Canadian Architect February 2025

CREATIVE LIVING

20 ULSTER HOUSE

An five-unit infill by LGA Architectural Partners offers a look at how Toronto’s “missing middle” can be addressed with sensitivity and finesse. TEXT Jaliya Fonseka

26 CUNARD STREET LIVE/WORK/GROW

Halifax firm FBM designs their own office as a prototype for mixed-use, mass timber construction in Atlantic Canada TEXT T. E. Smith-Lamothe

32 E EL BROOK HOUSE

New work by Kingman Brewster demonstrates that the tiny community of Fogo Island is becoming a hub for contemporary architecture. TEXT Michael Carroll

4

VIEWPOINT

Architects champion pro-renovation, anti-demolition policies in Europe.

6

NEWS

Remembering Shannon Bassett, 1972-2024.

11 RAIC JOURNAL

Field reports from Tokyo and Brussels, 2025-2027 strategic vision.

38 INSITES

Banff Centre’s Haema Sivanesan revisits the architectural legacy of the Leighton Artist Studios.

42 REPORT

The provincial auditor general points to unfair procurement processes and opaque decisionmaking behind the ongoing redevelopment of Ontario Place.

48

BOOKS

New volumes on architectural theory, upfront carbon, Toronto’s Casa Loma, and more.

50 BACKPAGE

Peter Sealy reviews a new exhibition on Arthur Erickson’s travel photos and diaries.

COVER Ulster House, Toronto, by LGA Architectural Partners. Photo by Doublespace Photography.

TO BUILD LAW

On February 1, an architect-led group called HouseEurope! launches its “No to demolition, Yes to renovation” campaign. Using a mechanism called a European Citizens’ Initiative, they are filing a proposal for all European countries to introduce tax incentives for renovation, harmonize assessment standards for renovations, and require lifecycle analysis before demolition. They have a year to collect a million signatures from across the EU in support of their proposal. If they succeed in doing so, the EU parliament is obliged to discuss the implementation of the proposal.

The story of this effort is told in a documentary film commissioned by Montreal’s Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA). The film, directed by Joshua Frank, is the centrepiece of a new exhibition at the CCA called To Build Law, on display until May 25, 2025. It is the second part of an ongoing exhibition and film series by the CCA that explores alternative forms of architectural practice.

How did architects end up making a major policy proposal and embarking on an ambitious PR campaign to convince a million others to support it? The effort was spearheaded by two groups: Berlin-based collaborative architecture practice bplus.xyz and the ETH Zurich-based chair for architecture and storytelling s+. As is becoming increasingly clear, the construction and operation of buildings is a significant contributor to the climate crisis, accounting for at least 38 percent of carbon emissions globally. The construction sector is also the biggest producer of waste in the European Union. Architects have a clear view of the environmental impact of buildings as well as the upfront carbon that can be saved by reusing and transforming buildings, rather than demolishing them.

The architects involved in the HouseEurope! campaign contend that the needed change cannot happen through the scope of traditional architectural practice, which is limited to addressing a single building at a time. A shift in

cultural norms is needed, supported by larger policy and legal structures.

How do such laws get made? Frank’s documentary follows the architects going through many of the processes that will be familiar to architects: establishing partners, drafting positions, testing ideas and slogans, convening meetings, strategizing campaigns, presenting at conferences.

The organizers note that every minute, a building in Europe is demolished. “Demolishing buildings wastes homes, jobs, energy, and history,” they write. The “demolition drama,” as they term it, is supported by the way that buildings are held as assets, to be torn down and redeveloped for the sake of profit, with limited consideration of community and environmental impacts even in the face of housing crises throughout Europe.

Over 50 percent of global assests are currently invested in real estate. “The built environment is one of the most valuable assets in today’s globalized speculative economy,” says Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Director of the Center for Capitalism Studies at University College London.

“We happily forget about and exclude [thinking about] those speculators and real estate developers who are planning at this moment to destroy the very fabric of our society so that they can make more money,” says economist and political advisor Ann Pettifor. “If your land is finite, the only way you can keep reinvesting it and keep generating returns is destroying everything and starting again.”

HouseEurope! argues that a fundamental change of values is needed that prioritizes social and environmental good, and that this change becomes possible when citizens demand it.

“Renovation and transformation are real alternatives,” they write. “We can change our value system through activism and direct democracy.”

EDITOR

ELSA LAM, FRAIC, HON. OAA

ART DIRECTOR

ROY GAIOT

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

ANNMARIE ADAMS, FRAIC

ODILE HÉNAULT

LISA LANDRUM, MAA, AIA, FRAIC

DOUGLAS MACLEOD, NCARB FRAIC

ADELE WEDER, FRAIC

ONLINE EDITOR

LUCY MAZZUCCO

SUSTAINABILITY ADVISOR

ANNE LISSETT, ARCHITECT AIBC, LEED BD+C

VICE PRESIDENT & SENIOR PUBLISHER STEVE WILSON 416-441-2085 x3

SWILSON@CANADIANARCHITECT.COM

ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER

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PRESIDENT & EXECUTIVE PUBLISHER ALEX PAPANOU

HEAD OFFICE 126 OLD SHEPPARD AVE, TORONTO,

LEFT An installation view from the current CCA exhibition To Build Law.

PROJECTS

First all mass timber acute care hospital in North America breaks ground

The Quinte Health Prince Edward County Memorial Hospital in Picton, Ontario, which has officially broken ground, will be the first all mass  timber acute care hospital in North America upon completion in 2027.

The new hospital is designed by HDR and currently under construction with M. Sullivan & Son and Infrastructure Ontario. This healing environment will serve its community with advanced medical technologies, energy-efficient operations, biophilic design principles, a low-carbon mass timber structure and access to nature throughout the facility. Its clinical capabilities will include 23 inpatient beds, an emergency department, diagnostic imaging procedures, comprehensive ambulatory care services, and healing gardens. Its sustainable infrastructure will feature geothermal energy, solar panels, green roofs, electric-vehicle-ready parking, and a high-performance building envelope for future electrification and net-zero carbon emission status. Located in the heart of Picton, Ontario, the new Prince Edward County Memorial Hospital will be adjacent to the existing hospital, which will remain operational during the new facility’s construction.

“It has been an amazing journey with Quinte Health and the Prince Edward County community to be able to bring such a groundbreaking energy and carbon reduction approach to the design of acute care facilities,” said Jason-Emery Groen, design director, HDR , Canada. “Through a multidisciplinary approach to building trust among key stakeholders, agencies and Authorities Having Jurisdiction, HDR was able to shift age-old limitations into phenomenal opportunities, not only for this community, but the future of healthcare design and beyond in North America.” hdrinc.com

Arts Commons Transformation breaks ground

Following three years of planning and design, Calgary Municipal Land Corporation (CMLC), Arts Commons and The City of Calgary have announced that the Arts Commons Transformation (ACT) expansion has broken ground.

Construction on the ACT expansion, designed by KPMB Architects, Hindle Architects and Tawaw Architecture Collective, will be managed by EllisDon with project management by Colliers Project Leaders, and is expected to be completed in 2028. The ACT expansion is the first of the three campus transformation phases to begin construction. The other two phases include the Olympic Plaza Transformation (OPT) project, which is now fully funded, and the ACT modernization, for which efforts are underway to secure the remaining required funds. Design is currently underway for the OPT project, which is aiming to create a more modern, inclusive and accessible arts-focused outdoor gathering space as part of the contiguous Arts Commons campus upon its completion in 2028. The design for the Olympic Plaza Transformation project will be revealed this spring. www.calgarymlc.ca

Vancouver Art Gallery shelves Herzog & de Meuron design

The Vancouver Art Gallery (VAG) has announced that it will not be going forward with the design of its proposed new building and that it will be bringing in a new architecture partner.

Estimates for the the project have now reached $600 million. Anthony Kiendl, VAG’s CEO and executive director, announced on December 3, 2024, that Herzog & de Meuron has been removed from the project, which is taking a new direction. “Following the temporary pause of on-site construction activity announced at the end of the summer, we have been reassessing the project’s direction. Throughout this process, we have been listening to feedback from our supporters, artists, members and stakeholders, who are helping to shape the next phase of this transformative project,” said Kiendl. In the statement, Kiendl went on to state that VAG ’s goal is to create a building that “embodies a diverse and inclusive artistic vision while ensuring financial sustainability within a fixed budget.”

Kiendl also noted that VAG recognizes that inflation has put “tremendous pressure” on their plans, and as a result, it has become clear that they require a new way forward to meet both their artistic mission and vision and practical needs. “For the past decade, we have had the benefit of collaborating with the esteemed Swiss architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron on plans for a new Gallery. We are grateful for our partnership with them, which has helped shape our thinking around what a museum could look like in the 21st century and provided valuable research that can be applied moving forward,” said Kiendl. “However, in view of our reassessment, the Gallery Association’s board has made the difficult decision to part ways with Herzog & de Meuron.”

The statement also noted that at its last meeting, the board approved updated Strategic Priorities that will guide the gallery as they move forward. “These underscore our commitment to build a new cultural hub that will be the heart of our communities and serve and inspire diverse audiences,” said Kiendl. Kiendl concluded by stating that in the coming months, they will schedule a series of opportunities at the gallery to share more about the next phase of the project and discuss it with its members and communities. www.vanartgallery.bc.ca

AWARDS

AFBC Architectural Achievement Awards

The inaugural Architectural Foundation of BC Achievement Awards event a continuation of the AIBC’s legacy program took place on November 21st, 2024. The 2024 Awards recognized four individuals. Nancy Mackin, founder of community-based design practice Mackin Architects, received the award for Community Stewardship. Darryl Condon, the Managing Principal of hcma, and a leader in professional

ABOVE Designed by HDR, the Quinte Health Prince Edward County Memorial Hospital will be North America’s first all mass timber acute care hospital.

organizations including the Rick Hansen Foundation and the Regulators of Architecture in Canada, received the Barbara Dalrymple Memorial Award for Community Service. William R. Rhone, co-founder of Rhone & Iredale, received a Lifetime Achievement Award. Finally, RAIC Gold Medallist Peter Cardew was recognized posthumously with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

www.architecturefoundationbc.ca

Canadian winners at World Architecture Festival

Four Canadian projects were recently recognized at Singapore’s 2024 World Architecture Festival (WAF). The 2024 winners presented live to judging panels at the festival. The Canadian winning projects are 5468796 Architecture’s Pumphouse (Completed Building: Creative Reuse), 5468796 Architecture’s Arthur Residence (Completed Buildings: House & Villa, Urban/Suburban), NEUF architect(e)s’ Institut Thoracique de Montréal (Future Project: Office), and Coronation Park Sports & Recreation Centre, by hcma and Dub Architects in conjunction with FaulknerBrowns Architects (Future Project: Sport).

www.worldarchitecturefestival.com

Prix Versailles

based activities, and sporting and fitness activities. It is only the third Canadian project to earn recognition in the competition’s history.

The t m sew’txw facility has also recently been certified gold for accessibility by the Rick Hansen Foundation, which reinforces the principles of inclusive and accessible design that were core aspects of the facility’s planning and detailing. The 10,684-square-metre aquatic community centre is Canada’s first completed all-electric aquatic facility to achieve the Canada Green Building Council’s Zero Carbon Building-Design Standard. t m sew’txw is also the first to use the gravity-fed InBlue filtration system, which reduces the need for chlorine usage and creation of associated harmful byproducts.

Prix du Québec

Winners for this year’s edition of the Prix du Québec, the highest distinction awarded by the Government of Québec in the fields of culture and science, include Serge Filion, who was awarded the Ernest-Cormier Prize, and Raymond Montpetit, who received the Gérard-Morisset Prize. Serge Filion became director of the land use planning division for the City of Québec in 1969, where he designed Quebec City’s first land use plan and first zoning plan. From 1996 to 2005, he was director of planning and architecture at the National Capital Commission of Quebec. Raymond Montpetit is a researcher, museologist, author, and professor, who played a major role in establishing the province’s first master’s program in museology, and contributed to the design of the Centre d’histoire de Montréal, the Pointe-à-Callière Museum of Archaeology and History, and the Centre des mémoires montréalaises. www.Quebec.ca

t m sew’txw Aquatic and Community Centre, which recently opened in New Westminster, British Columbia, has been awarded a Special Prize for Interiors in the Sports category at the Prix Versailles in Paris. t m sew’txw, derived from the h n’q’ min’ m’ language and meaning “Sea Otter House,” was designed by hcma architecture + design, for all ages and abilities with a focus on community connections, wellness24_014607_Canadian_Architect_FEB_CN Mod: January 3, 2025 2:17 PM Print: 01/03/25 3:43:40 PM page 1 v7

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WHAT’S NEW

Ontario Land Tribunal decides against preservation of Moriyama landmark

On Friday October 18, the Ontario Land Tribunal green-lighted the redevelopment of the former Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre, a heritage-designated building designed by the late Raymond Moriyama, at 123 Wynford Drive. The proposed new development is a pair of condo towers, one of which is a 48-storey tower to be located on top of the heritage building.

To accommodate these proposed towers and below-grade parking, the developer plans to completely demolish the old Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre and later reassemble portions of the original building at an elevated grade. The City of Toronto refused the development application, citing the property’s heritage designation. “The proposal to demolish the building (with the exception of the north-west concrete pylon) and alter the property would result in the permanent loss of this significant cultural heritage resource,” wrote the Interim Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning. “The proposal to demolish and re-attach select portions of the original building onto a new tower structure in its former location at a much higher grade would remove the building’s integrity as a whole building and all its interior and exterior heritage attributes as well as alter its placement on the site.”

The heritage building, recently renovated by Moriyama’s firm, holds deep cultural, historical and architectural significance. This holds particularly true for Japanese Canadians, who have been advocating for the retention and restoration of the existing structure.

“Less than 20 years after Japanese Canadians were unjustly incarcerated during the Second World War, the Japanese Canadian community built the JCCC as a living monument to celebrate their ancestry, regain a sense of self-respect, and promote friendship with all Canadians through culture,” writes the National Association of Japanese Canadians’ Greater Toronto Chapter. “Due to a funding shortfall at that time, 75 community members stepped forward and put second mortgages on their homes and businesses to finance the building.”

The developer contested City Council’s refusal of their application by bringing the case to the Ontario Land Tribunal. In its decision to approve the development plans, the Tribunal wrote: “The Tribunal acknowledges the cultural and architectural significance of the existing structure. However, in the absence of any firm alternative plans, it believes that the proposal preserves the importance of the Subject Site. The Tribunal encourages both parties to continue discussions with this goal in mind.” www.olt.gov.on.ca

NDP leader files Ontario Place integrity complaint

In October, NDP Ontario leader Marit Stiles filed a complaint with the Ontario Integrity Commissioner about the process in which Austrian spa company Therme was chosen to redevelop Ontario Place.

In her affidavit to the Integrity Commissioner, Stiles questions the callfor-development of Ontario Place, the evaluation process, and the lease agreement with Therme. Stiles claims that Infrastructure Minister Kinga Surma has shown “preferential treatment” to Therme during the Ford government’s process of partnering with private companies to redevelop Ontario Place. As a result, Stiles is asking for an investigation to identify whether the infrastructure minister broke ethics laws by choosing Therme as the main proponent for the redevelopment of Ontario Place. The complaint includes a nine-page-long affidavit and over 1,000 pages of documentary evidence. The documents reveal that the province is required to provide Therme with 1,600 parking spaces in a planned garage that will have over 2,000 spaces even though the call for development was explicit in only offering existing parking to applicants. “This evidence suggests that Therme received preferential treatment, and its private interests were improperly furthered, as a result of decisions for which Minister Kinga Surma is ultimately responsible,” reads the letter. The complaint also cites evidence reported in Canadian Architect that the Provincial government unnecessarily closed the Ontario Science Centre, based on a deliberate misinterpretation of engineering reports about the roof condition. The letter concludes with a request that the office investigate whether Minister Surma breached sections 2 and 3 of the Members Integrity Act.

www.canadianarchitect.com

IN MEMORIAM

Shannon Bassett, 1972-2024

Canadian-American architectural and urban designer Shannon Bassett passed away peacefully with family members by her side at the General Hospital in Ottawa on December 26, 2024, at the age of 52.

Bassett was a tenured professor of architecture at McEwen School of Architecture, Laurentian University, in Sudbury. Her research, teaching, writing and practice operated at the intersections of architecture, urban design and landscape ecology.

Bassett’s writing on China’s explosive urbanization and changing landscape, as well as shrinking cities and the post-industrial landscape in North America, have been published in Topos, Urban Flux, Landscape Architecture Frontiers Magazine, and Canadian Architect. Her design work

and research has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including at the Hong Kong Shenzhen BiCity Biennale of Urbanism and Architecture in 2012. Her architectural and urban design practice included designing an urban masterplan for the Village of the Arts in Bradenton, Florida, as well as a series of speculative design studies for the City of Tampa Riverwalk. Prior to arriving at Laurentian, Bassett had taught at the University at Buffalo, the University of South Florida, and Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston. She has lectured in countries including China, India, South Korea, and the US. She has run design research studios in China, and for many years served as an invited professor each summer in Busan, South Korea.

A consummate collaborator, until her passing Bassett was actively collaborating with the Delhi School of Planning and Architecture (SPA) on the conservation and urban redevelopment of the old walled city of Delhi. She was also collaborating with colleagues at Toronto Metropolitan University on a symposium examining the state of women in Canadian architecture, a topic she also advanced as a co-founder and advisory member for the organization Building Equality in Architecture North.

At Laurentian University, Indigeneity became a vital part of Bassett’s teaching and spirituality. “It is with heavy hearts we reflect on the passing of our colleague Shannon Bassett,” writes Laurentian University

McEwen School of Architecture director Tammy Gaber. “Shannon joined the McEwen School of Architecture as a faculty member in 2018, having studied architecture at Carleton (B.Arch) and urban design at Harvard University (MAUD). While at MSoA , Shannon enthusiastically taught a range of courses in the undergraduate and graduate programs and supervised M.Arch thesis students.”

“Beyond the classroom, Shannon actively mentored students in several international design competitions and was one of the co-founders of the Building Equality in Architecture North BEA(N) group, which continues to have a growing membership,” adds Gaber. “She will be deeply missed by our community.”

“Shannon Bassett was a critical member of the Building Equality in Architecture (BEA) collective, which aims to promote and support gender equity in architecture across Canada,” write Building Equality in Architecture Toronto (BEAT) Executive Chair Jennifer Esposito and Advisory Chair Heather Dubbeldam. “Co-founding BEA North in 2020, she played a key role in supporting the growth of BEA from a Toronto-based grassroots group to one with a national presence. Shannon was an advocate for gender equity and diversity in the profession, particularly in northern communities. She was also a committed educator, sharing her expertise and enthusiasm with the next generation of architects through her roles in academia. Kind, generous, and courageous in her beliefs, Shannon’s contributions to education, research, and advocacy will leave a lasting impact.”

The family has requested donations to the Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada.

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New Courses for 2025

Looking to take your architecture practice to greater heights? Good news! We’re bringing you two new courses: HR Essentials for Architects and Financial Management for Architects. Led by certified industry experts, these courses will give you actionable insights and tools tailored to the architecture profession. raic.org/live-online-courses

Nouveaux cours en 2025

Vous souhaitez faire croître votre firme d’architecture? Bonne nouvelle! Nous présentons deux nouveaux cours : HR Essentials for Architects et Financial Management for Architects. Animés par des experts agréés de l’industrie, ces cours vous fourniront de l’information utile et des outils pratiques adaptés à la profession d’architecte. raic.org/live-online-courses

RAIC Journal Journal de l’IRAC

Registration is open for this year’s Conference on Architecture

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2025 RAIC International Prize Prix international de l’IRAC 2025

Giovanna Boniface

RAIC Chief Commercial Officer Chef de la direction commerciale de l’IRAC

Established in 2013 as the RAIC Moriyama Prize, the RAIC International Prize was created based on Canadian architect Raymond Moriyama’s belief that remarkable architecture has the power to transform society by promoting humanistic values of social equality, respect and inclusiveness. It aims to create environments that contribute to the wellbeing of all people.

Le Prix international de l’IRAC, créé en 2013 sous le nom de Prix Moriyama IRAC, repose sur la conviction de l’architecte canadien Raymond Moriyama que l’architecture remarquable a le pouvoir de transformer la société par la promotion des valeurs humanistes d’égalité sociale, de respect et d’inclusion. Il vise à créer des environnements qui contribuent au bien-être de toutes les personnes.

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

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

In 2023, the Prize expanded to encompass the broader and ever-evolving mission, vision and values of the RAIC and Canadian architects, focusing on an annual theme. The theme for 2024, Indigenous Architecture, acknowledged and celebrated Indigenous practitioners who incorporate Indigenous knowledge, ways of knowing and doing in the built and natural environment. The theme for 2025 is Climate Action. It seeks to highlight a project outside of Canada that exemplifies design excellence in climate action and regenerative development and design.

The recipient of the 2025 International Prize will be identified by a selection committee, and presented at the June RAIC Conference on Architecture in Montreal.

En 2023, les modalités du Prix ont été modifiées pour englober la mission, la vision et les valeurs élargies et en évolution constante de l’IRAC et des architectes canadiens. Le thème pour 2024, Architecture autochtone, visait à reconnaître et à célébrer les praticiens autochtones qui intègrent le savoir des Autochtones et leurs modes d’apprentissage et leurs façons de faire dans l’environnement bâti et naturel. Le thème pour 2025, Action climatique, vise à mettre en lumière un projet réalisé à l’extérieur du Canada qui se distingue par l’excellence de sa conception en matière d’action climatique et de développement régénératif.

Le lauréat du Prix international 2025 sera choisi par un comité de sélection et le prix lui sera remis dans le cadre de la Conférence sur l’architecture de l’IRAC à Montréal.

We are going to do this together:

Reflections on a bio-regional design research trip

Nous le ferons

ensemble :

Réflexions

à la suite d’un voyage de recherche sur la conception biorégionale

Ryan McClanaghan

Architect AIBC; Associate, DIALOG

Architecte AIBC; Associé, DIALOG

In the spring of last year, I travelled to research the emerging field of bio-regional design, experiencing first-hand how exceptional architectural and material practices are forging a path forward to a healthier, lower-carbon future for our built environment. I am the latest recipient of DIALOG’s Iris Prize, an internal research and travel grant for practitioners, awarded annually to explore innovative ideas that meaningfully improve the wellbeing of communities and the environment we share. What follows is a dispatch from my research trip.

The bio-regional design framework is straightforward: it focuses on locality, biomaterials and new construction processes to achieve exceptional results. The challenge lies in implementation—breaking free from the status quo of a global network reliant on high-carbon, unsustainable construction materials. In a bio-regional approach, the process of construction becomes as important as the design itself, with novel techniques and, often, new materials being created.

In Basel, Switzerland, Atelier Tsuyoshi Tane has designed the Vitra campus’s most sustainable building to date: a small garden house made from thatch and timber, using materials that are grown instead of those extracted from below ground. Meanwhile, in Basel, Herzog & de Meuron are constructing HORTUS, a five-storey building designed to be net energy-positive within 31 years. It features a rammed earth structural floor system, developed together with the client Senn AG and ZPF Ingenieure, and a reduced material palette of clay, wood, and cellulose. It is, without question, the most ambitious example of building at scale using natural materials that I’ve seen: the approach is imaginative and technically rigorous, resulting in a stunning building.

BC Architects, Materials, and Studies in Brussels operate as a tripartite practice, specializing in earth construction, using surplus excavated soil from building sites. They began as an architecture studio but discovered that Brussels’ urban geology is ideal for creating rammed earth and other earthbased building products. This led the architects to establish a materials company, BC Materials, which manufactures products like earth blocks (replacements for traditional concrete masonry blocks), fired bricks, mixes

for unstabilized rammed earth (made without cement binders and fully reusable), and earth plasters and paints for interior finishes. They also founded BC Studies, a branch dedicated to education and teaching others.

On a hot summer day, I joined one of BC Architects’ “Earth Discovery Day” workshops at their shared workspace with BC Materials. Alongside a small group of architects, builders, and students, I participated in hands-on exercises to experiment with different earth product mixes. I left with clay under my fingernails, sand in my shoes, and excitement for the potential of earth-based construction.

Rotor, another Brussels-based practice, focuses on salvaging construction materials from the built environment. They operate both as a supply outlet for dismantled and reclaimed building components, and as consultants helping other design practices integrate circular construction strategies. Their large warehouse in northern Brussels showcases salvaged materials, which are often sold at lower costs than new products, to those who appreciate the patina and texture of second-hand materials. Rotor has also conducted several EU studies on circular construction, and is involved in ambitious

HORTUS, by Herzog & de Meuron, is a rammed earth timber building under construction in Basel, Switzerland.

HORTUS, par Herzog & de Meuron, un bâtiment en bois et en pisé en construction à Bâle, en Suisse Herzog & de Meuron

projects like the adaptive reuse and retrofit of an 18-storey office tower in collaboration with Snøhetta. Their goal: to allocate 3% of the building’s overall weight and cost to repurposed materials. When I visited their studio, the team was busy preparing an exhibition to highlight the work they and others across Europe are doing to advance circular construction practices.

What stood out most during the trip wasn’t the novelty or innovation of these construction techniques—it was the openness with which everyone shared their learnings, taught others, and inspired action. There was an urgent sense of responsibility to move toward a more sustainable future. Now that I’m back in Canada, the challenge is figuring out how to create our own regional approaches to low-carbon building.

Au printemps dernier, j’ai effectué un voyage de recherche sur le domaine émergent de la conception biorégionale afin d’observer directement comment les pratiques exceptionnelles en architecture et dans le choix des matériaux tracent la voie à un avenir plus sain et plus sobre en carbone pour notre environnement bâti. Je suis le dernier lauréat du Prix Iris de DIALOG, une bourse de recherche et de voyage destinée aux praticiens et décernée chaque année pour explorer des idées innovantes qui améliorent véritablement le bien-être des collectivités et l’environnement que nous partageons. Voici un compte-rendu de ce voyage.

Le cadre de la conception biorégionale est simple : il se concentre sur la provenance locale, les biomatériaux et les nouveaux processus de construction qui permettent d’obtenir des résultats exceptionnels. Le défi réside dans la mise en œuvre –s’affranchir du statu quo d’un réseau mondial qui dépend de matériaux de construction non durables à fortes émissions de carbone. Dans une approche biorégionale, le processus de construction devient aussi important que la conception elle-même du fait de la création de nouvelles techniques et, souvent, de nouveaux matériaux.

À Bâle, en Suisse, l’Atelier Tsuyoshi Tane a conçu le bâtiment le plus durable du campus Vitra à ce jour : une petite maison de jardin faite de chaume et de bois, qui utilise des matériaux cultivés plutôt que des matières premières d’extraction. Pendant ce temps, à Bâle, Herzog & de Meuron construisent HORTUS, un édifice de cinq étages conçu pour être à énergie nette positive dans les 31 ans.

Il se distingue par un système de plancher structurel en pisé, développé en collaboration avec le client Senn AG et ZPF Ingenieure, et par une palette de matériaux réduite à l’argile, au bois et à la cellulose. Ce projet est sans aucun doute l’exemple le plus ambitieux de bâtiment d’envergure construit à l’aide de matériaux naturels que j’ai vu : l’approche imaginative et techniquement rigoureuse donne lieu à un bâtiment remarquable.

BC Architects, Materials, and Studies de Bruxelles est une firme tripartite spécialisée dans la construction en terre, qui utilise les

BC Architects, Materials, and Studies: building with earth and inspiring others in Brussels, Belgium

BC Architects, Materials, and Studies : Bâtir avec de la terre et inspirer les autres à Bruxelles, Belgique

Rotor, a practice based on reuse and the circular economy in Brussels, Belgium

Rotor, une entreprise axée sur la réutilisation et l’économie circulaire à Bruxelles, Belgique

excédents de terre excavée des chantiers de construction. À l’origine, la firme était un atelier d’architecture, mais lorsque les architectes ont constaté que la géologie urbaine de Bruxelles était idéale pour créer des bâtiments en pisé et autres produits de construction à base de terre, ils ont créé une entreprise de matériaux, BC Materials, qui fabrique divers produits dont des blocs de terre compressée (qui remplacent les blocs de maçonnerie en béton traditionnels), des briques cuites, des mélanges pour pisé non stabilisé (fabriqués sans liant cimentaire et entièrement réutilisables) et des enduits et

Victoria Van Kan BC

peintures à base de terre pour les revêtements intérieurs. Ils ont également fondé la firme BC Studies, une division dédiée à l’éducation et à l’enseignement.

Par une chaude journée d’été, j’ai participé à l’un des ateliers de la Journée de découverte de la terre organisée par BC Architects dans les espaces partagés avec BC Materials. Avec un petit groupe d’architectes, de constructeurs et d’étudiants, j’ai participé à des exercices pratiques pour expérimenter différents mélanges des produits de terre. Je suis reparti avec de l’argile sous les ongles, du sable dans mes chaussures et un vif intérêt envers le potentiel de la construction en terre.

Rotor, une autre entreprise établie à Bruxelles, se concentre sur la récupération des matériaux de construction de l’environnement bâti. Elle est un point d’approvisionnement en composantes de bâtiments démantelées et récupérées et elle agit comme consultant pour aider d’autres firmes de conception à intégrer des stratégies de construction circulaire.

Dans son grand entrepôt situé au nord de Bruxelles, on peut trouver des matériaux récupérés qui sont souvent vendus à des prix inférieurs à ceux des produits neufs pour autant que l’on apprécie la patine et la texture des matériaux de seconde main. Rotor a également mené plusieurs études de l’UE sur la construction circulaire et participe à des projets ambitieux comme la réutilisation adaptative et la rénovation d’un édifice de bureaux de 18 étages, en collaboration avec la firme Snøhetta. Leur objectif : allouer 3 % du poids et du coût total du bâtiment à des matériaux reconvertis. Lorsque j’ai visité les bureaux de Rotor, l’équipe était occupée à préparer une exposition pour mettre en lumière le travail qu’elle et d’autres firmes européennes réalisent pour faire progresser les pratiques de construction circulaire.

Ce qui m’a le plus marqué durant ce voyage, ce n’est pas la nouveauté ou l’innovation de ces techniques de construction, mais plutôt l’ouverture d’esprit avec laquelle toutes ces personnes ont partagé leurs apprentissages, enseigné à d’autres et suscité l’action. Elles étaient toutes animées d’un sentiment d’urgence face à la responsabilité d’aller vers un avenir plus durable. Maintenant de retour au Canada, le défi consiste à déterminer comment créer nos propres approches régionales au bâtiment à faibles émissions de carbone.

Accessible Architecture in the Super Ageing Era: A Field Report from Japan

L’architecture

accessible à l’ère

du super vieillissement : un rapport de terrain au Japon

Fukagawa

Enmichi community centre

Centre Communautaire Enmichi du quartier

Fukagawa

Dr. Henry Tsang Ph.D., Architect AAA, FRAIC, RHFAC Professional Ph. D., architecte AAA, FRAIC, professionnel agréé en accessibilité de la FRH

Canada’s population is aging rapidly, yet our built environment is not adapting quickly enough. By 2050, the number of seniors will be double that of today’s, reaching one-fourth of the population. Japan—the most advanced ageing country in the world—has already reached this milestone, and entered what is known as the “super-ageing era.” A stroll around Tokyo gives a glimpse of what the future holds, and provides clues to what Canada’s cities and built environment will need to do to adapt to this forthcoming reality. I will introduce a few instructive projects here.

To begin, Tokyo is the largest city in the world, and its complexity is mind-numbing. Yet it is safe, walkable and accessible. Nearly all of Tokyo’s 822 train stations have elevators, and major sidewalks are all connected by an expansive network of yellow tactile

indicators. Intersections have generous curb ramps with visual and audible signals at crossings. But perhaps most impressive for Canadians is the quality of the sidewalk pavement: flat, smooth, rigid and spotless.

As a first case study, I visited Fukagawa Enmichi, an award-winning multi-generational community centre designed by JAMZA. Architect Shun Hasegawa gave me a tour and described his concept for a community hub fit for “0 to 100-year-olds.” The building spaces are shared among several operators, including an infant daycare, an after-school club, and a day service for seniors. What makes it work is the intentional programming and layout, which encourage the three groups to intersect and interact. The functional spaces are connected by an interior “street” that doubles as a library and an alleyway shortcut. “From the outside, it looks like a café, so many people are curious and wander in, but when they find out it’s not, they walk through our ‘street’ and exit from the back door,” says Hasegawa. “It’s funny how people get embarrassed to leave from the

Henry Tsang

door they entered. Some people use our corridor as a shortcut. But that’s what we wanted it to be, a street-like connector and public space that contributes to the neighbourhood.”

A second case study is the Nishi-Kasai Inouye Eye Hospital, a healthcare facility specializing in age-related diseases such as glaucoma and macular degeneration. I visited with Kevin Ng, the Rick Hansen Foundation’s accessibility expert. The building was designed by architecture firm Kajima, and implemented a series of innovative accessibility solutions specific to senior patients with low vision. According to Mari Chiba, the hospital’s corporate manager, “One thing you would notice is that there is very little use of braille, despite being an ophthalmology hospital. In reality, our patients have very low braille literacy because they have low vision, they are not blind. Therefore, we focused the design on enhancing visibility, such as color contrast and lighting, as well as audible signals.” Soft and hard materials were used for flooring to vary the sound and feel of directional wayfinding. Ceiling lights and handrail lighting are aligned to be used as track lighting, and in emergencies, this lighting flashes to provide directional indication.

In the super-ageing era, there will be need for super-accessible solutions for the built environment. But we may not have to reinvent the wheel. This month, the RAIC Long Term Care Working Group will be hosting its first online panel discussion on the future of architecture for ageing in Canada. Stay tuned.

Dr. Henry Tsang, Architect, AAA, FRAIC, is an RAIC Advisor to Professional Practice appointed to the RAIC Long Term Care Working Group. He is also an associate professor at the RAIC Centre for Architecture at Athabasca University, and is currently on sabbatical leave as a visiting professor at the University of Tokyo.

indices sur les mesures que devront prendre les villes et les intervenants de l’environnement bâti du Canada pour s’adapter à cette réalité à venir. Je vous présente ici quelques projets instructifs à cet égard.

Précisons d’abord que Tokyo est la plus grande ville du monde et qu’elle est d’une complexité saisissante. Pourtant, elle est sécuritaire, propice à la marche et accessible. La quasi-totalité des 822 gares de Tokyo ont des ascenseurs et les principaux trottoirs sont tous reliés par un vaste réseau d’indicateurs tactiles jaunes. Les intersections sont dotées de rampes d’accès de dimensions généreuses et de signaux visuels et sonores aux carrefours. Ce qui impressionne toutefois le plus les Canadiens, c’est probablement la qualité du revêtement des trottoirs : plat, lisse, rigide et impeccable.

Comme première étude de cas, j’ai visité l’Enmichi de Fukagawa, un centre communautaire multigénérationnel primé conçu par JAMZA. L’architecte Shun Hasegawa m’a fait visiter les lieux en décrivant son concept de centre communautaire adapté aux « 0 à 100 ans ». Le bâtiment accueille divers services, notamment une garderie, une halte scolaire et un service de jour pour les personnes âgées. Le succès de ce projet repose sur la programmation et l’aménagement intentionnels qui encouragent les trois groupes à se croiser et à interagir. Les espaces fonctionnels sont reliés par une « rue » intérieure qui sert à la fois de bibliothèque et de raccourci. « De l’extérieur, on dirait un café, de sorte que bien des gens sont curieux et entrent dans le bâtiment et lorsqu’ils découvrent

que ce n’est pas le cas, ils passent par notre “rue” et sortent par la porte arrière », explique Hasegawa. « C’est amusant de voir les gens étonnés de sortir par la porte par laquelle ils sont entrés. Certaines personnes utilisent notre corridor comme un raccourci et c’est ce que nous voulions qu’il soit, un lien avec la rue et un espace public qui joue un rôle utile dans le quartier. »

Le deuxième projet étudié est celui de l’hôpital ophtalmologique Inouye du quartier Nichi-Kasai, un établissement de soins de santé spécialisé dans les maladies liées à l’âge, comme le glaucome et la dégénérescence maculaire. J’ai visité les lieux avec Kevin Ng, l’expert en accessibilité de la Fondation Rick Hansen. Conçu par la firme d’architecture Kajima, le bâtiment a mis en œuvre une série de solutions d’accessibilité innovantes particulières pour des patients âgés et malvoyants. Selon Mari Chiba, gestionnaire de l’établissement, « une chose que l’on peut noter, c’est qu’il y a très peu de braille, bien qu’il s’agisse d’un hôpital ophtalmologique. En réalité, nos patients ont une faible vision, mais ils ne sont pas aveugles. Par conséquent, nous avons mis l’accent sur une conception qui améliore la visibilité, comme le contraste de couleurs et l’éclairage, ainsi que sur des signaux sonores. » Des revêtements de sol souples et durs ont été utilisés pour varier le son et le sentiment d’orientation. Les plafonniers et l’éclairage des mains courantes sont alignés pour servir d’éclairage dans le parcours et en cas d’urgence, cet éclairage clignote pour indiquer la direction à suivre.

La population du Canada vieillit rapidement et pourtant notre environnement bâti ne s’adapte pas assez vite. D’ici 2050, le nombre de personnes âgées aura doublé et représentera le quart de la population. Le Japon, le pays le plus avancé au monde en matière de vieillissement, a déjà atteint ce seuil et est entré dans ce qu’on appelle « l’ère du super vieillissement ». Une promenade dans Tokyo nous donne un aperçu de ce que nous réserve l’avenir et nous donne des

À l’ère du super-vieillissement, nous aurons besoin de solutions super accessibles pour l’environnement bâti. Toutefois, il n’est peut-être pas nécessaire de réinventer la roue. En février, le Groupe de travail sur les établissements de soins de longue durée de l’IRAC tiendra son premier panel en ligne sur l’avenir de l’architecture pour le vieillissement au Canada. Restez à l’affût.

Henry Tsang, Ph. D., architecte, AAA, FRAIC, est un conseiller à la pratique professionnelle de l’IRAC nommé par le Groupe de travail sur les établissements de soins de longue durée de l’IRAC. Il est également professeur associé au Centre d’architecture de l’IRAC à l’Université Athabasca et il est actuellement en congé sabbatique en tant que professeur invité à l’Université de Tokyo.

Visit to the NishiKasai Inouye Eye Hospital.

Visite de l’hôpital ophtalmologique Inouye

Henry Tsang

Accounting for Architecture

Tenir compte de l’architecture

Kelly Alvarez Doran OAA, MRAIC, Co-Founder

OAA, MRAIC, Cofondateur

of Ha/f Climate Design

de la

firme Ha/f Climate Design

Earlier last year, Ha/f began working on the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC)’s Low-Rise Housing Design Catalogue. As part of a cross-country team assembled by LGA Architectural Partners, we’ve been supporting design teams with energy modelling, climate risk assessments, life cycle assessments, and the development of a material catalogue to guide future builders to lower-carbon, lower-cost choices. Working coast to coast with some of Canada’s leading practices has revealed that we’re all building the same way. Though thousands of kilometres apart, the housing of British Columbia, Nova Scotia, and Nunavut currently employs the same means and methods in its making.

In developing the catalogue, we’ve looked back at previous versions of the CMHC’s Wood-frame House Construction guides. In comparing the current version published in 2013 with the initial version of the document published in 1967, we immediately recognized how our detailing and material options have narrowed over that timeframe. The 1967 version has a whole section dedi-

cated to the “basementless house” and defines rigid insulation as “made from wood or vegetable fibres, expanded polystyrene, polyurethane, mineral wool or cork.” 46 years later, the basementless section has disappeared, foamed-in-place insulation has emerged, and rigid insulation is defined as being “manufactured in sheets or boards using materials such as polyisocyanurate and expanded or extruded foamed plastic”—with no mention of wood, vegetable fibres, or cork as options.

We’ve plasticized our housing, and our thinking. From the OPEC crisis onward, our narrowed focus on energy-use reductions has, ironically, blinded us to our ever greater reliance on fossil fuel-derived products throughout the built environment. Siding, roofing, insulation, window and door frames, flooring, countertops, and even the paint on our walls have become heavily reliant on petroleum. The net result: our housing is far more carbon-intensive to build, and is far more toxic and harmful to our health and the broader environment. It has also diverted the enormous economic benefits of construction’s supply chain towards refineries.

Our agency as architects sits almost entirely in what we build with, who we source from, and who we build with. While we have

New Frameworks

S-SIPs (Straw Structural Insulated Panels), architect

Love|Schack Architects

Nouveaux panneaux structuraux

PSI (Panneaux structuraux isolants en paille), architecte : Love|Schack Architects.

some influence over how buildings are operated and maintained, our ability to control and mitigate ultimately stops the moment a building is occupied. It is through drawings and specifications—and the millions of dollars they direct—that we can most effectively address the climate-related challenges we face. This reality overlaps with the lifecycle emissions of a building: across much of Canada, the embodied emissions of constructing and maintaining a building will eclipse the emissions associated with a lifetime of its operations. It is therefore imperative that we question what we’re building with, interrogate the methods we’re currently using, and work together to find lower-carbon alternatives. Are we sourcing our materials from parts of the world with questionable labour practices? Can we work with regional producers and suppliers with whom we can see first-hand the impacts of decision-making?

To help us make more informed and more efficacious choices, Ha/f is working with the RAIC and the National Research Council of Canada to deliver Life Cycle Assessment workshops to architects across the country. Undertaking LCAs during design serves to both ask and answer the questions: Where does this material or product come from? Through whose hands has it

Paul Lavold

passed? Working together to ask these questions and share our findings, we can move Canadian architecture back to a family of materials sourced from our fields, forests and quarries, and start to shift towards regenerative and lower-carbon design.

In the coming months, the new CMHC Housing Catalogue will be live. It includes 56 regionally responsive, permit-ready house designs, including for ADUs, row houses, 4-plexes, and 6-plexes, supporting housing affordability and greater density across Canada. ‘Vegetable fibres’ and other biobased materials will also be back on the menu—hemp-batt from farms in Quebec and Alberta will be listed in the catalogue alongside mineral wools. Linoleum sourced from fields in Manitoba and Saskatchewan will be listed as alternatives to plasticderived flooring products. The next generation of housing will be more representative of our regional material cultures, will be lower-carbon in its making, and will route the billions of dollars in material procurement back into the pockets of farmers, foresters, and suppliers across Canada.

For more information on the RAIC Life Cycle Assessment workshops visit raic.org/LCAworkshop

L’année dernière, Ha/f a commencé à travailler sur le Catalogue de conception de logements de faible hauteur de la Société canadienne d’hypothèques et de logement. Faisant partie d’une équipe pancanadienne réunie par Levitt Goodman Architects, nous avons aidé les équipes de conception à modéliser l’énergie, à évaluer les risques climatiques, à analyser le cycle de vie et à élaborer un catalogue de matériaux pour orienter les futurs constructeurs vers des choix à plus faibles émissions de carbone et moins coûteux. La collaboration avec des firmes de pointe des quatre coins du Canada a révélé que nous construisons tous de la même façon. Bien qu’elles soient situées à des milliers de kilomètres les unes des autres, les habitations de la Colombie-Britannique, de la Nouvelle-Écosse et du Nunavut utilisent actuellement les mêmes moyens et méthodes de construction.

Dans le cadre de l’élaboration du catalogue, nous avons examiné les versions antérieures des guides de la SCHL sur la construction de maison à ossature de bois. En comparant la version actuelle publiée en 2013 avec la version initiale du document publiée en 1967, nous avons immédiatement remarqué que nos options relatives

aux détails et aux matériaux avaient été réduites au fil des ans. La version de 1967 comporte tout un chapitre sur la « maison sans sous-sol » et définit l’isolant rigide comme étant « fait de fibre de bois ou de fibre végétale, de polystyrène expansé, de polyuréthane, de laine minérale ou de liège ». Quarante-six ans plus tard, le chapitre sur la maison sans sous-sol a disparu, l’isolant pulvérisé sur place est apparu et l’isolant rigide est maintenant défini comme étant « fabriqué en feuilles ou en panneaux à partir de matière comme la polyisocyanurate ou la mousse plastique de polystyrène expansé ou extrudé »,  sans aucune mention du bois, des fibres végétales ou du liège comme options.

Nous avons plastifié nos habitations et notre pensée. Depuis la crise de l’OPEP, nous nous sommes concentrés sur les réductions de la consommation d’énergie ce qui, ironiquement, nous a empêchés de voir à quel point nous dépendions de plus en plus des produits dérivés des combustibles fossiles dans l’ensemble de l’environnement bâti. Les matériaux de bardage, de toiture et d’isolation, les cadres de portes et fenêtres, les revêtements de sol, les comptoirs et même la peinture de nos murs sont devenus très dépendants du pétrole. Le résultat net : la construction de nos maisons a une empreinte carbone beaucoup plus importante et elle est beaucoup plus toxique et nocive pour notre santé et pour l’environnement en général. Les énormes avantages écono miques de la chaîne d’approvisionnement de la construction ont également été détournés vers les raffineries.

Notre rôle, comme architectes, s’exprime presque essentiellement par les matériaux que nous utilisons, les sources auprès desquelles nous nous approvisionnons et les personnes avec qui nous bâtissons. Nous avons une certaine influence sur la façon d’exploiter et d’entretenir les bâtiments, mais nos capacités de contrôle et d’atténuation s’arrêtent en fin de compte au moment où un bâtiment est occupé. C’est par nos plans et devis – et les millions de dollars qu’ils représentent – que nous pouvons relever le plus efficacement les défis climatiques auxquels nous sommes confrontés. Cette réalité est imbriquée dans une certaine mesure avec les émissions du cycle de vie d’un bâtiment : dans la majeure partie du Canada, les émissions de carbone intrinsèque liées à la construction et à l’entretien d’un bâtiment éclipseront les émissions associées à son exploitation sur sa durée de vie. Par conséquent, il est impératif que nous nous interrogions

sur les matériaux avec lesquels nous construisons et les méthodes que nous utilisons et que nous unissions nos efforts pour trouver des alternatives plus sobres en carbone. Nos matériaux proviennent-ils de régions du monde où les pratiques de travail sont critiquables? Pouvons-nous travailler avec des producteurs et des fournisseurs qui nous permettent de constater directement les impacts de nos décisions?

Pour nous aider à faire des choix plus éclairés et plus efficaces, Ha/f collabore avec l’IRAC et le Conseil national de recherches du Canada pour présenter des ateliers sur l’analyse du cycle de vie (ACV) aux architectes de tout le pays. L’ACV effectuée au début de la conception permet de poser les questions suivantes et d’y répondre : d’où ce matériau ou ce produit provient-il? Par quelles mains est-il passé? En travaillant ensemble pour poser ces questions et partager nos observations, nous pourrons ramener l’utilisation d’une famille de matériaux provenant de nos champs, de nos forêts et de nos carrières dans l’architecture canadienne et commencer à nous engager dans la voie de la conception régénérative et sobre en carbone.

Au cours des prochains mois, le nouveau Catalogue de conception de logements de la SCHL sera publié. Il comprend 56 modèles conceptuels adaptés aux régions et prêts à être utilisés par les constructeurs, notamment des maisons en rangée, des immeubles de quatre et de six logements ainsi que des logements accessoires. Les « fibres végétales » et autres matériaux d’origine biologique seront de retour sur le menu – le matelas de chanvre provenant d’exploitations agricoles du Québec et de l’Alberta figurera dans le Catalogue, tout comme les laines minérales.

Le linoléum provenant des champs du Manitoba et de la Saskatchewan est cité comme solution de rechange aux produits de revêtement de sol dérivés du plastique. La prochaine génération de logements sera plus représentative des matériaux issus de nos cultures régionales, sa fabrication sera plus sobre en carbone et les milliards de dollars consacrés à l’achat de matériaux reviendront dans les poches des agriculteurs, des forestiers et des fournisseurs de tout le Canada.

Pour un supplément d’information sur les ateliers sur l’analyse du cycle de vie de l’IRAC, visitez : raic.org/LCAworkshop

Shaping the Future of Canadian Architecture:

2025-2027 Strategic Vision

Jonathan Bisson FIRAC, Hon. RAIA, RAIC President Président de l’IRAC

Mike Brennan Hon. MRAIC, Hon. RAIA Chief Executive Officer Chef de la direction

Architecture has the power to transform communities, honour diverse histories, and inspire innovation. The RAIC is proud to lead this transformation, shaping a built environment that reflects our collective aspirations. Our 2025-2027 Strategic Plan serves as a roadmap for achieving design excellence, advancing sustainability, and fostering inclusivity across Canada. Rooted in RAIC’s core values—Integrity, Agility, Design Excellence, Social Equity, Reconciliation and Environmental Responsibility—this plan emphasizes the vital role of architecture in addressing the challenges of our time, while creating meaningful spaces for future generations.

Strategic Priorities

• Invigorate the Membership Model

Strengthening the RAIC’s membership offering to better serve a diverse community of architects, designers, and industry professionals while ensuring financial sustainability.

• Progress Meaningful Advocacy

Championing policies and practices that address critical issues such as climate action, accessibility, and equity, and advancing reconciliation in the built environment.

• Foster a Culture of Design

Celebrating Canadian design excellence and positioning it as a global leader, inspiring innovation and collaboration across disciplines.

• Communicate and Market Achievements

Amplifying the contributions of architects to ensure their work is recognized and valued by the public, stakeholders, and policymakers.

• Support and Strengthen Practice

Equipping architects with the tools, resources, and professional development opportunities they need to excel in a rapidly evolving world.

Values in Action

Through Leadership and Integrity,

our actions align with RAIC’s mission to foster impactful design. Excellence drives our celebration of world-class architecture, while Sustainability prioritizes environmentally responsible practices that benefit communities. Also important is being agile for proactive collaboration, continuous knowledge-sharing, and the ability to adapt to emerging design trends. Inclusion and Reconciliation are integral to our work, ensuring the built environment reflects Canada’s diversity and respects Indigenous knowledge, culture, and traditions.

A Call to Action

The 2025-2027 Strategic Plan is more than a roadmap—it is an invitation to action. It calls upon architects, designers, and all stakeholders to unite in shaping a future that prioritizes design excellence, environmental stewardship, and social equity. As we navigate the pressing challenges of our era, we believe this plan positions the RAIC as a catalyst for transformative change.

For more information about the RAIC’s strategic vision, visit raic.org/about-raic

L’architecture a le pouvoir de transformer les collectivités, d’honorer les diverses histoires et de susciter l’innovation.

L’IRAC est fier de mener cette transformation axée sur la création d’un environnement bâti qui reflète nos aspirations collectives. Notre plan stratégique 20252025 sert de feuille de route pour atteindre l’excellence en design, promouvoir la durabilité et favoriser l’inclusivité à la grandeur du Canada. Enraciné dans les valeurs fondamentales de l’IRAC – intégrité, agilité, excellence du design, équité sociale, responsabilité environnementale et réconciliation – ce plan met l’accent sur le rôle vital de l’architecture pour relever les défis climatiques de notre époque tout en créant des espaces significatifs pour les générations futures.

Priorités stratégiques

• Dynamiser le modèle d’adhésion Renforcer l’offre aux membres de l’IRAC

afin de mieux servir une communauté diversifiée d’architectes, de designers et de professionnels de l’industrie tout en assurant la viabilité financière.

• Progresser dans une action de sensibilisation significative Promouvoir des politiques et des pratiques qui tiennent compte d’enjeux cruciaux comme l’action climatique, l’accessibilité et l’équité et promouvoir la réconciliation dans l’environnement bâti.

• Favoriser une culture du design Célébrer l’excellence du design canadien et faire du Canada un leader mondial qui inspire l’innovation et la collaboration interdisciplinaire.

• Communiquer et promouvoir les réalisations Attirer l’attention sur les contributions des architectes afin que le public, les parties prenantes et les décideurs puissent les reconnaître et les valoriser.

• Soutenir et renforcer la pratique Donner aux architectes les outils, les ressources et les occasions de perfectionnement professionnel dont ils ont besoin pour exceller dans un monde en évolution rapide.

Les valeurs en action

Nos valeurs orientent chacune de nos priorités. Le leadership et l’intégrité nous assurent que nos actions sont en phase avec la mission de l’IRAC de favoriser un design qui a de l’impact. L’excellence stimule notre célébration de l’architecture de classe mondiale, tandis que la durabilité priorise les pratiques respectueuses de l’environnement qui profitent aux collectivités. L’agilité est importante pour une collaboration proactive, un partage continu des connaissances et la capacité de s’adapter aux nouvelles tendances en design. L’inclusion et la réconciliation font partie intégrante de notre travail pour assurer que l’environnement bâti reflète la diversité du Canada et respecte le savoir, la culture et les traditions autochtones.

Un appel à l’action

Le plan stratégique 2025-2027 est toutefois plus qu’une feuille de route – il est un appel à l’action. Il invite les architectes, les designers et toutes les parties prenantes à s’unir pour façonner un avenir qui accorde la priorité à l’excellence du design, à la gérance de l’environnement et à l’équité sociale. Alors que nous sommes confrontés aux défis urgents de notre époque, nous croyons que ce plan positionne l’IRAC comme un catalyseur du changement transformateur.

Pour un supplément d’information sur la vision stratégique de l’IRAC, visitez raic.org/about-raic

BUILDING IN THE MISSING MIDDLE

A FIVE-UNIT DWELLING ADDS GENTLE DENSITY TO AN ESTABLISHED TORONTO NEIGHBOURHOOD.

PROJECT Ulster House, Toronto, Ontario

ARCHITECT LGA Architectural Partners

TEXT Jaliya Fonseka

PHOTOS Doublespace Photography

Walking past the corner of Ulster and Lippincott, you might mistake the building tucked behind a mature, blue spruce for a thoughtfully designed three-storey single-family house in the neighbourhood. A relaxed garden spills over the edges of the property, alive with pollinators, giving the impression that it’s been there for years rooted and full of character. The house itself is contemporary yet quiet in its presence, woven into the Harbord Village fabric like a good neighbour: calm, gentle, and human. Despite its appearance, Ulster House is not a single-family home it’s a five-plex, with two units sharing the upper floors, a ground floor unit, a laneway dwelling, and a basement apartment. It is the result of years of advocacy and experimentation, rethinking Toronto’s most ubiquitous housing typology the single-family infill home as a multi-unit urban dwelling. This small condominium is architects Janna Levitt and Dean Goodman’s prototype for dense housing, done differently.

The imperative of good design

Urban densification is no longer a choice, but a necessity. With rising populations, housing shortages, and our intensifying climate crisis, how we design

our homes and communities is increasingly critical. Buildings account for over 40% of global carbon emissions, positioning architecture as both a major contributor to the problem and potential part of the solution. Designed by Levitt and Goodman, founding principals of LGA Architectural Partners, Ulster House is an example of this pursuit by individual architects to make a tangible impact. The project pioneers sustainable ways of living and sets a precedent for buildings to contribute positively at scales larger than their own footprint.

Building the missing middle

As a five-unit condominium, Ulster House addresses Toronto’s “missing middle” the critical range of housing types between single-family homes and high-rises. This category, defined in the city’s 2030 Housing Action Plan, is crucial for alleviating both the current housing crisis and the climate crisis. It’s the middle ground where affordability and sustainability intersect, where families are not priced out. Ulster House revives the kind of multi-family housing that once defined this neighbourhood, where immigrant families would share homes and multi-generational

OPPOSITE Each unit in the development has its own front door. The two upper units, entered from Ulster Street, include private, open-air patios that are framed into the top level of the building. ABOVE The house’s slightly canted form, clay shingle cladding, and abundant landscaping with native plants nod to the neighbourhood context of century-old brick homes.

living was the norm, creating a sense of belonging in the urban sprawl. Until recently, however, restrictive zoning laws and smaller family sizes have dominated. Low-density single-family homes cover some 70% of Toronto’s buildable land, a legacy of zoning rules that only began to be relaxed five years ago. Ulster House disrupts that norm while continuing to offer an adaptable structure through simple stick-frame construction that allows renovation, change, and growth. It shows how families may stay rooted in their neighbourhood, even as their needs evolve.

Serving as both their own home and a demonstration project, Ulster House builds on lessons from Levitt and Goodman’s former residence. Their Euclid House (2006) tested compact footprints and flexible living options, and introduced Toronto’s first residential green roof. “All architecture must contribute to good city-building,” says Levitt. “What you’re doing has to add up to be bigger than the project itself.” Goodman and Levitt are not only the designers, owners, and residents of Ulster House they are also the developers, shifting the paradigm of a ruthless profit-maximizing profession to one where the design decisions are driven by the ambitions of the owners as citizens. Ulster House harmonizes with the neighbourhood’s existing scale while introducing density that feels human and livable. The handmade, electric-fired clay shingle cladding, warm to the eye, recalls the textures and tones of the surrounding brick. Sloped roofs designed to house photo-voltaics for an all-electric HVAC system echo the homes around it, subtly reinforcing the community’s char-

acter. A layered landscaping of native plants and deadwood logs, designed by Lorraine Johnson and selected in accordance with permaculture principles, creates a biodiverse retreat amidst the urban fabric. A sumach screen offers a verdant alternative to the ubiquitous wood fence, softly defining private outdoor space.

Each unit features a dedicated ground-floor entrance, connecting directly to the street. Large glass entry doors with transom windows, framed by vertical stained cedar planks, are sheltered by overhangs. This transparency fosters a sense of trust with the surrounding context, striking a delicate balance between privacy and connection.

A courtyard at the heart

The architects currently occupy two of the units the ground floor of the main home, which houses their kitchen and living spaces, and the laneway unit, almost bunkie-like, across a courtyard. Clad in Yakisugi (charred) cedar, the laneway house contains a bedroom, a bathroom, and a home studio that also functions as the library and guest room. Goodman and Levitt’s daily routine involves traversing the courtyard that connects their sleeping spaces with their living spaces a continual communion with the seasons. This experimental design tests the limits and possibilities of outdoor living in Toronto’s climate, where such a routine is otherwise uncommon. The stone walkway, nominally heat traced for winter, is sheltered by a wood trellis and clear acrylic covering, providing partial protection from the elements.

ABOVE Architects Janna Levitt and Dean Goodman occupy the main floor unit and laneway suite as their residence. OPPOSITE A trellis-covered courtyard with a sauna made from a reclaimed shipping container serves as a three-season outdoor extension of their living space.

In a recent interview, Egyptian architect Abdelwahed El-Wakil describes the courtyard as “the open living room,” and “the soul of the house.” He speaks of the courtyard as a kind of aperture, a soft-edged threshold that draws us back toward the natural world we have so distanced ourselves from. Reflecting on his own home in Agami, Egypt, centered around a courtyard with a small fountain and windcatcher, El-Wakil highlights the timeless principles of daylight, passive ventilation, and harmony with the sun we all share.

Despite the cold Canadian winters, Goodman and Levitt have always embraced these same principles. “Walking through the courtyard, or looking out from the living and dining rooms in the main house immediately connects us to the seasons, the weather, and a landscape,” shares Goodman, attributing their enhanced quality of life to a deepened relationship with nature. “It’s centering, and is the reciprocal element to the constructed world.”

The path between the two also serves as a three-season exterior workshop area and is lined on one side with a cedar storage wall containing, in part, Goodman’s woodworking tools. A 10-foot shipping container, converted by Goodman into a sauna, provides warmth and purpose during colder months. “The natural ventilation is luxurious,” notes Levitt, when describing the sensation of air and light flowing through the home from the courtyard. Yet the integration of the courtyard offers more than such comforts. It embodies a philosophical

shift: that our response to climate change must include a rethinking of human comfort, and of our relationship to nature.

The craft of compact living

For the two upper units, open-to-sky outdoor terraces extend the building’s living areas, offloading interior functions while maintaining a sense of openness. These areas ease the compact footprints of the leasable units, inviting natural light and ventilation and reducing reliance on conditioned spaces. The building’s cohesive massing, unbroken by projecting balconies or expansive glass, maintains a robust enclosure, and retains its intimate residential character.

The project as a whole is anchored by passive design principles and detailed studies of embodied and operational carbon emissions. The architects evaluated the Global Warming Potential (GWP) of the development against the Architecture2030 challenge, which calls for a 40% reduction in carbon emissions compared to industry standards. This analysis prompted key adjustments, including replacing steel framing with wood and decreasing the quantity of cement in concrete components. Such decisions reduced the building’s GWP by almost half, surpassing their targeted benchmark. For the architects, these results reinforced the value of integrating carbon accounting early in the design process.

Perhaps most impactful is the overall concept of designing livable, efficient spaces within a compact footprint, reducing overall building materi-

ABOVE LEFT Meticulous detailing characterizes the project, including in the wood cladding throughout the laneway suite. ABOVE RIGHT The tile-clad bathroom opens on to a pocket garden. OPPOSITE LEFT The laneway suite’s bedroom adjoins the ground-floor courtyard. OPPOSITE RIGHT An outdoor dining area connects the ground floor and laneway suite.

als and ongoing operational energy needs. Compact spaces require thoughtful design. The architects describe their material choices as “elevated but pleasant to the touch,” as is evident in the kitchen, where stainless steel countertops provide a tactile contrast to warm wood finishes that replace drywall to further reduce embodied emissions. The bunkie follows the same philosophy: wood throughout, with the exception of an elegantly crafted bathroom wrapped seamlessly with sea-green mosaic tiles.

Walking the walk: a precedent for urban living

Many of the outcomes of the Ulster House were hard-won, requiring the creation of a typology, advocacy for zoning variances, and adaptation to permitting requirements. The bunkie’s narrow pocket garden the result of laneway setback requirements is just one example of how Levitt and Goodman’s thoughtful design maximized even the most constrained possibilities.

Aligning authorities and consultants with the vision took time, and delays were frequent. But each challenge only reinforced the architects’ belief that a different kind of housing was not only possible, but long overdue. Since the project was first proposed, changes to as of right conditions for small multi-unit buildings, development charges, and financing options (such as loans and lines of credit) have made buildings like Ulster House more feasible. However, legislation such as Bill 212, the removal of bike lanes, and the extended delays of the

Eglinton Crosstown LRT, puts into question the provincial government’s position on ‘good’ city-building.

Ulster House offers an exciting glimpse of what gentle densification might look like in our cities: an urban future that embraces creativity, sustainability, and a redefined connection to the natural world. For architects who continually push the boundaries of what’s possible, a project like this becomes a living testament, showing skeptical clients an alternative, improved way of living. Ulster House sets a high bar, asking architects, city planners, and community members alike to think beyond their projects’ immediate footprints, and challenging us all to become better city builders.

Jaliya Fonseka is the principal of Fonseka Studio and an Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, at the University of Waterloo, where he teaches in the architecture and

tectural engineering programs. He leads with community-oriented scholarship, inves

tigating topics of home, belonging, and climate.

(MRAIC), KARA BURMAN, ANDRIA FONG, MEGAN CASSIDY, JOSHUA GIOVINAZZO

KNOCKING ON WOOD

A HALIFAX FIRM WAGERS ON MASS TIMBER FOR THEIR OWN OFFICE.

PROJECT Cunard Street Live/Work/Grow, Halifax, Nova Scotia

ARCHITECT FBM Architecture – Interior Design – Planning

TEXT T. E. Smith-Lamothe

PHOTOS Doublespace Photography, unless otherwise noted

Modern mass timber has made inroads throughout Canada, including, most recently, the Atlantic provinces. At the vanguard of this movement is a recently completed project led by Susan Fitzgerald, principal at Halifax firm Fowler Bauld & Mitchell (FBM).

FBM had long wanted to do a project using mass timber, but clients were hesitant to be among the first in the region to construct a multistorey building from the material. So, FBM bravely decided to become its own client. In 2019, the firm was operating from a typical 1970s office tower downtown. A new mass timber workplace would accommodate their growing staff, at the same time demystifying and de-risking this construction method in the region. FBM committed, with Woodworks Atlantic, to documenting the process and costs as a test case.

Dream big, but research

As local modern mass timber examples were, at the time, few and far between, all involved knew there would be a steep learning curve. Fitzgerald sums it up: “We didn’t know any of this before, so, we really had to go through it ourselves.” The design team which also included structural engineer Gilles Comeau, and Fitzgerald’s husband, Brainard, in the lead for contractor Aitcheson Fitzgerald Builders first refined the program and concept in animated, sometimes intense, discussions. With the support of Ontario supplier Timber Systems, they toured

ABOVE The mass timber infill building includes a multi-level office space, topped by a half-dozen residential units. OPPOSITE The lot is sandwiched between an older multi-unit building and a daily meals and shelter charity.

a certified sustainable forest, the production mill, and several completed projects to absorb first-hand both the challenges and rewards of mass timber. As Comeau learned, any engineering calculations are impacted by the dimensions of product available, the species used, and how the members are glued, nailed or bolted together.

Office, residence and garden

The new building began with a three-storey office program. Given the tight housing situation in Halifax, seven residential units were integrated into the program on the fourth and fifth floors. Tenants and staff share the elevator and stairwells, fostering a diverse and congenial micro-community. This extends outside to the roof, too, conceived as an outdoor oasis for both the staff and residents. Vegetables and flowers are thoughtfully arranged in raised beds and nurtured by a professional gardener. Fitzgerald points out that “some people, who never brought lunches to work downtown, do now outside, on the roof.” In addition to the outdoor space being a visual respite from computer screens for the staff, it is also a valuable amenity for the residential tenants. A panoramic view of the blue Halifax Harbour to the east and comfortable outdoor furniture facilitate conversation.

Site logistics

The site itself is a 15-by-30-metre lot sandwiched between Souls Harbour Rescue Mission, a daily meals and shelter charity, and a older multi-unit apartment building. The FBM office takes up the entire width, but pulls back from the rear boundary to permit a sunken patio which, besides being accessed from the staff kitchen, allows ample light into the lower level. An overhang at the street articulates the glass façade, and sometimes even provides shelter for patrons of Souls Harbour as they line up for lunch.

As contractor Brainard Fitzgerald notes, the construction was slowed by the Covid pandemic’s arrival shortly after construction began, disrupting suppliers and personnel, and making costs unpredictable. The construction process was also complicated by building with zero-side yard setbacks, and little room at the front or back of the site. There was not a conventional lay-down area for materials: concrete formwork for the core circulation areas had to be disassembled and stored off-site, only to be brought back for each of the five levels. But he was pleasantly surprised by how robust and resilient the mass timber components were when assembled on site protection from mold, moisture and damage were manageable, and did not add significantly to the budget.

OPPOSITE The office’s lower-level kitchen and staff dining area opens onto a sunken patio. ABOVE The second storey of the open office space provides views into a canopy of trees at the rear of the site. Exposed mass timber columns, beams and ceilings contribute to the warmth of the space.

Because of very limited exposure at the sides, most natural light is harvested from the front north-facing and rear south-facing elevations. Full-height glazing provides abundant light to the three office floors, while bright interior walls and blond wood ceilings enhance the effect. Southern glare and heat gain are mitigated by blinds. The service and circulation functions are located along the two sides, keeping the plumbing, power and IT runs short and practical. Each conduit, light fixture and sprinkler location was detailed precisely to eliminate visual clutter on the walls and exposed glulam ceilings. With this keen attention to placement, the electrical and mechanical trades were alerted at the outset that the project was not businessas-usual. They responded with a hearty “can do!” attitude which elicited a heightened sense of pride in the work. The outcome is a work environment which is welcoming, light-filled, tidy and, indeed, inspirational to the firm’s designers.

Versatile workspace

During Schematic and Design Development stages, FBM employees had the opportunity for input, as they would be the eventual users. As a result, the workplace offers a diversity of options, with closed and open breakout rooms on each floor, and sit-stand desks throughout.

MATT REYNOLDS

The kitchen’s long table, sunken patio, and rooftop all provide informal spaces for dialogue and collegial brainstorming.

A decision was made early on to forego any parking places for staff and tenants, leaving only one spot for garbage pick-up, and one for visitors. Many of the residents walk or cycle to work, and there are multiple city transit stops nearby. FBM architect Greg Fry says: “The office has bike storage, a staff shower, and a plethora of great coffee shops in the neighbourhood. The new generation of talent demands an exceptional workplace experience, and the new FBM office helps us exceed those expectations.” Post-pandemic, several employees work from home, but the office is so inviting that it remains the preferred hub of activity for the firm.

The new office is a mass timber showcase visible from the street and also a showroom demonstrating its capability. Since occupancy, both new and former clients have been truly impressed by the value-add of capital-A architecture on display in this bright, well-appointed atelier.

Lessons learned

Speed of construction is one of the clear advantages of mass timber, but this was negatively affected by the concrete elevator shaft and fire exit stairwells. As each floor went up, the concrete formwork, rebar

placement and careful maneuvering so close to the neighbouring buildings delayed the other trades. The thick glulam floors were topped with concrete to meet fire-separation requirements, but Fitzgerald has since researched thinner solutions.

The final cost analysis showed that, for this project, mass timber compares well with concrete construction, and is more economical than a similar steel structure. With a new mass timber factory coming to the region in 2026, the team is hopeful that this construction method will gain momentum in Atlantic Canada. Presently, Fitzgerald is researching the use of mass timber in building affordable housing with the Dalhousie School of Architecture. Betting on mass timber, it appears, will be a winning proposition (knock on wood!).

T. E. Smith-Lamothe is an architect-artist whose firm, Architech, Ltd., is located in Halifax.

CLIENT CRAIG DAVIDSON | ARCHITECT TEAM SUSAN FITZGERALD,

ALICIA MCDOWELL, DANNY

GOODZ, BEN GRIFFITHS, PETER KOLODZIEJ, AMBER KILBORN, STAVROS KONDEAS, RITA WANG |

OPPOSITE A rooftop garden is an amenity for residential tenants, as well as providing a verdant refuge for staff at FBM’s offices. ABOVE The high-quality construction provides proof-of-concept for the viability of mass timber in Atlantic Canada, and points to possibilities for mixed-use, residential, and infill applications.

THE FOGO ISLAND EFFECT

REMOTE FOGO ISLAND IS BECOMING A HOTBED OF CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE.

PROJECT Eel Brook House, Fogo Island, Newfoundland

DESIGNER Kingman Brewster Studio

TEXT Michael Carroll

PHOTOS Alex Fradkin, unless otherwise noted

Designed by Todd Saunders with Sheppard Case Architects, the Fogo Island Inn recently marked a significant milestone its tenth anniversary. Over the past decade, both the Inn and Fogo Island Arts have become integral to the cultural, economic, and environmental fabric of this remote island (population 2,700) off the northeast coast of Newfoundland. Given that my family’s saltbox summer home is in Notre Dame Bay, about 15 nautical miles from Fogo, I’ve had the privilege of visiting the island on numerous occasions and observing how contemporary architecture has come to shape this place.

The Fogo Island project, spearheaded by Newfoundland native Zita Cobb’s Shorefast Foundation, has been transformative, injecting new life into the island’s economy and spurring real estate development. Its model is not dissimilar to other global examples where remote locations have embraced the arts and tourism to fuel redevelopment. Marfa, Texas, and Naoshima Island in Japan come to mind as places that I have visited and have also redefined themselves through the intersection of art, culture, and isolation.

ABOVE Kingman Brewster’s Eel Brook House is one of several contemporary contributions to the small town of Fogo Island, Newfoundland, that have appeared subsequent to the successful establishment of the Fogo Island Inn, seen in the distance to the right. BELOW, LEFT TO RIGHT Kingman Brewster’s Bangbelly Bistro repurposes an existing building; for J.K. Contemporary, the designer transformed a historic schoolhouse into a distinctly sculptural presence.

Marfa, once a sleepy military base near the U.S.-Mexico border, is now an internationally recognized art destination, largely thanks to the 1996 establishment of the Donald Judd Foundation. The town with its minimalist galleries, art installations, and hotels has attracted a creative community that has turned Marfa into a vibrant art colony. Similarly, Naoshima Island, located in the Seto Inland Sea of Japan, has evolved into a cultural hub, transformed from an industrial centre known for copper smelting, shipbuilding, and salt production. Home to just over 3,000 residents, Naoshima has drawn global attention with 10 projects by

JULIAN

Tadao Ando including the Benesse House art museum, Chichu Art Museum, and the upcoming Naoshima New Museum of Art. Together, these have made the island an architectural and cultural mecca.

Fogo Island, like Marfa and Naoshima, exists at the crossroads of the local and the global, the remote and the proximate, the vernacular and the contemporary. Tensions inevitably arise as locals and outsiders interact with the island’s distinct geography and culture, while the architecture rooted in tradition, but designed with an eye to the future acts as a mediator in this evolving dynamic.

Over the past several decades, rural Newfoundland has experienced profound changes. Many small outport villages, once thriving with local stores, post offices, small restaurants, gas stations and the like, have dwindled or disappeared altogether. In their place, larger urban centres with suburban box stores have grown. While Fogo Island has experienced some of this broader rural decline, the opening of the Inn and its associated cultural and commercial developments initially spurred hope for renewal. However, in recent years, some businesses that flourished in the Inn’s wake have closed.

On a trip to Fogo last summer, it was thus a delight to see several new developments on the island. All three projects that caught my eye the J.K. Contemporary Gallery, the Bangbelly Bistro, and the Eel Brook House were authored by a new local designer, Kingman Brewster. Brewster, who studied at Yale and Dalhousie University, moved from New York City to Fogo over a decade ago. As an architectural consultant to Shorefast, he led the design and construction of several key projects on the island. After Shorefast’s completion of the Orange Lodge, Fishingman’s Hall, and Punt Premises, he decided to continue to live on Fogo with his growing family, and establish a practice here.

The J.K. Contemporary is a discrete 24-foot cubic structure with a gable roof, perched on a rocky mount of land. The structure was originally built in 1840 as the St. George Anglican School; its renovation has transformed it into a distinctly contemporary building. From the road, the gallery appears as a looming sculptural structure, with its spruce clapboard walls painted black. The structure opens towards the west with a generous entry area and exterior deck. The east and west end gable walls are each punctuated with a porthole window a feature that echoes historic local buildings allowing shafts of sunlight to enter the tall gallery space.

The Bangbelly Bistro is named after a Newfoundland boiled pudding consisting of flour, molasses, soda, and seal-fat. It was founded by Ian Sheridan and Caitlyn Terry, who met working at the Fogo Island Inn. The restaurant, which occupies a renovated existing building, first opened in 2018, and has since expanded to include a take-out venue. The renovation features a large open room clad in white-painted wood boards, and adorned with a curated array of objects that create a contemporary yet historic atmosphere.

The most architectural of Kingman’s body of work to-date is the Eel Brook House. Situated along the main road of Joe Batt’s Arm, it adjoins a small stream that empties into the nearby harbour. The project’s owners, a professional couple from Boston, had visited the Fogo Island Inn on several occasions and had subsequently developed a deep connection to the people, the culture, and the rugged geography of the island. Inspired by the design of the Fogo Island Inn and studios, the couple commissioned Brewster to design them a home that would be both contemporary and contextual. The result is a structure composed of three pavilions, connected by two enclosed walkways and a wraparound deck.

JULIAN PARKINSON

OPPOSITE LEFT Eel Brook House’s composition is inspired by traditional Newfoundland homesteads composed of a main house with several outbuildings. OPPOSITE RIGHT Interior connections link between the pavilion-like volumes, while giving access to outdoor decks. TOP A salvaged barn door seals off a square-plan meditation room from the rest of the home. BELOW The living area offers views to the harbour and the North Atlantic beyond.

The home is inspired by traditional Newfoundland homesteads that were sometimes comprised of a main house and a series of outbuildings that included a store house, a wood house, an outhouse, and even a milk house where perishable items would be stored. In Kingman’s scheme, the east-most element is the “biscuit box” a two-storey, rectangular 17’x 24’ structure that contains a ground floor guest room, bathroom and utility room with a second-floor primary bedroom and ensuite bath. The centre “stage” structure, measuring 16’ x 40’, contains a large open room with expansive windows and sliding glass doors, allowing access to an expansive cedar deck, and views to the harbour and the North Atlantic beyond, where icebergs from Greenland are often sighted in the spring. This public room includes a kitchen, dining and living area. Built-in cabinetry along the entire south wall of the room includes a fireplace with sheet metal surround.

The third component of the house is the “shed” an 11’ x 11’ meditation and exercise room, one step down from a connecting bridge. It features a locally salvaged barn door mounted on a rolling track. When the door is closed, the room becomes cozily insular and removed from the rest of the house. Formally, it is the most experimental of the pavilions: with its flat roof, two small square windows facing the street, and a large, fixed glass unit facing the harbour. One can imagine the magical quality of this room during a storm, with the sea on the horizon or the drama of an aurora borealis, seen from both its windows and large overhead skylight.

Given the project’s proximity to the street, it feels very private upon entry. Openings along the street side have been limited to 30” square windows, and the two glass-lined bridges that connect the pavilions have been angled obliquely to limit any direct views inside. The house’s thermal and acoustic insulation is ensured by its triple-glazed Schüco

windows and its R-60 super-insulated walls. The exterior’s rainscreen, sourced from UAB Degmeda in Lithuania, is composed of shou-sugiban-style vertical spruce cladding mounted on battens. The fire-tempered boards meet the roof eaves cleanly, while zero-detailed window surrounds and minimalist exterior railings also contribute to an abstracted form that subtly contrasts with the local vernacular.

It is refreshing to think that, even in this remote part of the world, contemporary architecture is part of what makes a place feel grounded and real. Remote places like Fogo, Marfa and Naoshima and their ‘effects’ remind us that architecture can play a significant role in how we perceive and shape a place. If anything, the various architectural projects on Fogo Island are not merely about buildings but represent a dialogue about culture, community, and balancing local authenticity with global influences in an increasingly homogenized world. In this desire to seek out places that inspire, it is not surprising that two of Brewster’s most recent potential clients come from where else but Marfa, Texas. Just when you think you are in the middle of nowhere, the outside world comes knocking at your door.

Michael Carroll, NLAA is a registered Canadian architect based in Atlanta, where he is an Associate Professor of Architecture at Kennesaw State University.

ABOVE The house opens towards the shoreline, where its central structure is supported directly on the exposed bedrock. In contrast, glazing is limited on the street side to maintain privacy.

FORTY YEARS ON

REVISITING BANFF

CENTRE’S LEIGHTON ARTIST STUDIOS RAISES THE PERENNIAL QUESTION: HOW CAN ARCHITECTURE BEST SUPPORT ARTISTIC PRACTICE?

TEXT Haema Sivanesan

PHOTOS Rita Taylor, unless otherwise noted

The Leighton Artist Studios (originally the Leighton Artists’ Colony) at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity stands as a rare example of architecturally designed artist studios within a public institution. Opened in 1985, the original commission consisted of eight standalone studios, each designed by a different architect, and included retreats for writers, composers and visual artists. (Two additional studios were later added, one in 1988 and the other in 2009.) Forty years later, they remain actively used, and offer a vital exploration of how architecture can nurture the creative work of artists.

In 1983, at the height of a global recession, Banff Centre circulated a call for proposals among a prominent long-list of architects across Canada, soliciting “sensitive architectural solutions to the problem of designing a workspace which facilitates the creative processes of other artists.” Banff Centre leadership encouraged design concepts that were innovative and expressive, in addition to being functional and meeting the challenges of this unique site.

The architects selected for the commission were a veritable who’s who: Douglas Cardinal (Edmonton), Ian Davidson (Vancouver), Michael

Evamy (Calgary), Guy Gérin-Lajoie (Montreal), Peter Hemingway (Vancouver), Richard Henriquez (Vancouver), Ron Thom (Toronto), and Fred Valentine (Calgary). The group of studios they crafted would be named to honour David and Peggy Leighton. David Leighton was President of Banff Centre from 1970 to 1982. Together, they were a remarkable couple credited with turning Banff Centre into a yearround, world-class institution. As architectural critic Stephanie White commented at the time, the assigning of eight small buildings on one site to eight separate architects was “highly untraditional” but it demonstrated Banff Centre’s commitment to respecting “individual creativity and human need.” She noted further, “usually the need for buildings is perceived, but not the need for architecture,” remarking upon the design consideration given to the commissioning of these studios.

Writer’s retreats

The Leighton Artist Studios are set away from the more bustling areas of the Banff Centre campus in a secluded, forested area, entered by way of a simple timber-and-concrete footbridge designed by artist Les

AND

Cardinal’s design, intended to

shuts out external sound, and the

Michael Evamy’s drawing for the east elevation of his studio, designed for a writer.

Manning (c.1985, rebuilt in 2023). As a group of buildings, each studio is distinctive, but they appear cohesive as a group of small-scale, mostly wood constructions.

The design of the studios provides a snapshot of Canadian architecture at the time, and especially the influence of postmodernism. The studios reference an eclectic array of places and objects that communicate a concept of “retreat,” nodding to the cabin, lakehouse, cathedral, boat, and mountain, as well as to seashells and crystals.

Even within their modest footprints varying from 300 square feet for a writer’s studio to 600 square feet for a visual arts studio each studio delineates spaces of pause, spaces of movement, spaces for the imagination. The designs are not simply concerned with housing technical and material processes, but prioritize ideas of artistic labour that involve the mind, imagination and spirit. As a group, the studios explore and validate the solitary, behind-the-scenes processes that underlie much creative work.

For example, the circular floorplan of the Hemingway Studio, designed for writers, provides an elegant sense of containment and focus. Writers working in this studio comment on how the loftiness of the

conical ceiling above the primary workspace invites a heightened sense of thought, supporting concentration. A private outdoor deck offers a serene space for reading and contemplation. The kitchen and washroom amenities buffer noise from the entry side of the studio, creating a sense of threshold and providing privacy.

The Evamy Studio, also designed for a writer, is one of the more ambitious and eccentric designs. From the front elevation, the studio appears as a modest cabin. But the interior experience is one of being inside a glass crystal, with a complex prismatic roof arrayed with skylights. Angled windows positioned above and around the artist’s workspace create an immersive experience of the forest the space is anchored to the ground, yet open to the sky and sheltered by the trees. In a subtle way, the glazing organizes the studio interior, providing space for the many possible moods of the artist from stillness and respite, to restlessness, curiosity and wonder echoing different aspects of the creative process.

By contrast, the Henriquez Studio, also a writer’s studio, is a restored and re-purposed fishing boat mounted on a wooden cradle, with a pitched acrylic roof overhead. It is an idiosyncratic found object, re-framed

OPPOSITE

ABOVE LEFT Douglas

provide a studio for a composer, is a spiral palisade made of vertical logs.The geometry

space is often used by writers who appreciate its areas for concentration. RIGHT TOP An overall view of the Leighton Studios, with the Valentine Studio in the foreground. RIGHT BOTTOM

as architecture and presented in such a way as to offer novelty and inspiration. While the physical dimensions of the boat are constrained, this studio offers space for imagination: windows above the custom writing bench offer a sense of openness and possibility, a pull-out bunk opposite a small galley invites the writer to recline and read or dream. Deck chairs offer space in the sun.

Each of these writers’ studios deploys very different strategies to slow time, deter distraction, and support focus. Their interior furnishings regulate postures of the artist’s body at work, typically prioritizing various modes of sitting: on an office chair, couch or deckchair; working with eyes down or eyes straight ahead. Windows and skylights mediate the artist’s relationship to the outside world; natural light contributes towards creating atmospheres that suggest a frame of mind.

The Cardinal Studio was intended for a composer, but is often used by writers. It takes the form of a spiral palisade constructed of heavy vertical logs. It is almost entirely enclosed, save for southwest-facing, full-height windows providing views and light. Conceptually, the spiral form of the studio refers to a seashell, an introverted design that shuts out external noise and disperses internal sounds. However, this studio also has the feeling of a sweatlodge with its single-wide entry and sense of weighty enclosure. While Douglas Cardinal, the only Indigenous architect included in the commission, did not name the sweatlodge in his design, his unique vision and approach produces an almost cavelike interior experience, oriented towards the setting sun and protected from the harsh cold of the winters. Cardinal’s studio offers a counterpoint to the cabin-like, post-and-beam designs that are more prevalent among the Leighton Studios.

Painter’s light

A common theme throughout the architecture is the prioritization of introversion and privacy as necessary for an artist to be immersed in their work. Each studio is self-contained, with kitchenette and washroom. (Artists do not sleep in these studios; accommodations are provided elsewhere on campus). The main doors, windows and patios to each of the studios are oriented to face away from one another and away from the main path through the site further signaling withdrawal and retreat. The luxury of solitude combined with the quietness of nature creates spaces conducive to focused work spaces that allow the mind and imagination to flow freely without intrusion, distraction, judgement, or the pressure to present.

Two visual arts studios elaborate on these ideas. The Gerin-Lajoie Studio, with its high roofline that echoes the angles of nearby Rundle Mountain, is a relatively spacious studio whose design and layout anticipates use by a painter. A long wall with east-facing skylights provides an obvious vertical surface for canvas painting at large scale. A seating area opposite, beneath a picture window, provides light and viewing distance to step back, sit down and contemplate the day’s work. Although few visual artists today maintain a painting practice in the way that the architecture of this studio implies, the generous spatial volume and controlled light accommodates a range of visual arts and inter-disciplinary practices.

The Thom Studio, which draws on the typology of a lakehouse, also proves itself as an enduring studio design for visual artists, providing long walls and skylights for indirect north light. Its square floorplan allows flexibility for visual artists to organize the space in accordance with the needs of their practice, whether they are working across vertical and

horizontal surfaces or three-dimensionally, with sufficient viewing distance to assess works in progress. It also offers a feeling of centredness and stability, conducive to long periods of concentrated work. The understated interior arrangement of this studio maximizes studio space, with a narrow kitchenette and washroom at the front, and glass doors leading onto a small private porch at back, facing a narrow ravine where deer and elk often find shelter.

Composer’s studios

Two studios designed for composers complete the architectural commission. The Davidson Studio, with a small enclosed vestibule on the north side of the building, is organized on a diagonal, directing users of this studio towards framed views. It organizes amenities at the points of a star-shaped plan, maximizing floor space and providing flexibility of use. An offset entry vestibule adds to a sense of privacy, separating the main space of the studio from the front door.

The Valentine Studio, also for a composer or musician, nods to a larger Fred Valentine-designed building on campus that was designed almost concurrently the Jeanne and Peter Lougheed building, opened in 1988, housing Banff Centre’s new media studios and production facilities. Both of these buildings draw on the typology of a cathedral, with a gabled roofline supported by trusses and featuring clerestory windows. While the larger building includes studios and production facilities arranged over three floors around a central enclosed walkway, the Valentine Studio is organized along a nave and transept arrangement. The apse area of the cathedral-like plan is enclosed by floor-to-ceiling windows and comprises the primary workspace for the artist. This studio would seem to make a spiritual analogy between the idea of a church and the nature of an artist’s work, indicative of the reverence with which these studios were designed as special places for creative work.

Building for creativity, building for the future

What is common to each of these designs is a sensitivity and attunement to the introverted, mind-focused, idea-based nature of creative work, and thereby the need for spaces that support both concentration and inspiration. Each architect has brought their personality and creative expression to the interpretation of the brief, offering distinct ideas about what an artist is and the specific conditions that would nurture their work.

Sometimes these interpretations are limiting, but they reflect prevailing ideas and biases of the time. For example, it is necessary to point out the predominantly white, male view of art and architecture embodied by these buildings whereas the majority of today’s participants in Leighton Studio programs are women, and increasingly, Indigenous and racialized women who juggle simultaneously a range of artistic, professional and care-giving responsibilities. Also notable is the lack of discourse at the time about ideas of place and place-based typologies many of the architectural concepts presented in these designs refer to places other than Banff. The fields of art and architecture have changed in the past 40 years, and continue to need to change.

All the same and given that artists are increasingly working at their kitchen tables or sharing studio spaces in contexts of increasing rental precarity the Leighton Artist Studios refer to an understanding and valuing of what artists do, and the conditions needed to support creative work. A residency in one of these studios continues to be a deeply validating experience for artists, providing them with the space, time and solitude necessary to be fully immersed in their work, and to realize their creative potential.

Haema Sivanesan is Director, Leighton Artist Studios and Program Partnerships at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.

OPPOSITE The Evamy Studio’s dynamic prismatic geometry reflects the varied stages of the creative process. ABOVE, TOP TO BOTTOM The Henriquez Studio occupies a converted boat; the Thom Studio includes north-facing skylights; the circular Hemingway Studio offers a place of focus for writers.

ONTARIO PLACE: THE AUDITOR GENERAL’S REPORT

TEXT Elsa Lam

PHOTOS Steven Evans

SHELLEY SPENCE’S AUDIT REVEALS HOW THE REDEVELOPMENT WAS UNFAIRLY PROCURED, LACKS PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY, AND IS $1.8 BILLION OVER BUDGET.

On December 3, 2024, Ontario’s Auditor General, Shelley Spence, released her 2024 report, including a 117-page-long analysis of the Ontario Place Redevelopment, on Toronto’s waterfront. The project which includes a stadium-sized waterpark and spa by Austrian developer Therme, and expanded concert venue by Live Nation has elicited public concern related to its privatization of public space, environmental impacts, and procurement process. The planned redevelopment is also linked to the closure of the Ontario Science Centre, which the government plans to replace with a half-sized facility at Ontario Place.

Ballooning costs

The Auditor General’s office noted that the public cost of the Ontario Place redevelopment has ballooned from when the call was launched. While initially, the government anticipated spending $335 million to $424 million on the project, the total tally currently amounts to over $2.237 billion in taxpayer dollars.

Where did the extra $1.8 billion in costs come from? This bill includes the much-discussed parking garage, which was deemed a separate project in initial estimates. In the government’s leases with Therme and Live Nation, the Province has agreed to construct a 1,800-spot parking garage, with most of those spots reserved for the two tenants. While initial plans anticipated a five-storey below-grade

parking garage under the new Ontario Science Centre pavilion, the cost for such a structure has now been estimated by Infrastructure Ontario at over $1.3 billion dollars. Alternate parkade options will cost a minimum of $280 million.

The cost of a new Ontario Science Centre has also gone up nearly $400 million. The new estimates suggest that retaining, repairing, and renewing the existing Science Centre, designed by Raymond Moriyama, would be decisively more cost-effective than replacing it with a new facility.

More costs arise from an increase to the demolition bill on the West Island, and increase in costs for restoring the Pods and Cinesphere. The Auditor General notes that the original contract for repairs to the heritage structures was awarded via an RFP, but that when the work was delayed, the work was transferred to another contractor without an open procurement, and at a cost of $64 million, in addition to the $32.9 million already paid to the first contractor. That same second contractor was also sole-sourced for the contract for the West Island demolition, at a cost of $40.4 million (up from an initial estimate of $5-10 million).

The Province will also be on the hook for higher costs of site servicing and site preparation, which have doubled from $183.5 million in 2021 estimates to $391.9 in 2024. New costs also include contributing $25 million to the Therme shoreline and public realm, and over

$60 million to relocate two combined sewer outflows, one of which impacts Therme’s planned beach, and the other of which is expected to conflict with proposed underground construction.

According to the Auditor General, the government has spent $8.5 million on legal fees, related in part to defending itself from court applications related to the controversial development.

The biggest part of the added expenses is an increase to the costs of public realm development over $500 million for parks, paths, roads, facilities, and landscape at Ontario Place, up from having no budget in 2019, and an estimate of $50 million in 2021. This is, says the Auditor General, directly linked to the government’s decision to act as “master developer” for the site. But this role was not predetermined: in the Auditor General’s analysis, seven of the 10 comprehensive site-wide submissions from the Call for Development “included a design for the public realm, three of which included a provision to pay for the public realm.” Her office’s report also notes that “Seven included a parking solution, three of which included a provision to pay for parking.”

In deciding to select participants responsible for developing parts of the site (Therme, Live Nation, and outdoor activity provider Écorécreo, which has since withdrew from the project), rather than a single developer to take on the full site, the Province was also deciding to bear

PROJECTED TOTAL COSTS TO THE PROVINCE FOR THE ONTARIO PLACE REDEVELOPMENT, 2019, 2021 AND 2024

these extra costs. However, no estimates for this additional, significant work were prepared or presented to key decision makers. There will also be additional costs to maintain and operate these spaces.

This $2.237 billion in investments would, in theory, be offset by revenues from Therme. However, as the Auditor General has pointed out, the $1.1 billion in rent payments that the Province has cited is in nominal dollars, over a 95-year period. The present value that is, the concept of today’s dollars being worth more than tomorrow’s dollars because of inflation means that the near-century worth of rent payments is only worth about $163 million in today’s dollars.

Zooming out, it is worth taking a moment to consider the implicit promise of privatizing large sections of Ontario Place. Such a move was objectionable to many critics, but the government held fast to the idea that it would result in substantial savings to taxpayers maybe even, some might have expected, a free ride, or close to it. As it turns out, a privatized Ontario Place is not free: in addition to giving away this waterfront land, the Ontario Place Redevelopment puts Ontario taxpayers on the hook for over $2 billion.

The billion dollar parkade

The signed lease with Therme requires the Province to construct 1,600 parking spots for Therme within 650 metres from Therme’s entrance. The Auditor General’s report notes that the Province has also agreed to make 1,200 spots available to Live Nation, within 750 metres of its entrance. There is some overlap between the spots several hundred of the Therme spots will be ceded to Live Nation on concert nights but overall, the Province has agreed to build a 1,800-spot parkade.

Back in 2021, the plan was to create a five-storey underground parkade on the south side of Lakeshore Boulevard, up against Lake Ontario, with the relocated Ontario Science Centre on top of it. In fact, as the Auditor General’s office noted in a 2023 report, the relocation of the Ontario Science Centre itself was presented to key decision-makers as primarily to justify this site-wide parking solution.

We have now learned that Infrastructure Ontario’s total capital cost for a five-storey underground parkade, beneath the half-sized Science Centre, is over $1.3 billion. Value-engineering this to a four-storey parkade would still cost $975 million.

Infrastructure Ontario has, due to these high costs, turned to examining options for parking at Exhibition Place, across the street. The Rebuilding Ontario Place Act, passed as part of the New Deal for Toronto, gives the Province broad range to extract lands from the City that would enable the Ontario Place redevelopment, and parking arguably falls within this scope.

There are two large existing surface lots on the south side of Exhibition Place one just south of soccer stadium BMO Field, and one southeast of BMO field. The southeast lot has been approved for redevelopment as a 7,000-seat e-sports stadium, developed by OverActive Media and designed by Populous, making it an unsuitable candidate for a new parking facility.

The parking lot directly south of BMO field is key to Exhibition Place’s marquis event, the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) it houses the entirety of the midway as well as being part of the IndyCar Series (formerly the Molson Indy), during which it houses grandstands, general viewing areas, and vendors. It is also an essential staging and parking area for other conferences and events held at Exhibition Place. Therefore, any new parking on this site would need to be below-ground. Infrastructure has estimated the cost of a two-storey underground parkade here, providing some 2,125 spots, at over $800 million.

Infrastructure Ontario currently has two “recommended” options, which are less costly, to fulfill its parking obligations. The first is a four-storey above-ground parkade at Exhibition Place. Alternatively, they suggest

a single parking level below the new Ontario Science Centre, paired with a three-level above-ground parkade at Exhibition Place. These options are priced, respectively, at over $280 million, and over $400 million.

While no site is specified in the documents, there are two possibilities. Neither is perfect. One is a parkade on the land adjacent to the current Exhibition GO stop (and future Ontario Line Exhibition stop), where the CNE currently houses its kids’ midway. This would take up a potentially prime spot for future development or expansion of Exhibition Place. Moreover, while creating large park-and-ride facilities next to transit nodes may makes sense in the suburbs, it seems like an odd placement in this downtown location particularly as the parkade would not serve transit riders, but almost exclusively visitors to Therme and Live Nation.

The other would entail the demolition of Better Living Centre, a modernist structure designed by Marani, Morris & Allan in 1962. This would be closer to Lakeshore Boulevard, and the elevation change of the site (which sits higher than the road) would potentially conceal some of the parkade’s height. However, it would remove a heritage building, and a place which currently serves as a 300-bed, 24-hour respite centre in the winter.

The audit also includes a line item of over $60 million for a “last mile” connection between the Ontario Line terminus and Ontario Place presumably a connection that would also stop at the parkade, wherever it lands. A Metrolinx report, referenced in a consultant document about Exhibition Place, mentions options including a shuttle bus, autonomous vehicle shuttle (self-driving buses? a monorail?), and two possible routes for a gondola.

The Auditor General’s report does note that the Province would own the parking garage, and would therefore also collect revenues for it. Financially, the parking structure (exclusive of the last mile connection) would be expected to break even in 28-35 years. But, other investments such as in healthcare, education, and affordable housing also involve spending money now, and expecting net financial benefits in the future (such as from the benefits of a healthier and more educated population, better able to be productive members of society). Does investing hundreds of millions in a parkade make sense?

It would be fair to also ask whether this substantial investment in parking is justified given the proximity of Ontario Place to the expected terminus of the Ontario Line a major public transit node and the existing traffic congestion in this part of downtown Toronto. In short, Toronto drivers already know that Lakeshore Boulevard is a bumper-to-bumper traffic jam for most of the day. How will things look if we encourage and expect an additional 1,800 people to drive to this area each day?

Acceleration of work, early handover to Therme

While the Auditor General’s report has described the Call for Development process for Ontario Place as “not fair, transparent or accountable to all participants,” the government has held steadfast to its plans. Public management professor emeritus Sandford Borins has summed this up in a blog post he entitled “Ford to Auditor-General: Drop Dead.” “It is clear,” writes Borins, “that the Government is going to ignore the report.”

So if it’s full speed ahead for the Ontario Place redevelopment and for Therme’s waterpark, what can we expect to see in the months and years ahead?

Based on a review of e-mail correspondence, the Auditor General found that Infrastructure Ontario has been in active discussions since early 2024 to move the handover date up by 11 months, to May 31, 2025, from the original hand-off date of April 30, 2026.

“If the site is handed over to the tenant earlier, once Therme has obtained its excavation permit, it would eliminate the Province’s ability to terminate the lease for convenience,” notes the Auditor General.

Pulling out of the lease before the handover will carry a $30-million penalty. However, after the excavation permit is issued, pulling out would be near-impossible the Province would be required to provide a five-year notice period after 10 years of operations, and pay for the demolition and rebuilding of Therme’s facility at a different provincial site agreeable to the Austrian company.

While the government apparently gave Infrastructure Ontario direction “to terminate the exploration of early site handoff” on November 4, 2024, the work has likely already been completed to secure an early hand-off. Demolition on the West Island was sole-sourced, at an added expense of some $10 million or more the demolition cost $40.4 million, compared to initial estimates of $5 to $10 million and a later estimate of $31.5 million for this work.

Will Therme’s facility be a white elephant?

Public management professor emeritus Sandford Borins, whose analysis I referred to earlier, believes the Therme facility may “turn out to be a classic white elephant.”

This is based in part on the Auditor General’s notes that the proponent was selected with little scrutiny. Red flags about Therme Group’s finances were raised by a senior advisor at Infrastructure Ontario 12 days before the lease was signed, but were not addressed in the final lease.

The Auditor General notes that: “The lease between the Province of Ontario and Therme includes a financial test. The lease required Therme Group to have a net worth of $100 million. An examination by IO of Therme Group’s 2020 audited financial statements show that Therme had met this financial test per the lease requirements.”

However, when the senior advisor also looked at Therme Group’s 2019 statement, they noted that prior to December 31, 2019, Therme Group had an equity value of less than one million euros. This means that Cabinet, who approved the redevelopment approach on January 30, 2020, would have greenlighted engaging a company whose equity value was worryingly low at that time.

The Infrastructure Ontario advisor also noted that, based on both the 2019 and 2020 financial statements and despite meeting the financial test in the lease requirements the company was “not cash flow positive.”

In its submission, Therme presented six projects as evidence of its track record. No due diligence was done by Infrastructure Ontario if it was, it would have revealed that five of those six projects were not actually owned and operated by Therme at that time.

The amount of rent that the Province will receive is tied to the success of the project. The Province accepted Therme’s estimates of the number of visitors it expected 1.6 million visitors in Year 1, and up to 2.7 million visitors in Year 10 (an average of some 7,400 visitors per day) without any attempt at independent verification. A recent press release by Therme mentions that Therme Erding, which was recently acquired by Therme Group, welcomes some 1.8 million guests each year on a property that is seven times the size of the planned Ontario Place facility. This suggests that the Ontario Place facility will be either seven times more crowded that the Munich facility, or that the projected attendance of Therme’s Toronto facility may be significantly overestimated possibly by a factor of seven.

Regardless, even accepting Therme’s assumptions, the Auditor General estimates that Therme will break even on the project after 21 years, which Borins notes “is a long time” the classic profile of a “white elephant” which proves overly expensive to maintain, and is thus abandoned.

What will Therme really spend on the project?

Therme’s capital investment in the project may, in fact, be less than expected. When the lease was made public, a press release from the Province stated that Therme would be making $700 million in capital

investments, including $500 million to build the waterpark and spa facility, and $200 million going towards creating 16 acres of public space.

But in previous documents from 2019 to April 2024, Therme’s investment was expected to be half that amount $340 million on the facility, and only $10 million on the public realm, for a total of $350 million. Infrastructure Ontario says that on the day before the lease details were released, Therme confirmed the doubling of the overall estimate to $700 million an increase of 2,000% on the public realm costs, and 147% on the facility costs. But as the Auditor General notes, there is no contractual obligation with the government for Therme to invest any specific amount in the project, let alone $700 million.

While Therme’s 297-page lease is explicit about the amount it must spend in advertising ($7.5 million during its first six years of operation), it does not stipulate a minimum amount of capital investment that Therme must make in the project itself. “This contrasts with the Province’s lease agreement with Live Nation, which specifies a dollar amount as the minimum capital investment to be made by Live Nation,” the Auditor General notes.

Therme’s contract also obliges the Province to make a $25-million contribution to the bill for work on Therme’s shoreline and public realm.

Infrastructure Ontario’s ability to monitor the build overall, and ensure quality of construction, is undercut by the Rebuilding Ontario Place Act, one facet of which removes requirements for municipal permitting.

The number of jobs that Therme is expected to create has also gone down from 2022 estimates, from 3,290 to 2,000 during construction, and from 848 to 800 during operations. As Borins has noted, in Ontario’s current strong economy, these job numbers are, in any case, an illusion: “If people weren’t employed building and operating the spa, they would be employed doing other things.”

A “commercial village” in Therme-built public areas?

The public areas that Therme is constructing aren’t entirely public: the lease gives Therme the exclusive right to conduct commercial activity

and programming on up to 30% of these lands. Journalist John Lorinc has noted that the document gives Therme “considerable latitude to commercialize these areas beyond the walls of the spa building” and notes that “the province has thoughtfully indemnified Therme for anything that happens in these public areas that results in a lawsuit.”

The Auditor General’s report provides a hint at what these areas might end up looking like. In 2023, the Minister of Infrastructure’s Office directed Infrastructure Ontario to enter negotiations with Ontario Live, despite concerns about an earlier submission by the group, which has close links to Premier Doug Ford. These negotiations identified Ontario Live as the preferred partner for establishing food and beverage services, people-moving infrastructure, and other amenities on the East Island. While contract discussions with Ontario Live were curtailed this July possibly because of the upcoming Auditor General’s report there is nothing to prevent the group from reappearing as an operator of commercial spaces in Therme’s public areas.

It is plausible to imagine Ontario Live, or another group, constructing something similar to what Ontario Live originally proposed for the East Island, but now in the areas around Therme: a commercial development including “twelve restaurants, office space, and a marketplace, in addition to creating programming for special events.”

Collateral damage: the Ontario Science Centre

Even if the Auditor General’s office has questioned the value-for-money proposition of the relocation of the Ontario Science Centre both in its 2023 and now its 2024 report plans are continuing apace to move the storied institution to a half-sized new facility at Ontario Place.

The new price tag of over $700 million for a new Science Centre at Ontario Place results largely from scope changes which were known, but deliberately omitted from the initial business case created to justify the relocation of the institution. They include building a tunnel-andbridge connection to the Pods, the construction of a basement level with loading dock, and the need for excavation and structural founda-

tion work. To meet functional requirements for the Science Centre, the below-grade work will likely include a two-storey underground space that also accommodates a bus loop, as well as car drop-off, bus entry, and shipping/receiving for Therme.

The report notes that there was only a single bidder on the $5 million contract for a planning, design, and compliance consultant for the new Science Centre. Their Output Specifications document is expected to be completed by early 2025, and the RFP planned to be released to up to three vendors in January 2025, delayed from the original projected date in the RFQ of Fall 2024.

While the government has stated in the past that a new Science Centre at Ontario Place would open “as early as 2028,” it has now told the Auditor General that the new building is expected to open in 2029. The RFP for a temporary location suggests that a new Science Centre may not be ready until some time after that as late as 2034.

That temporary location for the Ontario Science Centre, which the government had promised to secure quickly, has not been publicly announced. A memo to Science Centre employees indicated that it may be selecting a conference facility in Mississauga. Meanwhile, the presence of the Science Centre is currently limited to temporary pop-ups at Harbourfront Centre and shopping mall Sherway Gardens.

The ballooning costs for a new Science Centre supports the commonsense conclusion that renewing the legacy location of the Ontario Science Centre would be far more cost-effective than relocating it to Ontario Place.

Continued environmental destruction at Ontario Place

A 2022 arborist report prepared for Infrastructure Ontario anticipated that while the Therme project would entail the removal of all trees on the West Island, 25% of the overall trees at Ontario Place would be protected. But as of October 2024, the audit notes, 1,491 trees have been removed from Ontario Place, and the Province is planning to remove an additional 298 trees. “Only 149 trees (or 8% of the original tree inventory at Ontario Place) will be conserved on the site,” the report notes.

Most of the Auditor General’s recommendations were accepted by the government, but these largely consisted of pledges to improve procurement practices in the future. The government rejected the sole recommendation concerning the current Ontario Place project a recommendation that it implement mitigation measure identified in a draft 2023 Heritage Impact Assessment report. In its response, the Ministry of Infrastructure curtly notes the site is “exempt from the Ontario Heritage Act.”

The recommendations of the draft 2023 Heritage Impact Assessment report seem to be relatively modest in the scope of a $2.2 billion project, but based on the government’s response, we should not expect to see them implemented as a matter of course. Those recommendations included site-wide native planting and new landscape features, such as berms, to address the removal of extant vegetation, trees and landscape features. The report also recommended a new pathway system to improve accessibility, support pedestrian circulation and address the removal of the extant pathway system, and new pathway nodes and plazas with vantage points for views, to address the removal of vantage points within the extant pathway system and the obstruction of views by new buildings. The assessment report additionally called for new aquatic habitat and boardwalks to create the opportunity for close-range experiences of water and mitigate the removal of the extant waterbodies, and new accessory structures that interpret the design and history of Ontario Place to address the removal of extant buildings.

The continued redevelopment of Ontario Place

The construction of Therme’s stadium-sized waterpark, the doubling in size of Live Nation’s concert venue, and the relocation of the Ontario Science Centre are considered to be the first phase of the redevelop-

ment of Ontario Place. The Auditor General’s report also notes that a second phase is planned. In a May 2020 Treasury board submission, the Ministry of Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Culture Industries noted that “The approach to Phase 2 is currently under consideration and contemplates the development of a large-scale entertainment destination on a portion of the East Island and mainland.”

A second phase of privatization would, like the first phase, entail considerable public investment and more environmental damage. The Auditor General’s report notes that in an earlier briefing to the same ministry and to the Premier’s office, Infrastructure Ontario “stated that the government would be responsible for lagoon in-fill on the East Island for a larger-scale tenant for the future phase.”

What could such a development look like? One possibility and perhaps even the eventual developer that will be selected is hinted at in the Auditor General’s report. One of the applicants proposing a comprehensive development on the Ontario Place site as a whole was a company called Triple Five. Triple Five initially received a low score in all categories of evaluation and was noted as having “Insufficient Information Provided to Assess.” But after the consensus evaluation meeting, a VP from Infrastructure Ontario reached out to Big Five to request clarification on submission details, and exchanged a series of further e-mails and phone calls with them a process that was not pursued for any of the other 10 participants who had similarly provided “Insufficient Information to Assess.” Triple Five resubmitted their presentation 70 days after the deadline, receiving revised higher scores.

Triple Five is a company that, according to its website, “has developed, owns, and manages the world’s first, second and third largest tourism, retail and entertainment complexes of its kind,” including the West Edmonton Mall, Mall of America, and the American Dream indoor amusement park and luxury shopping mall.

Will the Phase 2 addition to Ontario Place be an outpost of the West Edmonton Mall? The Ministerial Zoning Order for the property only explicitly prohibits “residential, hotel, and casino uses” and in fact lists “retail stores” and “eating establishments” as permitted uses.

Following the money

As mentioned earlier, the day before the lease was released, Therme apparently confirmed with Infrastructure Ontario that they would be spending $700 million on their project up from the $350 million stated in their Call for Development submissions and in subsequent documents dating from 2019 to 2024. This included a projected

spend of $200 million on public realm work up from $10 million in previous documents an astounding increase of 2,000%.

This may be, at least in part, an effort to conceal the direct subsidy that the Province is providing to Therme for the construction of these park areas. In addition to constructing a parkade whose spots will be mostly reserved for Therme (over $280 M), demolishing the West Island’s buildings and trees ($40.4 M), and completing site servicing of Ontario Place as a whole ($391.9 M), the Province is contractually obliged to provide an additional $25 million in direct subsidies to Therme’s construction work $10 million for its public realm, and $15 million for its shoreline work.

As the Auditor General noted, there is no stipulated minimum spend for construction by Therme in its 297-page contract, so whatever figures are released publicly are of no material consequence to Therme’s actual construction budget.

However, Therme’s original projected spend of $10 million on public realm certainly would have raised eyebrows when the lease revealed a $10 million public subsidy that conveniently offset that amount and on top of that, showed that the Province was contributing $15 million towards Therme’s shoreline work. This directly contradicts public claims, by the Province and Therme, that the Therme deal was justified in part by the Austrian company paying out of its own pocket for the construction of public parkland. The announcement that Therme is now, supposedly, spending $200 million on parks and public land conveniently conceals the $25 million public subsidy, and restores the narrative that Therme is paying for public parklands, even if the truth may turn out differently. Is a similar narrative twist in the works for East Island? Infrastructure Ontario has stated that its current estimate for the public realm at Ontario Place is now $500 million, up from its $50 million estimate three years ago. It told the auditor general’s office that “early estimates prior to a fixed design may have reflected early concepts including a basic park of Trillium Park level of design” and that “estimates may not have taken into consideration the considerable site rehabilitation requirements.”

However, the majority of site rehabilitation requirements including soil rehabilitation, shoreline reconstruction, and even the construction of roads are accounted for in separate line items. The $500-million budget amounts to some $18 million per acre, or $413 per square foot. At this price, the entirety of the public realm could be paved in highend Italian marble. By comparison, the rehabilitation of Toronto’s Portlands amounted to approximately $1.5 million per acre, the construction of Trillium Park (including the raising of the land by a metre) cost around $4 million per acre, and the construction of Corktown Common (including the raising of the land to create a 8.5-metre-high flood protection berm) cost around $7.5 million per acre.

I do not intend to discourage spending on public space, but the number appears to be very large. This raises the question: Has the number been inflated to set the stage for the further privatization of Ontario Place? It is conceivable that the Phase 2 development and privatization of East Island will entail an arrangement similar to that between the Province and Therme: giving a new partner free rein on a large portion of land, in return for offsetting the cost of building something akin to privately owned public space even if that cost-transfer may, ultimately, be an illusion.

An irregular assessment process

How was Therme selected to construct a waterpark at Ontario Place at all? The assessment process, in the Auditor General’s summary, “was irregular, subjective, and not always followed.”

“We found that the CFD [Call for Development] process and realty decisions were not fair, transparent or accountable to all participants as would be required by the Realty Direction, the CFD document, and best practices,” writes Spence.

The report points to how, for example, “despite published guidance that contact with government officials was prohibited during the open period, some participants were invited to meet with government officials and high-ranking political staff during the CFD open period.” These communications included nine e-mails and one call between a Vice President at Infrastructure Ontario and Therme’s legal counsel, an introduction of Therme to the transaction advisor leading the Call for Development, and an invitation to an event at the legal counsel’s firm. Minutes of these meetings as well as separate meetings between the VP and other participants were not kept, so there is no way to know what was discussed, let alone assess whether all participants had equal access to the same information.

Rather than following the Province’s standard procurement law, directives, or best practices, the 2019 Call for Development, as well as an earlier call in 2017, were categorized as real estate transactions. This is unusual other large waterfront developments, in both Ontario and abroad, have proceeded as procurements. In any case, the current process also did not meet the lesser requirements of the Realty Directive, which strives for accountability and transparency. As a result of terms and conditions with considerable ambiguity (for instance, “The Government may select one, none or multiple submissions as part of the process”), a few participants did not invest a significant amount of time and resources into their submissions, sending in a one-page response.

There were many instances where the guidelines outlined in the Call for Development document were not followed. The process used a qualitative scoring framework, with criteria that were not finalized until after the submission deadline with the result that a third of the criteria would have been unknown to submitters. Criteria were not assigned relative weights, leading to uneven scoring. In many cases, individual assessors’ scores were very different from each other not unusual in itself but after a consensus meeting that sought to reconcile those scores, some scores were altered two subsequent times. One assessor did not score any of the criteria for Therme prior to the consensus meeting. The process did not include a fairness monitor, whose job as an independent third party involves ensuring that the advertised process is followed, and all parties are treated fairly and equally.

In some cases, proponents were selected for a short list or further discussions despite ranking lower than others. Due diligence meetings, in which Infrastructure Ontario sought to clarify information or confirm assumptions in submissions, were conducted with only six of the 34 participants.

One of the biggest procedural missteps is that the Call for Developments envisioned two different types of bids: some that would present a comprehensive site-wide solution, and another scenario with multiple single tenants. “The same criteria were used to score these vastly different solutions,” notes the report.

The social and environmental costs of redevelopment were not considered in the redevelopment, either. As critics have long noted, there was no input sought from the public until after the tenants had already been announced. In the 17 consultations held afterwards, a key sentiment, according to Infrastructure Ontario’s own reporting, was “why now and what’s the purpose; why [wasn’t the] public consulted on partner selection.”

“Between September 2019 and June 2024, the government has spent $8.5 million on legal fees associated with the 2019 CFD, MZO, lease negotiations and associated work,” Spence’s report notes. “Taking what the public wanted into consideration from the beginning would have made the process more open and transparent to the public and could have prevented many of the issues, lawsuits, media attention, etc. that have occurred.”

Bahá’í House of Worship

By Joe Carter and Nooshfar Afnan (George Ronald Publisher, 2022)

This book tells the story of the architectural design and construction of the worldwide Bahá’í Temples, or Houses of Worship. The Bahá’í global community believes in the unity of all religions, and has constructed eight continental Houses of Worship, open to all, on each continent.

Remarkably, four of these Temples were designed by Canadian architects: the Temple located in Chicago by Louis Bourgeois, the Temple in Samoa by Hossein Amanat, the temple in Delhi, India, by Fariborz Sahba, and the Temple in Santiago, Chile, by Siamak Hariri of Hariri Pontarini Architects. While Canadian architects’ involvement is not an explicit focus of this book, the story of these noteworthy structures is well-documented in this handsome volume.

Louis Bourgeois was born in St. Célestin de Nicolet, Quebec, of Acadian ancestry. Bourgeois’ Wilmette House of Worship was conceived in 1903 and completed in 1953. Vancouver-based Iranian-Canadian architect Hossein Amanat, in addition to the Samoa Temple, designed three buildings at the Bahá’í World Center in Haifa, Israel, as well as the shrine of Abdul-Baha, now under construction in Acre, Israel.

Iranian-Canadian architect Fariborz Sabha was asked to design the Bahá’í Temple in Delhi while in his late twenties. Wishing to create a building that would resonate with the region’s rich cultural heritage, he modelled the building as an abstracted lotus flower. Following the building’s dedication in 1986, Arthur Erickson remarked that the Temple was “one

of the most remarkable achievements of our time, proving that the drive and vision of spirit can achieve miracles.” Sahba also designed the terraces ascending Mount Carmel in Haifa, at the Bahá’í World Center. The terraces punctuate a giant staircase located above and below the Shrine of the Bab which itself was designed by Montreal architect Sutherland Maxwell.

Siamak Hariri led the design of the most recent of the Bahá’í Houses of Worship, perched on the foothills of the Andes in South America. Inspired by the universal experience of light, Hariri sought to create a glowing “temple of light,” welcoming to people of all faiths. His design honours Bourgeois’s temple in Chicago, where a glass dome is clad inside and out with pierced precast.

Casa Loma: Millionaires, Medievalism, and Modernity in Toronto’s Gilded Age

Edited by Matthew M. Reeve and Michael Windover (MQUP, 2023)

REVIEW Jason Brijraj

Casa Loma’s complex relationship with the past has long made documenting its history a difficult task. Extended periods in a derelict state, numerous changes of management, and poor record-keeping have all conspired towards the building’s story remaining piecemeal. Matthew Reeves, Michael Windover, and several contributing authors have finally given Toronto’s famous castle the comprehensive, scholarly attention it has long deserved.

Opening chapters highlight the context informing the castle’s conception in the early 1900s, and emphasize the design approach of its patron, Sir Henry Pellatt founder of the

Toronto Electric Light Company and an early investor in the Canadian Pacific Railroad and the North West Land Company, and builder of Canada’s first hydro-generating plant at Niagara Falls and Canadian architect E.J. Lennox. Adorned with battlements and equipped with secret passageways, their creation paid homage to Europe’s castles.

In its early years, Sir Henry Pellatt and Lady Pellatt used their home to host extravagant military and arts events for the wealthy, who strived for associations with British imperialism, at a time when the city was becoming increasingly independent and modern.

The book then turns to the history of the castle from 1920 to the present day. A particularly noteworthy discussion examines the many failed plans for the castle throughout its life, including proposals to develop it as a war museum and art gallery, and to expand it as a high-end hotel.

As a whole, the book documents the gradual transition of Casa Loma from being the city’s preeminent private address playing host to the elite few, to a now popular quasi-public event venue and tourist attraction. Special attention to the changing social, cultural and political factors informing the city and its relationship with the castle underpin the story. In this way, the book also documents the development of a nation originally anxious with its British roots at the turn of the 19th century to one that has comfortably grown into its own, as reflected by its architecture, over a hundred years later.

Wonderfully illustrated with rare drawings and perspectives, Casa Loma is a thorough look at an eclectic architectural icon of Toronto a relic from the last moments of Old World aristocracy in Toronto, and a place that remains a curiosity as the city around it continues to outgrow its past.

The Story of Upfront Carbon

By Lloyd Alter (New Society Publishers, 2024)

Canadian architect-turned-developer-turnedwriter Lloyd Alter’s recent book looks at the importance of embodied carbon or in his term, upfront carbon in everything from buildings to shoes. Designs that minimize upfront carbon are key to reducing impact, but ultimately what is needed is a global turn towards sufficiency essentially, using less stuff. “Unlike operating carbon emissions, where efficiency rules, dealing with upfront carbon emissions is all about sufficiency, about using less of everything, because everything has a footprint,” writes Alter.

Rather than implying rationing and sacrifice, the book proposes beneficial societal changes: living in right-sized, well-built homes; adopting the Italian model of walking to a neighbourhood coffee bar for a quick espresso in a ceramic cup, rather than idling at a drivethrough line for a disposable cup. A society that embraces sufficiency, writes Alter, “is a positive picture of healthy, resilient living where everyone has enough of what they need.”

Alison Brooks Architects

By Alison Brooks (TC Cuadernos, 2024)

This monograph charts 18 built works by Canadian ex-pat Alison Brooks, ranging from single-family homes to masterplans. The selection includes Brooks’s recently completed Cohen Quadrangle (the first Oxford College to be designed by a female architect), and Windward House in Gloucester, UK, which was selected as RIBA’s 2021 House of the

Year. Brooks is the only UK architect to have received all four of the RIBA’s most prestigious architectural awards: the Stirling Prize, the Manser Medal (twice), RIBA House of the Year, and the Stephen Lawrence Prize.

An Alliterative Lexicon of Architectural Memories

By Alberto Pérez-Gómez (Rightangle

International, 2024)

REVIEW Graham Livesey

In his latest work, architectural historian and theoretician Alberto Pérez-Gómez has employed dictionary definitions, autobiographical musings, and poetic fantasies to create a compendium on meaning in architecture. The two volumes are also an excursion through many architectural sites that Pérez-Gómez has visited over his career.

In a brief introduction, Pérez-Gómez notes that the books were a transitional project, following his retirement from McGill. Using James Stevens Curl’s Oxford Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (2000) as a starting point, he selected a personal set of architectural terms to explore. The resulting tomes are expansive and hopeful, full of carefully remembered experiences and references to the roles of sensuality, imagination, and history in architectural making. When it comes to architectural language, the vocabulary abounds. Pérez-Gómez’s lexicon includes exotic terms from the classical and medieval eras like apadana, encarpus, fleuron, hypogeum, loculus, modillion, perron, serliana, and telamon. The volumes also include a much smaller number of terms from the modernist era, such as béton, bun-

ker, Deconstructivism, Functionalism, grid, hyperbolic paraboloid, piloti, shopping centre, skyscraper, and whiplash.

Small photographs accompany the entries, which are framed by Pérez-Gómez’s abiding commitment to phenomenology, surrealism, and hermeneutics. Ultimately, they are a summation of Pérez-Gómez’s thoughts about architecture, from the present to the past, from the near to the far, from the little to the big. Describing the word “architecture” itself, he writes: “Architecture is an atmosphere that advances knowledge of the good and beautiful through cognitive feeling, the ancient crosssensory aesthésis, while at the same time providing an appropriate and alluring ambience for the events of life as lived, bringing real understanding to embodied consciousness…”

The texts invite the reader to meander through time, space, and meaning. As PérezGómez demonstrates, architecture has a rich history of terms specific to the discipline, and architecture, among many other functions, always participates in language. The question is: is the language employed rich or poor? The books remind us that the continuing education of an architect demands that the precise languages of architecture be learned, in order to create coherence, legibility, and vitality.

This late career gift to architecture underscores how lucky Canada has been to have Pérez-Gómez the highest calibre of educator, speaker, thinker, and writer inhabiting its spaces for so many years. The significance of Pérez-Gómez’s achievements was appropriately acknowledged when he received the Order of Canada in 2022. The two books are a trove of erudition and memories from a life passionately devoted to architecture and all that it encompasses: the culmination of a lifelong quest for eloquent architecture.

BACKPAGE

BEING THERE

TEXT Peter Sealy

A

NEW EXHIBITION UNVEILS PHOTOS FROM ERICKSON’S TRAVELS.

Upon arriving in Tokyo in 1961, Arthur Erickson purchased a Mamiya Flex C2 twin lens reflex camera and a Sekonic light meter, instruments which became central to his study of Japanese buildings and landscapes. For Erickson, photography offered a crucial tool for developing and later communicating many of his key ideas about architecture’s interplay with landscape.

Currently on view at the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal, Being There presents photographs taken by Erickson during his travels in Japan and Southeast Asia, as well as an earlier journey around the Mediterranean in 1950–52. Curated by McGill professor David Covo with the CCA’s Laura Aparicio Llorente, Being There helps us to understand how Erickson travelled: both what he sought and what he found in his formative journeys. Erickson understood Japanese architecture supremely well before his travels, but he also knew he could not truly grasp what made it unique without a “prolonged study of the site itself.”

For Covo, the camera neither distanced nor objectified Erickson’s experiences. Instead, it brought the young architect into closer contact with the places he visited. Moving the

Mamiya to and fro as he framed his two-anda-half-inch square images, together with the need to bring the light meter close to those surfaces he wished to capture, produced a ritual which structured Erickson’s site visits and allowed him to better assimilate learnings from them. Buildings are always shown as fully integrated with their natural settings; in other cases, the traces of human endeavour (such as the footpaths in a photograph taken at the Katsura Imperial Villa) register as unobtrusive presences within their landscapes. These images many of which were rediscovered by Covo in collections across Canada are presented in a series of mesmeric slideshows, in which the architect’s vision flickers before the visitor’s eyes.

Given Erickson’s youthful talent as a painter, it is surprising that the exhibition features few drawings. In fact, it is uncertain if Erickson sketched much during his travels. However, two sketches showing villages in the south of France encapsulate the same compositional ideas as Erickson’s photographs. In both, buildings recede into the distance, while landscape fills the foreground. Just as Erickson did

ABOVE Arthur Erickson’s slides from travels to Bali, Indonesia, ca. 1970s, and to the Kinkaku-ji Temple, Kyoto, ca. 1961.

not avail himself of a zoom lens for his photographs, his sketching eye gazed forward without any urge to unduly crop surroundings. While ostensibly a photography exhibition, the show’s focus is equally textual. Covo has pored over Erickson’s voluminous correspondence (nearly 25,000 words) sent from Japan to his parents and to McGill professor Gordon Webber, and selected key letters for display. These missives formed the basis of Erickson’s future lectures and articles on Japanese architecture. Describing Katsura to Webber, Erickson claimed it to be “misread, misrepresented in practically every coverage of it so I shall do it again and contribute to the damage that publicity has brought to Japanese architecture.” Whether or not Erickson’s photographs truly captured the buildings they depict, Being There offers us a privileged window into the architect’s own creative imagination.

Architectural historian Peter Sealy is an Assistant Professor at the Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto. Being There: Photography in Arthur Erickson’s Travel Diaries is on display at the CCA until March 16, 2025.