, an engaging digital space designed for members to professionally network no matter where they are located.

« L’IRAC a beaucoup fait pour encourager des générations d’architectes dans notre pays. Je ne suis plus un jeune architecte, je peux bien le dire, mais je suis toujours très fier d’avoir reçu ce prix », conclutil. « J’espère y faire honneur par mon travail et ma pratique. »

Our internationally recognized Honours & Awards program showcases Canadian architectural excellence. As a member, you carry the abbreviation MRAIC, a highly respected distinction in the profession.

Advocate. Educate. Celebrate.

RENEW TODAY FOR 2021!

Discounts Your membership includes an extensive list of offers with our affiliates and partners and free webinars through our practice resource series.

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Visibility & credibility

www.raic.org membership@raic.org 1-844-856-RAIC (7242) ext. 2000

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LONGVIEW

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SCREEN ART A NEW RENOVATION WRAPS OCADU’S ROSALIE SHARP PAVILION IN A STAINLESS STEEL MAP OF TORONTO’S ARTISTIC COMMUNITIES. TEXT

Elsa Lam Alex Fradkin

PHOTO

As part of pandemic control measures, museums and galleries in many parts of Canada have been closed, partially opened, and closed again over the past year. Public art and architecture assume a fresh importance: it’s often the only real-life art we can get.

This makes Bortolotto’s recently renovated Rosalie Sharp Pavilion especially welcome. A stainless-steel scrim, intricately perforated with a lace-like pattern, wraps this Ontario College of Art & Design University (OCADU) building in downtown Toronto. The undulating metal sparkles in the sun, peeling upwards and outwards at its edges.

The laser-cut pattern is a map of Toronto’s artistic communities, with McCaul and Dundas—the location of OCADU, as well as the Art Gallery of Ontario—at its centre. Circles indicate art galleries and design studios; dark checks denote zones of public art; and chevron perforations highlight areas where artist communities are concentrated.

“The data is meant to describe the city as influenced spatially by the production of art and design,” says principal Tania Bortolotto.

The pattern was carefully calibrated so that the scrim would provide the appropriate amount of solar shading for the interior. Manufacturing was a further challenge: the studio’s Grasshopper-generated parametric designs needed to be translated into CATIA, and numerous details added to accommodate for the practicalities of fabrication. The design also addresses a variety of technical issues, from wind to snow. Heated wires along the top prevent icicle formation, snow guards are positioned behind the scrim, and a gutter is concealed along its lower edge.

The curving lines of the installed panels echo the undulating façade of Frank Gehry’s neighbouring AGO renovation. And fittingly, Bortolotto’s intervention has a similar ethos of using an artistic approach to mark an art institution.

But instead of conceiving the scrim as a stand-alone piece of art, Bortolotto has made it part of the building, and part of the city. The intersection is a happy tangle of traffic lights, streetcar cables, electrical wires, and light standards. None of this is photoshopped out of the architect’s images of the project. It’s all part of the urban life that marks the building, and that feeds the artistic communities that thrive in Toronto.

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LAKE HURON

OSLER BLUFF SKI CLUB

LAKE ONTARIO TORONTO

APRÈS-SKI SANCTUARY A RENOVATED CLUBHOUSE RETAINS THE SPIRIT OF OSLER BLUFF’S ORIGINAL TIMBERBUILT LODGE. The Osler Bluff Ski Club Clubhouse, Town of the Blue Mountains, Ontario ARCHITECT Williamson Williamson TEXT Elsa Lam PHOTOS doublespace photography PROJECT

In 1949, two friends who had tired of the long lines at Quebec’s ski hills set out to found a new ski club north of Toronto. When looking for a site, the pair heard from local farmers that the Niagara Escarpment’s best snow conditions were found on the slopes above Poplar Sideroad, near Collingwood.

The recent renovation of Osler’s clubhouse, completed by Torontobased firm Williamson Williamson, is similarly attuned to the local context, with materials and a design tailored to its cottage-country setting.

Based on a masterplan completed by predecessor firm Williamson Chong in 2014, the design renovates the existing 1970s lodge and adds a new bay to the pleated-roof structure. The addition extends the mainlevel dining room, housing childcare and auxiliary spaces below. It foregrounds a dramatic pair of Y-shaped wood-and-steel columns— a contemporary version of the heavy timber columns of the original structure.

The decision to renovate rather than rebuild was a matter of budget and wanting to keep the spirit of the existing clubhouse, but it was not a simple task. “Renovations are incredibly complicated,” says architect Betsy Williamson, who describes how the original building was covered in asbestos, and constructed on a base of core slab, atop foundations that had no capacity to support additional weight.

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“Old timber is like a house of cards—you can’t take any piece out or the whole thing will collapse,” says Williamson. The team conducted extensive remediation work to the envelope and structure, then braced each individual timber in the building to ensure the stability of the system during construction. The entire structure was conserved, with most of the timber columns left in place, and others relocated to a new lounge that looks out to the ski hill on one side, and over the dining room to the other.

In the 1970s lodge, conduit sprawled across wood ceilings with no fire sprinklers, and the winter wind whistled through inch-wide cracks

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that had opened in the structural columns. To address these issues, the renovation bumped the slope-side wall of the lodge out by two feet, encapsulating the existing structure behind a new façade equipped with German-designed windows. A new wood-slat ceiling maintains the cabin-like feel of the original building, while creating room for concealed sprinklers and additional acoustic and thermal insulation.

Together, these moves brought the building’s Energy Use Intensity (EUI) down to 130 kWh/m2/year. “Had we been able to also replace the north façade, we would be at 90 or less,” says Williamson.

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Such moves add noticeably to the comfort of the lodge, particularly at the crunch times of lunch hour and après-ski, when, in non-pandemic times, more than 800 club members fill the space to eat, drink and socialize. But what sets the project apart is its careful attention to details—a thoughtfulness typical of the high-end residences at the core of Williamson Williamson’s practice.

The smoothly curved Y-shaped columns, for instance, were inspired by the shape of early hand-carved skis, and executed with as much fastidiousness. “In our office, when we’re building with veneer, we show that it’s veneer by making it thin and flat, and when we’re building with solid wood, we show that it’s solid by carving into it,” says Williamson. “We were really specific about the direction of the veneer coming into the curve,” she adds.

A similar logic applies to a rounded wood bar and reception desk, and to a swooping stair balustrade. For the fireplace surround, stone was specified in its various cuts—with its weathered faces, seam faces, and ashlar faces exposed—and placed to reflect its natural orientation.

To execute their vision, the firm brought on millworkers BL Woodworking, and the club hired Upstream Construction. (Construction had The renovated lodge includes a new slope-side façade, which encapsulates the existing building’s heavy timber structure.

OPPOSITE A Y-shaped column’s elegant curve is inspired by early handcarved skis. ABOVE The new Founders’ Lounge overlooks the main dining area and enjoys views to the ski hill. RIGHT Retained areas of the lodge were modernized with wood-slat ceilings that conceal sprinklers and acoustic insulation.

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started with another company in 2018, and was continued by Upstream in 2019.) Upstream—run by club member Andrew Noxon—was primarily experienced in custom homebuilding, but rose to the occasion. “It’s the kind of contractor we all know and love: works hard, super-organized, going to get the job done,” recalls Williamson. The project opened in December 2019, in time for members to hit the slopes from the renovated lodge that year.

The camaraderie between architect and contractor is evident in a subtle detail on the slope-side of the building. As the opening date deadline approached, the contractor left a panel that sits directly behind a segment of glazing in its natural oak colour to match nearby panels, rather than staining it dark brown as specified. “Dark brown is this magical colour—if you put it far enough behind a spandrel-like window, it reflects during the day, so you can’t tell it’s a spandrel window,” says Williamson. She insisted that it needed to be changed out, even though that involved removing the glass. “I knew it was a big ask.”

Despite the time crunch and their own skepticism, Noxon’s team went ahead and fixed the panel—and in fact, removed the glass twice to do so.

ABOVE The added bay includes an extended dining area on the main level, along with childcare and ski-school spaces below.

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When the window was out the first time, Noxon placed a small Lego figure with a hardhat and skirt on the ledge. He had carried the Lego figure in his pocket for the entire project, and nicknamed it Little Betsy.

“When we had a question and Betsy wasn’t here, we’d ask Little Betsy,” says Noxon. “She’d normally tell us just to call Betsy.”

They replaced the glass, and the figure fell over. So they took out the window again to glue Little Betsy in place.

The miniature figure now looks out onto the ski slope—the focal point of the project from the start. “The big idea is that you come from the city and leave the world behind,” says Williamson. “You come up through the main entrance, and emerge onto the hillside.” That snowy slope, more than ever, is the centre of the action, whether for skiers enjoying a run or taking a break in the cozy comforts of the renovated lodge.

CLIENT THE OSLER BLUFF SKI CLUB | ARCHITECT TEAM BETSY WILLIAMSON (FRAIC), SHANE WILLIAMSON (FRAIC), ERIC TSE, IRINA SOLOP, SONIA RAMUNDI, DIMITRA PAPANTONIS, PETER LAZOVSKIS, MAT WINTER, NASSIM SANI, DONALD CHONG, CHRIS ROUTLEY, PAUL HARRISON | STRUCTURAL BLACKWELL | MECHANICAL R.J. BURNSIDE & ASSOCIATES | ELECTRICAL LAPAS CONSULTING ENGINEERS | CONTRACTOR UPSTREAM CONSTRUCTION | ACOUSTICS AERCOUSTICS ENGINEERING | LIGHTING ALULA LIGHTING | CODE LRI ENGINEERING | KITCHEN AND SERVERY TRIMEN | SECURITY HURONIA | AREA 2,764 M2 | BUDGET WITHHELD | COMPLETION DECEMBER 2019 ENERGY USE INTENSITY (PROJECTED) 130 KWH/M2/YEAR | BENCHMARK (NRCAN 2014, NON-HEALTHCARE INSTITUTIONAL BUILDINGS AFTER 2010) 278 KWH/M2/YEAR

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THINK TANK EDMONTON POINTS TO THE FUTURE OF CENTRAL LIBRARIES, WITH A BOLDLY REMADE 1960S PAVILION THAT FOSTERS LEARNING OF ALL KINDS—NOT JUST FROM BOOKS. Stanley A. Milner Library Renewal, Edmonton, Alberta Teeple Architects (Design Architect) with Stantec (Architect of Record, formerly Architecture | Tkalcic Bengert) TEXT Trevor Boddy PHOTOS Andrew Latreille PROJECT

ARCHITECTS

After nearly a decade of design and construction, the Stanley A. Milner main branch of the Edmonton Public Library, by Teeple Architects in association with Stantec, finally opened last September, with pandemic precautions in place. One of our few major public buildings to open in 2020, the design may also be Canada’s truest indicator of where library architecture is headed. The direction it proposes, though, may not please fans of heroic made-from-scratch architecture, or for that matter, books. Here is my explanation of this unsettling conjunction.

Unlike other major downtown central library designs in Canada, the reopened Stanley A. Milner is a revamp of an existing structure, rather than a new build. And yet, its contents are a far cry from its predecessor. A large part of its second floor is devoted to makerspaces: a digital milling and printing lab; textile layout zones; sound recording and mixing studios; e-sports lounges; a teaching kitchen; video editing suites, and so on. Yes, there are rows of book stacks outside these, but the gathered machines are clearly the stars of this show. They’re swamped by eager young users after school ever since opening, many of them previously reluctant to darken the door of any library, and unable to afford even the most basic of this suite of largely digital tools. Moreover, there is a new breed of librarian at the ready to assist them, helping patrons operate the machines, locate online sources for ideas, and occasionally even suggesting references from a pulp-and-paper database—that is to say, a book!

As an Edmonton teenager who made a weekly pilgrimage to what was then called the Centennial Library, I would have been delighted with the prospect of this range of machines and minders to learn from.

The reimagined Stanley A. Milner library adds to the existing structure on its main façade, facing Edmonton’s Churchill Square.

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ABOVE A new north-facing atrium creates a grand entrance for the central library, and introduces natural daylight throughout. RIGHT Strategic perforations to the existing flooplates create visual connections between the library’s three main levels.

Lest I be typed as some dusty “keeper of the books,” one of the main reasons for my Saturday trips was the Centennial Library’s huge lending library of vinyl LPs, one of the largest on the continent. I loaded up every week with King Crimson, Thelonious Monk, Richard Thompson and my other faves. The building encouraged lingering with plush carpets, skylights and what had to be the first Barcelona Chairs in any Alberta public building—rehabilitated, they are still in use in the updated building.

Back then, the Edmonton Public Library was advanced in its embrace of technology and a social mission to spread knowledge to all citizens.

It remains so today—their system was named “Best in North America”

by Library Journal in 2014. I have no doubt that the tech-driven knowledge on offer to anyone with an Edmonton library card will spark careers for talented future designers—if there is to be an Alberta post-oil creative economy, it will be more likely born at the Milner Library than in any legislative corridor. Moreover, as a profession, architects hardly need convincing that knowledge can be created and transmitted in the form of materials, not just through words on a page. Our design schools talked a lot about phenomenology during the 1990s, but this new shift from passive reading to embodied activity marks a significant change.

The maker-centric approach may be at the vanguard of larger changes in libraries, too. Raymond Moriyama’s 1969 Ontario Science Centre inspired experience-based, populist science museums around the world.

In a similar way, the new Edmonton building—along with other projects of its type, such as RDHA’s Old Post Office in Cambridge, Ontario— could be signposts for a shift to experience-based large public facilities.

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A new word may be needed for buildings like this, instead of “library.”

Time to bring back Buckminster Fuller’s “sensorium”?

The new Stanley A. Milner library is the product of two powerful and relentless personalities—Toronto architect Stephen Teeple and Edmonton Public Libraries CEO Pilar Martinez. Their collaboration began almost a decade ago, when Edmonton’s City Architect, Carol Belanger, catalyzed the choice of Teeple’s firm for what was initially thought to be merely a re-skinning of the 1967 building, designed by Fred Minsos. The Centennial Library was a graceful modernist-classical pavilion, disfigured by a gawky 1999 PoMo addition on its Churchill Square elevation. When design started for Teeple and associate architect Stantec, Martinez was a senior librarian on the building committee. As the project progressed from technical and program evaluation, through budget cutbacks and changes of government, she was eventually appointed to the top job—in large part to get the project done. Teeple had designed the immense Clareview Recreation Centre in northeast Edmonton, which included a large branch library, earning the firm points with clients at city hall and at Edmonton Public Libraries. Indicating how much things have changed in but a few years, that branch did not feature a single makerspace gizmo when it opened in 2014.

Like many other tendencies in Canadian public buildings, rethought downtown libraries here begin with a Raymond Moriyama and Ted Teshima design, the 1977 Toronto Reference Library, with its generous light and atrium. The next major downtown libraries are a mixed pair: Moshe Safdie’s popular/populist Vancouver Library Square, compelled

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ABOVE LEFT Black ceilings and walls accentuate the geometry of the new interventions to the library. ABOVE RIGHT The second floor gives prominence to a series of makerspaces, accompanied by a computer lab, black box studio, culinary centre and gaming room. LOWER RIGHT A wood-lined circular Indigenous gathering space anchors the building’s ground floor.

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SECOND FLOOR 1 WEST COLLECTION 2 NORTH COLLECTION 3 READING ROOM 4 BLACK BOX STUDIO 5 MAKERSPACE 6 COMPUTER LAB 7 CULINARY CENTRE

8 SOUTH COLLECTION 9 PROGRAM ROOM 10 GAMING 11 LIBRARY STAFF 12 COMMUNITY OUTREACH OFFICES 13 READING RAMP

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8 CHILDREN’S LIBRARY 9 INDIGENOUS GATHERING SPACE 10 NORTH GALLERIA 11 SOUTH GALLERIA 12 FUTURE CAFÉ 13 ENTRANCE BRIDGE 14 SOUTH ENTRANCE

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by a shopping mall public vote to Colosseum-imagism; and the Patkau’s Grande Bibliothèque de Montreal (completed with Menkès Shooner Dagenais Le Tourneux and Croft Pelletier), a fine design bedevilled by technical issues. Schmidt Hammer Lassen and Fowler Baud & Mitchell’s Halifax Public Library was one of the first, and likely best transmission to Canada of the Nordic massing gimmick of displaced cantilevered boxes. The crown of the latest run of central libraries in Canada is Snøhetta and DIALOG’s Calgary Public Library, achieved with top drawer Nordic hutzpah, resulting in a rounded volume hovering over an active LRT line. Warmly finished and filled with light, it shone as a venue for a 2019 David Adjaye public talk I attended.

The all-new Calgary library and the radically renovated library in Edmonton both have a similar floor area, at approximately 22,000 square metres and 15,000 square metres respectively. However, at $245 million, the Calgary library budget was nearly three times the $84.5-milllion cost of the Stanley Milner Library.

Armed with facts like this stark contrast between Calgary and Edmonton construction budgets, architects need to be increasingly skeptical whenever they hear claims that renovating an old building would cost more than building anew. After much discussion about demolition and a re-start de novo, the Edmonton clients and design team decided to remove all exterior windows and walls, while conserving the 1967 building’s concrete frame right down to the parking garage and foundations below. The finished design retains existing floors, elevator shafts, even escalator and skylight locales, plus much of the existing mechanical system. On the Churchill Square side, the library is expanded and wrapped with a new high-performance envelope. (Overall, the building attains LEED Silver.) There is no doubt that the interior finishes are banal, and the rhomboid zinc-clad exterior overexuberant. That said, with its programmatic tilt to makerspaces, its extreme parsimony with public funds, and the embodied energy conserved by recycling much of the old library, Edmonton’s example is much more the library of the future than Calgary’s, which history may soon regard as the extravagant final creation of that city’s greatest building boom.

As the gun-metal grey Azengar zinc panel cladding started to be installed during late construction in 2019, a rare-in-Canada public debate about design erupted, ignited by a critical broadside from Edmonton Journal columnist David Staples. Television and social media soon chimed in, bringing with it a battle of metaphors, with hundreds of online speculations as to whether Teeple’s chamfered and faceted metallic design more resembled a Star Wars galactic cruiser or an Eastern Bloc tank. Martinez and her team realized they could not win against this type of media frenzy, so wisely turned it on its head. With cheeky advertisements and a social media handle of # THINKTANK, Edmonton’s clever librarians gave as good as they got. “The building opens up curiosity,” says Martinez, concluding that Teeple’s design is “a phenomenal space to inspire learning creativity and imagination.”

The renovated library clearly draws inspiration from the aggressively angled massing of OMA’s 2004 Seattle Public Library. The most striking interior space of the # THINKTANK is its splayed and splined atrium, new construction pushed out along a narrow zone in front of the Centennial Library’s structure. The addition forms a better locale of orientation and entry than any space in Koolhaas’ design. Fast + Epp engineers were charged to find a way to hang the addition’s structure off the existing building’s frame and foundations, resulting in one of the building’s visual highlights—a storey-high truss exploding out of the most acute-angled corner and set on elegant Y-frame columns, their engineering logic vitalizing the entire room. However, this atrium that is so heroic up top comes with a distraction at its bottom, in the form of a storey-high interactive video screen—a digital embellishment at architectural scale.

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ABOVE

On the third floor, the collections and a civic room extend into the atrium, creating dramatic areas for browsing books, meeting and reading.

When I returned a few weeks after the press preview to see the library in public use, that big screen was tuned dully to an educational television station, with noone watching anywhere along the ramps, balconies and gathering zones of the atrium. The questionability of the trying-too-hard populism of this mega-screen was doubled by the adjacent super-graphic designed by library staff (not Teeple’s office) proclaiming “IMAGINE” in six-foot-high cut-out letters. I cannot think of anything less likely to inspire my mind to ‘imagine’ than a big sign ordering me to do so, with a TV running mindlessly next to it, as in pandemic living rooms. Similarly oversized, multicoloured letters are installed in corridors outside the basement public meeting rooms.

Likely, library staff have overreacted to the public critique of the sterility and monochromia of Teeple’s design. When visiting, look up from there to enjoy the atrium and its inspiring conjunction of Teeple’s spatial legerdemain, Fast + Epp’s structural brilliance, plus Things I Knew to be True, Peter von Tiesenhausen’s wall-mounted public art at top— consisting of various figure-like recycled steel elements, grouped into glyphic ‘words’ and ‘sentences.’

The architecture of the Stanley A. Milner Library is perhaps blunt and forcefully ungainly—but then again, these qualities are often thought to be virtues by the Prairie psyche—hey, they propel us through those snowdrifts! With huge oil refinery and petro-chemical complexes clearly visible to the east from downtown, a metallic palette makes sense in Edmonton. The provincial mammal may be the bighorn sheep, but the animals closest to the Albertan soul are the larger-than-life dinosaurs.

Indeed, the architecture surrounding Sir Winston Churchill Square is the most diverse single collection of large buildings after modernism in our nation—a heroic dinosaur park for the architectural ideas of the past half century, even more interesting in its agglomeration than in its individual

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pieces. There is the triceratops of the voluptuous corner curves of the Art Gallery of Alberta, the late Randall Stout’s homage to former employer Frank Gehry. There is the Edmontosaurus of the Kahn-inflected City Hall by Gene Dub. Skidmore Owings & Merrill’s Edmonton Centre is the brontosaurus of the bunch, and the glassy wings of Diamond and Myers’ original Citadel Theatre take flight as a pterodactyl. Not surprising—because it comes from the talent who designed a fine Alberta museum for thunder-lizards—Stephen Teeple’s latest addition, a wellarmoured and bold stegosaurus, fits right in.

Trevor Boddy (FRAIC) recently co-wrote and produced, with Barry Johns (FRAIC), a 30-minute video on a 1962 “missing minor masterpiece” by Arthur Erickson, located outside Edmonton. The Dyde House and Garden is being presented in virtual screenings with live commentary at architecture schools and professional associations in 2021.

CLIENT CITY OF EDMONTON; EDMONTON PUBLIC LIBRARY | ARCHITECT TEAM TEEPLE ARCHI-

TECTS—STEPHEN TEEPLE (FRAIC), RICHARD LAI, CHRISTIAN JOAKIM, AVERY GUTHRIE (MRAIC), OMAR ALJEBOURI, WILL ELSWORTHY, MAHSA MAJIDIAN (MRAIC), JAMES JANZER, ROB CHEUNG, PETRA BOGIAS, TOMER DIAMANT, SAHEL TAHVILDARI, JULIE JIRA, TARA SELVARAJ, DHROOV PATEL, FADI SALIB, ERIC BOELLING, MARINE DE CARBONNIERES, ALI AURANGOZEB. STANTEC / ARCHITECTURE | TKALCIC BENGERT—BRIAN BENGERT, DAWNA MOEN, KRISTI OLSON, SHAUNE SMITH, IAN COLVILLE, CAROL REGINO, ALYSSA HAAS, DERRIK KENNEDY, ANA BOROVAC, BEN BRACKETT, JOSEPH CHAN, TED FAST, ERIKA HOSTEDE, MATT ROPER, BRYANNE LARSEN, TAYLOR BENGERT | STRUCTURAL FAST & EPP | MECHANICAL ARROW ENGINEERING | ELECTRICAL AECOM | LANDSCAPE SCATLIFF+ MILLER+MURRAY | INTERIORS TEEPLE ARCHITECTS | CONTRACTOR CLARK BUILDERS | CIVIL AECOM | FAÇADE RJC | LEED WSP (FORMERLY ENERMODAL) | ACOUSTICS SLR CONSULTING (CANADA) | ENVIRONMENTAL GRADIENT WIND | TRANSPORTATION VINSPEC | CODE KIM KARN CONSULTING | AREA 15,326 M2 | BUDGET $84.5 M | COMPLETION SEPTEMBER 2020 ENERGY USE INTENSITY (PROJECTED) 120 EKWH/M2/YEAR | BENCHMARK (NRCAN 2014, NON-

HEALTHCARE INSTITUTIONAL BUILDINGS AFTER 2010) 278 KWH/M2/YEAR | WATER USE INTENSITY

(PROJECTED) 0.1186 M3/M2/YEAR | BENCHMARK (REALPAC 2011) 0.98 M3/M2/YEAR

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METAL COMPOSITE MATERIALS

Calgary Central Library Calgary, AB, CA Featuring ALPOLIC®/fr

ARCHITECTURAL Exceptional projects demand exceptional materials. alpolic-americas.com | 1.800.422.7270

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SETTING UP SHOP A 1920S EXHIBITION HALL FINDS NEW LIFE AS A SPACIOUS URBAN MARKET. Grand Marché de Québec, Quebec City, Quebec Bisson associés + Atelier Pierre Thibault TEXT Olivier Vallerand PHOTOS Maxime Brouillet PROJECT

ARCHITECTS

Public markets conjure up ideas of community and exchange, of a dynamic urban life. Local governments have increasingly invested in creating new markets and supporting existing ones. Doing so builds on renewed interests in the benefits of eating local products, and strengthens the relationship between urban and rural communities.

In recent years, the Quebec City municipal council has transformed its foodscape through two significant steps. The first was building a permanent structure, designed by Fugère architecture with an original concept

by CCM2 architectes, to replace the tents of the Sainte-Foy Public Market in the city’s southwest. The second was moving the Old Port Market from the tourist-oriented Vieux Québec to a new location close to the central city, at the junction of the Limoilou and Vanier neighbourhoods.

Bisson associés and Atelier Pierre Thibault, in joint venture, were tasked with the design for the Grand Marché, situated on the former agricultural fairground now known as ExpoCité. They were asked to transform the Pavillon du commerce (originally known as the Pavillon de l’industrie), a vast exhibition hall designed in 1923 by architect Adalbert Trudel and engineer Édouard Hamel. Following the decline of the fairs, the vast space—120 by 60 metres with 12-metre-high ceilings in the centre—had most recently been used as a go-kart course.

Adaptively reusing the pavilion was a natural fit, providing an occasion to restore the heritage building, whose form echoed the traditional market halls found in European cities. The redevelopment of the ExpoCité grounds had already begun with the 2015 addition of the Centre Vidéotron stadium, and the renovation of other historic halls. The Grand Marché was envisaged as another anchor to boost activity on the site.

OPPOSITE The Grand Marché is modelled on a traditional village, with a shop-lined main street and central square.

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Design lead Pierre Thibault, project lead Jonathan Bisson, and their team developed a conceptual approach that builds on the elegance and lightness they perceived to be still present in the heritage structure, despite years of neglect. The building’s large scale and clerestory windows gave the impression of being outside, leading Thibault to imagine the market as a “roof floating above an open space,” with a main street and public square. Echoing the layout of a small town, the composition would make a direct reference to the rural areas from which many of the market’s products come.

The concept allows for much flexibility—an asset in a long process of developing the program with the producers’ cooperative, and an attribute which will likely contribute to the market’s longevity. The current layout groups the farmers’ simple stalls on the south side, next to large sliding doors. The side façade had once accommodated fair stands and doors that were shut at some point in the building’s history, and is now reactivated by the reopened entrance and farmers’ market. The central “main street” is lined with a series of one- and two-storey shops, and topped with new large skylights. Flanking the “public square,” oversized wooden steps lead up to the second level, which includes a restaurant and other food-related services. On the north side, a service alley subtly (and wisely) positions the loading docks, service spaces, and shared warehouses outside of the main circulation path. Like at a traditional market, smaller deliveries to the stalls can also occur from the south doors.

A concept built around distinct structures in an open space allowed the team to circumvent some of the structural and budgetary constraints linked to adapting the historic structure. For code and structural reasons, anything new needed to be an independent structure. A new foundation slab supports the autonomous new elements, with the existing building acting as an umbrella hovering overhead. The original mezzanine floor has been removed, and a series of large concrete buttresses now supports the eastern and western end walls—one of a very few major additions to the original structure.

Material choices further underscore the approach of creating pavilions in an open space. The wood used on many of the new surfaces contrasts with the heritage brick walls and steel structure. The existing steel is painted dark grey, and new steel painted white to express the Glass entrance vestibules mark the transformation of the former exhibition hall into a contemporary market. TOP RIGHT The second floor includes family and event spaces. OPPOSITE TOP The hall’s original mezzanine was removed, and concrete buttresses added to support the eastern and western end walls. OPPOSITE BOTTOM Farmer’s market stalls are designed as minimalist cubes along the market’s south side.

TOP LEFT

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structural transformations—a decision that is especially welcome in places where the structure is doubled. The second-level walkways are painted white; although in some areas, this gives them a visual presence that distracts from the wood retail volumes.

Early in his career, Thibault had worked on the predecessor market in the Old Port, which was designed to prioritize logistics, access and delivery. By contrast, the new Grand Marché is primarily envisioned as a destination—an attractive, stimulating space for people to rediscover local food. To this end, the market includes performance spaces and educational installations, such as an aquaponics system maintained

by Laval University for both training and research. The building also includes an on-site composting system, helping to showcase the impact of human production and consumption.

New skylights bring in a good amount of overhead light, essential for the trees and vegetation that border the interior streets. Designed to reflect the diversity of the boreal region, these gardens also required particular attention to the colour temperature of the building’s artificial lighting.

Connections between indoors and outdoors continue on the west side, where a glass-enclosed lobby and restaurant terrace expand the market onto Place Jean-Béliveau, an esplanade completed in 2017. The open space fronts the Centre Vidéotron, and is animated by public art, performance spaces, and a children’s play area. Unfortunately, on the east side facing Limoilou and the old Colisée Pepsi, a large, bland parking lot is still present. Hopefully the eventual redevelopment of this side—folA grand stair to the second level doubles as seating for events and performances in the central gathering area. ABOVE RIGHT Shops are housed in one- and two-storey wood-clad boxes that step in and out from the circulation paths.

ABOVE LEFT

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lowing the recent addition of a bus terminal and planned demolition of the Colisée—will lead to a rethought parking area, with more plants, trees, and other structures that make the space friendlier to pedestrians.

Opening less than a year before the Covid pandemic hit, the Grand Marché has yet to take root as a fully alive market that rivals long-standing public markets elsewhere. The move from the Old Port was controversial, and the architects deliberately chose not to recreate the cramped aisles that had defined that space for three decades. However, the high quality of the architecture and the attention brought to reinstating the lost qualities of a heritage building are impressive. All this was achieved in spite of relatively low budgets and multiple programmatic changes.

Most importantly, many local producers have expressed their satisfaction with the building and with their renewed relation with local communities. In the Grand Marché’s new location, the clientele extends beyond the tourists who frequented the Old Port Market. The Grand Marché promises to continue adding new vitality to a long-neglected part of Quebec City, reaching back to the original mission of the Pavillon de l’industrie—to celebrate local entrepreneurial spirit and agricultural know-how.

Olivier Vallerand is Assistant Professor at The Design School, Arizona State University.

CLIENT VILLE DE QUÉBEC (CAROLINE LAMONDE) | ARCHITECT TEAM BISSON ASSOCIÉS—JONATHAN

BISSON, CAROLINE LAJOIE, JULIE DUBÉ, EVANS ZUNIGA, JACQUES DION, FRÉDÉRIQUE MURPHY, MARIE-MICHELLE GAUTHIER, MATTHIAS COQUEREAU, GENEVIÈVE GAGNON, LOÏC LEFEBVRE, KATELL MEURIC. ATELIER PIERRE THIBAULT—PIERRE THIBAULT, JÉRÔME LAPIERRE, JULIE POISSON, GUILLAUME B. RIEL, LUIS ALEJANDRO ROJAS-PEREZ, CHARLÈNE BOURGEOIS, MATHIEU LECLERC, ÉRIC BOUCHER | STRUCTURAL EMS INGÉNIERIE (ÉRIC BOUCHER, SIMON CLÉMENT) | MECHANICAL/ ELECTRICAL WSP CANADA (ALAIN D’ANJOU) | CONTRACTORS CONSTRUCTION CITADELLE (MARTIN GIRARD) AND CONSTRUCTION RICHARD ARSENAULT (SIMON PROTEAU) | AREA 9,000 M2 | BUDGET $26.1 M | COMPLETION JUNE 2019

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LARA SEDELE

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VOICES OF THE UNHEARD TEXT

Jaliya Fonseka

A REFLECTION ON THE IMPORTANCE OF MAKING INJUSTICES INHERENT IN ARCHITECTURAL EDUCATION AND PRACTICE VISIBLE. Ten years ago, on my first day of architecture school, I walked into a lecture hall filled with Apple laptops—something I could not afford—and felt an overwhelming sense of inadequacy. I asked myself: do I belong here?

This was perhaps my first encounter with how privileged the underpinnings of both the education and profession of architecture really are.

I had stepped into a profession that took pride in its students flying to Europe to intern for renowned architects for no pay—and then celebrated this fact upon seeing it on their resumes. This idea of “success” contributed to a culture of competitiveness in the school, which, along with a primarily Western, Eurocentric bias to theory and practice, would have a lasting impact on my architectural education.

On completing my undergraduate degree in architecture at the University of Waterloo, I had not yet reconciled the education I had

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received with my path forward to become an architect. I realized that I lacked a meaningful relationship to architecture. Yearning for this connection, I began my master’s degree feeling a pull to reconnect with my heritage. With my notebook and camera in hand, I f lew 12,000 miles to my native Sri Lanka to pursue my thesis, studying the meaning of Home, Place and Belonging.

Arriving in Colombo, I had not accounted for the monsoon rains which halted my travels, and this led me to discover that my grandparABOVE Created by Carleton University architecture student Lara Sedele, this digital collage was one of over 400 pieces submitted to the school’s annual Director’s Project drawing competition. The competition invited students to respond to the theme “The Fierce Urgency of Now.”

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ents’ old home had been converted to a Montessori school for children whose families were seeking asylum. The small building was falling apart: paint and concrete chipping, roof joists broken, and the lacquered floor worn out by decades of bare feet. There was a clear task in front of me. I decided to spend the remainder of my time in Sri Lanka renovating and repairing the Montessori school.

Every time I approached this work through the lens of my architectural training, I reached a dead end. I began to realize that the process of revitalizing this school was a form of education in itself.

By embracing the challenges and complexities of the project, along with the multiple voices of its stakeholders, I was able to see the question at hand: How would I create a sense of belonging for the children that attended the school?

On completing my master’s thesis, these experiences remained dear to me.

Several years later, after moving to Washington, D.C., my ref lections on Home, Place and Belonging became sharply heightened by the political unrest of my immediate context.

On June 1st, 2020, I found myself at the front lines of the Black Lives Matter protest at Lafayette Square outside the White House.

My arms were raised, fists clenched tight, and with all the other enraged voices, I chanted at the top of my lungs the names of those murdered in the recent weeks. The people around me erupted with anger, outrage and heartbreak, compounded by the struggle, loss and danger of the ongoing pandemic.

The month leading up to this day had been a complete blur filled with powerful protest, tear gas, and continued discriminatory acts that echoed centuries of systemic racism—but this day was different.

On the evening of the peaceful protest, National Guard officers rushed in unexpectedly, throwing tear gas canisters at us, knocking down those around me, and in a storm of f linging shields and batons, unloading a barrage of rubber bullets on us. This was an attack against democracy; an assault against freedom. I walked home that day grateful to be alive, thinking how privileged so many of us are to be able to walk down the street without fear of being attacked for the colour of our skin, our identity, or our beliefs.

As the world shook with the devastation of these events, people looked towards their communities for answers. Slowly, a more resilient hope began to inspire a new sense of community. Heartbroken by the brutal murders and the violence against protesters, I too longed for a meaningful sense of community. I spent my mornings and afternoons volunteering with the World Central Kitchen initiative in Washington, D.C., where I worked with a team dedicated to preparing and distributing thousands of meals to those disadvantaged by the pandemic. After leaving the kitchen each day, I joined a large group of protesters in the city and marched for hours, propelled by the powerful voices around me. During the same period of time, my close connection to the University of Waterloo architecture community led me to organize several initiatives and virtual spaces for much-needed conversations with students, faculty and alumni around these issues.

A sense of empathy was foundational to all these initiatives. It quickly became clear to me that when we gathered together in these physical or virtual places, what we were confronting and wrestling with was the question: What does it mean to be a human being?

In the weeks that followed, architects and architectural organizations struggled to respond to the events that had occurred. Many institutions issued letters that failed to meaningfully capture the magnitude of the

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issues at hand—perhaps because it is difficult to even begin thinking about addressing issues endemic to the profession at large. Not only is the profession driven by economic and social privilege, but architecture is still taught from a Eurocentric perspective, and BIPOC populations are under-represented among professionals, client groups and students.

But changes are starting to happen. Several architectural institutions have begun seeking out more diverse critics and guest speakers, conversations are ensuing regarding curriculum shifts to include global and anti-colonial perspectives, and working groups have been formed to work towards equity among student bodies and teachers.

These are all important steps in the right direction, but in the frenzy of activity, there is a question that continues to stay with me: how can a profession which has for so long failed to address these issues so quickly shift its perspective to embody and enact meaningful change?

This question brings to mind the words of American political activist Angela Davis: “I have a hard time accepting diversity as a synonym for justice. Diversity is a corporate strategy. It’s a strategy designed to ensure that the institution functions in the same way that it functioned before, except now that you have some black faces and brown faces.

It’s a difference that doesn’t make a difference.”

Angela Davis’s poignant words point to a truth that we must confront which goes beyond institutional policy. We are tasked with a greater undertaking rooted in our shared humanity, and ultimately, how we choose to respond to human suffering. And if for a moment we lose our sense of how human a problem this is, we need only look back to last summer, to what ignited these movements.

Although this question extends far beyond the education and profession of architects, we are deeply implicated because architecture is fundamentally an expression of the human response to environment.

If we—as architects, educators and students—are not invested in fostering an education that puts diversity, equity and inclusion at its core, how can we possibly design spaces that do the same? How can we possibly design for the increasingly complex social and environmental issues that we face? To confront these questions, we—as architects, educators and students—by virtue of each of these roles, are also activists.

While the protests in the streets of so many cities continued through the summer and fall of 2020, similar acts of protest filled the virtual spaces of architectural institutions across Canada.

I attended a virtual all-school gathering at the University of Waterloo School of Architecture at the beginning of the summer term, where long-silent voices were heard for the first time. As a school, we shared a space where, despite the virtual setting, we were forced to embrace the difficulty, the discomfort, and the failure of the institution to address the concerns of individual students and longstanding issues around equity, diversity and inclusion. Brave individuals shared their encounters with racism and how these experiences affected them during their time in the field of architecture.

Each person’s account was moving, eye-opening, and powerfully demonstrated the painful and long-lasting scars of injustice.

Although others in attendance may have endured similar experiences, each person’s story was clearly important, and demonstrated that the healthy and resilient rebirth of our communities depends on every voice being witnessed and acknowledged.

Although architectural training is known to be broad, embracing so many emotionally difficult conversations, with their intense memories and powerful silences, was outside of my formal education.

The work of addressing these issues felt radical because so much

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of institutional discourse on education focuses on externalities: the creation of policies, mandates, governances. Rarely do we look inward to the heart of the challenges at hand. Rarely do we look back at ourselves. The conversations we were beginning to have as a school revealed something absent in architectural discourse: humility, empathy, vulnerability and love.

Towards the end of 2020, I was asked to be an advisory board member for the University of Waterloo School of Architecture Racial Equity and Environmental Justice Task Force. In this position, I felt my primary contribution was to emphasize an overwhelming feeling of how much we have failed as a profession to see and tackle the issues of equity, diversity and inclusion. In board discussions, it was important for me to also recognize the longstanding efforts made by students at the University of Waterloo School of Architecture around these issues. Student-initiated groups such as On Empathy (est.

2014), Treaty Lands, Global Stories (est. 2016), and the Sustainability Collective (est. 2018) were perhaps small and largely unseen when they began, but these initiatives continue to demonstrate the profound and revitalizing role students play in the education and renewal of our institutions.

When asked to contribute to an article on dismantling racism in Canadian architecture schools, I was not sure I was the right person to take on the task. The genuine struggles and heartfelt efforts I have seen being made by students and faculty are not quantifiable. They are often embodied as complex and nuanced stories that contribute to the song we are collectively singing. I am humbled and inspired by the voices I have heard, and it is with great respect and reverence for each of these brave individuals with whom I’ve crossed paths that I found purpose to contribute to this work.

With each conversation at the University of Waterloo School of Architecture, and each initiative organized within architecture schools across Canada, it became more and more apparent to me that we need to take time to sit with questions before proposing solutions. The sense of urgency that emanates from every conversation may demand quick action. But to enact lasting measures, we must carefully balance the tension between moving forward to implement change with the slow work of nurturing each question—and one another.

The complexity of this undertaking is enormous, but every act of working together to build equity, diversity and inclusion is also an act of building trust, and in turn, building community—communities where it is necessary to continue asking the questions: Who do each of us need to become to embody the change we want to see?

How do we traverse this difficult path together?

And most importantly: How do we make sure that no one is left behind?

At every protest I attended last summer, there were moments where vibrant chanting gave way to a calm sense of strength and solidarity in one another. Musical instruments spontaneously appeared, and the passionate voices of protestors magically transformed into song. I was struck by the ability of a melody to hold both the ferocity of the protest and the vulnerability and tenderness of each individual. We were working in unison, and every voice was necessary. These are the moments that stay with me and inspire a way forward.

Jaliya Fonseka is an architectural designer and an adjunct professor at the University of Waterloo School of Architecture.

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FROM THE GROUND UP TEXT

Anne Bordeleau

WHAT EFFORTS ARE BEING MADE TO ADDRESS SYSTEMIC RACISM IN CANADA’S ARCHITECTURE SCHOOLS? SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE DIRECTOR ANNE BORDELEAU REPORTS ON THE PROGRESS SO FAR, THE WORK TO BE DONE, AND WHY IT MATTERS TO THE PROFESSION AT LARGE. Since last spring, Canadian schools of architecture have been both destabilized and galvanized by sustained student activism. Professors and program administrators have been responding in a variety of ways to the call to more urgently and drastically rethink both our relation to traditional architectural education and our paths forward.

As chair of the Canadian Council of University Schools of Architecture (CCUSA), Canadian At-Large Director on the board of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, and a member of the Racial Equity and Environmental Justice Task Force within the School of Architecture of the University of Waterloo—and I should also say from the privileged position of a white tenured faculty member—I have found myself participating in many conversations motivated by this rethinking.

CCUSA is a council of the directors of accredited professional architecture programs in Canada. Prompted by the pandemic and the calls to actions that occurred in most schools over the past year, the group has been meeting frequently to consider ways to share resources and collectively take action. What needs to be done to implement meaningful changes in our education, discipline and profession? The fight centres on the need to stand against anti-Black racism specifically, and systemic racism more broadly, although it also extends to the connected issues of sustainability and environmental justice.

What does racial equity look like in architecture? For decades, questions of equity, diversity and inclusivity have been considered of importance, but it is a slow road for institutions and government to go beyond simply issuing EDI statements. Even when there is a will, decolonizing practices or changing policies is not something that can happen overnight. As attention expands from a focus on gender balance to addressing other under-represented groups in our programs, it is clear that there are still many ingrained barriers to the work that must be done.

For example, there are often hurdles to the seemingly straightforward establishment of scholarships dedicated to Black students. In Ontario, even with funding in place, one has to work through the Ontario Human Rights Commission’s guidelines to develop a rationale for a proposed

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scholarship. This process ultimately requires providing benchmark data that has yet to be collected—since such data collection is another area in which universities are lagging. Better support is needed for advocates and administrators to move through these steps.

Even more problematically, many Canadians still refuse to acknowledge that there are faults in our practices that continue to negatively impact Black and Indigenous persons, along with People of Colour.

There is a need to make it clear that racism—as well as systemic racism—indeed exists in Canada. We are complacent as we compare ourselves to our neighbours to the South. But we tend to congratulate ourselves on a form of pluralism that, as theorized by Charles Taylor, is premised on a fraught ideal that there are no second-class citizens and that we are essentially an inclusive society.

Race and equity scholar Kathy Hogarth points to some of the issues around this idea of integration. She writes: “The importance of integration as a stated goal of multiculturalism in Canadian society has been well established in the rhetoric of dominant discourse. How integration unfolds within the White space for racialized immigrants still

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needs to be understood, particularly given the nuances of culture, ethnicity, gender, and immigration. In dominant discourse, integration is positioned as an individual action that one must take in order to fit in with Canadian society. […] This becomes particularly problematic for the reason that members of the dominant group get to determine whether a person had truly integrated and is deserving of belonging without addressing the structural issues, such as racism, that create barriers to integration.” 1 This conception of integration as the ability to “fit in” within an existing structure applies on many levels to our architecture schools, along with the discipline and profession. 2 A tension between entrenched structures and new practices affects the ability of architecture to pivot towards more inclusive, equitable viewpoints.

ABOVE Robert Oleksiak’s drawing marks the police killings of last summer and commemorates civil rights protests of the past and present, speculatively projecting the action onto Ottawa’s Sparks Street.

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We see, for instance, an ever-present push and pull between the professional world and academia. Representatives of professional bodies often want to ensure that what students learn in school lines up with what the profession needs, while educators strive to open up doors to new potential modes of fulfillment in the discipline.

Perhaps more accurately, we could speak of a dual pressure on the next generation of architecture graduates: on the one hand, from practicing architects and legislative bodies that wish to impress upon them the skills and methods that will fulfill their current vision of the profession, and on the other, from educators who may struggle to relinquish the European foundations upon which they themselves were likely introduced to the discipline. (Of course, building practices and traditions ABOVE Odessa Boehm’s drawing, which won a $1,000 Murray & Murray Prize in the competition, describes the story of 2020 through a “billowing smoke cloud.” She writes that “it also expresses the ending of the old world with the hope for a new beginning.”

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have existed everywhere and at all times, but the particular architectural education and its associated definition of a discipline that we have inherited goes back to the European academies and a corpus of work originally assembled by nineteenth-century European historians, even though some attempted to include precedents from around the world.)

Looking with a historical lens, one also sees inequities at the foundation of the discipline. Architecture—when formulated by fifteenthand sixteenth-century Italian theorists as Architettura or Re Aedificatoria—is a discipline that was “re-invented” as distinct from mere construction in an effort to valorize a practice to potential patrons.

To be fully equity-minded, we should all be abandoning this story, which is fundamentally based on privilege, as well as on actions that frequently served as tools for subjugating both people and territories.

But of course, such a wholesale abandonment would also do away with all of the positive aspects of architecture, as one of the few fields that embodies creative inquiry, cross-disciplinary collaborations, and holistic considerations of a more-than-human living environment shaped by intersecting ecological, social and technological forces.

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To tackle the more immediate challenges at hand, the questions that must be urgently addressed range across a breadth of critical issues.

How can the architecture curriculum be more inclusive across all courses—history, studio, technology, etc? Who does this profession attract, and who does it leave behind? What role does architecture play in furthering questions of social and spatial justice? (I write this as the AIA announces “new rules on the design of justice facilities.”) What do we value in the education and works of architects? Which projects receive awards, and who do we name and recognize as leaders in the field?

Some of these questions are not new, and there has been progress, but there is more work to be done.

Students who come to study architecture discover a path through what they are taught, or in opposition to it—either fitting the mold or learning to create pockets to breathe within it. As instructors, many of us are so infatuated by the professional discipline we sustain that we do not really want to hear students asking for something different. This alone constitutes a barrier that we have yet to address, if indeed we want our profession to be truly inclusive.

So we have work to do, and not only in schools of architecture and their respective universities. As a profession, architecture still remains largely male, and largely white. While the gender balance and racial makeup of the student body has been changing rapidly over the past decades, the faculty complement lags behind—and professional leadership even more so. Gender balance has been on our minds for a while, but we speak very little of other traditionally under-represented groups, whether at the level of schools, practices, or professional organizations.

It is hard to address a problem if we do not actively track the gap (or our progress in bridging that gap) across the continuum. A starting point is to look at representation within student populations and faculty complements at the schools of architecture, through the internship process, and in practice, including at senior levels of leadership.

Students are loudly and clearly calling for certain changes. Last year, a series called the Canadian Architecture Forums on Education (CAFÉ) ran workshops for schools across the country, coordinated

by University of Manitoba professor Lisa Landrum in collaboration with CCUSA . The biggest concern raised by all participants was a desire to refocus architectural education on sustainable and equitable built environments. Students called for urgent attention to (1) climate change and environmental stewardship, (2) equity and inclusion, (3) mental health and well-being, (4) meaningful community engagement, and (5) culturally relevant, regionally meaningful design amid the dominant forces of capitalism. Directly or indirectly, all top five concerns point to how architectural education and the profession could become more inclusive and could better advance racial equity and environmental justice.

Within each school, work to address racial equity is moving forward in different ways: through town hall meetings, written commitments, hiring external auditors and consultants, setting up task forces and working groups, and allocating more resources to empower existing committees on equity and diversity. At the larger level, universities are moving with more or less speed to advance in their fights against racism and to promote the decolonization of the institution. A few universities have been able to quickly move forward in opening up positions for Black and Indigenous scholars, or in calling for candidates with expertise in social, spatial, and racial justice.

All of this is happening as educational institutions respond to the pandemic, and amid widespread speculation as to what the world will

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look like in the next five or ten years. In other words, our aspirational idealism is bounded in broader realities, as well as being part and parcel of these larger movements.

Still, at almost every Canadian architecture school, whether in parallel or in collaboration with University efforts, an active student group and school committee have been focused on equity and antiracism work. Many groups include both faculty and student representation, and seek external perspectives as needed. Across these groups, there is work being done on reforming the curriculum and studio culture, on hiring and admissions, as well as on the mode of delivery and evaluation of material. Much of this work benefits from the wealth of events that have been organized both in Canada and beyond, through organizations such as the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, Emergent Ground for Design Education, the Global Architectural History Teaching Collaborative (GAHTC), the National Organization for Minority Architecture (NOMA) and Dark Matter University, but also from pre-existing and ongoing student-led initiatives around equity and sustainability. Many provincial associations, as well as the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, are also picking up speed on equity, inclusion and diversity agendas.

In the midst of all these actions, there is movement forward, but it is messy, and there will probably be no “getting it right.” Change will always come too slowly, and there will always be more to do. Significantly though, issues have come to the fore in ways that are clearer than ever before. For example, we’re discussing how equity can impact how we do research, the type of research we value, and how peer-reviewing processes are managed and the people they favour. Just as importantly, everybody, bar none, is looking at those issues and having these conversations. Still, we are strained and separated by a pandemic that is forcing most discussions online. It’s both an incredible opportunity to pool resources, and a devastating situation. Some exchanges turn into polarizing rather than productive conversations, lacking a table as a common ground around which to gather.

But let’s state this clearly: everyone is willing to change—young and old, conservatives and revolutionaries, educators and practitioners, students and faculty. Yes, we are all destabilized, but also stimulated to move forward in this work. It is also clear that the work will involve both changing ourselves and the collective. A transformed architecture community will only arise from our willingness to tackle this as individuals, as well as together as educators, students and practitioners.

The desire to do this work ultimately stems from the way we value architecture as an incredibly powerful vehicle—if f lawed and marked by a problematic history. We believe that architecture itself is of interest, a word that at its root represents a social act—inter-esse, between being. As monuments are being toppled and their plinths remain, perhaps we need to do the opposite as a discipline: let’s topple the pedestal, and reinvent the ground under the feet of a profession that must continue to change.

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1 Hogarth, Kathy. “Home Without Security and Security Without Home,” Journal of

International Migration and Integration, Vol. 16, Iss. 3 (Aug 2015): 783-798.

2 On the distinction between discipline and profession, see Sharon E. Sutton, “Power, Knowledge and the Art of Leadership,” Progressive Architecture, May 1992, pp. 65-68.

Architect Anne Bordeleau is the O’Donovan Director of the School of Architecture at the University of Waterloo.

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TECHNICAL JOY VON TIEDEMANN PHOTOGRAPHY AND DIAMOND SCHMITT ARCHITECTS

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RETROFITTING HERITAGE MASONRY BUILDINGS ADDING THERMAL INSULATION TO THE INTERIOR OF MASONRY WALLS MUST BE APPROACHED WITH CARE. HERE ARE SOME BEST PRACTICE DOS AND DON’TS. TEXT

Eric A. Charron and Randy Van Straaten

Heritage masonry buildings make up a large portion of Canada’s urban structures—from the historic warehouses in the downtowns of thriving cities to the shops that line small-town main streets and squares. Late 19th- and early 20th-century construction provides warm, inviting, comfortably human-scaled settings that plunge us back into history and tell our collective stories. Not only are these structures significant assets to our physical environment and culture, but their robust assembly and appealing character make them adaptable to new uses.

While heritage masonry structures are typically energy inefficient, it is unrealistic and undesirable to replace these time-tested buildings with new net-zero ones. Hence, the deep energy retrofitting of heritage masonry buildings is a key part of achieving a zero-carbon, energy-neutral future while maintaining our cultural and architectural heritage.

The addition of interior thermal insulation to solid masonry walls is a common consideration for heritage retrofits. Best-practice solutions presented in this article are informed by research and feedback from the Ontario Association of Architects (OAA) Sustainable Built Environments Committee (SBEC), along with lessons learned from building science specialists and heritage consultants.

THE BASICS AND RISKS OF RETROFITTING OLD MASONRY BUILDINGS Reducing heat loss in older buildings is a key component of meeting energy efficiency targets such as Passive House and TEDI requirements. The most effective way to reduce heat loss is through upgrading the glazing systems by replacing or refurbishing windows with thermally broken framing, highly insulated glazing units, and weatherstripping repair. The second biggest item is to air-seal the building enclosure. Assuming glazing systems and air infiltration have been addressed, the next priority is to insulate the walls to reduce heating demand.

From a moisture management perspective, the best way to insulate a building is from the exterior, enclosing the structural walls within the thermal envelope. The structure will be heated as part of the interior conditioned space, where it will be kept warm and dry. But while wrapping the exterior is preferable from a building science perspective, it is not often viable from an aesthetic perspective or possibly due to access challenges. Additionally, conservation groups and associations tasked with advocating for heritage sites simply will not let masonry, which gives many buildings their heritage character, be covered up.

If we cannot wrap the exterior, the other logical place to insulate is from the inside. In doing so, one must consider how a significant reduction in heat loss can be achieved without creating decay or mould issues.

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ABOVE Toronto’s Waterworks development, designed by Diamond Schmitt Architects, is transforming a 1930s masonry utility building into condos, a food hall, and a YMCA.

MOISTURE CONTROL IN MASS MASONRY WALLS Excessive moisture is the main cause of decay and mould in wall systems. In older masonry buildings, wall thickness was commonly used to limit the risk of rainwater entry. Heavy masonry walls use hygric mass to control wetting by absorbing, storing, and drying rainwater.

Thinner walls control rainwater entry through the use of less porous, denser masonry materials. The porosity of masonry, the mortar properties, and the presence of voids in the wall system all play a role in the control of rainwater. The balance of wetting and drying, as well as material vulnerability, dictates the susceptibility to decay in a particular exposure or environment.

Freeze-thaw is a major decay mechanism for masonry walls in cold climates. For decay to occur during freezing, masonry materials must reach a minimal critical degree of water saturation. Decay accelerates at higher moisture levels. Generally, masonry walls must be quite damp and exposed to multiple freeze-thaw cycles before damage occurs. So as long as the brick does not get damp, there is no problem.

There are plenty of buildings with highly vulnerable masonry that have endured well, with limited moisture exposure.

Heavy masonry walls get colder when insulated on the interior. These walls also typically get damper, as there is less heat flowing outward through the wall for drying. This is why walls may be more vulnerable to freeze-thaw decay as a result of interior wall insulation retrofits.

THE THREE DS Many good measures for limiting risk of freeze-thaw decay and other moisture problems are derived from knowing the Dos and Don’ts of the 3 Ds: deflection, drainage, and drying.

Deflection 1. DO minimize rainwater exposure. Use large overhanging cornices.

Slope window sills with back and end dams. Repair masonry and repoint failing mortar joints. Design effective drip edges, parapets and flashings to drain/shed away from the wall.

2. DON’T allow grades and paving finishes to collect water near the

base of a masonry wall. Slope grades away from the building. Where possible, do not extend masonry all the way to grade, as moisture and salts will work their way into the wall assembly.

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Drainage 3. DO drain walls and soils adjacent to the foundation. Install weeping tiles and drainage mats on foundation walls. Ensure internal wall drains are working. Include scuppers in roof designs.

Drying

4. DON’T use coatings or sealants that restrict drying. Masonry and mortar are porous materials intended to breathe. Painting a masonry wall will not inherently harm or damage the masonry, but the paint layer must be maintained to limit rainwater entry and to continue to allow for outward drying of the wall. When the paint layer begins to fail, the wall will be exposed to moisture, adding to the risk of deterioration.

11. DON’T assume that all heritage masonry walls need to be exhaustively

tested and analyzed. The value of the heritage asset should inform the decay risk assessment effort and expense—for instance, different levels of investment should be put into a monumental public landmark versus a single-family home. If hygrothermal analysis is being considered for the project, it will entail determining project-specific masonry properties along with creating invasive openings to confirm assemblies and conditions. Hygrothermal properties of the sampled materials are measured and used to predict conditions that may result from proposed interior insulation retrofit designs. These conditions are compared to measured critical saturation levels during freezing condition to assess decay risk.

12. DON’T choose a repointing mortar that is incompatible with sur-

AIR LEAKAGE AND WATER VAPOUR DIFFUSION Further design considerations related to vapour and air wetting include the following:

rounding materials. Never use a high-strength mortar in a wall with original soft and flexible lime-based mortar or brick. Portland cement is strong and stiff rather than soft and flexible; mortar joints are supposed to accommodate movements and be sacrificial by design. Any replacement masonry or mortar should bond well with the adjacent materials and replicate similar performance under a range of weather conditions.

Lab testing of mortars and masonry samples should be conducted to determine the most appropriate replacement materials.

6. DO limit cold-weather mechanical pressurization of the building with

13. DON’T devise an interior insulation strategy for a multi-wythe ma-

5. DON’T allow vacated or mothballed heritage masonry buildings that

are intended for future use to be left unheated. A cold, unheated wall will often accelerate the rate of deterioration of a mass masonry assembly and frost-heave often occurs.

humid air. Pressurization of the building during the winter can drive humid indoor air through the exterior wall assembly, resulting in excessive wetting and the risk of freeze-thaw damage, frost accumulation, and mould growth. Mechanical systems should be designed to a neutral or slightly negative indoor pressure under all schedules of operation.

7. DO control interior humidity levels in winter. Although moisture

f low through vapour diffusion tends to be minimal, poor vapour control can result in mould growth at high humidity surfaces within the wall assembly. Retrofit designs should include adequate vapour control suited for their exterior and interior climates.

8. DON’T place a poorly installed air or vapour barrier on the inside of a masonry wall assembly. Polyethylene membranes (PE) have very low vapour and air permeance, but are difficult to air seal at the complex interfaces with the wall, including at floor joints and at the intersection with columns. Holes in the PE can carry moisture into the wall via air leakage. Ensure continuity of the air barrier in detail design and installation, and confirm through fog and/or whole building airtightness testing and inspection.

RISK ASSESSMENT APPROACH Considering the general measures for moisture control in masonry walls, the following steps are recommended for assessing the risk of insulation retrofit approaches: 9. DON’T devise a solution without first looking at the condition of the building you are dealing with. Look for evidence of where water may be getting into the wall, such as areas of decay and staining. Check near the ground for spalled material and soft, sandy mortar. Verify the condition of walls not typically exposed to rainwater, such as the backside of exposed parapet walls—if they are in poor shape, water is getting in somewhere.

10. DON’T assume all wall exposures experience the same amount of wetting. Different wall exposures can be subjected to varying degrees of wetting. Examine the surrounding built environment and microclimate for possible effects of sun and wind drying, driving rain, and water shedding from other structures.

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sonry building without first knowing where (and whether) the wall should be insulated. Every building is unique, and modifications over a structure’s lifecycle may have resulted in changes to the original construction. Retrofitting on the inside may create unforeseen expansion and contraction forces on a seasonal basis. If the masonry wall does not have control joints, it could create cracks and fissures on its own due to these forces. It is important to analyze the potential for expansion and contraction that may result from an interior insulation strategy.

14. DON’T insulate a mass masonry foundation below-grade from the

interior without knowing the drainage capacity of the exterior soils.

Conduct field inspections and geotechnical analysis to determine the soil drainage capacity. Check the basement walls for moisture; verify if the mortar is soft and sandy, or if the brick near the f loor is crumbling. If these conditions are detected, insulate on the outside of the wall below-grade over a consolidated masonry render and waterproofing membrane. Sealing the interior of a damp foundation wall with insulation will make the wall colder and reduce its ability to dry from the inside. Leaving a cold wall exposed to exterior groundwater and freeze-thaw will gradually deteriorate the mortar and risk structural failure over time, or at a minimum may shift and crack the masonry assembly, thus allowing more moisture to enter the wall.

Contrary to popular belief, it is possible to insulate the interior of many heritage masonry buildings without an increased risk of decay. The catch is that it must be done very carefully and only after examining the existing structure and building assembly thoroughly.

With any interior retrofit approach, each building must be reviewed on a case-by-case basis and carefully considered for the correct retrofit.

Heritage consultants, structural engineers, and building science specialists should always play a part in this process to ensure that each madeto-order solution will extend the useful life and reduce the energy dependency of our historical building stock.

Eric A. Charron (M.Arch., OAA) is an architect with Diamond Schmitt Architects and has been a member of the OAA’s Sustainable Built Environments Committee (SBEC). Dr. Randy Van Straaten (Ph.D., P.Eng.) is a sustainability and building science educator at Fanshawe College and provides building science consulting on a wide range of projects.

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BOOKS

Blueprint for a Hack

By Vikram Bhatt, David Harlander and Susane Havelka (Actar Publishers, 2020).

Blueprint for a Hack describes a five-day project that took place in 2017 in a village in the Nunavik region of northern Quebec. The Kuujjuaq Hackathon saw Inuit community members work alongside designers from southern Quebec, with the aim of examining and improving public spaces within Kuujjuaq, reducing landfill waste and participating in a cultural exchange.

The Hackathon resulted in the construction of a community sports pavilion. Created with materials salvaged from the local landfill— a shipping container, scrap lumber, tractor tires and septic tanks—the pavilion, and the processes that shaped it, represent an unassuming yet critical precedent for challenging formalized practices of architecture and design. In recognition of this importance, it was awarded a National Urban Design Award in 2018.

As the book documenting the project explains, Canada’s arctic and sub-arctic communities are often shaped by forces that are ignorant of the cultural, environmental and logistical contexts particular to the north.

This lack of awareness is evident in architectural and planning approaches that are typically informed by southern Canadian sensibilities and foisted upon remote communities with little meaningful consultation. This leads to underused projects that feel foreign and disconnected from their physical and social realities. A more effective approach

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would be informed by local engagement, Indig­ enous culture and lived knowledge of the challenges of remoteness and northern climates.

Historically, Inuit have long required resourcefulness. As nomadic peoples, they needed ingenuity to survive in the challenging environments of what would become Canada’s northern regions. This spirit continues to prevail as Inuit grapple with social and economic conditions arising from colonization and increasingly, the challenges of climate change.

The resourcefulness at the core of Inuit culture—and the outward expression of this in informal building practices—has generally been overlooked by design practitioners.

At the Kuujjuaq Hackathon, in contrast, this ingenuity was both acknowledged and honoured as a valuable source of information and as strategic inspiration.

To “hack” is to modify and to work in new ways, and also to upend and challenge standard material applications and methods of production. The Hackathon aimed, in part, to learn from practices of “hacking” already present in modern Inuit life, and to apply a hacking mindset to improve public spaces in Kuujjuaq to better serve those who live there. This process included strategizing how to transform discarded waste into a useful construction.

Blueprint for a Hack argues that such informal invention and ingenuity may provide new routes forward for the disciplines of architecture and planning, and that these skills have potentially far-reaching implications.

The participatory design approach used in Kuujjuaq highlights a wider discussion that’s needed between architects, designers

and planners about how knowledge is gathered and how spaces are designed. A more collaborative approach taps into deeper understandings of place and the history, people and interactions that shape it. The hacking mindset reduces waste and encourages active engagement of team members—both with and without formal design education—acknowledging the wisdom, creativity and resourcefulness of everyday locals.

Drawing inspiration from the ingenuity and resourcefulness of the Inuit serves as a valuable springboard for re-examining and re-imagining different ways of up-cycling materials—and for practicing architecture.

Review by Natalie Badenduck

Pandemic Objects vam.ac.uk/blog/pandemic-objects

Last May, London’s Victoria and Albert Museum started the Pandemic Objects blog, and later mounted a physical exhibition of the same name. The project reflects on objects that have taken on new meaning during Covid-19 times, from face masks and nitrile gloves to beards and TikTok. The posts tuck in mini history lessons: a recent text on handdrawn rainbow signs traces the phenomenon back to the lockdown in Italy last March, and discusses the symbolism of rainbows in Sumerian, Greek, Navajo, and Judeo-Christian stories. The curators are also engaging in realtime: they collected over a hundred rainbow drawings for the V&A’s permanent collection.

Review by Elsa Lam

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Space and Anti-Space: The Fabric of Place, City and Architecture

By Barbara Littenberg and Steven Peterson (ORO Editions, 2020).

“I regard the revival of the city as far more important than any survival of Modern Architecture [because] the object-building interpreted as a universal proposition represents the demolition of Public Life.” -Colin Rowe Steven Peterson was a student and later a colleague of Colin Rowe, and Peterson Littenberg’s urban projects are greatly influenced by Rowe’s views on the city. This book is a series of essays on architecture and urban design, culminating in Peterson Littenberg’s proposal for the World Trade Center site in New York City. The theme of Space versus Anti-Space is first directed to the conception of architectural space, comparing the relative plasticity, poché and configurative nature of works of architecture as diverse as Borromini’s San Carlo Alle Quattro Fontane and Louis Kahn’s Erdman Hall, to the relatively unconfigured free plans of Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe.

(There is an entire chapter dedicated to Mies.)

The authors then address the Space/AntiSpace theme as it applies to the urban fabric.

This section starts with a comparison of two similarly configured peninsulas—New York City’s Lower Manhattan and Shanghai’s Pudong. Manhattan has a rich infrastructure of streets and blocks, some dating from the 17th century (Space) while Pudong is a total urbanistic failure with its towers in a largely residual

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and undifferentiated ground plane (Anti-Space).

As one who has felt a thrill in experiencing some of Corb’s free plan buildings but has found the urban design aspirations of Ville Radieuse and Plan Voisin to be anathema, I find the Space/Anti-Space arguments more compelling with respect to the urban fabric. Indeed, the authors state that “the forms of the ‘traditional city’ and ‘contemporary architecture’ are not mutually exclusive. It is false to assume that the context of city form inhibits architectural expression […] urban design is a distinct and important discipline that is both connected to and independent of architecture.”

The book contains richly illustrated documentation of proposals the authors have made for Rome, Paris and New York, but unfortunately excludes their 1990 competition-winning Cité Internationale proposal for Montreal. Their work rightly prioritizes the space between, and that is no more apparent than in their proposal for the World Trade Center site in New York. As one of the original firms invited to make proposals for the rebuilding of the site, they saw it as an opportunity to “restore the lost urban quality of Lower Manhattan at street level and thereby remediate the failings of the Yamasaki super block design.”

Alas, there were those including Herbert Muschamp of the New York Times who thought that these early schemes were boring and that the problem was one of architecture, and in need of star architects to solve.

The result of this pressure—as well as pressure from the developer and victims’ families—led to an invitation to the architectural elite to participate in a design competition.

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Peterson Littenberg was the one holdover from the earlier group to be included in the seven teams selected. Their proposal was all about streets, squares and promenades—the lifeblood of the city—whereas most of the others, including Daniel Libeskind’s winning scheme, were about architectural objects in a continuous, undefined free space without the benefit of base buildings creating street walls. The resulting World Trade Center project, as built with its collection of singular objects, has the characteristics of Pudong or its neighbour to the north— Hudson Yards, which the current New York Times architectural critic Michael Kimmelman in a scathing review described as epitomizing “a skin-deep view of architecture as luxury branding.

Each building exists to act as a logo for itself.”

Peterson Littenberg recognizes the spatial and morphological values of the traditional city while accepting the necessity of tall buildings as an urban type. The lodestar for their World Trade Center proposal was Rockefeller Center, perhaps the most accomplished urban space in North America. Like Rockefeller Center, their World Trade Center proposal, unlike most of the others, accommodates tall buildings while also integrating with and extending the urban fabric of the surrounding area.

This book mounts a strong defense of the discipline of urban design at a time when the redemptive power of iconic architecture sometimes gets in the way. In 1956, although it applies equally today, Josep Lluis Sert said, “In a period of a cult to the individual and to genius, with all due respect to genius, it is not to them that we owe our best cities.”

Review by David Sisam

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BACKPAGE

JERRY GRAJEWSKI

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KIT AND CABOODLE TEXT

Susan Nerberg

COHLMEYER ARCHITECTURE REUSES A DISMANTLED HOME KIT AS THE BASIS FOR A NEW FIRST NATIONS CULTURAL CENTRE IN NORTHWEST ONTARIO. Step inside the Seine River First Nation Cultural Centre and you wouldn’t be wrong to feel surrounded by nature. Designed by Cohlmeyer Architecture, the building embraces the shapes and textures of local landscapes. At one end is a ceremonial space where you literally walk on a bed of flowers—medicinal plants, folded into the floor, that have long been used by the Ojibwe. Look out from the main hall toward the Seine River and your eyes meander along a billowing canopy of red pines, common in this part of northwestern Ontario. Even the structure’s cladding echoes the milieu, riffing off the patterns of nearby trees.

Nature as a driving force behind the design seems, well, natural, given the boreal riverside setting. But the cultural centre didn’t start this way. A few years ago, the First Nation had been advised to purchase a Lindal prefab timber house to use as its cultural centre.

The kit home was assembled, but the resulting building didn’t provide the mix of open spaces needed—larger areas for band members to gather and share traditional knowledge, including basket weaving, medicinal plant collection

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and wild rice cultivation, and smaller rooms for band council staff and meetings. Then, Cohlmeyer Architecture was brought onboard to reimagine kit and caboodle.

“The band council decided to tear the existing kit down,” says Stephen Cohlmeyer, principal and project lead. During the research phase, in addition to understanding the client’s needs, his team also had to figure out how to salvage as much as possible from the teardown. “We created a catalogue of the materials,” says David Weber, the project director.

The list included glulam columns and beams, studs and windows. Even some of the slab could be reused. The big challenge was how to reuse those parts in a different configuration, so Weber built a model to see how they could fit together. “It was good, old-fashioned architecture,” says Cohlmeyer.

The resulting new building has an interior that flows river-like from the entrance through the main hall, past a number of smaller rooms. At the deepest end, the flow widens into a circular ceremonial space with the floral-studded clay, sand and linseed-oil floor.

ABOVE The new Seine River First Nation Cultural Centre is rich with cultural references, including a floor pattern that recalls traditional woven baskets.

Along this meander, a striking floor ties the spaces together—made of contrasting woods, the pattern recalls traditional woven baskets.

Facing the river, the main hall overlooks a terrace shaded by an arched canopy of tree trunks selected by the community’s Elders.

“As for the siding,” says Weber, “we went to the forest and picked birchbark samples.

The pattern on the siding is like the one you see on birch trees.”

“The design is our interpretation of Seine River First Nation’s culture and traditions,” says Cohlmeyer. “The floor pattern, the birchbark patterns, they’re collective ideas from the architects. But those ideas came from listening to, having a dialogue with and getting feedback from the band council.” While the architects succeeded in salvaging 85 percent of the old kit, their project of retention and enhancement also extends to the cultural realm: they’ve helped create a home where the First Nation can strengthen its ways of being and knowing.

Susan Nerberg is a writer and editor based in Montreal.

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CASE STUDY

Infill Housing | Miami, Florida

BILCO’s Hatches Add Rooftop Access in Little Havana Project

Photos: Charlie Fernandes

Andrew Frey’s primary challenge in his first project as a full-fledged development company had nothing to do with construction. Once he solved it, however, he set about blazing a trail that could bring back the charm to one of Miami’s most distinctive neighborhoods.

Frey’s real estate development company, Tecela, completed a new infill build project last year in the Little Havana section of Miami.

Working with architect Jason Chandler and general contractor 748 Development, teams constructed four three-story townhouses, each with four apartments.

The critical piece to the project, however, was Frey’s four-year effort to get the city of Miami to waive burdensome parking requirements.

“After the parking issue was worked out, the project went pretty smoothly,” Frey said.

Prior to starting Tecela, Frey worked for an apartment development company. He saw that there was very little construction of small apartment projects in the area. “I thought what’s the biggest obstacle that I can work on removing?” he said. There was not a lack of capital, consulting talent, or contracting capacity. “The only thing left was zoning,” Frey said. “The real big one was parking regulations, which required 1.5 spaces per unit. I knew I had to get that resolved if I was going to build small apartment projects.”

Frey drafted a proposal to change the law, drummed up support and eventually got Miami commissioner Francis Suarez to sponsor the bill. With the help of Suarez, now Miami’s mayor, the bill passed.

Why did Frey work so diligently to fight parking rules? Cost.

According to one estimate, surface parking can drive up the cost of housing by as much as $10,000 per unit. When built in a parking garage, the space can add as much as $50,000 to housing costs.

Each townhouse, designed by Chandler, includes multi-layer facades and large balconies. They are divided into apartments, including studios with 595 square feet, 1-bedroom units with 617 square feet and two 2-bedrooms, at 1,130 square feet and 1,211 square feet.

With a population of around 76,000 residents, Little Havana is a social and cultural hub for many Hispanics. It is home to many exiles from Cuba, and has the largest concentration of Hispanics in Miami. In 2017, the National Trust for Historic Preservation included Little Havana as one of its “11 Most Endangered Places.” The list spotlights areas where architectural, cultural, and natural sites of national significance are being harmed by neglect or incompatible development.

Atop the townhomes are Type S roof hatches manufactured by BILCO. The hatches have a fixed interior ladder and provide access to rooftop equipment. The hatch includes a counter-balanced cover design

for easy one-hand operation and fully gasketed and insulated construction for weather resistance.

“They were affordable and reliable,” Chandler said. “We have used them in previous projects. They were also code-compliant for accessing mechanical equipment on the roof.”

Since Frey’s work to change the zoning requirements for parking, additional infill housing projects have been built in Little Havana, helping to preserve the charm of one of Florida’s most vibrant social communities.

Keep up with the latest news from The BILCO Company by following us on Facebook and LinkedIn. For over 90 years, The BILCO Company has been a building industry pioneer in the design and development of specialty access products. Over these years, the company has built a reputation among architects, and engineers for products that are unequaled in design and workmanship. BILCO – an ISO 9001 certified company – offers commercial and residential specialty access products.

BILCO is a wholly owned subsidiary of AmesburyTruth, a division of Tyman Plc. For more information, visit www.bilco.com.

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