Canadian Architect May 2023

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Photo: alanblakely.com

06 NEWS St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts winning design announced; RAIC College welcomes new Fellows and Honorary Fellows.

16 GOLD MEDAL CLAUDE PROVENCHER

50 BACKPAGE

Hadani Ditmars visits Polymétis’ landscape-inspired artwork in Richmond, BC.

COVER Montréal Tower—Olympic Park renovation by Provencher_ Roy. Photo by Olivier Blouin.

VIEWPOINT

Editor Elsa Lam on levelling the playing field for mothers working in architecture.

BROUILLARD, CCA

26 Architectural Practice Award: Patkau Architects

42 Advocate for Architecture Award: Carol Bélanger

33 Emerging Architectural Practice Award: SOCA

44 Advocate for Architecture Award: Kollectif

36 Emerging Architectural Practice Award: Fathom

46 Architectural Journalism and Media Award: Towards Home

38 Research & Innovation Award: Limberlost Place

48 Architectural Journalism and Media Award: Dalhousie Architectural Press

MOTHER’S DAY

When my mother graduated from McGill’s School of Architecture in 1973, her class set a record for the number of women that convocated. From the 60 students that started with her, 43 finished the degree; of those, nine 21 percent were women.

Women’s rights in Canada, particularly the rights of mothers, were still nascent at that time. Until 1971, Manitoba fired women municipal employees who married; pregnancy was considered a valid basis for layoff or dismissal in the Canada Labour Code until 1978. Two years after that, Public Service Alliance of Canada workers for the federal government went on strike for better maternity leave provisions, resulting in an increase from six weeks to three months of leave after having a child. (This came too late for my mother, who was working in property management for the federal government when she had me.)

It was a hard time for women to make their way in architecture a field dominated by male architects. And although things have improved, there is still much progress to be made. In 1975, women earned 60 cents for each dollar made by men. As of 2019, accounting for wages, salaries and commissions, Canadian women still made just 71 cents to every dollar earned by Canadian men. While women now match (or outnumber) men in architecture classes, as they do in pursuing university degrees in general, the pay gap persists: Canadian women who graduate with a bachelor’s degree earn an average of $69,063 annually, while men with a bachelor’s earn $97,761.

Parental leave benefits in Canada are luxurious compared to what’s available in the United States. But for many households, earning a maximum of $390 a week over 18 months means a sharp tightening of household budgets particularly if a young family is living in a city with unaffordable housing relative to average household earnings, like Toronto or Vancouver.

Added to this are concerns about career advancement, in a field where internship and studying for licensing exams is a major undertaking. For many women in architecture, it can make for challenging decisions about when and even if to start a family.

To Canada’s credit, there is continual progress being made in parental benefits. When I had my child about six years ago, my husband took six months of unpaid paternity leave a decision unprecedented in the architecture firm where he worked. Now, federal parental leave is mandated to be shared between the two parents with a “use it or lose it” five weeks reserved for the second parent (in most cases, the father). This has lasting benefits for the family, and for the mother: men who take paternity leave are more likely to be involved in childcare in the future.

Organizations such as Building Equity in Architecture Toronto (BEAT) are also helping to level the playing field, by creating community-building, networking, and mentorship opportunities focused on women. I sit on BEAT’s advisory committee, and according to its mission statement, the volunteer-run organization “believe[s] that empowering women in the design community improves and enriches the practice of architecture, the quality of the built environment, and ultimately, the human experience.”

“My women architect friends, they all worked hard,” my mother told me. Of her classmates, three started their own practices and one became an executive in a large international firm. As a women, and a mother, I’m now privileged to have greater access to opportunities in the world of architecture, built largely on the success of these and other women of my mother’s generation. So this one’s for you, mom: happy Mother’s Day.

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LEFT A painting of editor Elsa Lam as a baby, made by her mother, Rosalie Lam.

Introducing Pietra Kode: the Italian stones of yesteryear recoded by DEKTON for contemporary architecture and design.

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PROJECTS

St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts design competition winner announced

Hariri Pontarini Architects, LMN A rchitects, Tawaw Architecture Collective, Smoke Architecture, and SLA have been announced as the winning team for the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts (STLC) design competition.

The winning design to reimagine the STLC  is called Transparence, and features a high-performance transparent façade that wraps the existing structure, a landmark performing arts theatre in the heart of Toronto’s St. Lawrence neighbourhood.

Many aspects of the design allude to Indigenous traditions, including an exterior inspired by the role of Wampum belts in storytelling, artistry and craft, and a circular ceremonial fire at Front and Scott Streets.

The new STLC is composed of the main stage theatre, acoustic hall, rehearsal/multipurpose rooms, artist-in-residence studios, media studios, child minding space, front-ofhouse public spaces, front-of-house support, back-of-house, outdoor spaces and significant improvements to the public realm.

Five shortlisted design teams publicly presented their designs at the STLC on Tuesday, March 7 to more than 300 attendees in the venue’s Jane Mallett Theatre and a further 600 who participated online. The design sub-

missions were judged by the jury on March 8. The winning submission will be presented to the Executive Committee and Toronto City Council in Q3, 2023. stlcnext.org

ABOVE Hariri Pontarini Architects, LMN Architects, Tawaw Collective, Smoke Architecture, and SLA’s competition-winning design for Toronto’s St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts includes an exterior inspired by the role of Wampum belts in storytelling and artistry.

AWARDS

Pritzker Prize awarded to British architect David Chipperfield

Civic architect, urban planner and activist, Sir David Alan Chipperfield has been selected as the 2023 Laureate of The Pritzker Architecture Prize.

Chipperfield’s built works, spanning over four decades, are expansive in typology and geography, including over one hundred works ranging from civic, cultural and academic buildings to residences and urban masterplanning throughout Asia, Europe and North America.

The 2023 Jury Citation of the Laureate, states, in part, “This commitment to an architecture of understated but transformative civic presence and the definition even through private commissions of the public realm, is done always with austerity, avoiding unnecessary moves and steering clear of trends and fashions, all of which is a most relevant message to our contemporary society. Such a capacity to distill and perform meditated design operations is a dimension of sustainability that has not been obvious

in recent years: sustainability as pertinence not only eliminates the superfluous, but is also the first step to creating structures able to last, physically and culturally.”

Notable works include the James-SimonGalerie (Berlin, Germany, 2018), Neues Museum (Berlin, Germany, 2009), restoration and reinvention of the Procuratie Vecchie (Venice, Italy, 2022), America’s Cup Building ‘Veles e Vents’ (Valencia, Spain, 2006), Morland Mixité Capitale (Paris, France, 2022), headquarters for Amorepacific (Seoul, Republic of Korea, 2017), and Inagawa Cemetery Chapel and Visitor Center (Hyogo, Japan, 2017). Other significant works include the River and Rowing Museum (Henley-on-Thames, United Kingdom, 1997), BBC S cotland headquarters (Glasgow, United Kingdom, 2007), Turner Contemporary (Margate, United Kingdom, 2011), Campus Saint Louis Art Museum (Missouri, United States of America, 2013), Campus Joachimstraße (Berlin, Germany, 2013), Museo Jumex (Mexico City, Mexico, 2013), One Pancras Square (London, United Kingdom, 2013), Royal Academy of Arts masterplan (London, United Kingdom, 2018), Hoxton Press

(London, United Kingdom, 2018) and Kunsthaus Zürich (Zurich, Switzerland, 2020).

“I am so overwhelmed to receive this extraordinary honour and to be associated with the previous recipients who have all given so much inspiration to the profession,” remarked Chipperfield. “I take this award as an encouragement to continue to direct my attention not only to the substance of architecture and its meaning, but also to the contribution that we can make as architects to address the existential challenges of climate change and societal inequality. We know that, as architects, we can have a more prominent and engaged role in creating not only a more beautiful world, but a fairer and more sustainable one, too. We must rise to this challenge and help inspire the next generation to embrace this responsibility with vision and courage.”

Chipperfield is the 52nd Laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize. He resides in London and leads additional offices in Berlin, Milan, Shanghai and Santiago de Compostela. The 2023 Pritzker Prize ceremony will be held in Athens, Greece, this May. www.pritzkerprize.com

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All of our architectural products serve a distinct, functional purpose–from louvers to wall coverings to every detail we perfect–like our entrance mats and grids in the JPMorgan Chase Tower lobby. At the same time, we never lose sight of the effect a building has on people. The inspiration it provides. The satisfaction it brings. For 70 years, we’ve based our success on the idea that putting people first is the foundation for building better buildings. And, for 70 years, our partners have depended on us for architectural product solutions. Are you ready to think beyond the building with us? Visit c-sgroup.com.

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RAIC College names new Fellows and Honorary Fellows

The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) has named four professionals Honorary Fellows for 2023, recognizing their significant contributions not only to the built environment, but also to public life and the world around them. The awardees are Javier Sordo Madaleno Bringas, David Hughes, Tokunbo Ómisorè, and Sumayya Vally.

Javier Sordo Madaleno Bringas, chairman of the board of Grupo Sordo Madaleno and Sordo Madaleno Arquitectos, has contributed to the transformation of various Mexican cities through his forty-year career, with works embracing habitability, urban transformation, and sustainability. His portfolio has included the design of approximately 250 projects and construction of over nine million square metres, with an architectural approach that transforms urban sites in dynamic ways.

David Hughes, a professor at Kent State University, has made contributions to global architecture by committing his career to advancing knowledge of the contributions Africa has made to global architecture. Hughes’ research and writings have resulted in previously unknown African architects receiving international regard, and his theory of Afrocentric architecture has influenced design and built work worldwide.

Architect, developer, and advocate Tokunbo Ómisorè has used architecture to expand economic development opportunities for African people. In 1983, Tokunbo founded Tokunbo Omisore Associates with a focus on creating solutions that promote equity, resilience, and wellbeing for all. In 1999, he established Top Services Ltd. to create readyto-operate facilities, including a portfolio of boutique hotels and retail turnkey projects that have created jobs and helped improve people’s quality of life. Ómisorè is Past President and Trustee of the Africa Union of Architects, and the current Vice President-R5 of the International Union of Architects.

Sumayya Vally is principal of Johannesburg firm Counterspace, a design, research, and pedagogical practice that searches for expression for hybrid identities and territory, particularly for African and Islamic conditions both rooted and diasporic. In 2019, Counterspace designed the 20th Serpentine Pavilion in London, making Vally the youngest architect to win this internationally renowned commission. As Artistic Director, Sumayya has creatively shaped the inaugural Islamic Arts Biennale in Jeddah (January – April 23, 2023), actively working to expand and deepen the definition of Islamic arts. In 2022, Vally was selected by the World Economic Forum to be one of its Young Global Leaders and as a TIME100 Next list honoree. She recently joined the World Monuments Fund Board of Directors.

The RAIC College has also announced that 26 Fellows have been named to join the RAIC College. The Fellows are: Farida Abu-Bakare (Toronto, ON), Jill Bambury (Saint John, NB), Jonathan Bisson (Quebec, QC), Claude Bourbeau (Montréal, QC), Amela Brudar (Vancouver, BC), Georges Drolet (Montréal, QC), David J. Lieberman (Toronto, ON), Anna Madeira (Toronto, ON), Robert Martin (Ottawa, ON), Thierry Montpetit (Ottawa, ON ), Brian Porter (Ohsweken, ON), Olga Pushkar (Toronto, ON ), Tudor Radulescu (Montréal, QC), Colin Ripley (Toronto, ON), Danica Robertson (Ottawa, ON), Mitch Sakumoto (Vancouver, BC), Chei-Wei Tai (Vancouver, BC), Kate Thompson (Calgary, AB), Henry Tsang (Calgary, AB), Silva Stojak (Charlottetown, PEI), David Thom (Vancouver, BC), Mark A. Whitehead (Vancouver, BC), and Jozef Zorko (Montréal, QC).

The Fellows and Honorary Fellows will be inducted into the RAIC College during a ceremony on May 5, 2023, at the RAIC Conference in Calgary, Alberta. www.raic.org

Photo: Nick Merrick ©Hendrich Blessing

Collaborative sustainable design

“We were very excited to work with building science practitioners again on 360 City Centre Drive to create healthy living spaces and achieve sustainability outcomes of the affordable housing system.”

Brett

Barnes

Manager, Housing Development The Region of Peel

While designing a new 19-storey mixed rental building in downtown Mississauga, Region of Peel collaborated with sustainable building experts from the Savings by Design program to optimize energy performance, build better than code and earn financial incentives.

$120,000*

$41,894

Projected annual energy cost savings

17,276 m3

Projected annual natural gas savings

376,553 kg CO2e

Projected annual reduction of greenhouse gases

WHAT’S NEW

Montréal launches design toolkit

The Ville de Montréal is launching a platform that provides digital awareness and planning tools to managers, promoters and design and architecture community professionals.

The Design Montréal Quality Toolkit provides a better understanding of how quality in design and architecture can be a lever for achieving green transition, inclusivity, public participation and innovation objectives.

The Toolkit is structured around 12 concepts that define quality in design or architecture projects from achieving resilience and promoting culture, to mobilizing an engaged project team. It offers insights on how to state quality objectives as well as strategies to achieve those objectives during the planning, conceptualization and execution phases of a project.

The decision-support tools in the platform include the Compass, a two-part collaborative exercise which project teams can use to define a common vision of quality, and to determine what measures to implement to achieve that vision. The Toolkit also comprises themed backgrounders, videos, publications and other resources.

www.designmontreal.com/en/toolkit

Koffler Gallery presents world-premiere exhibition of The Synagogue at Babyn Yar

The Koffler Gallery, in partnership with Swiss Architect Manuel Herz and Canadian historian and curator Robert Jan van Pelt, announces the world-premiere exhibition of  The Synagogue at Babyn Yar: Turning the Nightmares of Evil into a shared Dream of Good. The exhibition opened on April 17, 2023.

This international exhibition is brought together with assistance from Canadian architect Douglas Birkenshaw and through architectural photography by Dutch photographer Iwan Baan. The exhibition features large-scale photographic murals directed by Ukrainian-Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky from photos taken by Ukrainian photographer Maxim Dondyuk.

Babyn Yar is a 160-hectare site in Kyiv, Ukraine, where the first largescale massacre of the Holocaust occurred in 1941. In what was known as the ‘Holocaust by bullets,’ German soldiers murdered 33,771 Jews in two days.

The exhibition’s opening on April 17th coincides with the eve of Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Memorial Day. It will run to the end of Holocaust Education Week on November 12th, 2023. It links three moments in time of exceptional global resonance the original 1941 massacre, the creation and dedication of this extraordinary, jewel-like, wooden synagogue, and the current Russian war against Ukraine.

“We must never forget the tragedy of Babyn Yar. We understand this as an exceptionally brutal moment in the history of the Jewish people, but it is also an unspeakably horrific event in world history. We believe this exhibition is the most comprehensive account to date of the story joining the dots from WWII to the present day,” says Anthony Sargent, CBE, Interim Director, Koffler Centre of the Arts. “As we honour, mourn and acknowledge the appalling events that happened at Babyn Yar, we also cherish Manuel Herz’s visionary synagogue, expressing so joyfully a wish for peace and for a better collective future.”

Commissioned by the Babyn Yar Foundation in 2020, the Babyn Yar Synagogue was conceived and designed by Jewish, Basel-based architect Manuel Herz and built in six months. The unique ‘Wunderkabinett’ or cabinet-of-wonders wooden synagogue, with antecedents ranging from traditional Jewish culture to children’s pop-up story books, was conceived to bring hope and joy to a site charged with the most profound grief.

In the main exhibition space, visitors will be entirely surrounded by immense, high-resolution panoramic mural images created through a collaboration between Toronto photographer Edward Burtynsky and Ukrainian photographer Maxim Dondyuk, who is the winner of a Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography for his photographic reportage on Ukraine’s battle for survival.

The story of the project will be told through documents and artifacts, models, a detailed projection of the extraordinary painted ceiling of the synagogue, vividly recreating the stars in the 29 September 1941 night sky, and through a specially made film extending the exhibition with further contextual visuals, videos, still images and other documentary material. A public engagement program curated by Joshua Heuman will accompany the gallery installation. www.kofflerarts.org

IPCC report: Climate solutions exist, but humanity has to break from the status quo and embrace innovation

It’s easy to feel pessimistic when scientists around the world are warning that climate change has advanced so far, it’s now inevitable that societies will either transform themselves or be transformed. But as two of the authors of a recent international climate report, we also see reason for optimism.

The latest reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, including the synthesis report released March 20, 2023, discuss changes ahead, but they also describe how existing solutions can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help people adjust to impacts of climate change that can’t be avoided.

The problem is that these solutions aren’t being deployed fast enough. In addition to pushback from industries, people’s fear of change has helped maintain the status quo.

To slow climate change and adapt to the damage already underway, the world will have to shift how it generates and uses energy, transports people and goods, designs buildings and grows food. That starts with embracing innovation and change.

Fear of change can lead to worsening change

From the Industrial Revolution to the rise of social media, societies have undergone fundamental changes in how people live and understand their place in the world.

Some transformations are widely regarded as bad, including many of those connected to climate change. For example, about half the world’s coral reef ecosystems have died because of increasing heat and acidity in the oceans. Island nations like Kiribati and coastal communities, including in Louisiana and Alaska, are losing land into rising seas.

Other transformations have had both good and bad effects. The Industrial Revolution vastly raised standards of living for many people, but it spawned inequality, social disruption and environmental destruction.

People often resist transformation because their fear of losing what they have is more powerful than knowing they might gain something better. Wanting to retain things as they are known as status quo bias explains all sorts of individual decisions, from sticking with incumbent politicians to not enrolling in retirement or health plans even when the alternatives may be rationally better.

This effect may be even more pronounced for larger changes. In the past, delaying inevitable change has led to transformations that are

unnecessarily harsh, such as the collapse of some 13th-century civilizations in what is now the U.S. Southwest. As more people experience the harms of climate change firsthand, they may begin to realize that transformation is inevitable and embrace new solutions.

A mix of good and bad

The IPCC reports make clear that the future inevitably involves more and larger climate-related transformations. The question is what the mix of good and bad will be in those transformations.

If countries allow greenhouse gas emissions to continue at a high rate and communities adapt only incrementally to the resulting climate change, the transformations will be mostly forced and mostly bad.

For example, a riverside town might raise its levees as spring flooding worsens. At some point, as the scale of flooding increases, such adaptation hits its limits. The levees necessary to hold back the water may become too expensive or so intrusive that they undermine any benefit of living near the river. The community may wither away.

The riverside community could also take a more deliberate and anticipatory approach to transformation. It might shift to higher ground, turn its riverfront into parkland while developing affordable housing for people who are displaced by the project, and collaborate with upstream communities to expand landscapes that capture floodwaters. Simultaneously, the community can shift to renewable energy and electrified transportation to help slow global warming.

Optimism resides in deliberate action

The IPCC reports include numerous examples that can help steer such positive transformation.

For example, renewable energy is now generally less expensive than fossil fuels, so a shift to clean energy can often save money. Communities can also be redesigned to better survive natural hazards through  steps such as maintaining natural wildfire breaks and building homes to be less susceptible to burning.

Land use and the design of infrastructure, such as roads and bridges, can be based on forward-looking climate information. Insurance pricing  and corporate climate risk disclosures can help the public recognize hazards in the products they buy and companies they support as investors.

No one group can enact these changes alone. Everyone must be involved, including governments that can mandate and incentivize changes, businesses that often control decisions about greenhouse gas emissions, and citizens who can turn up the pressure on both.

Transformation is inevitable

Efforts to both adapt to and mitigate climate change have advanced substantially in the last five years, but not fast enough to prevent the transformations already underway.

Doing more to disrupt the status quo with proven solutions can help smooth these transformations and create a better future in the process. Editor’s note: This is an update to an article originally published April 18, 2022.

By Robert

Lempert, Professor of Policy Analysis, Pardee RAND Graduate

School, and Elisabeth

Gilmore, Associate Professor of

Climate

Change,

Technology and Policy, Carleton University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.

For the latest news, visit www.canadianarchitect.com/news and sign up for our weekly e-newsletter at www.canadianarchitect.com/subscribe

SURFACES FOR life

THE RAIC WAS HONOURED TO INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING ARCHITECTS, ACADEMICS, AND ALLIED PROFESSIONALS AMONG THE JURORS FOR THE 2023 ANNUAL AWARDS.

Charles-Mathieu Brunelle, Ville de Montréal

Michael Leckie, Leckie Studio Architecture + Design

Brent Bellamy, Number TEN Architectural Group

Francine Houben, Mecanoo

Shallyn Murray, Nine Yards Studio

Bruce Kuwabara , KPMB Architects

Stephan Chevalier, Chevalier Morales

Michael Green, Michael Green Architecture

Jenn Mc A rthur, Toronto Metropolitan Architecture

Janna Levitt, LGA Architectural Partners

Juan Du , University of Toronto

Betsy Williamson, Williamson Williamson Architects

CLAUDE PROVENCHER

The late architect Claude Provencher was co-founder of one of Canada’s most significant architecture firms. He has long been recognized for the quality of his realized projects, as well as for his profound sense of commitment. Considered among the trailblazers of the new urban architecture movement of the late 1970s in Canada, he enriched Québec’s built urban heritage with many major projects.

Born in Plessisville, a rural community near Trois-Rivières, Provencher graduated from the Université de Montréal in 1974 and began working with Papineau, Gérin-Lajoie, Leblanc Architectes, where he met Michel Roy. In 1983, the two co-founded Montréal-based firm Provencher_Roy. Throughout his career, Provencher approached his adoptive city, Montréal, with a sharp eye. This metropolis, with its distinct seasons and ever-changing St. Lawrence River backdrop, remained an inspiration throughout his career.

FRÉDÉRIQUE MÉNARD-AUBIN

LEFT For the Port of Montréal’s Grand Quai, Provencher_Roy renovated an existing passenger terminal to welcome cruise ship guests, transforming its roof into a riverwalk with a visitor’s centre.

ABOVE The Claire and Marc Bourgie Pavilion of Québec and Canadian Art is one of five pavilions that comprise the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts. Claude Provencher advocated for the strategy of expanding the museum along Sherbrooke Street, rather than relocating it to a different site. RIGHT In the summer, Avenue du Musée becomes a pedestrian-only street that hosts artist-designed installations. OPPOSITE Montréal’s World Trade Centre encloses a former alley and includes the façades of historic buildings, following an idea developed by Claude Provencher for the area’s revitalization.

Provencher distinguished himself early on through his avant-garde proposals. He would self-initiate projects, then persuade funders and clients to join him in his pursuits. For instance, in the late 1980s, he began reflecting on the fate of an abandoned block occupying a strategic site in Old Montréal, imagining how the existing alley could be transformed into a long, linear court, with heritage buildings to its two sides and a skylight overtop. The idea of revitalizing the site in this way eventually came to fruition, with the opening of the unifying World Trade Centre Montréal in 1992.

Architect Norm Glouberman, a close collaborator since that time, remembers that for Claude, “good architecture was not simply creating designs that would get published in magazines, but ones that fully met all project requirements. At times, this strong commitment was at odds with clients or authorities, but his passion, persistence, and collaborative approach backed up by credible arguments usually overcame any objections.”

The World Trade Centre became a major milestone in the development of the neighbourhood that is today known as the Quartier international de Montréal. As the area’s first sizeable rehabilitation of a set of historic buildings, it became among the city’s most important projects of the 1990s. Because of the multitude of programs and services contained in the “horizontal skyscraper” form, it also contributed to reviving business life in the district.

“Claude and I shared the idea of using the architectural cause as a vehicle for offering citizens a better environment,” writes Georges

DENIS FARLEY

MARC CRAMER

Adamczyk, professor at the Université de Montréal’s school of architecture. “Claude Provencher’s obsession with interior public spaces (atriums, passages and holistic spaces) in his projects has often been noticed, which brings to mind the allegory of the ‘good architect,’ represented in artist Philibert de l’Orme’s wood block print. Faithful to his friendships, faithful to the architectural cause, and faithful to the public: a simple definition of a ‘good architect’ in the 21st century.”

In each of his projects, Provencher positioned users at the heart of the work, making sketches filled with people, and favouring spaces conducive to spontaneous meetings, connections, and exchanges. Rather than adhering to a particular style, his architectural language was lively and nuanced, responding to the contemporary concerns of a cosmopolitan city.

Provencher’s interventions at the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) over a period of 30 years are another key example of his visionary approach. In the late 1980s, Provencher dissuaded the Museum from building an annex across town in Old Montréal. Instead, guided by Provencher’s advice, they decided to consolidate the intended expansions in the museum’s original setting along Sherbrooke Street, using an underground concourse to connect between pavilions.

In 2008, his practice was awarded the mandate to design the museum’s new six-storey Claire and Marc Bougie Pavilion to house Quebec and

Canadian art, and to rehabilitate the Erskine Church as a multi-functional theatre and concert hall. At the forefront of the design was the desire to integrate the new building into its existing urban context, and to ensure continuity and fluidity between the various pavilions located on both sides of busy Sherbrooke Street. The expanded underground passage connecting the museum complex was designed to transcend its role of functional link, becoming a museum element in its own right: broad, well-lit, and with room to host exhibitions, allowing visitors an uninterrupted experience of art. At street level, Claude continued the theme of fluidity by opening the museum onto the street, maximizing inclusion and accessibility. A sculpture garden anchors the cultural centre in public space and opens it onto the neighbourhood. In the summer, the Avenue du Musée becomes a lively pedestrian zone and outdoor gallery for temporary installations and events, infusing the space with a renewed public vocation.

Committed to environmental responsibility in the urban context, in 2014, Claude Provencher collaborated on the masterplan for Technopôle Angus, aiming to attain the highest possible sustainable development standards in the revitalization of this large tract in East Montréal. “The development of Phase 2 of the Technopôle Angus project in Montréal emerged from a common vision shared by Claude and myself: to create a unique mixed-use living space favouring

ABOVE The masterplan for Technopôle Angus, developed by Provencher_Roy, lays the groundwork for a socially, economically, and ecologically sustainable neighbourhood. OPPOSITE Ilôt Balmoral connects Montréal’s business district and the Quartier des spectacles, with stage-curtain-red façades marking a public passage through the building to the Metro station.

connections with the surrounding community,” says Christian Yaccarini, President and CEO of the Société de développement Angus. “The mandate was developed to support the construction of ecological buildings, the creation of quality employment, the development of a social economy, and accessibility to property and housing at an affordable cost. As a project that has received numerous awards and obtained LEED ND Platinum certification, today, Technopôle Angus Phase 2 is cited as a reference for responsible development in various political, academic, and socio-economic spheres.”

Provencher_Roy continues to take a holistic approach to sustainable development, conceiving projects that minimize environmental impact, reinforce local economies, enrich communities, and maximize the value of existing infrastructure.

Claude Provencher was a committed professional, but also an engaged citizen and philanthropist in Montréal, Québec, and Canada. An active member of various professional associations, he was named a Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada in 2000 for his exemplary contributions to the profession. He was also named a Member of the Royal Canadian Academy of the Arts in 2014 for his community leadership role, and Knight of the Ordre national du Québec in 2021 for his profound sense of commitment, ambition, and passion for his work.

ABOVE Completed by Provencher_Roy with GLCRM architectes, the new reception pavilion for the Québec National Assembly is sunk underground, allowing the heritage building to retain its prominence. A spiral ramp descends to the a citizen’s agora—a skylit open space at the centre of the pavilion, intended to foster encounter and dialogue.

STÉPHANE BRÜGGER

In addition, Provencher served as Vice President of the Urban Planning, Design, and Real Estate Development Advisory Committee of the National Capital Commission in Ottawa (1999 to 2011), Curator and Member of the Board of Directors of the Commission des biens culturels du Québec (2008 to 2022), and Member of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Arts Conference of Heritage Montréal. His long-term contributions to architectural development were felt throughout the country, through the advice he provided to major players in his field on significant projects. His involvement on expert committees enabled him to assist with shaping the architecture of tomorrow, while conveying the importance of his art form in the daily lives of his contemporaries.

The practice Provencher co-founded lives on today, thanks to a new generation of partners who share his commitment and values.

Jury Comments :: A pioneer in Canada of modern urban architecture, the late Claude Provencher contributed not only to the physical environments of his beloved home city of Montréal, but also to the idea of what a city could and should be. With a multidisciplinary approach to project work, Provencher is known for his ambitious pursuit of large-scale projects that combine architectural innovation with a sensitivity to site. His community-mindedness infused his work, and his generosity of spirit was reflected in both his thoughtful, often lyrical designs and his openhearted support of generations of students and young practitioners.

In parallel to Provencher’s exemplary professional practice, which he developed over more than forty years, he demonstrated an exceptional level of service to the architectural community and the Canadian archi -

tectural profession. Provencher’s promotion of the role of the architect and of the profession in a time of tremendous change, along with the progressive positions he adopted regarding heritage, have fostered the contemporary practice of architecture in Québec and Canada.

The jury recognizes Provencher’s generousity and involvement with several important committees for the development of quality architecture, including in key roles with Heritage Montréal, the Canadian Conference for the Arts, and at several universities, where he put in place strategies for prioritizing architectural quality. The jury particularly appreciates his work with the Association des Architectes en pratique privée du Québec, the Conseil du patrimoine culturel du Québec, and the National Capital Commission’s Advisory Committee on Planning, Design and Realty.

Claude Provencher architect, teacher, mentor, colleague elevated the quality and awareness in architecture in Montréal, Québec, and Canada. He demonstrated a lifelong commitment to building and to advocacy for improvement in the conditions, recognition, and opportunities of the profession. His legacy of built work and advocacy will have a lasting impact on the profession of architecture in Canada.

Dissing+Weitling and Arup, the Samuel de Champlain bridge is an elegant connection between Montréal and the South Shore, with provisions to accommodate a central corridor dedicated to buses or light-rail transit.

The jury for this award included Stephan Chevalier, Juan Du, Francine Houben, Bruce Kuwabara, Michael Leckie, and Janna Levitt.

ABOVE Designed by Provencher_Roy with

STÉPHANE GROLEAU

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PATKAU ARCHITECTS

Patkau Architects is a Canadian architecture practice and design research studio led by founding principals John and Patricia Patkau along with principals Greg Boothroyd and David Shone, senior associates Peter Suter, Michael Thorpe and Mike Green, and associates Dimitri Koubatis, Tom Schroeder, and Katy Young.

Working together with shared goals and ideas developed over decades of delivering award-winning buildings, the Patkau team has led the studio on a great diversity of projects ranging from major urban buildings and medium-scaled community buildings, to houses, art installations and furniture. Patkau’s commitment to the search for found potential those aspects of place that can be gathered into an architectural form evocative of locale, circumstance, history, and landscape is the through-line that distinguishes their work.

Patkau also applies their search for found potential to materials themselves, looking for new ways to shape and combine familiar materials to explore new possibilities and applications. A guiding principle in this work is Material + Force = Form, where form is simultaneously material, space and structure. The studio’s design lab tests these ideas at full scale, both in-house and in workshops around Vancouver, conducting experiments that inform and inspire their building-scale work.

Jury Comments :: To say that Patkau Architects has positively influenced the Canadian design landscape of the past half century is very much an understatement. From the late 1970s on, the Vancouverbased practice has executed a deservedly acclaimed body of work, each project defined by its innovation, attention to material and craft, and clarity of vision. Their considered work with timber structures emerged well before the current timber movement, and their handson approach to exploring materiality is reflected in a considered, elegant and sculptural body of work. Patkau Architects’ built work demonstrates a decisive competency in detailing, innovation, and tectonic clarity, while their design research work continues to push an agenda of material exploration that is indicative of a deep and evolving curiosity.   Patkau Architects has remained a north star for over forty years: providing practitioners and the academy alike with a model for the authentic pursuit of design excellence in a range of building typologies and budgets. Equally compelling is how the firm’s drive for innovation is resolved at every scale, with an extraordinary attention to detail. Each building is an essay in place-making and an authentic response through form, light and material.

Seabird Island School (Sq’éwqel Community School), Agassiz, British Columbia, 1991

The jury for this award included Stephan Chevalier, Juan Du, Francine Houben, Bruce Kuwabara, Michael Leckie, and Janna Levitt.

Audain Art Museum, Whistler, British Columbia, 2016

The Polygon Gallery, North Vancouver, British Columbia, 2017

JAMES DOW

JAMES DOW

Winnipeg Skating Shelters, Winnipeg, Manitoba, 2011

JAMES DOW

Fort York National Historic Site and Visitor Centre, Toronto, Ontario, 2012 (Completed in collaboration with Kearns Mancini Architects)

Winnipeg Millennium Library, Winnipeg, Manitoba, 2005 (Completed in collaboration with LM Architects)

JAMES DOW

Strawberry Vale Elementary School, Victoria, British Columbia, 1995

JAMES

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SOCA

The Toronto-based Studio of Contemporary Architecture (SOCA) is an architecture and urban design practice dedicated to inclusive city building and creating beautiful spaces. Founded in 2018 on the belief that architecture both shapes and is shaped by the contemporary condition, the studio is deeply engaged in research and the broader discourse of architecture’s impact on culture, the environment, and the shaping of cities.

Led by Shane Laptiste and Tura Cousins Wilson, SOCA includes an evolving team committed to exploring work that is rooted in place and carefully crafted. While the studio takes particular interest in housing and civic buildings, regardless of the scale, SOCA is passionate about the positive impacts of quality design. Understanding that architecture requires intimate collaboration and playful imagination, the studio begins each project by asking questions, discussing ideas, and encouraging its clients and team members to dream big.

SOCA’s body of work represents an intersectional approach to culture, heritage, urbanism, housing justice, and climate justice. As advocates for racial justice within processes of urban development, SOCA collaborated with Black Urbanism TO and Open Architectural Collaborative Canada on a report that documented the problem of transit-induced gentrification in Toronto’s Little Jamaica and highlighted the need to save culturally important retail spaces. In 2021, SOCA prepared an alternative design for the renovation of Alexandra Park public housing in Toronto, proposing the preservation of as many of the existing buildings as possible to prioritize equity and environmental justice; the project was published in AZURE

TOP Principal Tura Cousins Wilson was asked by The Globe and Mail to produce a speculative proposal for repurposing Toronto’s St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts. BOTTOM SOCA’s alternative design for the renovation of Alexandra Park proposed to preserve as many of the existing buildings as possible to prioritize equity and environmental justice.

That same year, SOCA collaborated with architectural critic Alex Bozikovic on a speculative proposal to renovate and expand Toronto’s brutalist St. Lawrence Center for the Arts, which was then threatened with demolition. The scheme was published in The Globe and Mail and elements from SOCA’s approach appear in the current plans for the site.

Laptiste and Cousins Wilson are founding members of the Black Architects and Interior Designers Association (BAIDA). They both have lifelong experience of being supported by, supporting, and working in professional capacities with nonprofit organizations in the Black community. SOCA has provided architectural support, resources and services for the NCC Charles H. Este Cultural Centre in Montreal, Black Urbanism TO, Black Lives Matter - Canada, and Rebuild Foundation’s St. Laurence Arts Incubator in Chicago.

SOCA was listed in Wallpaper* Magazine’s 2021 directory of emerging architectural talent and, that year, was also selected as a leading emerging practice by Twenty + Change and Canadian Architect

The studio is one of the contributors representing Canada at the 2023 Venice Biennale of Architecture.

Jury Comments :: The Studio of Contemporary Architecture (SOCA) represents a new voice in Canadian architecture that is approaching a wide range of projects with an acute sensitivity to social justice,

equity, diversity, and inclusion. In addition to the modestly scaled opportunities for built work that are available for emerging practices, the principals are engaged in the broader urban architectural discourse in Toronto and contribute time to community organizations that include Black Urbanism TO and Black Lives Matter - Canada. Both principals are also founding members of the Black Architects and Interior Designers Association (BAIDA). In SOCA’s process, community engagement is both a design tool and an outcome, and the firm’s beliefs about architecture’s impact on culture and environment reflect a clarity of mission and thought.

The vision with which the two partners at SOCA established their practice is long overdue and incredibly exciting. It has provided their practice with a diverse portfolio of buildings and advocacy activities, all undertaken to demonstrate how the profession can participate in socially inclusive, relevant, and beautiful buildings and spaces. From Granny’s House to the speculative Alexandra Park Master Plan, they demonstrate their skill in recalibrating what constitutes a rich environment for architectural activity. SOCA is primed to develop into a powerful architecture firm that will make its mark on the Canadian design world.

TOP LEFT A feasibility study for a community sports and recreational facility in Ottawa is one of SOCA’s current projects. TOP RIGHT SOCA is working with Chicago’s Rebuild Foundation on transforming a former elementary school In Chicago into an incubator for artists and creative entrepreneurs. BOTTOM

LEFT The design for Toronto’s Wildseed Centre for Arts and Activism will address the legacies of Black communities and Black culture inhabiting space on Indigenous land. BOTTOM RIGHT SOCA is currently designing the BAND Gallery and Cultural Centre in Toronto’s West End as a flexible space for emerging Black Canadian artists.

The jury for this award included Stephan Chevalier, Juan Du, Francine Houben, Bruce Kuwabara, Michael Leckie, and Janna Levitt.

NINE PLUS TEN

FATHOM

Fathom is an interdisciplinary, Dartmouth-based firm established in 2018 from a merger of Ekistics Planning + Design and Form:Media. As a practice of architects, landscape architects, urban planners, interpretive planners and environmental graphic designers, it has developed an integrated design process based on deep listening and research. Through these methods, it aims to push the boundaries of how the built environment can represent culture and history, and better serve equity-deserving groups.

Fathom is a unique collective of creative and strategic thinkers fully invested in the power of collaboration to transform complex design challenges into meaningful places and experiences. This approach allows the team to have a richer and deeper understanding of place, his-

tory and land, and encourages the development of conceptual directions that ensure that the design of buildings and outdoor spaces are interconnected and interdependent.

Fathom Studio’s completed work includes an installation for the Métis People, at the Batoche National Historic Site in Saskatchewan, in which a brief for interpretative signage became a comprehensive, interdisciplinary design project that unites architecture, landscape architecture, and environmental graphic design. Going beyond traditional interpretive signage, a land-based experience was created that brings a physical representation of the Métis river-lot systems to life. This story in the landscape is enriched by the architecture, which reflects the material culture of the Métis, including weaving and construction techniques.

The design for the Mi’kmaw Native Friendship Centre, for which construction fundraising is underway, took shape through a practice of deep listening and engagement, resulting in a design that truly belongs to this community. The Centre has served as a gathering place for Halifax’s urban Indigenous population for more than 45 years, providing space for social services, programs, and the celebration of Indigenous culture. The new building, inspired by a circular notion of interconnectedness and the creation story of Turtle Island, will provide much-needed space for additional programming and services to this rapidly growing community and a beacon of Indigenous culture in the heart of Kjipuktuk.

Fathom Studio in Joint Venture with Moriyama Teshima Architects is also engaged in the design for the Under One Sky Awitgati Longhouse and Cultural Centre in Fredericton, New Brunswick. The new Friendship Centre is designed as a collection of bisymmetrical volumes derived from sections of a turtle shell, with each pod connected by a glazed passageway. The interconnected spaces allow for intergenerational knowledge to be shared as it would be in a traditional longhouse. The building pods are arrayed in a circular configuration, each connected to the centre of an outdoor gathering space and ceremonial fire. Each pod is assigned one of the Seven Sacred Teachings, tying the building together while giving each space a distinct representational identity corresponding to its use. Earth, wind, fire, and water gardens surrounding the pods are designed and located based on the medicine wheel.

In the firm’s research, Fathom’s designers actively listen to the stories, history, site, and cultural context tied to each project. In its design practice, they use all the tools at their disposal to translate this knowledge into architecture, with the aim to create spaces that are shaped by community needs, values, and practices.

Jury Comments :: Fathom Studio has differentiated itself by confidently curating an interdisciplinary approach, seamlessly integrated within one studio, which resets the way architects collaborate and engage with their teams, clients, communities, and contexts. The evidence of a shared language and mission between the firm’s landscape, architecture, planning and environmental design projects is clearly demonstrated in the resolution of built form, landscape and graphics. Fathom is owning the space where many younger practitioners and students are heading: that is, at the intersection where allied arts meet, the boundaries fall away, and the real discussions begin.

The voice of an emerging architectural practice is defined as much by the types of commissions it pursues as it is by the execution of the work itself. While Fathom Studio has a relatively small portfolio of completed projects, the practice is actively working on an ambitious body of work that is focused on culture and community, including The Mi’kmaw Native Friendship Centre and Under One Sky Awigati Longhouse and Cultural Centre. With its multidisciplinary approach that prioritizes inclusive and interdisciplinary design, we can expect big things from this team of practitioners.

OPPOSITE TOP The Under One Sky Awitgati Longhouse and Cultural Centre will be built in Fredericton. OPPOSITE BOTTOM The design for the new home of the Mi’kmaw Native Friendship Centre was developed in close collaboration with the community. TOP LEFT A series of pavilions at Batoche National Historic Park reflects the material culture of the Métis. BOTTOM LEFT A fresh streetscape reimagines the Town of Yarmouth’s main street. RIGHT Fathom’s design for the revitalization of downtown Halifax’s Press Block.

The jury for this award included Stephan Chevalier, Juan Du, Francine Houben, Bruce Kuwabara, Michael Leckie, and Janna Levitt.

HARRISON JARDINE

PETE LAWRENCE

LIMBERLOST PLACE

Designed by the joint venture of Moriyama Teshima Architects and Acton Ostry Architects, Limberlost Place (formerly known as “The Arbour”) is a landmark project for low embodied carbon and high energy efficiency. It combines design and structural innovation with advanced prefabricated, tall-building façade systems, as well as an optimized use of decentralized mechanical systems working in consort with passive systems. The result is a building that provides the healthiest environment for both its users and for the planet.

Limberlost Place is presently under construction in Toronto’s East Bayfront neighbourhood, where it will serve as an academic building for George Brown College. The project boasts a mass timber structure, one of the first public buildings in the city to do so. It is poised to achieve the highest levels of municipal TEDI , TEUI ,

this occupancy

world.

obstructive beams.

and GHGI targets (Toronto Green Standard Tier 4) well in advance of the city’s step plan to widely implement the same carbon reduction targets. Key project team members in this achievement are Fast + Epp Structural Engineers, Transsolar KlimaEngineering, and Introba (formerly Integral Group). The constructors are PCL Construction, with internal George Brown College Project Management.

The remarkable aspiration of this building is seen through the use of exposed mass timber in an educational facility, where the assembly occupancies and the teaching spaces occupy the full verticality of the ten-storey building. To the architects’ knowledge, this is a first-of-its-kind in the world use of exposed mass timber to this height for this occupancy.

To achieve nine-metre spans within the cost and height restrictions on the site, which were requisite for column-free classrooms with good sight

ABOVE Limberlost Place, an academic building for George Brown College on Toronto’s waterfront, will be the tallest exposed mass timber building for

in the

OPPOSITE TOP The structure includes seven-ply CLT panels that act as slab bands, allowing for column-free long spans without

lines, Fast + Epp Structural Engineers created a CLT panel system that eliminated the use of beams. In this system, 7-ply CLT panels span 9.2 metres in the north-south direction, acting as slab bands on which thinner 7-ply CLT panels bear in the perpendicular direction. A concrete topping further stiffens the panels, while bespoke glulam columns support the main CLT slab bands. This mass timber solution is extremely shallow for this span, creating more head clearance, and space for the mechanical and electrical components. The connections between the CLT and concrete were the subject of testing conducted in collaboration with the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC) and Germany’s Biberech University. This research, which is publicly accessible through the federal agency Natural Resources Canada (NRCAN) who funded the investigations, has advanced our collective understanding of timber-concrete composite systems and the connection details between the two materials. The research demonstrated that the most economical of the systems a metal bar friction-fit into the top lamination of the slab band was the preferred connector.

The next step in the process was to design a high-performance envelope. This involved an integrated design and collaborative approach, obtaining feedback from all team members. The appropriate massing and building orientation also played a key role in the envelope design, ensuring that passive design principles were prioritized. A prefabricated building envelope was determined to provide the required continuous insulation and airtight design to meet Passive House requirements, while further accelerating overall construction schedules. A fast enclosure limits weather exposure to the mass timber structure, protecting the wood from staining.

The chosen solution, a fully prefabricated modular wall system, with two-storey panels as tall as 11.7 metres in height and 4.2 metres in width, was required to undergo Underwriters Laboratories of Canada testing to meet proof of concept. The results of this testing revealed that the panels far exceeded the original design requirements, achieving a whole building air tightness of 0.4 L/sm2 @ 75Pa a performance more than twice as efficient as the target of 1.0 L/sm2 @ 75Pa.

SALINA KASSAM PHOTOGRAPHY

The prefabricated envelope incorporates a natural ventilation system, through both automatically powered and manually operable windows. A rooftop weather station sends wind speed, air quality, and temperature readings to the building operating system to control the opening and closing of the windows when appropriate conditions arise. During passiveoperation mode, air travels through operable windows into classrooms, offices, and meeting rooms, then into the corridors through acoustically lined transfer grilles, finally making its way into the east and west solar chimneys. Stack effect then pulls the air through the solar chimney to 1.5 storeys above the highest occupied floor, where it is vented out the roof.

One of the unexpected revelations about the design of Limberlost Place is that the form of the building was a prime contributor to its sustainability. The striking peaked profile was derived from the inclusion of solar chimneys. The building stretches up to the north to maximize natural light to the upper floors, while minimizing heat gain from the south. The slope becomes a natural armature for solar photovoltaic panels.

The building envelope is also organized to consider the future needs of the project. Expanses of curtain wall are strategically located to take best advantage of views, and contribute to an active waterfront community. The main body of the building provides a well-insulated, sealed envelope, with just over a 40 percent window-to-wall ratio. Windows placed every three metres support the future relocation of demising walls.

The designers hope that once Limberlost Place is realized and occupied, inhabitants will be influenced by its low- and high-tech approaches to sustainability, including the visible use of renewable materials and intuitive operations of its façade.

Jury Comments :: Limberlost Place is an elegant example of mass timber hybrid construction and thoughtful systems integration to produce an exemplary project on the path to a more sustainable architecture. Together with their client, the architects have persevered through the complex regulatory, constructability and technical issues of delivering this large academic building in mass timber in a jurisdiction new to this type of construction. The team’s perseverance alone is worthy of innovation accolades, but the project is also ambitious in investigating sustainable approaches throughout the project from prefabricated façade systems to passive heating and cooling strategies.

The architects have skillfully demonstrated that the most aspirational environmental goals can be achieved in a building that is also inspiring for its beautiful and joyful spaces. Limberlost Place is what architecture should be in Canada.

The jury for this award included Brent Bellamy, Charles-Mathieu Brunelle, Michael Green, Jenn McArthur, Shallyn Murray, and Betsy Williamson.

Huntington Theatre

The extensive renovation of Huntington Theatre in Boston touched every aspect of the structure, including critical upgrades of all mechanical systems. The 2.5 year project covered 75,000 square feet and restored and revitalized key architectural features of the building while providing modern comforts and amenities in public spaces and behind the scenes.

The project included four 6-feet x 6-feet double-leaf smoke vents and a single-leaf thermally broken smoke vent, 4-feet x 4-feet. “The existing ventilation structure was ineffective, and the theatre relied on manual operation of smoke vents,’’ said Nurit Zuker, Associate at Bruner/Cott Architects. “The location and condition of the existing ventilation structure on the roof was positioned vertically, but at an angle, which meant it could not be replaced with a modern unit.”

“The BILCO smoke vents were specified as a solution as they were ready to install, could be integrated with the fire alarm, and were large enough to ventilate the entire stage appropriately.”

– Nurit Zuker, Associate at Bruner/Cott Architects

Experience. Innovation.

Project Snapshot

• A $55 million renovation project included 5 smoke vents from BILCO, including the first thermally broken smoke vent to be used in a commercial application.

• The theater opened in 1925, and the existing vents relied on manual operation and were vertically positioned. They were closed and left in place.

Smoke Vents

• Smoke vents play an important role in commercial projects as they protect property and support firefighters by allowing the escape of smoke, heat and gases from a burning building.

• The vents activate by the melting of a fusible link and are used in venues such as factories, warehouses, retail facilities and auditoriums.

CAROL BÉLANGER

In the past decade, Edmonton has become a hotbed of contemporary Canadian architecture. At the centre of this transformation is City Architect Carol Bélanger. In 2005, then-mayor Stephen Mandel stated, “Our tolerance for [architectural] crap is now zero.” This gave Bélanger who started working with the City of Edmonton in 2005 and became its City Architect in 2009 a clear mandate to demonstrate architecture’s vital role in the growth and transformation of the city.

Bélanger has since facilitated the design and construction of public spaces and facilities that have improved the daily lives of many Edmontonians, and in doing so, garnered excitement and respect for what good architecture can mean for a growing city.

Radically revamping the procurement procedure has been fundamental to the City of Edmonton’s architectural revitalization. The qualitybased process developed by Carol Bélanger is unique in Canada. The first stage goes beyond typical proposal requirements to include applicants’ previous design awards and publications, the firms’ design process (including parti diagrams, renderings, technical details and final photography), and proponents’ experience presenting to Design Review Committees. The scoring of these additional sections allows the City to objectively measure architectural quality.

In the second phase of the procurement process, the quality-based model is further advanced by including a section related to a vision for the project which may include a parti sketch, a site strategy, or precedent

images allowing the City to determine how a firm might start to think about the design. Between the two stages of this process, a significant amount of a firms’ score is determined by their ability to demonstrate design quality and thinking. Fees make up only 10% of the overall score, and fee score is determined by adherence to the provincial fee guidelines, disincentivizing under-bidding on projects.

A further innovation instigated by Bélanger is the inclusion of the client on the selection committee, so they understand the complexities and nuances of the procurement process, and take responsibility for the selection as the project progresses. “That way they have skin in the game and they understand the breadth of consultants we have to pick from,” says Bélanger. “You want to make sure there’s a good relationship.”

As proposals develop into projects, Bélanger has a unique ability to support and help navigate architectural teams through complex public processes. Bélanger and his staff are involved in projects from concept design through to the completion of technical drawings, as facilitators and advocates. Their presence is key in supporting creative freedom for design teams while ensuring critical oversight.

As another means to champion architectural excellence, Bélanger initiated and managed one of the only open national design competitions that Canada has seen in the last few decades. The competition for five relatively small park pavilion buildings drew the attention of architects across Canada, resulting in 130 entries from firms ranging from emer-

EMA PETER

LAUGHING DOG PHOTOGRAPHY

GH3*

ging talent to highly experienced. The completed structures have all been recognized with local or national design awards including one which received a Governor General’s Medal in Architecture. More importantly, they are appreciated by the public, and are a testament to a burgeoning interest in civic buildings.

Bélanger sees the mentorship and support of emerging architectural firms as fundamental in ensuring that the culture of design grows and matures in the City of Edmonton. Firms can qualify for the city’s standing roster for small projects with similar criteria to the larger procurement process, in which demonstration of design judgement and commitment is as important as the firms’ portfolios.

While Bélanger is respectful of his position as a public servant and is careful in his advocacy, he has spread the word that all Canadian citizens should be re-energized and re-engage with urban design. He has been in speaker in academic settings where he informs students about the role architects can have in influencing the public sector, to conferences where he advocates for the importance of the City Architect position. At the symposium Les temps de la Qualité in Montréal, he was part of examining four project to determine criteria for architectural quality; at a roundtable convened by Jennifer Keesmaat, then Chief Planner of Toronto, he advocated for a rigorous, impartial and transparent procurement process structured to produce design excellence.

OPPOSITE TOP gh3*’s Real Time Control Building for the City of Edmonton won a 2020 Governor General’s Medal in Architecture. OPPOSITE BOTTOM Designed by HCMA and Dub Architects, the Mill Woods Branch Library, Seniors’ Centre and Multicultural Facility stitches an intergenerational social hub into a suburban shopping plaza. ABOVE The Northwest Campus for the Edmonton Police Service was designed by Teeple Architects and IBI Group. LEFT HCMA and Dub Architects’ Jasper Place Library features a skylight-pierced concrete shell roof.

Bélanger can be credited with initiating an era for change in Edmonton, with an influence which has gone beyond the city’s boundaries. His advocacy throughout Canada has established new benchmarks for Canadian architectural excellence. Through championing architectural quality and ambition, Belanger has effectively transformed public policy and public opinion as well as the City of Edmonton’s reputation.

Jury Comments :: Carol Bélanger is not just an advocate for architecture, but an advocate for procurement reform, design excellence and civic life. Since his appointment, Edmonton has become an exemplar of contemporary Canadian architecture. The projects he has shepherded through the city shape the public realm, and are marked by high-quality design and construction. Whether located in the urban centre, a community park, or a suburban mall, the resulting work encourages citizens to engage with architecture and city building and demonstrably improves the lives of those who use it.

Bélanger’s advocacy and support for the procurement and execution of great design is an inspiring example to municipalities, professionals, and the public, and sets a beautiful example for improvements in procurement processes across the country.

The jury for this award included Brent Bellamy, Charles-Mathieu Brunelle, Michael Green, Jenn McArthur, Shallyn Murray, and Betsy Williamson.

HUBERT KANG

ANDREW LATREILLE

KOLLECTIF

Founded in 2006 by architect Martin Houle, Kollectif is a Québecbased entity that is a key resource for the province’s architectural community. The organization is currently run by Houle, along with journalist Marc-André Carignan and architect Grégory Taillon.  Of note, Kollectif has always been and still is a part-time initiative, as all three have full-time jobs.

The core of Kollectif is as an online news platform, which gathers and distributes information on lectures, exhibition openings, award nominations, job openings, notable projects, and other news of interest to the province’s design community. To date, its website includes some 10,845 news items, with an average of 15 curated items posted each week over more than 15 years. In 2019, the platform was added to to Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ)’s list of key cultural heritage resources, affirming the value of the information it consolidates. Kollectif’s weekly newsletter and social media posts are seen as essential reading not only for architects, but also for those in allied design fields. Its articles have forged links between practising designers, researchers, academics, students, and an architecture-interested public.

As Kollectif’s profile has grown, it has also organized thematic roundtables, led open letters, and taken on its own content creation projects. With long-time video collaborators CC Lab, the online series  Bienvenue Chez…  visits the homes of architects in Québec, and the series  Suivez le guide!, produced with the City of Québec, helps to raise public awareness of the built heritage in different Québec City neighbourhoods.

In 2021, Kollectif launched a two-phase campaign called #Quiestlarchitecte, underscoring the importance of naming architects and designers when discussing built work in the media. The public is invited to tag posts with #Quiestlarchitecte, #Quiestledesigner, #WhoIsTheArchitect, and #WhoIsTheDesigner when articles fail to identify the creators of buildings and other projects. On the surface, this simple gesture promotes design culture and encourages proper crediting. However, the long-term goal of this initiative is also to provide a tool to the architectural community to help ensure the accountability of professionals for their work. The campaign’s launch included a photo series of architects alongside recent public projects. The tag #Quiestlarchitecte has since

ÉMILIE DELORME, CC LAB

also been adopted and promoted, with Kollectif’s permission, by Belgium’s national architectural association.

Kollectif has furthered its commitment to the architectural community as a lead organizer of an annual charitable golf tournament for Québec architects. Kollectif’s founding director, Martin Houle, has become the face of this event, which to date has raised over a quarter of a million dollars for academic institutions, cultural organizations and humanitarian organizations such as Architects Without Borders Québec.

Martin Houle was made an honorary member of the Association des architectes en pratique privée du Québec (AAPPQ) in 2015, and Kollectif’s cross-platform head of content, Marc-André Carignan, received the Association des architectes paysagistes du Québec’s Frederick-Todd Prize for landscape architecture advocacy in 2021.

Jury Comments :: This outward-focused organization was conceived to spotlight, advocate for, promote, and raise the profile of architects both to the public and to one another. Through their various campaigns, they have played a unique role in the promotion of architectural

OPPOSITE

core team of Grégory

Marc-André Carignan, and Martin Houle celebrate the organization’s anniversary. TOP LEFT Claude Cormier’s apartment, designed by Jacques Bilodeau, is featured in the Bienvenue Chez... video series. BOTTOM LEFT The series interviewed a dozen architects in their homes. TOP RIGHT The Suivez le guide! series was produced with the City of Quebec. BOTTOM RIGHT A portrait of Manon Asselin was part of a campaign to name architects and designers when discussing built work in the media.

practice across Québec, making it accessible to the public while connecting practices to each other. Kollectif’s commitment to EDI is demonstrated in their inclusion of a diversity of individuals and practices in their spotlights, while their generosity towards other educational, cultural, and humanitarian organizations, such as Architectes sans Frontières, was also noted by the jury.

Kollectif’s promotion and support of the local architecture community has become a vital resource that connects designers in conversation and empowers them with new ideas that promote innovation and elevate the quality of work within the profession. Their easy-to-consume and well-curated information, made accessible across different platforms, has effectively engaged Québec’s broader community, elevating awareness and appreciation for design in a way that should be seen as a model for the entire country.

Kollectif’s

Taillon,

The jury for this award included Brent Bellamy, Charles-Mathieu Brunelle, Michael Green, Jenn McArthur, Shallyn Murray, and Betsy Williamson.

ERIC BRANOVER

CC LAB

CC LAB

CC LAB

TOWARDS HOME

/ Ruovttu Guvlui / Towards Home is an Indigenous-led exhibition and publication project that explores how Inuit, Sámi, and other communities across the Arctic are creating self-determined spaces. (angirramut) in Inuktitut or ruovttu guvlui in Sámi means “towards home.” To move towards home is to reflect on where Inuit and Sámi people find home, on what their connections to their lands mean, and on what those relationships could look like moving into the future. The project encompasses experiences and understandings of past, present, and future homes across Inuit Nunangat and Sápmi. / Ruovttu Guvlui / Towards Home proceeds through a series of open and future-oriented questions to explore what it means for Indigenous peoples to design with the land: what could home become across Inuit

Nunangat, Sápmi, and the North more generally when defined by Indigenous architects and designers? Where do homelands begin? Co-curators Joar Nango, Taqralik Partridge, Jocelyn Piirainen and Rafico Ruiz mobilize the CCA as a creative platform for newly commissioned works by asinnajaq, Carola Grahn and Ingemar Israelsson, Geronimo Inutiq, Joar Nango, Taqralik Partridge and Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory. The exhibition also includes a new iteration of the Sámi Architectural Library by architect and artist Joar Nango, travelling to Montreal from the National Gallery of Canada; a radio broadcast program; and dialogues between sounds, images, and perspectives. The exhibition design was completed by Edmonton-based Tiffany Shaw, with graphic design by Montreal firm FEED.

Embedded within the project is the Futurecasting: Indigenous-led Architecture and Design workshop, which gathers nine emerging designers, from across the Canadian part of Turtle Island and Sápmi, to reflect on and to shape the future of Indigenous-led design. The workshop, organized in three parts, has played a central role in the conceptualization and definition of the overall Towards Home project. The first parts of the workshop, led by Indigenous architects and knowledge-keepers, were constituted by a series of virtual seminars in January and February 2022 that focused on the following four themes: Land, Indigenous Knowledge, North-South relations, and Home. The seminars were followed by a workshop that took place in April 2022 at the Sámi University

ABOVE The Futurecasting workshop team and participants included Tiffany Shaw (workshop mentor), Ella den Elzen (Curatorial Assistant, CCA), Robyn Adams, Johanne Minde, Magnus Antaris Tuolja, Nicole Luke, Jenni Hakovirta, Naomi Ratte, and Jonas Henderson (Inuit Futures Fellow 2022-2023, CCA). OPPOSITE Installation views of the / Ruovttu Guvlui / Towards Home exhibition in the CCA’s main galleries.

of Applied Sciences in Kautokeino, Norway, in Sápmi, which centered land-based practices and Indigenous knowledge in the design process. The work in the CCA galleries as part of / Ruovttu Guvlui / Towards Home is the product of the conversations that took place through the Futurecasting program. The final installment of the workshop took place at the CCA in October 2022. During this week, the Futurecasting group considered questions around the role of the archive in relation to safekeeping Indigenous knowledge, and the impact of their research on future generations of Indigenous design students.

/ Ruovttu Guvlui / Towards Home extends the lines of investigation around the environment, land, and territory, established in prior CCA projects including It’s All Happening So Fast: A Counter-History of the Modern Canadian Environment (2016-2017), Toward Unsettling (2020), and Middleground: Siting Dispossession (2020-2021). The project aims to expand the dialogue around the colonial implications of architectural thought and practice beyond a settler-colonial lens.

“It is an intentional effort to move beyond colonial borders in order to centre spacemaking and placemaking as practices that have the potential to create meaningful and long-lasting connections between Indigenous architects and designers across homelands in the North,” write the curators. “These relations also extend southward, to the many networks of Northern Indigenous people living in urban centres who maintain ties to the North. The work of the designers, artists, and

architects within this show presents memories, experiences, and projections that hold the potential to define and shape what architecture in Northern communities can be. We acknowledge that the work of deepening architecture’s engagement with Indigenous designers and their communities needs to above all centre the knowledge and experiences of being at home on the land.”

Jury Comments :: This research project collaboratively explores and celebrates many important considerations of Indigenous living through dynamic visuals and other forms of media, bringing a better awareness and understanding to both professionals and the public. It is a thoughtful and more complete narrative of the meaning of the Indigenous home and the future of design on Indigenous land.

As an exhibition, Towards Home presents a wonderful diversity of spaces, elements, and intentions, bringing visitors into life in the North. Using both architecture and artefact, the CCA has created a beautiful, experiential exhibit that tells an important and valuable story, especially in light of the ongoing path towards truth and reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples, and our global efforts to live on and preserve an increasingly fragile planet.

The jury for this award included Brent Bellamy, Charles-Mathieu Brunelle, Michael Green, Jenn McArthur, Shallyn Murray, and Betsy Williamson.

MATHIEU GAGNON © CCA

MATHIEU GAGNON © CCA

MATHIEU GAGNON © CCA

MATHIEU GAGNON © CCA

DALHOUSIE ARCHITECTURAL PRESS

For over 30 years, Dalhousie Architectural Press (DAP) has been Canada’s most prolific and dedicated publisher of books on Canada’s modern and contemporary architecture. During this time, the academic publisher has produced over 90 publications, and is the recipient of more than 25 publishing awards.

Dalhousie Architectural Press began in the mid-1980s as Tech Press at the Technical University of Nova Scotia. A decade later, it shifted from publishing regional and international development studies, exhibition catalogues, and monographs on significant Halifax landmarks to a focus on Canadian architecture. This change coincided with the publication of a monograph on the work of John and Patricia Patkau in 1994, at which time the publisher was renamed TUNS Press. The renamed Press’s focus was to bring Canadian architects into the general discourse on architecture, and to document leading works in a process-focused way. The Press’s books are designed as useful references for students, professionals, and the general public, with the inclusion of plans, sections, and elevations alongside key images.

“The Press did not set out to be a commercial undertaking serving a general market; this role has been well-inhabited by commercial publication enterprises,” wrote the late Essy Baniassad, co-founder of TUNS Press, who remained on its editorial board until his passing earlier this year. “Rather, our publications have aimed to discover the significance of architectural works, guided by an intuition of their quality. To articulate that intuition brings it to the realm of discourse and advances the range of architectural communication. This goal necessitates a fundamental and growing theoretical platform. For the Press, two planks of this platform are the process of design and the study of architecture. In this sense, the Press is a scholarly undertaking, one which allows diverse contributions and debated positions.”

“The inherent challenges and practical implications of this position are not difficult to imagine,” continued Baniassad. “To search for what is emerging, rather than what is already in public display, requires close and constant observation and familiarity with emerging practices. Our publications on the Patkaus and on Brian MacKay-Lyons were the first studies of practices that subsequently received much wider exposure. These early monographs have a degree of elegance, depth, and intensity that continue to guide us in our publishing program.”

Three of Dalhousie Architectural Press’s series focus on Canadian architecture: Architectural Signatures Canada, Canadian Modern, and

Documents in Canadian Architecture. These series endeavour, respectively, to illuminate the work of emerging architects and designers, to spotlight the cultural and architectural history of Canada, and to document the best of current architecture in Canada.

Recent publications include monographs on D’Arcy Jones Architects (2022), Ian MacDonald Architect (2019), and Dan Hanganu (2017); a volume on the late Barry Sampson’s teaching and practice (2021); a retrospective on a decade of Winnipeg’s Warming Huts (2021); and historic studies on the Ark for Prince Edward Island (2018) and the Fuller Research Foundation’s Canadian Division (2017).

The press has retained its home in the Faculty of Architecture and Planning at Dalhousie University, as well as a focus on publishing original, high-quality books in architecture and planning. In addition to Baniassad, the press’s volunteer editorial board has included Dalhousie architecture deans and former deans Frank Palermo, Tom Emodi, Grant Wanzel, Christine Macy, and Graham Gagnon. Other board members have included Brian Carter, Sarah Bonnemaison, Michelangelo Sabatino, Hans Ibelings, Sascha Hastings, Michael Windover, and Michael Faciejew. Susanne Marshall has been publication manager since 2014, and was preceded in the role by Donald Westin.

Jury Comments :: Our ability to celebrate the unique voices of architecture across Canada is predicated on the dedication of journalists and media focusing time and resources that are increasingly scarce and more global in focus. A review of the publications produced by Dalhousie Press (formerly TUNS Press) shows that for over 40 years, it has covered the breadth and depth of Canadian architecture from coast to coast. Regional publications, historic documentation, and monographs by emerging practices and architecture’s stalwarts are represented in carefully curated and beautifully published books. As a small press focusing on our built culture, it positions Canadian architecture within the broader international context, while teasing out the aspects of our own history and culture that make the work truly Canadian. The jury was unanimous in its support and gratitude for the work of Dalhousie Architectural Press, with its continued impact on Canadian architecture.

The jury for this award included Brent Bellamy, Charles-Mathieu Brunelle, Michael Green, Jenn McArthur, Shallyn Murray, and Betsy Williamson.

PERGOLA GARDEN

TEXT Hadani Ditmars

AN INSTALLATION BY POLYMÉTIS IN RICHMOND, BC, IS A THOUGHTFUL RESPITE IN A FOREST OF NEW CONDOS.

Pergola Garden, officially unveiled last May, is a device for contemplating the age-old struggle between man and nature. Commissioned by Richmond’s public art program, in partnership with the city’s parks department, the project speaks to Polymétis’s previous interventions that marry the built environment with new ecologies, such as their Three Arches project in the midst of a Mississauga wetland.

“Over time,” says Nicholas Croft, Polymétis co-founder with his partner Michaela MacLeod, in a recent phone interview, “nature always wins.”

The project is sited on a former tree nursery turned park, now surrounded by a forest of new condominiums and suburban tract housing. Constructed in weathered steel, steel cable and yellow cedar, the parabolic canopy fulfills many functions. It acts as a giant trellis for white chocolate akebia, a flowering climber that will eventually overtake the structure as it grows, and doubles as a theatrical set piece for the park a natural stage for events, performances, and happenings. It was designed, says Croft, to attract insects,

birds, and bees, creating a micro ecology system expressing “the inner life of vegetation.”

As one leaves the park’s children’s playground and approaches Pergola Garden, perched next to a timber building housing the geothermal system for the surrounding condominiums, it appears as a stand-alone sculpture. But as one enters under the canopy, it becomes a dynamic frame for nature that shifts as the light and weather change: a moveable spatial feast.

Three ovoids offer slices of sky and opportunities for airplane and eagle viewings (the site is a five-minute drive from the airport). At once a study in solidity and transparency, groundedness and flight, the design was inspired by the low elevation of the Richmond flood plain and the highly sedimented tidal flow of the Fraser. “We wanted it to feel like something that had emerged naturally from the earth and was revealed through erosion,” notes Croft.

As one moves through the shape-shifting choreography of the installation, there are memorable individual moments. One mise-enscène suggests that the steel cables juxtaposed against the patinaed steel are musical strings

of an ancient lyre; another recalls the bridge one must cross from Vancouver to enter the rapidly developing suburb, or the old industrial hangars that line the Fraser River. (The latter are quaint remnants of a time when industries that produced things trumped price per square footage.)

The sprigs of akebia climbing up the weathered steel and offset by glulam cedar trim offer a simultaneous sense of decay and new life. The effect is reminiscent of the last scenes of the 70s sci-fi flick Logan’s Run , when Michael York and his girlfriend, seeking sanctuary, meet Peter Ustinov in a once grand edifice overrun with vines and cats.

At the edges of a city famous for its money laundering, real estate prices and destruction of homeless encampments, Pergola Garden raises the question: what will remain here in a century? Will the floodplain rise and drown the vacant condos until all that is left is wildlife? Meanwhile, the fragrant akebia, creeping a few more metres every year, will gradually strangle the steel, and keeps silent watch.

Hadani Ditmars is a Vancouver-based journalist, author, and photographer.

ABOVE The parabolic weathered steel canopy was inspired by the highly sedimented tidal flow of the Fraser River.

STEEL BUILDINGS

+INSULATED METAL PANELS

A TOTALLY MADE IN CANADA BUILDING SOLUTION.