Number 96 - english version

GRANDS PRIX DU DESIGN

SENSA OIHANA

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EDITORS'NOTE

Celebrating excellence, differently

The 18th edition of the GRANDS PRIX DU DESIGN reminds us how profoundly design shapes our lives, here and elsewhere. This year, we chose clarity and strength: a return to one Grand Winner per category—a clear structure true to our mission of recognizing excellence.

Our international jury—108 experts from complementary disciplines—evaluated each project using a rigorous methodology, ensuring the credibility of every distinction awarded.

In this Issue 96, you’ll discover the winners in Architecture, Landscape & Territories, Construction & Real Estate Development, and Art & Photography. These fields speak to one another—reframing city and territory, material and craft, use and imagination—and, ultimately, improving our living environment.

To all who entrust us with their work—creators, teams, partners— thank you. Your projects fuel an essential conversation about quality, impact, and responsibility in design. Together, we are growing a culture of excellence, rooted in reality and open to the world.

If you missed Issue 95, it features the winners in Interior Design, Product Design, and Communication & Branding—a natural complement to the edition you’re holding.

Brigitte & Ginette Gadoury Co-présidentes / Copresidents

AboutFounded in 1996, INTÉRIEURS—now INT.DESIGN—remains a reference in design and architecture in Québec and internationally, spotlighting the ideas and projects that transform our environment.

Each year, two special issues are dedicated to the GRANDS PRIX DU DESIGN, complemented by the PEOPLE edition, focused on the personalities and professionals shaping the industry.

Each issue of the magazine comes in three versions: bilingual (French/English), French, and English. The print edition is bilingual; online, all three versions are available.

Content

PUBLISHERS & EDITORS

Brigitte Gadoury

Ginette Gadoury

ART DIRECTOR

Ariane Mercure

GRAPHIC DESIGNER

Hélène Goré

EDITORIAL

Juli Pisano

Madeleine Champagne

Advertisement Production & Diffusion

DIRECTOR

Brigitte Gadoury

INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION

David Foroglou Gadoury

PRINT

Impresse inc.

Administration

CO-PRESIDENTS

Ginette Gadoury & Brigitte Gadoury

ACCOUNTING

Gestion Lynda De Grandpré inc.

WEB

Hugo Lachance

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Gaggenau

FOR THOSE WHO KNOW

Renowned for uncompromising craftsmanship, timeless design and advanced technology, Gaggenau has been honoring the promise of the exceptional and the progressive for over 340 years. With a cultivated and deliberate approach, Gaggenau connects with people of discerning taste and effortlessly transforms any kitchen into a truly extraordinary culinary oasis. See why The Difference is Gaggenau – Arrange an intimate introduction to these truly one-of-a-kind appliances at our L’Atelier Studio.

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Hettich Canada

BEHIND-THE-DESIGN INSPIRATION

Step into the world of design with Design Chronicles by Hettich, a captivating series that takes you behind the scenes of unique renovations, enhanced by innovative and high-quality European fittings.From Montréal to the international stage, Hettich transforms ordinary spaces into extraordi-nary homes, inspiring architects, designers, and design lovers to reimagine modern living with creativity and style.

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NewTechWood Canada

FOR A BETTER OUTDOOR LIFE

NewTechWood Canada transforms outdoor living with eco-conscious composite wood that combines elegance, strength, and sustainability. Designed for design professionals, our materials made from recycled content resist fading, staining, and mold. From decking to siding, architectural beams and fencing, our collections bring natural beauty and lasting durability to every climate. Build with intention. Design for impact.

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Unilock

YOUR CREATION, OUR COLLABORATION

With our expertise, committed support, design resources, and a broad collection of Unilock commercial pavers and walls, create durable, inspiring outdoor spaces— parks, streetscapes, rooftop terraces, plazas, and other public places. As North America’s leading manufacturer of architectural pavers, Unilock delivers quality products and services for projects of any scale. Committed to sustainability, we target a low carbon footprint. Partner with Unilock—a team dedicated to your success.

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Photo Backbone Studios

Excalibur Industries

Excalibur Industries supports businesses from concept to production. Specializing in CAD, it offers large-format laser cutting (20' x 5'), 3D wire CNC, and sheetmetal bending. It also excels in welding (TIG, MIG, induction, butt) on aluminum, titanium, stainless steel, steel, and cast parts. Through its brands Wall-Out, Wineview, Mimosa Displays, and Excalibur Marine Electric, it delivers creations blending innovation and function. A tailored approach and advanced technology make it a trusted partner for high-quality results.

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Animation of the Gala

Pénélope McQuade

A prominent figure in Québec television and radio, Pénélope McQuade has distinguished herself for over 30 years with her unique style and lively curiosity. A host renowned for her ease, rigour, and human touch, she brings her energy and experience to the Gala ceremonies of the 18th edition of the GRANDS PRIX DU DESIGN Awards.

Photo Jocelyn Michel –Consulat

Photo MYRIAMLAF

Local e xpertise.

JURY INTERNATIONAL

18 th EDITION

The GRANDS PRIX DU DESIGN Awards stands out for the excellence of its international jury. The 18 th edition brought together 108 members—architects, designers, urban planners, experts, researchers, and journalists—from across the globe. This high-caliber panel brings rigorous, inquisitive, and impartial multidisciplinary expertise. Each project is evaluated using a numerical scale by jurors assigned to their field of expertise, ensuring the quality and credibility of the recognitions conferred.

Earning a distinction from this panel is more than an award. It is validation by internationally renowned experts and a lasting mark of credibility—for candidates as well as their clients.

Meet the jurors behind this edition.

Christine ABBATE CEO Novità Communications

New York, NY, United States

Verda ALEXANDER Co-Founder Studio O+A

San Francisco, CA, United States

Aidin ARDJOMANDI Director Designooor Magazine Lecturer Pars University of Art and Architecture

Tehran, Iran

Tima BELL Assoc. AIA & Founding principal Bell Design Group

Los Angeles, CA, United States

Jacques BOILY Director, Tenant Delivery – Retail Royalmount Carbonleo

Montréal, QC, Canada

Anna BOSCÀ Director of the Cultural & Healthcare Architecture Dept. Ramón Esteve Estudio Valencia, Spain

Jaime BOUZAGLO Designer - Founder Jaime Bouzaglo Design Studio

Montréal, QC, Canada

Virginia BURT Principal Virginia Burt Designs

Dundas, ON, Canada

Jonathan CHA Landscape Project Director Lemay

Montréal, QC, Canada

Patrick ABBATTISTA Founder & CEO DesignWanted

Milan, Italy

Sarmad AL-MASHTA Transport Architecture Principal HDR

Vancouver, BC, Canada

Christian BÉLANGER Designer BÉLANGERMARTIN

Montréal, QC, Canada

Imen BEN YOUSSEF ZORGATI Director and Associate Professor Université de Montréal Faculté de l’aménagement École de design

Montréal, QC, Canada

Nataly BOLSHAKOVA Founder & Head Bolshakova Studio

Geneva, Switzerland

Bill BOUCHEY Design Director GENSLER

Los Angeles, CA, United States

Cheryl BROADHEAD Principal BYU Design

Vancouver, BC, Canada

Luis CALABUIG Co-founder & Chief Design Officer ODOSDESGN Valencia, Spain

Edward CHAN Partner Zeidler Architecture

Toronto, ON, Canada

Daniele AGOSTINELLI CEO Agostinelli Architetti Green Interior Design

Milan, Italy

Frédérique ALLARD Founder, Landscape Architect, AAPQ/CSLA Friche Atelier

Montréal, QC, Canada

Marie-France BÉLEC Associate Architect, LEED AP BD+C Automne, architectes

Montréal, QC, Canada

Mark BLACKWELL Associate Architect, Creative Director Morphis Limited Hong Kong, China

Nadja BORRAS MARKOVIC Design Director Gensler Mexico, Mexico

Jean-Sébastien BOURDAGES Director of Design and Innovation BC2

Montréal, QC, Canada

Sophie BURKE Principal Sophie Burke Design

Vancouver, BC, Canada

Laure CAPITANI Coordinator Wallonie-Bruxelles Design Mode

Bruxelles, Belgium

Joanne CHAN Chief Innovation Officer Workplace Practice Lead SDI Design

Toronto, ON, Canada

Susan CHANG Partner

Shimoda Design Group

Los Angeles, CA, United States

Gabriele CHIAVE Creative Director CONTROVENTO

Milan, Italy

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Steve CLEM Principal TVS

Atlanta, GA, United States

Giorgio CUI

Architecture Director - Senior urban Planner

Bofill Taller de Arquitectura

Barcelona, Spain

Ngoc DANH TRAN Vice President Vietnam Design Association (VDAS) Founder and CEO Vietnam Design Award (VMARK)

Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

Ahmed DRIDI Architect Moke architecten

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Pete EVANS Assistant Professor Industrial Design Iowa State University

Ames, IA, United States

Hans FONK Founder, Publisher and Photographer OBJEKT International & USA | Canada Amsterdam, Netherlands

Alain GILLES Signature product & furniture Designer Alain Gilles The Studio Brussels, Belgium

Benoit CHAPELLIER Marketing Director Montoni

Laval, QC, Canada

Didier CHINCHOLLE Head of Experience Design, Digital Services Ericsson Stockholm, Sweden

André-Yves COENDERAET Designer CONTRASTE [stimulateur d'identités] Bruxelles, Belgique

Freddy CURIÉL Founder & Creative Director Lapis Bureau (LxB)

Shenzhen, China

Antonio DE ANTONIS President ADWS (Antonio De Antonis Work Studio)

Pescara, Italy

Christian DUNBAR Founder Designer & Sculptor Christian Dunbar Design Brooklyn, NY, United States

May FAWZY Founder and Creative Director MF Design Studio London, United Kingdom

Hans GALUTERA Founder HG DesignWorks

New York, NY, United States

Jean-François GUIMONT Partner, Project and Integration Director Lemay

Montréal, QC, Canada

Nicole CHARBONNEAU Landscape Architect Nvira

Montréal, QC, Canada

Onie CHU Executive Director The Association of Accredited Advertising Agencies of Hong Kong

Hong Kong, China

Sara CORVINO Senior Lecturer Nottingham Trent University

Nottingham, United Kingdom

Cynthia DAMAR-SCHNOBB Founder/CEO Artellix

Toronto, ON, Canada

Andy DOWDING Head of Urban Design & Masterplanning Lambert Smith Hampton London, United Kingdom

Reza ESLAMI Founding partner & Architect ICON Architects Toronto, ON, Canada

Filipa FIGUEIRA Founding Partner HAS - Hinterland Architecture Studio

Porto, Portugal

Benoît GÉRARD Co-founder BlazysGérard

St-Gabriel-de-Brandon QC, Canada

Ban KUBBA Architect Associate Vice President National Market Sector Leader Transportation Buildings ÆCOM Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Dominique LANNOY President ASBL Re Créarts

Eghezée, Belgium

Patrick LEBLANC

Designer, President and Founder Conception Leblanc Boucherville, QC, Canada

Steffen LEHMANN Founding Partner and Principal si_architecture + urban design

Las Vegas, NV, United States

Carlo MARTINO Full Professor of Design Sapienza University of Rome

Rome, Italy

Alain MOUREAUX Co-founder MOUREAUX – HAUSPY Design

Montréal, QC, Canada

Tushar NEGI

Principal Architect THINK Architecture Toronto, ON, Canada

Edith NORMANDEAU Owner and Designer Atelier VITA LOCI

Lac-Beauport, QC, Canada

Alan PERT Director University of Melbourne Melbourne School of Design Melbourne, Australia

Christophe PILLET

Designer

Christophe Pillet Designer Paris, France

Denys LAPOINTE

Chief Design officer BRP

Valcourt, QC, Canada

Nicolas LEBRUN

Industrial Designer Creaform Inc

Lévis, QC, Canada

Martin LIU

Secretary General China Europe International Design Culture Association (CEIDA)

Antwerp, Belgium

Louise MAZAURIC Architect BGIS

Montréal, QC, Canada

Mardi NAJAFI

Principal Chief Creative Officer Retail & Hospitality Practice Lead SDI Design

Toronto, ON, Canada

Erin NEUFEGLISE Senior Manager Design Royal Bank of Canada Toronto, ON, Canada

Bruno ORO Professor Iowa State University Ames, IA, United States

Ema PETER

Professional interior and architectural photographer

Ema Peter Photography Vancouver, BC, Canada

Stephen PIMBLEY Founder, Partner & Director SPARK Architects Singapore

Debbie LAPORTE Founding Director Orterra

Brisbane, Australia

Sheng-Hung LEE

Ph.D. researcher and designer Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Cambridge, MA, United States

Peter MABEO Founder Mabeo Gaborone, Botswana

Laura MIMINI

Design Director and Co-Founder d2p - Design to Product Brescia, Italy Foshan, China

Nina NDICHU

Austin Deputy Office Director + Project Urban Designer Toole Design Group

Austin, TX, United States

Carolina NISIVOCCIA

Owner

Studio Carolina Nisivoccia : Architettura

Milan, Italy

Primo ORPILLA Co-founder Studio O+A

San Francisco, CA, United States

Claudya PIAZERA Chief Strategy Officer and co-founder

Smart8 & Design for Winning Winter Garden, FL, United States

Thanasis POLYZOIDIS Founder TPOL landscape architecture Co-founder topio7 team

Athens, Greece

Scott POOLE

Dean Emeritus and Professor University of Tennessee

Knoxville, TN, United States

DINA SARHANE

Founder + Lead Architect

DS Studio

Toronto, ON, Canada

Hao SHAN

Creative Director CRE+ Design Department Head East China University of Science & Technology School of Art Design & Media

Shanghai, China

Anita SIRCAR Architecture Department Head Michæl Baker International Alexandria, VA, United States

Leslie SYDNOR Director / Project Manager - Planning and Development Cumming Group

Van Nuys, CA, United States

Marco TORTOIOLI RICCI Design Director Bcpt Associati President AIAP

Milan, Italy

Alessandro VALENTE

CPA and auditor CCF Local Action Group, Alto Casertano Consortium

Benevento, Italy

Ingalill WAHLROOS-RITTER

Professor East Los Angeles College President ACLA (Architecture for Communities Los Angeles) Los Angeles, CA, United States

Jean-Michel WILMOTTE

Architect, urban-planner, designer, founder Wilmotte & Associés

Paris, France

Kourosh SALEHI

Architect & urbanist LWK + PARTNERS

Dubaï, United Arab Emirates

Mark SCHOLLEN

Landscape Architect & Principal Schollen & Company Inc.

Richmond Hill, ON, Canada

Saty SHARMA

Professor Design for Sustainability Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD)

Savannah, GA, United States

Marc STREKER Director (until 2023) École supérieure des Arts Saint-Luc Bruxelles

Limal, Belgium

Ho TAN DUONG

President Vietnam Design Association (VDAS) Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

Maria SALVATI

Associate partner

Jaime Bouzaglo Design Studio

Montréal, QC, Canada

Ana SEGOVIA

Creative director & co-founder

Odosdesign Valencia, Spain

Koorosh SHOJAEI Advisory Board Member Automotive Circle Conference

Augsburg, Germany

Stanley SUN Partner Mason Studio Toronto, ON, Canada

Christiane TAWIL Editor-in-Chief côté déco

Beyrouth, Lebanon

Marie-Hélène TROTTIER Cofounder & Creative Director Jump&Love Design Montréal, QC, Canada

Alykhan VELJI

Creative Director Alykhan Velji Designs

Calgary, AB, Canada

Zhaodi WANG

Senior Interaction Designer Google

New York, NY, United States

Lei YE

Senior Product Designer McKinsey and Company

Boston, MA, United States

Alina VALCARCE Founder & Director Valcarce Architects

Dubaï, United Arab Emirates

Marie-Chantal VILLENEUVE

Showroom and Marketing manager - Designer L'Atelier Appliance Studio

Montréal, QC, Canada

Suzanne WILKINSON Principal Figure3

Toronto, ON, Canada

Milagros ZINGONI PHIELIPP Director & Associate Professor University of Tennessee School of Interior Architecture

Knoxville, TN, United States

AND THE WINNERS ARE...

How winners are selected

CERTIFICATIONS

Each project is evaluated by the Jury on a 1–100 scale, by discipline and category. Entries meeting the thresholds receive a certification:

Gold: 80–100 points

Silver: 70–79 points

Bronze: 60–69 points

FINALISTS

All Gold-certified (80–100) projects become finalists for their category’s Grand Winner title.

GRAND WINNER

The Grand Winner title is awarded to the project or product with the highest score in its category.

AWARD OF THE YEAR

Presented in each discipline following the Jury’s deliberations to recognize its standout favourites.

GET INSPIRED

Browse projects from the 18th edition — and previous editions — on int.design with a visual, intuitive search engine. A true encyclopedia of inspiration, essential for professionals and enthusiasts alike.

On each winner’s page, a QR code takes you directly to the Get Inspired platform for more details and photos.

Award of the Year

ARCHITECTURE

Hôtel Lambert Completed 2023 Canada

BY Ruccolo + Faubert Architectes Quebec, Canada rfaarchitectes.com

GRAND WINNER + Hotel

 A touchstone of refinement, Hôtel Lambert shines with elegance and distinction: reunified façades, apartments inspired by private mansions, and terraces overlooking Old Montreal. Here, history endures—reinterpreted with elegance, poise, and vitality—in a measured dialogue between heritage and contemporaneity. Each intervention honours the place’s memory while offering a distinctly contemporary, serene experience.

Memory in Stone and Light

Once abandoned and now reborn, Hôtel Lambert fuses Old Montreal’s past with today’s elegance. Reunified and restored façades, sophisticated interiors, and discreet modern gestures create a place that is at once historic and alive.

Designed by Ruccolo + Faubert Architectes, the project transforms two long-neglected heritage buildings into a distinguished refuge. At 53 De Brésoles Street, the 1874 structure is preserved, its original timber repurposed as formwork for concrete—reconciling fire safety with conservation. On NotreDame Street West, the rare cast-iron façade is carefully restored, while the more than 40-metre party wall is reinforced to meet seismic standards. Glass and anodized aluminium slip in with restraint, heightening the presence of stone, brick, and wood.

The reinstated inner courtyard reintroduces natural light, passive ventilation, and a clear reading of the site’s history. Inside, 47 apartments reinterpret the intimacy of European hôtels particuliers: generous volumes, refined acoustics, and a warm material palette. Above, a rooftop terrace opens panoramic views over Old Montreal and the river. By reconciling past and present, the Award of the Year Hôtel Lambert restores memory with elegance—proof that preservation, guided by measure and imagination, can feel strikingly new.

Award of the Year

ARCHITECTURE

Meadow House Completed 2023

United States

BY Mark English Architects

California, United States markenglisharchitects.com

GRAND WINNER

+ Private House > 2,000 sq.ft.

+ Prestige House

 In the wild expanse of California’s Santa Lucia Preserve, Meadow House bends with the land and melts into its meadow. Steel and cedar echo the hills, light drifts through every room, and a multigenerational family home dissolves into the landscape it calls its own.

Photos Joe Fletcher Photography

A Meadow in the Making

Meadow House slips quietly into the wilds of the Santa Lucia Preserve, where 90% of the land is protected. Mark English Architects craft a Californian home with a Korean heart— Z-shaped, grounded in steel and cedar, yet open to light, views, and the rituals of family life.

Hidden to comply with conservation rules, the house’s Z-shaped plan follows the land’s contours and oak canopies, while weathering steel and cedar echo the natural palette. For its multigenerational Korean-American clients, architects blended Californian openness with Korean sensibility. Indoor–outdoor flow, shaded terraces, and shoji screens let spaces shift from family retreat to large gathering. Inside, Italian bluestone, white oak, cedar, quartz, and stainless steel form a pared-down palette, both

durable and refined. Light plays across interiors— bright in some places, filtered in others—while broad glazing frames meadow and wildlife. At the tip of the living pavilion, a sunken lounge offers calm, bathed in indirect glow and the rhythms of nature. Meadow House is less a structure than a participant in its setting: efficient, enduring, and quietly transcendent.

DU DESIGN

ARCHITECTURE

+ Private House

≤ 2,000 sq.ft.

House Caroline Completed 2023 Canada

BY Reign Architects Ontario, Canada reignarchitects.ca

Modern Echoes of Victorian Grace

In Leslieville, Toronto, Reign Architects are transforming a Victorian home from 1850. Maison Caroline is expanded with a contemporary wing and opened up to light, blending heritage with modern living.

The project reflects a sensitive dialogue between preservation and reinvention. Once narrow and dim, the Victorian home is now open and fluid, shaped by custom interventions that optimize space while honoring its character. A curved banquette animates the bay window, while oak cabinetry merges seamlessly with a media wall. A winding stair rises with ease, carving space for a marble island, generous storage, and a firelit bench. Light, once elusive, now defines the home: broad west-facing windows frame the

maple tree and garden, and a south-angled skylight pours daylight through the stairwell. Above, the A-frame addition with exposed Douglas Fir beams crowns the house, linking it to nature and time. Clad in Nova Scotian wood, the new volumes heighten the Victorian façade by contrast. House Caroline emerges as a luminous sanctuary where past and present share the same light.

2025 GRANDS PRIX

DU DESIGN

ARCHITECTURE

+ Cottage & Country House

Whistling Wind Island

Completed 2023 Canada BY Akb Architects Ontario, Canada akb.ca

Swept by the Wind

In Pointe au Baril, Ontario, Akb Architects craft a quartet of cedar-clad cabins shaped by the elements. Tilted roofs, breezy decks, and dissolving glass walls capture the spirit of wind and water while resting lightly on the rock.

Set in the wild archipelagos of Georgian Bay, Whistling Wind Island lives up to its name. Exposed to weather ideal for its kite-surfing owner, the design channels the power and whistle of the wind: four pitched-roof cabins that seem swept into place. A main house, bunkie, sauna, and boat storage with fitness room step across the acre, tied by wooden walkways that follow the rock. Wrapped in weathered cedar, each volume settles into the terrain, its decks unfurling like sails around the stone. Glass

walls glide open to dissolve boundaries, inviting breezes in summer while deep overhangs temper the sun. Inside, whitewashed boards echo the horizon, carving warm, wood-lined interiors as if from solid mass. Local cedar and granite, wood-burning fireplaces, and a night sky left untouched by light spill root the cottage in sustainability, shaping a retreat both raw and refined, tuned to wind, land, and water.

2025 GRANDS PRIX

DU DESIGN

ARCHITECTURE

+ Cottage & Country House

» Completed 2023

Canada BY MXMA Architecture & Design

Québec, Canada mxma.ca

La Villa « Luce

A Villa of Light

In Cap-à-l’Aigle, Charlevoix, MXMA Architecture & Design create Villa «Luce », where stone, wood, and glass balance heritage and modernity. Immersed in forest and open to the St. Lawrence, the house is an ode to light, landscape, and the art of living.

Taking root in the Charlevoix forest, it rises discreetly from a clearing to frame sweeping views of river and mountains. Accessed by a wooden walkway, the house unfolds on two levels: a grounded base of stone and wood, and a glazed upper floor under a floating black roof. Inspired by regional traditions yet resolutely contemporary, it combines comfort with clarity. Light is its compass—morning sun in the kitchen, evening glow in the living room, panoramas upstairs centered on a billiard table as social pivot.

Bedrooms below open to terraces carved into the landscape, while a master suite with a sunlit bath extends immersion in nature. A forest-green core organizes services and links wings east to west. Built with local stone and wood, minimally deforested and oriented for passive gains, the villa unites sustainability with serenity—a home shaped for luminous living.

Résidence Chester

Completed 2024 Canada BY Atelier Schwimmer Québec, Canada schwimmer.ca

ARCHITECTURE

+ Residential annex

A House in Two Acts

In Town of Mount Royal, a vertical annex subtly elevates a Canadian home. Between Saint-Marc stone and white-washed cedar, the residence weaves a layered dialogue between heritage, memory, and contemporary urban life today.

The residential annex preserves and amplifies the identity of a Canadian house while adapting it for a young family’s needs. With the ground footprint already maxed, the expansion rises upward, adding two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a playroom. While earlier rear additions had blurred the home’s clarity; the new intervention restores order with a restrained geometry and refined material palette. The main façade gains presence through Saint-Marc stone cladding, reinforcing its heritage stature. At the rear,

a recessed parallelepiped clad in pre-aged white cedar stands apart from past stucco volumes. Two side interstices bring light, air, and permeability, while a black transitional band leads into a hanging garden. Inside, renovated rooms and a reorganized attic complete the transformation brilliantly. The result is a house that reconciles memory with modernity, continuity with change.

Earth, Sea and Infinity

Drawn in earth and light, IMA House & Guest House lean into the horizon of Cabo San Lucas. Walls echo the desert, courtyards shimmer with water, and spaces drift open to the sea and sky.

On Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula, Ezequiel Farca crafts a retreat where desert meets ocean. Rammed earth walls root the property in place, their warm tones blending with the land. Patios, water basins, and shaded corridors slow the pace, while the east façade opens wide to the horizon. Concrete slabs stretch like wings—sheltering social spaces below, becoming terraces above. At the edge, a pool spills into the sea, blurring house and view. Gardens, pergolas, and a casual guest pavilion extend the ensem-

ble outward, inviting family and friends to gather. Inside, the house leans toward ritual and spectacle. Copper tables, woven rugs, mosaics, and art collected across Mexico turn daily life into a gallery of craft. Fire pits, jacuzzis, and wide terraces make each suite a private observatory of sea and sky. Here, earth anchors, water reflects, and architecture dissolves into the horizon.

DU DESIGN

ARCHITECTURE

+ Apartment & Condo

≥ 10 storeys

ONTO Tonalá

Completed 2023 Mexico BY CRB arquitectos Mexico crbarq.com

Living on the Edge

In Mexico City’s vibrant Roma district, ONTO Tonalá rises from a triangular lot into a mixed-use residential model. Designed by CRB arquitectos, it combines housing, public space, and material craft to strengthen both community and context.

The project transforms a tight triangular plot into a civic gesture. Four compact apartments per floor— all with street views—are organized across three modules connected by two circulation cores. A small plaza anchors the tip of the building, opening the project to the neighborhood. Above, rooftop terraces extend the sequence of shared spaces with panoramic views of the city. Exposed concrete, pigmented in earthy tones, gives the structure permanence and warmth, while granite, volcanic

stone, and Navona marble articulate interiors. At street level, inward-sloping columns create a sense of openness. Flexible units for short-and-long-term stays enrich social interaction, supported by coworking and commercial spaces on the ground floor. With its modest footprint and layered program, ONTO Tonalá demonstrates how design can elevate density and revive community gracefully.

DU DESIGN

ARCHITECTURE

+ Apartment & Condo of 5 to 9 storeys

ONTO Alvaro Obregón Completed 2024 Mexico BY CRB arquitectos Mexico crbarq.com

Of Greenery & Geometry

Exquisite and lush with greenery, ONTO Álvaro Obregón by CRB arquitectos unfolds in Mexico City’s Roma Norte. A hybrid of living and hospitality, it layers wood, steel, and landscape into an urban retreat tied to the life of the city.

The project unfolds as a sequence of spaces where vegetation shapes daily life. Vertical gardens climb its façades, balconies carry guava and olive trees, and patios planted with ferns and palms create shaded refuges. A rooftop garden with bar and dining completes this green thread with panoramic views. Structurally, the building combines prefabricated wood and steel with concrete columns, balancing durability with reduced impact. The grid-like wooden façade filters sunlight and air, while a

planted buffer shields interiors from the avenue. Inside, staircases appear as sculptural elements through foliage-filled landings. Two towers—one on the street, one on a rear garden—are linked by semicircular courtyards. Rainwater harvesting, native species, and natural ventilation embed sustainability. Defined by geometry, vegetation, and craft, ONTO Álvaro Obregón is an urban refuge rooted in nature.

Houses in Height

On Nicaragua Street in the Palermo neighborhood of Buenos Aires, ATV Arquitectos sidesteps the isolated tower with a housing project rooted in context. Its exposed grid, green courtyards, and shifting units shape an architecture that breathes, adapts, and speaks the language of the city.

Sens Nicaragua stitches itself into the Palermo block, turning gaps into opportunities and setting up a quiet conversation with the street. A grid of eight four-meter modules, braced by central walls and high beams, frames clusters of living spaces with shifting proportions. Two courtyards cut through the block, channeling air, light, and daily life from front to back. Units behave like houses in height, each with its own rhythm of layouts, double heights, and outdoor

expansions. This rotation of forms strengthens the courtyards and keeps monotony at bay. On the ground floor, shops animate the street while the entrance leads to an indoor forest—an unexpected retreat at the core. Masterfully integrated in its environment, it points toward a city that grows by weaving connections, not by standing alone.

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DU DESIGN

ARCHITECTURE

+ Small Commercial Space

Galerie Foil

Completed 2025 Canada BY atelier l'abri Québec, Canada labri.ca

When Art Meets Everyday

In Montreal’s Mile-Ex, Galerie FOIL merges art, café, and raw architecture in a hybrid space by Atelier L’Abri. Housed in a former munitions factory, it balances heritage and innovation, offering a multisensory hub rooted in community.

Galerie FOIL—founded by artists Fvckrender and Baeige—offers more than exhibitions: it is a meeting place, café, and cultural laboratory. Atelier L’Abri transformed the WWII-era factory by revealing its sawtooth roof, solid wood trusses, and raw concrete columns, then layering subtle interventions such as sandblasted textures, skylights, acoustic partitions, and custom furniture. At the heart, a brushed-metal volume defines circulation, while the café opens onto Parc des Gorilles with a glazed garage door. Inside,

a projection room and design pieces by local makers enrich the space. FOIL’s eclectic program blends digital and physical art, immersive projections, and even a restored Porsche as a centerpiece. Soundscapes, fragrance, and locally sourced food complete the experience. More than a gallery, FOIL celebrates accessibility, inclusivity, and beauty in its purest form—a tribute to the finer things in life.

DU DESIGN

ARCHITECTURE

+ Shopping Center & Mall

Zhuhai Shizimen Huafa Mall

Under Construction China

BY Zhuhai Huafa Properties

China cnhuafas.com

Crossroads of Currents

In Zhuhai’s Shizimen district, in Southern China, Huafa Mall links four urban plots into one fluid commercial landscape. Blending business, leisure, and art, the design creates interactive environments and lively social spaces that anchor the city’s vitality.

By Huafa Properties, the mall is conceived as a retail and cultural hub in the Central Business District. Spanning four plots, it employs distinct spatial strategies while maintaining a unified identity. Each section enhances access and comfort, adapting to its context. The design introduces thematic scenes—the Heavenly Ark, Waterfall, and Ripples—that merge business, technology, and art into experiential landmarks. Together, they form the “Tidal Crossroads,” a sequence of interconnected plazas that invite retail, leisure, and civic encounters. Public terraces bring daylight deep into the complex, reinforcing its role as a meeting ground. Sustainability underpins the project: green roofs, solar panels, and high-performance materials cut energy use, enhance well-being, and help restore a vibrant, sustainable urban model to Zhuhai’s waterfront.

L’Agora des Arts Completed 2023 Canada BY Chevalier Morales Québec, Canada chevaliermorales.com

ARCHITECTURE

+ Building Conversion & Adaptive Reuse

Placing Faith in Art

Once a century-old church, the Agora of the Arts in Rouyn- Noranda has been reborn as a theatre and music venue. This adaptive reuse anchors a changing district, blending memory with modernity and standing as a cultural beacon amid displacement.

The Agora of the Arts transforms the Notre-Damede-Protection church, a listed heritage site, into a renewed cultural nucleus for Abitibi-Témiscamingue. Chevalier Morales’ design preserves memory while embracing contemporary expression. A 200-seat hall, restored structure, and lateral relocation of the iconic staircase root the project in continuity, recalling decades of ceremonies and performances. Facing the Horne Smelter—engine of Rouyn’s birth

yet long criticized for its toxic emissions—the Agora stands as a cultural counterpoint to the factory’s looming presence. Near a heritage zone reshaped by relocations, it asserts resilience, bridging past and future. By uniting preservation with innovation, it ensures that art, gathering, and heritage remain vital forces in the heart of Rouyn-Noranda.

ARCHITECTURE

+ Cultural Building

Bibliothèque Gabrielle-Roy

Gabrielle-Roy Library

Completed 2024 Canada BY Saucier+Perrotte Architectes | GLCRM Architectes Québec, Canada saucierperrotte.com glcrmarchitectes.com

Layers of Light

The renovated Gabrielle-Roy Library reshapes Quebec City’s Saint-Roch district into a cultural epicenter. More than a library, it emerges as an open, inclusive space where light, art, and architecture spark creativity and shared living.

The expansion of the Gabrielle-Roy Library, by Saucier+Perrotte Architectes and GLCRM Architectes, frames the library as a cultural and social catalyst. Anchored in Saint-Roch, it establishes direct connections with the city through a forecourt, continuity with the public square, and transparent façades. The library rises as a series of vertical neighborhoods: hubs for youth and civic life, thematic collections, creative labs, and at the top, a terrace garden that

extends the city upward. At the center, a luminous atrium channels zenithal light, animated by sculptural staircases and artist Micheline Beauchemin’s golden installation. Silkscreened glass filters openness and intimacy, while a winter garden welcomes users from the underground. Beyond reading, the library emerges as a 21st-century urban institution: vibrant, porous, and deeply human.

DU DESIGN

ARCHITECTURE

+ Institutional Building

Forecasting Wellness

In Taipei, science turns sensorial: here, wind, rain, and light become materials for making, reflection, and well-being, turning everyday weather into a lived experience—shared, immediate, and deeply felt by many.

The station turns atmospheric data into lived experience. Three volumes, unified by an undulating roof inspired by synoptic maps, gather services and a multipurpose hall. Wind-driven fins reveal currents, channel rain into strands, and cast shifting patterns of light and shadow. Patinated Corten steel records time, while permeable paving, a collecting roof, and overhangs reduce heat-island effects and reinforce sustainability. Beneath the site, the largest aerodynamic tunnel in Taiwan is concealed, its vibrations

damped by a green roof. Inside, paths and framed views open to the sky, aligning work with repose. Material and light converse: metal, concrete, and wood welcome weather and translate it into sensation. More than infrastructure, the place becomes a chamber of observation that engages sight, sound, and touch, and lifts public architecture to where science meets poetry. Small courtyards invite study, dialogue, and discovery.

A Portal to the Past

At Rowan University, the Edelman Fossil Park & Museum rises above an active dig site with a façade conceived as lenses into the earth’s story. This net-zero landmark connects fossils, landscape, and future in one continuous architectural frame.

The site draws its identity from its façade. Inspired by the site’s role as a window to the Cretaceous past, the design introduces a series of apertures and pavilion-like forms that act as metaphorical lenses. Small portals open onto vast horizons, linking visitors’ present-day experience with deep time and the future it foreshadows. The façades’ porches and overlooks extend learning outdoors, symbolizing the mission to connect people with nature. Clad in

renewable heavy timber and wood, the envelope underscores environmental responsibility, achieving New Jersey’s largest public net-zero building. In this balance of material honesty, sustainable performance, and poetic expression, the museum’s façade becomes both a physical threshold and a narrative device—an architectural skin that makes visible the continuity of past, present, and possible futures.

ARCHITECTURE

+ Continuing Value

+ Heritage Enhancement

Montréal City Hall

Completed 2024 Canada BY Beaupré Michaud et Associés, Architectes en collaboration avec MU Architecture Québec, Canada bmaarchitectes.com architecture-mu.com

Between Memory and Future

Montreal’s City Hall has been renewed through a seven-year restoration. By enhancing heritage and opening its spaces to light, transparency, and sustainability, the project bridges past prestige with today’s civic needs.

The restoration of Montréal City Hall honours its Second Empire grandeur while carrying it into the present. Built in the 1870s and rebuilt after fire in 1925, the stone shell remains, but its spirit is revitalized. Light now pours into historic halls while citizens are welcomed with open areas, a café, and universal access. A brass-and-granite pavilion crowns the terrace, framing Mount Royal and affirming a contemporary presence. Upper floors, once partitioned, are transformed into flexible, biophilic workplaces

attuned to modern life. With LEED v4.1 certification and a 79% energy reduction, the project aligns heritage with ecological stewardship. No less than twelve thousand tons of stone and 169 windows were restored, ensuring craft and memory endure. And, in doing so, Montréal City Hall regains its prestige—an architecture of continuity, where memory and future meet.

ARCHITECTURE

+ Factory & Warehouse

Where Flight Begins

At Toronto Pearson Airport, Bombardier unveils its Aircraft Assembly Center. It blends precision with presence—an advanced 24/7 ecosystem where innovation, efficiency, and wellbeing shape a new chapter in aerospace design.

Spanning 750,000 sq ft, the campus marks Bombardier’s leap to a site crafted for the future. Two main buildings—an aerostructures line and a flight test hangar—are joined by support spaces that choreograph people, robotics, and flow with clarity. Daylight pours into work zones, sightlines open across production, and distances shrink between offices, floors, and training hubs. This spatial discipline not only speeds aircraft assembly but also

reduces waste and energy use, echoing Bombardier’s sustainability goals. More than a manufacturing site, it is a place of collaboration and learning, designed to lift morale as much as performance. With the precision of a hospital and the openness of a campus, it sets a new standard— where architecture, environment, and humanity converge to shape the future of Canadian aviation.

DU DESIGN

ARCHITECTURE

+ Factory & Warehouse

Cuisine idéale

Completed 2024 Canada BY Équipe A architectes Québec, Canada equipea.ca

Industry and Identity

At the edge of a highway, Cuisine idéale establishes a new home for craft and innovation. Offices, showroom, and factory converge in one clear composition, uniting industry, identity, and ambition.

Set into a natural slope, the complex turns constraints into design. The factory embeds into the ground, discreet at the rear, while the headquarters and showroom rise to the front with a bold, contrasting facade. A black shell opens to reveal a warm wooden core, where a monumental Dekton staircase floats like a ribbon through the luminous hall. Light floods the interiors, filtering through glass walls and generous openings—meeting rooms look onto work-

shops, offices overlook production, and shared spaces extend to terraces and courtyards. Separate entries guide employees, clients, and deliveries, ensuring clarity and safety. Every element, from acoustics to material detail, reinforces the company’s expertise and conveys an architectural language rooted in precision, craft, and contemporary presence.

2025 GRANDS PRIX

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ARCHITECTURE

+ Office Building (≥ 5 storeys)

QScale Campus Q01

Completed 2023 Canada BY Menkès Shooner Dagenais

LeTourneux Architectes Québec, Canada msdl.ca

Mass Timber for a Digital Future

QScale Campus Q01 in Lévis marks the first step in building world-class computing centers rooted in sustainability. The project fuses cutting-edge technology and Quebec’s renewable resources into a bold architectural statement.

The campus sets the tone for QScale’s mission: sustainable, high-performance computing rooted in local expertise. Menkès Shooner Dagenais LeTourneux Architectes shape a headquarters that fuses global digital ambition with Quebec identity. The administrative wing is built entirely in exposed mass timber—glulam and cross-laminated black spruce certified FSC® and Cradle to Cradle®. Exposed columns, large windows, and light finishes accentuate the warmth of wood, creating a luminous

and welcoming environment for employees and international clients alike. The project exemplifies innovation in sustainability. Server rooms are coupled with a thermal waste recovery system capable of redistributing up to 96 megawatts—enough to power 15,000 homes or adjacent greenhouses. Ultimately, Q01 stands as a model of resilience, resourcefulness, and carbon-conscious design.

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ARCHITECTURE

+ Higher Education & Research Building

York University Markham Campus

Completed 2024 Canada BY Diamond Schmitt Ontario, Canada dsai.ca

A Vertical Campus for Higher Learning

In Markham, northeast of Toronto, York University opens its first campus outside the city. Designed by Diamond Schmitt, the 10-storey building unites teaching, research, and community within a luminous vertical hub.

With 400,000 square feet of space, York University’s Markham Campus accommodates 4,000 students across ten academic levels. Flexible classrooms, shared labs, and open work zones are tied together by a soaring atrium, where a sculptural stair stitches programs into a continuous social space. Abundant natural light reinforces openness and creates visual connections across disciplines. The bronze-anodized exterior, punctuated by syncopated windows and deep recesses, gives the tower a civic presence,

while a five-storey podium opens directly onto University Boulevard, extending academic life into the public realm. Site constraints—poor soil and a high water table—prompted a six-metre grade shift, orienting the complex toward a landscaped Campus Green. Designed to grow with the city, the campus is both compact and expansive—a landmark that brings education, research, and community together.

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ARCHITECTURE

+ School & Preschool Education Building

GRAND WINNER

Awacak Okiskinohamatowikamikowaw Elementary School of Manawan

Completed 2024 Canada

BY CCM2 architectes et B+B architecture design

Québec, Canada ccm2.ca bplusb.ca

Rooted in Land, Blooming Ahead

Imagine a school where walls echo the forest, where light guides each step, and where learning is rooted in culture. In Manawan, an Atikamekw community in Quebec’s Lanaudière region, such a place now stands—Welcome to Awacak Okiskinohamatowikamikowaw Elementary School.

The school turns learning into belonging, anchored in territory and tradition. Wood shapes its structure and interiors, blond tones paired with aluminum that recall the forest. Tipi motifs and canoe-like lines quietly affirm heritage. A luminous atrium framed by wooden columns, bird murals, and topographic patterns becomes a crossroads for gathering and discovery. Fluid circulation and universal access ensure every child feels at home, while durable materials

balance safety with warmth. Here, sustainability is inseparable from design: geothermal energy, natural ventilation, and a green roof reduce impact and keep nature close. Culture thrives in the atrium’s showcase and the library open to the landscape, making Manawan’s new school a living architecture where forest, community, and next generations learn together.

Du Bosquet High School

Completed 2024 Canada

ARCHITECTURE

+ School & Preschool Education Building

+ Architecture

+ Aluminium

BY ABCP | Menkès Shooner

Dagenais LeTourneux | Bilodeau Baril Leeming Architectes Québec, Canada abcparchitecture.com msdl.ca architectes.ca

Where Learning Takes Root

In Drummondville’s Saint-Nicéphore sector, Du Bosquet High School sits at the edge of a woodland. Designed as a school in the forest, it fuses nature and architecture, with aluminum façades that echo the stratified textures of the trees.

The new high school brings students into direct contact with the forest, its preserved woodland shaping the ground-floor plan. Key gathering spaces, such as the atrium, cafeteria, auditorium and gym, are open to nature, filled with light and views. The volumetric design recalls layers of landscape, while aluminum defines the façade. Folded panels alternate with smooth surfaces, creating depth, rhythm, and shadow play. Bronze-toned aluminum sunshades, matched to the woodland palette, filter daylight like

a canopy. Inside, a biophilic hub with wooden bleachers forms the heart of the school, extending to a bright library and auditorium above. Outdoor plazas, courtyards, and stepped openings complete the dialogue between building and forest. Du Bosquet High School becomes both refuge and landmark: a contemporary learning environment shaped in aluminum, rooted in nature.

ARCHITECTURE

+ Bâtiment de sport & loisir + Sports & Leisure Building

All Facets of Wellness

In China, Kris Lin International Design creates a luminous glass clubhouse that blends tea house, library, gym, and pool. Transparent and multifaceted like a crystal, it fosters wellness, community, and a seamless bond with nature.

The Crystal Clubhouse is conceived as a community hub for body and mind—combining yoga and fitness with spaces for reading, tea, and family connection. Its crystalline form redefines enclosure: faceted glass walls and dark gray aluminum panels layer transparency, rhythm, and depth. High-transmittance Low-E glass reduces UV exposure and energy use, with daylight meeting most needs through 1,600 annual hours of sun. Angled glazing brings natural light into the pool, creating shimmering reflections that dissolve the

boundary between inside and out, while framing open views of the surrounding landscape. Sustainability is expressed not only in energy performance but also in the use of renewable materials and natural ventilation, ensuring a healthy, balanced environment. Both luminous and efficient, the clubhouse is a contemporary crystal: a place where energy, light, and community converge.

ARCHITECTURE

+ Mixed-Use Building

Woven Into the Hood

Clad like woven metal, La Tour d’eau shimmers at the threshold of Hochelaga-Maisonneuve. CB Architectes transforms a relic of the industrial era into a light-filled stage for work, creation, and community life.

The project begins with a gesture of levitation: a new metal volume poised above a recessed glazed base. Vertical grooves repeat like factory rhythms while softened angles echo fabric in motion. Behind the cladding, glimpses of wood recall the sheds that once lined the neighborhood. Between this new skin and the historic brick, a full-height atrium ties eras together. Bleachers in wood, natural light cascading from above—this central void doubles as a shared living room for the district, encouraging encounters.

The program is equally woven: offices, artists’ studios, community spaces, and shops animating Ontario Street. Porthole windows at the corner glow like urban lanterns, revealing interior life and marking the gateway to the district. By stitching past to present, La Tour d’eau becomes a living patchwork of functions and people—industrial heritage recast as contemporary diversity.

ARCHITECTURE

+ Architecture + Art

L’Octogone library Completed 2024 Canada BY Anne Carrier Architectes + Architectes Labonté Marcil Québec, Canada annecarrier.com es-a.ca

Art in a New Light

In Montréal’s LaSalle district, L’Octogone Library shines anew. Three lanterns extend the original building, weaving art, architecture, and community into a luminous cultural beacon.

Anne Carrier Architectes with Labonté Marcil reimagine L’Octogone as a living artwork—an inviting third place where culture, creation, and exchange converge. The preserved base is crowned with three lanterns, sculptural volumes that open the library to city, park, and people. Each lantern carries a social program—café, fab-lab, reading lounges—turning daily functions into moments of encounter. Inside, art becomes spatial: a sculptural stair, immersive walls, and the playful “in my bubble” sphere, a floating read-

ing pod that pierces the roof as a light catcher. Pathways are fluid, luminous, and inclusive, guiding visitors through zones for all ages and practices. Outside, metal screens, glass, and planted roofs play with light and shadow, extending the architecture into its landscape. A place where architecture and art entwine to spark imagination, shaping a civic stage for LaSalle’s cultural life.

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ARCHITECTURE

+ Colour

+ Stairs

International Transitional School of Montréal, Prud’homme Avenue Completed 2024 Canada

BY Yelle Maillé et associés architectes Québec,

Canada yellemaille.ca

An Atrium in Orange

At the International Transitional School of Montréal, Prud'homme Avenue, a bold orange stair turns circulation into experience. The project restores heritage fabric while injecting color and light, balancing history with a vibrant contemporary identity.

Yelle Maillé et associés architectes revive a layered heritage complex with one decisive gesture: a glazed atrium anchored by a striking orange staircase. The stair becomes a sculptural landmark, visible throughout the school, that unifies disparate wings and simplifies movement in the once-maze-like structure. Integrated bleachers at its base form a social stage, transforming passage into community life. Here, color is not an accent but a narrative thread. Vivid orange panels energize the interior, set against

restored historic staircases and façades that preserve the building’s century-old character. The school now houses 544 students, with new classrooms, a gymnasium, and the first CSSDM “learning hub.” Lightfilled, sustainable, and inclusive, it embodies resilience and renewal. Both a place of learning and a civic anchor, it affirms how color and form can redefine heritage.

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ARCHITECTURE

+ Renovation

Collège Reine-Marie –Expansion: New Training Room and Renovation of the Student Entrance Completed 2024 Canada

A Threshold Renewed

In Montréal’s Saint-Michel district, Collège Reine-Marie undertakes a significant dual project signed by Salem Architecture: a carefully renovated student entrance and a spacious new training room.

The former entry, once defined by a stark stair and seasonal shelter, now welcomes students beneath a wood-lined canopy that conveys warmth and dignity. A curving, barrier-free path preserves a mature maple, while a concrete bench and landscaped strip soften the approach and blend building with setting. The expansion, clad in matte Dekton, maintains a quiet dialogue with the school’s stone façades, while colored glass accents animate the façade and reinforce identity. Inside, obsolete locker rooms have

given way to a bright new training room, alive with Titan orange and blue. Exposed structure and raw finishes channel athletic energy, tempered by daylight and openness. Rooted in educational values, the project affirms that architecture, even in modest gestures, can shape environments where students thrive—inclusively, confidently, and with pride.

A Woodland Wonder

In Quebec’s Laurentides Wildlife Reserve, Camp Mercier gains a new wooden pavilion. Designed by Anne Carrier Architectes, it fuses rustic spirit and contemporary design, offering a sustainable, inclusive, and year-round gateway to nature.

At 783 meters, Camp Mercier is a renowned cross-country ski hub and summer retreat. The new pavilion replaces an obsolete forestry camp with an architecture both rooted and renewed. Its spruce cladding, set vertically, recalls log cabins; broad openings frame the boreal forest. Low-slope roofs and pared-down volumes echo the mountain, balancing shadow and light. Organized on one level, the building ensures accessibility, shields visitors from road noise, and unfolds three wooden wings around

a central core for fluid circulation. Inside, gathering spaces and rental counters support winter sports; in summer the pavilion welcomes cyclists and fishers. Outside, landscaped embankments morph with the seasons into play and meeting grounds. Threshold and anchor, the wooden pavilion renews Camp Mercier’s legacy, weaving timber, landscape, and community into a landmark for Quebec’s outdoor culture.

ARCHITECTURE + Architecture + Wood

Made of Brick, Wood and Views

Like a palisade turned stage set, this lakeside home by _naturehumaine balances drama and intimacy. Brick stands guard on the roadside, while wood-lined interiors glow with warmth, turning everyday life into a play of texture, light, and view.

Set along Lake Orford, the residence embraces a site of contrasts—road to the south, water to the north. Toward the road, the house reads as a brick bastion: solid, durable, and protective. Toward the lake, it dissolves into transparency, framing sweeping views of water and mountains. Wood becomes the counterpoint to mass. Stained paneling stretches across ceilings, cherry veneer wraps the walls, and copper-framed windows glow in warm dialogue with

stone hearths and vanities. A skylight along the roof ridge pours daylight deep inside, ensuring the living spaces remain luminous. Every gesture resists the generic: terraces tuned to sunsets, corners angled to morning light, and details layered for texture and tone. Anchored by brick and softened by wood, Palissade distills its owners’ artistic vision into a timeless retreat.

DU DESIGN

ARCHITECTURE

+ Climate Change

No Footprint Wood House

Completed 2022

Costa Rica BY A-01 (A Company | A Foundation)

Costa Rica a-01.net

No Trace, All Grace

Nestled in Costa Rica’s lush Pacific forest, the No Footprint Wood House fuses modular elegance with climate wisdom. Built in laminated teak, it proves that architecture can be both regenerative and refined, shaping homes with no trace left behind.

The No Footprint Wood House, by A-01 (A Company / A Foundation), is the latest evolution of the award-winning series. Designed for Costa Rica’s diverse micro-climates, it integrates site-specific positioning, cross ventilation, solar shading, and renewable energy production. Prefabricated teak columns, beams, panels, and connectors—engineered with national industry and international expertise—form a modular kit of parts. FSC-certified and

locally sourced, the laminated wood system supports circular economies and positions tropical timber at the forefront of bioclimatic architecture. Refined yet practical, the home is a catalyst: training local workmanship, stimulating innovation, and opening a regenerative path where design, community, and climate resilience converge—an architecture of rare beauty, balance, and purpose.

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ARCHITECTURE

+ Architecture

+ Concrete

Residence BEAU

Completed 2023 Canada BY Alexandre Bernier Architecte Québec, Canada ab-architecte.ca

Seeds of Concrete

Rooted like the silver maple it preserves, the BEAU house-garden blends architecture and landscape. Designed by Alexandre Bernier Architecte, its concrete extension transforms a modest St-Henri duplex into a luminous, nature-bound refuge.

The original street façade remains, while a new concrete volume opens to the garden. Its pale skin and broad glazing frame vegetation as living art. Inside, reclaimed wood softens the mineral rigor: a perforated stair rises under a skylight, flooding the home with light. Concrete is both structure and finish, enabling fluid circulation, open spans, and a seamless dialogue with nature. Tactile variations in texture add depth, while contrasts of wood and glass bring

warmth and transparency. At ground level, lowered floors extend directly to the courtyard; above, bedrooms and a creative studio unfold beneath the concrete roof. Robust yet sensitive, the BEAU house-garden anchors urban density while weaving concrete, wood, and glass into a discreet, intimate home—an architecture of resilience, simplicity, and grace.

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ARCHITECTURE

+ Architecture

+ Materials

Chalet armuré du Hibou

Completed 2024 Canada BY Atelier Schwimmer Québec, Canada schwimmer.ca

A Shelter in Steel

Perched on a rocky cape at 500 meters, this steel-clad retreat by Atelier Schwimmer settles into pine and stone while opening to sweeping Laurentian views. Austere to the road yet generous southward, it pairs passive rigor with warmth: weathered steel, cedar, and polished concrete.

Conceived as a protective refuge, the single-level plan turns its opaque steel front to road and wind, while lateral and rear glazing open the bedrooms and main living room to daylight and sweeping valley views. Its cantilevered roof blocks high summer sun yet welcomes winter rays; the concrete floor acts as thermal mass. Subtle ceiling shifts mark private rooms and the convivial heart within an open plan. Materiality leads: vertical weathered steel that patinates to deep brown, white-cedar soffits warming

the communal zone, and polished concrete grounding daily life. The envelope is airtight and insulated, with a smart vapor barrier and a north wall as shield. Services line a compact central axis; water comes from an artesian well with on-site treatment, energy from the hydro grid. A house of silence and endurance— low-maintenance, contextual, and deeply Laurentian.

La Flèche

Completed 2023 Canada BY MU Architecture Québec, Canada architecture-mu.com

ARCHITECTURE

+ Architecture + Ceiling

The Arrow in the Ceiling

Nestled on the north shore of Lake Tremblant, La Flèche by MU Architecture reimagines the mountain home with sharp silhouettes, noble materials, and deep, site-sensitive landscape integration throughout. Its soaring pointed roofs cut the sky like an arrow, while inside a finely crafted timber ceiling becomes the heart of the design.

In the living areas, the triangulated wooden canopy unfolds like origami, diffusing light from a central skylight above the kitchen. It elevates the ensemble of living room, dining area, and kitchen, unifying volumes with warmth and luminosity. At once structure, sculpture, and atmosphere, it anchors family life while inviting contemplation. Echoing the arrow-like roofline, the ceiling transforms the house into a lived-in sculpture. Beyond this striking centerpiece,

the 700 m² residence harmonizes stone, steel, and wood in dialogue with the forest. Private quarters open to panoramic views; and a garden-level spa terrace extends to the lake. Yet everywhere, the ceiling asserts itself as the project’s architectural climax—an emblem of how detail anchors experience.

2025 GRANDS PRIX

DU DESIGN

ARCHITECTURE

+ Architecture + Glass

Le Pâturage

Completed 2024 Canada BY Muuk Architecture Québec, Canada muuk.ca

Through Fields of Glass

At the edge of a vast misty field, Le Pâturage by Muuk Architecture greets the dawn like an inhabited landscape. Black steel, weathered wood, and natural stone root the house in rustic strength, while glass gives it transparency, rhythm, and light.

Three distinct volumes, joined by delicate glass walkways, compose a fragmented silhouette recalling traditional farms. These luminous connectors frame the fields, let nature flow into circulation spaces, and transform every step into a moment of contemplation. A long pool reflects the changing sky, while a skylight slices through the roof to illuminate the core. Entire façades dissolve into glass, erasing boundaries between rooms and terraces, interior and horizon.

Transparency becomes both structure and atmosphere, binding the house to its setting while celebrating the vastness of the landscape. Every reflection, whether from water, sky, or glass, multiplies the sense of immersion in the landscape. In doing so, Le Pâturage embodies silence, openness, and dialogue with nature.

2025 GRANDS PRIX

DU DESIGN

ARCHITECTURE

+ Sustainable Architecture

CATL Zero-Carbon Teahouse Xiadang

Completed 2024 China

BY HATCH Architects

China hatchgroup.cn

A Cup of Clean Energy

In Fujian’s Xiadang village, HATCH Architects shape a teahouse aligned with China’s goals of peaking emissions by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060. Fluid curves and glass meet rural stone and timber, while roof-integrated photovoltaics power the building. A spiral path and framed views knit community, landscape, and tea culture.

Programmed for tea, exchange and leisure, the twostorey CATL Teahouse uses continuous curves to fuse architecture and interior. Panoramic glazing opens to mountains and village, encouraging mutual regard. Performance drives form: building-integrated solar panels follows the roof geometry to produce 55,000 kWh annually, cutting about 54.8 tons of CO₂—akin to planting 3,000 trees each year. Ultraclear glass and Ultra-high-performance concrete

support efficiency and slenderness. At the foot of the mountain, an intelligent charging station enables bi-directional car-to-grid, letting vehicles return energy to the teahouse. A smart envelope, careful orientation and a spiralling rooftop path complete a small civic landmark where technology, tea culture and landscape meet in a low-carbon unity.

2025 GRANDS PRIX

DU DESIGN

ARCHITECTURE

+ Architecture

+ Landscape

Putep’t-awt Beluga

Observation Site

Completed 2024 Canada BY atelier5 + mainstudio Québec, Canada atelier5.ca mainstudio.ca

Sacred Trail of Wondrous Encounters

Putep’t-awt—meaning beluga trail—is a landmark for the Wolastoqiyik Wahsipekuk First Nation, uniting cultural affirmation, science, and contemplation. Set near the Port of Cacouna, at the foot of a sacred mountain, the site links ancestral territory with the protection of a species central to community identity.

Three volumes are tied by walkways and a green roof, whose maritime flora extends the landscape and offers a panoramic viewpoint. The horizontality of the design echoes the St. Lawrence, while wood filigree structures recall traditional methods. Curved paths and circular loops orient visitors to the sun’s course, evoking symbols deeply rooted in First Nation culture. Built with minimal impact, the struc-

ture protects fragile flora and fauna. Rainwater harvesting and solar capture systems provide autonomy. Putep’t-awt is an architecture of continuity—where ancestral knowledge and science meet, where visitors and belugas share a horizon, and where the Wolastokuk landscape inspires both protection and reverence.

DU DESIGN

ARCHITECTURE

+ Architecture + Light

Comox Waterfront Completed 2023 Canada BY Cohlmeyer Architecture Québec, Canada cohlarch.ca

Harbor Lights, Harbor Life

On Vancouver Island’s east coast, the Comox Waterfront has been transformed by Cohlmeyer Architecture into a luminous public realm. Once a neglected edge, it now glows as a civic stage where light guides movement, marks gathering spaces, and animates life after dark.

Pavilions with broad aluminum roofs host year-round events, their sheltered edges warmly lit. Fixtures along pathways ensure clarity and safety. A central square links Marina Park with the harbor, its nighttime lighting opening views of water and sky. The waterfront building, with restrooms, rentals, and offices, is also defined by light—its interiors glowing through glass to extend welcome. A K’ómoks First Nation totem pole was relocated to a place of honor in the

square, illuminated to highlight its meaning. Well-lit paths ensure universal access, while raised grades guard against sea-level rise. Aluminum, cedar, and steel were chosen for durability and the way they reflect light, turning resilient forms into glowing landmarks. Here, light is connective tissue: clarifying routes, honoring heritage, and extending the waterfront into the night.

Nanouk, the Ice Climbing

Polar Bear

Completed 2024 Canada

ARCHITECTURE

+ Architecture

+ Collaboration

BY Studio Overall; Acmé; Aventurex; Laro Experts

Conseil; Carnaval de Québec Québec, Canada studiooverall.com acmedecors.com aventurex.ca laroexpert.com carnaval.qc.ca

Nanouk on the Rocks

For the 70th anniversary of the Quebec Winter Carnival, Studio Overall conceived Nanouk—a 45-foot-tall polar bear ice-climbing sculpture towering above rooftops to become a winter landmark, embodying the Carnival’s spirit of play and reinvention.

Its distinctive form, clad in faceted and perforated aluminum, optimizes lightness and wind resistance while serving as a canvas for projections and light shows that transform the bear each night. Designed with eco-design principles, the demountable megastructure has a planned lifespan of at least ten years. Nanouk is also a story of collaboration. Studio Overall orchestrated a multidisciplinary team: Aventurex designed the climbing courses; Acmé handled engineering, built, and installation; Laro Experts Conseil

oversaw feasibility and Carnival staff gave logistical support. Together, they reconciled creative ambition, technical constraints, and budgets within an agile design-build process. Beyond spectacle, Nanouk resonates as a cultural emblem. Alongside Bonhomme Carnaval, it signals a new winter icon while subtly evoking climate change through the image of the polar bear.

Photo

Arches Over the Alaskan Way

Completed in 2023, the Marion Street Bridge is a new landmark on Seattle’s revitalized waterfront. Designed by Rosales+ with HDR as Engineer of Record, it replaces an outdated structure with a wider, fully accessible span that reconnects downtown to the Colman Dock Ferry Terminal—used by over five million pedestrians each year.

Graceful yet robust, the bridge’s arched center span, cantilevered wings, and angular piers create a sculptural silhouette over Alaskan Way, framing views of Elliott Bay. By day it is a clear, generous passage; by night, custom lighting guides movement and transforms the bridge into a luminous gateway to the city. Built in a seismic zone along the shoreline, the bridge employs resilient materials and detailing to withstand salt air, winter de-icing, and heavy use with minimal

maintenance. Ergonomic railings, intuitive circulation, and direct links to the promenade ensure comfort and safety for all users. As part of the Waterfront Seattle Program, the Marion Street Bridge renews the city’s relationship with the bay, blending infrastructure and art into a civic gesture that strengthens the identity of the waterfront.

2025 GRANDS PRIX

DU DESIGN

ARCHITECTURE

+ Unclassified Category

The Dancing Tower – Rivière-au-Renard

Completed 2024 Canada

BY

BGLA

architecture et design urbain Québec, Canada bgla.ca

Dancing with the Elements

At the tip of the Gaspé Peninsula, the Dancing Tower rises from Rivière-au-Renard as both lookout and landscape sculpture. Designed by BGLA, the wooden tower invites visitors to climb into the wind, rain, or snow, transforming exposure to the elements into part of the experience.

Composed of stacked rings, slightly offset and punctuated with openings, the tower frames shifting glimpses of horizon and sea. Its apparent fragility— slender wooden slats and irregular geometry—paradoxically resists the weather, creating a semi-sheltered ascent that feels at once precarious and exhilarating. The design turns climbing the tower into an architectural journey. With each step, the body confronts gusts of wind, the eye finds new

escapes toward the horizon, and the mind senses both the grandeur and vulnerability of the maritime landscape. In doing so, the Dancing Tower becomes part of the territory itself—a landmark that renews how villagers and visitors alike perceive their environment. It reveals not only in its beauty, but also in its fragility, offering an elevated dialogue between nature and architecture.

A Red Carpet Welcome

Designed by EN TEMPS ET LIEU, this mobile kiosk is both a service point and a design statement, echoing Montréal’s status as a UNESCO City of Design. Functional, modular, and immediately recognizable, it offers visitors a first sensory connection with the city.

Its streamlined form reflects Montréal’s contemporary architecture, while the bold diagonal—Tourisme Montréal’s visual signature—cuts across structure and bench alike, creating a strong graphic identity. Clad in Tourisme Montréal’s emblematic red, the kiosk stands out in the urban fabric, while engraved pictograms of local landmarks add a playful layer to the visitor experience. Information agents, equipped with digital tablets, welcome tourists in a space designed

for fluid interaction. A rooftop solar panel powers an integrated battery, ensuring energy autonomy: agents can run devices, light the kiosk at night, or offer emergency charging to visitors. By combining design, technology, and sustainability, the kiosk transcends its role as an information booth. It becomes an ambassador of Montréal itself—dynamic and forward looking.

2025 GRANDS PRIX

DU DESIGN

ARCHITECTURE

+ Concept & Unbuilt

Foret Eco Cabins

Conceptual Phase

Canada BY Dubbeldam Architecture + Design Ontario, Canada dubbeldam.ca

Cabins in the Making

Forêt Eco Cabins imagines a net-zero, wellness-based retreat on 60 acres of Ontario’s Muskoka forest. Designed by Dubbeldam Architecture + Design, the concept blends contemporary comfort with eco-conscious values, inviting visitors to unplug and reconnect with nature.

The project envisions eleven compact cabins scattered across granite outcroppings, marshes, and slopes. Each reinterprets the traditional cabin: a pitched roof torqued into sculptural form, blurring roof and wall while opening interiors to forest views. Triple-glazed windows and screened porches immerse guests in the setting, while warm materials—maple plywood, terracotta, bronze, and natural fabrics—foster calm. Sustainability anchors the

design. Cabins use Passive House assemblies, FSC wood, cedar shakes, and low-VOC finishes. Raised on helical piles, they minimize site impact and appear to float among the trees. A solar array provides summer power, supplemented by the grid in winter. The whole is envisioned as a sanctuary where design, sustainability, and landscape come together in harmony with nature.

2025 GRANDS PRIX DU DESIGN

ARCHITECTURE

+ Student

Resisting engulfed Conceptual Phase Australia

BY Chang Huang Australia unimelb.edu.au

A Shelter in Motion

At the conceptual stage, Resisting Engulfed by Chang Huang reimagines a Melbourne laneway as a sanctuary for delivery riders and the wider community—a place to pause, recover, and reconnect with nature amid the intensity of the city.

In Melbourne, the street grid and the interplay of Victorian façades with contemporary buildings set the pace. For couriers, the city can support as much as exhaust. The concept addresses their physical and psychological needs by revitalizing Custom House Lane. Pedestrians keep their passage, while a central axis links Flinders Lane and Flinders Street for couriers. The site offers meal areas, a first-aid room, washrooms, showers, and planted courtyards that

bring light and greenery. Stairwell walls in rammed earth, sourced from the metro excavation, root the space in its context; translucent polycarbonate cladding with recycled plastic lightens the structure. The result is a welcoming, useful place where couriers and residents alike can pause and feel at home.

By

Authorized Dealer : Openings Millwork

: Catalano Architects

INNOVATION NEVER SLEEPS

PAMPER YOURSELF TO YOUR OWN DESIGN

PENTHOUSE SERIES - PLAZA

Award of the Year

CONSTRUCTION & REAL ESTATE

Mæstria Condominiums

Completed 2025 Canada BY Devimco Immobilier Québec, Canada devimco.com

COLLABORATION

Architecte: Lemay Designer d'intérieur: Blazys-Gérard

GRAND WINNER + Mixed-Use Development

 Twin towers joined by a bold skybridge, enter Mæstria Condominiums at the heart of Montreal's Quartier des Spectacles and discover a new urban icon where living, culture, and commerce converge in one sustainable, future-oriented hub.

Photos David Boyer Photographe INC.

Towers in the Sky, City as Stage

A bold skybridge, sweeping views, and a city alive below: Mæstria Condominiums by Devimco Immobilier fuses residential life with culture and commerce, bringing mixed-use living in Montreal’s Quartier des Spectacles to newer heights.

Soaring above Montreal’s cultural core, Mæstria reshapes the skyline with two sculptural towers joined by a daring bridge at the 26th floor. This aerial link doubles as a communal living room, framing sweeping views and offering residents a front-row seat to the city’s festivals. The mixed-used development project unites over 1,700 condominiums and rentals, plus shops, offices, and services that echo the rhythm of Sainte-Catherine Street. Here, public and private spaces blend seamlessly, extending the vibrancy of the Quartier des Spectacles into daily

life. Green terraces and landscaped rooftops soften the urban edge while mitigating heat islands. Reinforced concrete cores and a high-performance envelope ground the design in resilience. Together, these elements position Mæstria, winner of the Award of the Year in Construction & Real Estate Development, as a cultural hub and a sustainable model of vertical living in Montreal.

2025 GRANDS PRIX

CONSTRUCTION & REAL ESTATE

+ Residential Development

GRAND WINNER

Latti Completed 2025 Canada BY Capital Square Québec, Canada capitalsquare.ca

COLLABORATION

Architecte: TLA Architectes

Interior Design: Blanchette archi.design

Communication & Branding: Performa Marketing

la Vida Latti

In Gatineau, Québec, Latti redefines residential development with a modern, inclusive design. Featuring 40 units adapted for reduced mobility, a rooftop terrace with cabanas and its pool, and a strong commitment to sustainability, it offers a vibrant, future-ready community.

Built by Capital Square, designed in collaboration with TLA Architectes and Blanchette archi.design. Latti blends contemporary architecture with thoughtful amenities to meet the needs of a diverse population. Its rooftop terrace—a rarity in the Plateau sector—features cabanas, a heated pool, and social spaces that foster community. Inside, the lobby’s white oak library sets a refined tone, while multipurpose areas, coworking rooms, and a gym enhance daily life. Sustainability is central, with heat pump

systems and a green roof that improve energy efficiency, reduce environmental impact, and ensure lasting savings for residents. By combining exceptional design, technical innovation, and ecological awareness, Latti sets a new benchmark for urban residential development in Gatineau—offering not just a place to live, but a forward-looking community.

CONSTRUCTION & REAL ESTATE

+ TOD Development (Transit-Oriented Design)

Espace Montmorency

Pedestrian Tunnel Completed 2025 Canada BY Groupe Montoni, Fonds immobilier de solidarité FTQ et Sid Lee Architecture Québec, Canada groupemontoni.com fondsftq.com sidleearchitecture.com

A Tunnel to Transit

This first pedestrian tunnel in Laval directly links Espace Montmorency to the Montréal metro, embodying a true Transit- Oriented Development success story. This groundbreaking underground connection anchors a vision for seamless, sustainable, and transit-focused urban life.

The first of its kind in Laval, this pedestrian tunnel directly links Espace Montmorency to the Montréal metro. Delivered by MONTONI, the Fonds immobilier de solidarité FTQ, Montez Corporation, and Sid Lee Architecture with the City of Laval and the STM, it offers year-round, weather-protected access for residents, workers, and visitors. Designed to improve mobility and promote public transit, it connects key destinations while integrating with the pedestrian

network. This strategic link is part of a mixed-use complex that includes over 700 rental units, a 188room Courtyard Marriott, and 500,000 sq. ft. of commercial and office space. Set on a 318,000 sq. ft. site near Place Bell and several campuses, the project embodies a sustainable, human-centered approach to urban development.

CONSTRUCTION & REAL ESTATE

+ New Residential Home

C22-01_Wentworth, QC

Completed 2024 Canada BY SIROY. Québec, Canada siroy.ca

COLLABORATION

Architecte: Pierre Davidson

Interior Design: Annie Bergeron

Landscape: Dominique Bernier

A Refuge of Quiet Grandeur

In the Québec Laurentians, SIROY’s new residential home construction project stands as a secluded lakeside retreat where architecture, nature, and innovation converge to create a residence both discreet in presence and grand in experience.

Set on the grounds of a former lodge, the home is reached by kilometres of forest road, a meditative journey ending at a pristine lake with no neighbours in sight. The exterior—architecture by Pierre Davidson—pairs noble materials with natural tones, echoing forest, rock, and water. Inside, interiors by Annie Bergeron feature cathedral ceilings over Douglas fir beams in deep-black Shou Sugi Ban, with expansive windows framing shifting light. Open, fluid spaces

integrate custom oak cabinetry, fireplaces, and precision lighting. Here, comfort meets performance through geothermal radiant heating, home automation, and a calibrated audio system. From the metal roof to 95% recycled Enviroshake shingles, every execution of detail reflects SIROY’s commitment to durability, efficiency, and harmony with nature.

CONSTRUCTION & REAL ESTATE

+ Renovation Project

Maison Prince Arthur

Completed 2021 Canada BY Unima Québec, Canada unima.ca

COLLABORATION

Interior Design: Studio Imagine

When Past Meets Present

In the heart of old Saint-Lambert, Unima’s renovation of the Maison Prince Arthur reimagines a century-old residence as a luminous, fluid, and resolutely contemporary home, balancing heritage preservation with bold reinvention to create a dialogue between past and present.

Nestled in a historic neighbourhood, the Shingle-style exterior was meticulously restored and refreshed. The cedar shingles, painted soft cream, now contrast elegantly with black frames and wood moldings. Inside, interiors by Studio Imagine play on natural light to showcase the beauty and range of natural materials. A herringbone-patterned concrete floor leads to steel-framed glass doors, setting a tone of simplicity and sophistication. From dim attic

spaces to weakened foundations, each challenge became an opportunity to improve the design, addressed through custom solutions and meticulous coordination. The result is a house that breathes, that narrates, that embodies the art of dialogue between past and present. A living space anchored in its history, yet turned towards the future - with elegance, meaning, and light.

000

2025 GRANDS PRIX DU DESIGN

Award of the Year

LANDSCAPE & TERRITORIES

Naskapi Community Boardwalk

Completed 2024 Canada BY CCxA Architectes paysagistes

Québec, Canada

ccxa.ca

GRAND WINNER

+ Landscape Architecture - Rural Areas

+ Landscape - Wood

A Path Back to the Lake

In Kawawachikamach, Quebec, a simple boardwalk becomes a cultural lifeline. Timber and stone trace the lakeshore, caribou sculptures honour memory, and a meandering path restores health, connection, and pride to the Naskapi Nation.

The Award of the Year in Landscape & Territories

Naskapi Community Boardwalk is modest in form yet profound in impact. Designed by CCxA Architectes paysagistes, it reconnects the Nation of Kawawachikamach to the shores of Lake Matemace and Peter Lake with a 2-kilometre path, the first 400 metres built in 2024. Conservation rules required subtlety: the route hugs the land, weaving among spruce, moss, and lichen, leaving the subarctic ecology intact. Local tamarack, slate, and stone root the

project in place, while cultural touchpoints such as caribou sculptures and a storytelling mural anchor it in memory. The boardwalk also serves as a classroom, a gathering circle, and a health resource. Built under the constraints of distance and short northern seasons, its strength lies in simplicity. Here, design dissolves into landscape, framing water, sky, and story. It is a quiet reminder of who the Naskapi are—and where they are headed.

Award of the Year

LANDSCAPE & TERRITORIES

Parc TMC Helix

Completed 2023 United States

BY Mikyoung Kim Design Massachusetts, United States myk-d.com

GRAND WINNER

+ Landscape Architecture - Public Space

 What was once a parking lot now beats as Houston’s green heart. Designed by Mikyoung Kim Design, TMC Helix Park transforms 37 acres into both a sponge and a stage: capturing millions of gallons of stormwater, cooling the air, and hosting civic life. 650 native trees, biodiverse gardens, shaded promenades, and playful water features set the scene, while performances, lectures, and wellness programs make renewal feel like a collective celebration.

A Living Sponge

Once a sea of asphalt, now a living helix: TMC Helix Park reshapes 37 acres of Houston into a landscape that drinks the rain, cools the air, and invites the city to breathe. Here, resilience doubles as refuge, and health, ecology, and community spiral into one.

Designed by Mikyoung Kim Design, winner of the Award of the Year in Landscape & Territories, this public park transforms a former downtown parking lot into a showcase of resilience and well-being. Adjacent to Brays Bayou, the park is engineered to withstand a 500-year storm, retaining 3.2 million gallons of water while nourishing its watershed. More than 650 native trees, interactive water features, and biodiverse gardens create a layered sensory experience. Multimodal pathways stitch the park to the

city, while shaded canopies and 380,000 square feet of permeable pavement fight urban heat. Expansive lawns, play areas, streams, and gardens offer spaces for play, reflection, and pause. A neurodiversity toolkit informs flexible spaces, ensuring inclusivity for all users. With weekly performances, lectures, and wellness programs, the park emerges as a civic stage where ecological function and community life move as one.

LANDSCAPE & TERRITORIES

+ Landscape Architecture

- Terrace Roof

+ Landscaping & Terrace

- Commercial & Office Project

Gardens of Intelligence

In Shanghai, the WLA Artificial Intelligence Lab Gardens landscape the world’s first purpose-built artificial intelligence research facility. Here, abstract concepts become tangible spaces where humans and machines meet in reflection, research, and collaboration.

The WLA Artificial Intelligence Lab Gardens, by Ballistic Architecture Machine, frame landscape as a cultural dialogue between humans and AI. Conceived for the World Laureates Association in Shanghai, the 47,400 m² complex translates the Data–Information–Knowledge–Wisdom pyramid into stacked gardens, from ground to rooftop. Each level offers dual atmospheres that guide moods and movement through different stages of research, blurring the natural and artificial. Sustainability anchors the design: perme-

able paving, rain gardens, and green roofs target China Green Star Three, LEED Gold, and WELL Platinum. Plantings adapt to reclaimed soils and saline winds, from native birch and grasses to rooftop succulents. By making abstraction tangible, the gardens transform research space into a sensory landscape of innovation, inclusivity, and public engagement.

2025 GRANDS PRIX

DU DESIGN

LANDSCAPE & TERRITORIES

+ Landscape Architecture

- Housing Project

Rockwood Village Completed 2022 United States BY PLACE Oregon, United States place.la

A Village Rooted in Belonging

In Oregon’s Rockwood, PLACE turns a workforce housing site into a connected landscape of gardens, paths, and gathering spaces—fostering community, cultural exchange, and everyday life in harmony with nature.

For Rockwood Village, PLACE Landscape Architecture reimagined the outdoors as the true heart of this new neighborhood. In collaboration with Community Development Partners and Hacienda CDC, the design draws from historic town squares, framing a civic green and art-lined corridors beneath mature evergreens. A pedestrian loop—also an exercise track—links shaded groves, gardens, play hubs, and flexible lawns to nearby parks and transit. Resilient

features include permeable pavers and stormwater-fed planting. Neighbors Park, shaped with resident input, and a partnership with Mudbone Grown bring farming, entrepreneurship, and cultural exchange into daily life. The community center anchors programs, while income eligibility at 30% or less of the area median income ensures access for Rockwood’s diverse families.

Modern Roots in Wine Country

In Napa County, Shades of Green Landscape Architecture blends modern design with agricultural heritage, crafting a water-wise retreat where rural character, family life, and forward-thinking outdoor spaces flourish together.

For this wine country getaway, Shades of Green Landscape Architecture reimagined a farmhouse property as a modern, low-water landscape rooted in its surroundings. Two palms frame the entry, leading to a gravel courtyard and plantings that fit the rural setting. In the backyard, gravel and poured-inplace concrete bands form multifunctional, permeable spaces that shift in density for use and visual rhythm. A mature pine, once slated for removal, anchors the garden with shade and play. Native and

drought-tolerant greens, blues, and sunlit accents replace lawn, while a sleek dining trellis, bocce court, firepit, and pool offer leisure without compromising the land. Soil revitalization, locally sourced materials, and water-wise planting in line with California’s Water Efficient Landscape Ordinance promote biodiversity and honor the site’s agricultural roots. From sunrise to sunset, beauty, function, and stewardship align.

Maison Robert-Bélanger

Completed 2024 Canada BY WAA+ Québec, Canada waa-ap.com

LANDSCAPE & TERRITORIES

+ Landscape Architecture - Cultural & Institutional Project

A Cultivated Memory

At Robert-Bélanger House, history doesn’t sit still. WAA+ reimagines the rural past as a living landscape—where orchards, gardens, and shared harvests nourish both memory and community.

In Saint-Laurent, Québec, the grounds of this heritage home are recast as a cultural landscape inspired by 19th-century self-sufficiency and renewed through sustainability, inclusion, and civic life. Around the restored house, lilacs and heirloom vegetables recall rural traditions, while cedar fences trace the footprint of the former barn. A reimagined orchard preserves the lineage of the last original apple tree, blending heritage apples with berries and edible flowers. An

enriched hickory-maple woodland fosters biodiversity and evokes the practices of firewood and maple syrup. Stone screenings, cedar structures, and rustic benches root the design in familiar materials, while new layouts connect gathering spaces, shaded cultural areas, and productive gardens. A past replanted for today’s future.

2025 GRANDS PRIX

DU DESIGN

LANDSCAPE & TERRITORIES

+ Landscape Architecture

- Commercial & Office Project

Completed 2022 United States BY PLACE Oregon, United States place.la

Nike Shoe Dog Bridge: A Portal for Dreamers in Motion

A Portal for Dreamers

Suspended above Oregon’s protected Cedar Mill Creek wetlands, Nike Shoe Dog Bridge marks a threshold between past and future—where movement meets memory in the state’s living landscape.

Designed by PLACE, the bridge connects Nike’s original headquarters to its new campus, tracing a path where sport and nature meet. The canopy, built from Douglas fir, recalls Oregon’s forests and the covered bridges that framed Nike’s co-founder and former CEO Phil Knight’s early years in southern Oregon. Spanning 235 feet between concrete piers, the structure honours history with angled forms that nod to Nike’s beginnings, while slatted railings and timber underpinnings filter light into shifting patterns.

Beneath the bridge, the wetlands stir—beavers sculpt, ducks call, branches bow to the wind. Forged from carbon-sequestering timber and clad in aluminum panels catching the sky, it is both sculpture and shelter. Above it, runners, walkers, and dreamers cross slowly, free to feel the rhythm of the land, and to move forward with purpose—echoing Phil Knight’s vision.

LANDSCAPE & TERRITORIES

+ Urban Design Plan

The Well, Toronto Completed 2023 Canada

BY CCxA Architectes paysagistes, Adamson Associates Architects, Hariri Pontarini Architects, BDP Quadrangle Québec | Ontario, Canada

ccxa.ca adamson-associates.com hariripontarini.com bdp.com

Where the City Flows Together

On a former Toronto city industrial site, retail, office, and residential life are now woven into a vibrant pedestrian network, blending heritage, sustainability, and design to create a lively new hub in downtown Toronto.

Once home to the Globe and Mail, this 8-acre site is reborn as an inclusive destination welcoming 20,000 daily users. Designed by CCxA, Adamson Associates, Hariri Pontarini, and BDP Quadrangle, it unites six residential buildings and an office tower around plazas, tree-lined promenades, and a threelevel retail colonnade. Its undulating-glass-canopied “Spine” leads to an amphitheatre, public squares, and the long-awaited Wellington Promenade—175 years

in the making. Beneath the paving, stormwater-fed trenches sustain resilient greenery. LEED-certified, the project features green roofs, optimized sunlight, and no visible back-of-house, thanks to underground servicing. Linked 24/7 by nine passageways, it stands as a public realm–driven vision where architecture and landscape converge, sparking community life and economic vitality.

LANDSCAPE & TERRITORIES

+ Civic Design Project Phase II of the Jardin des Arts | Riverside Promenade

Riverside Memory in Motion

In the heart of downtown Saint-Jérôme, WAA+ is revitalizing a section of the Rivière du Nord’s shoreline—between the Castonguay and Saint-Joseph bridges—by transforming it into an immersive promenade where water, heritage, and design come together.

Downstream, waterfalls and rapids dominate; upstream, a dam recalls the site’s hydraulic past. The design honours these layers of history—from mills and turbines to textile factories—through materials and forms. Its stone paving, reddish brick, metal, and solid wood evoke the area’s industrial fabric. At its core, a belvedere, paved in a knit-inspired pattern, pays tribute to local craftspeople while echoing the

river’s ripples. From a cantilevered balcony at the level of the old foundations, the river feels within reach—its mist, its rumble, its pull. Seasonal blooms and warm light shift the mood from day to night, while a green fringe along the edge blurs the city beyond. The promenade ends as a meeting point—where stone, water, and memory flow as one.

Specific Urban Plan (PPU) for downtown Brossard

Conceptual Phase Canada

LANDSCAPE & TERRITORIES

+ TOD Project

BY Atelier Urbain et Ville de Brossard Québec, Canada latelierurbain.com brossard.ca

A New Suburban Heart

With l’Atelier Urbain, Brossard is reshaping 164 hectares of its municipal land into a vibrant, green downtown, transforming asphalt expanses into complete neighbourhoods connected by sustainable mobility and high-quality public spaces.

At the crossroads of A-10 and Taschereau Boulevard, the project envisions over 12,000 housing units in nine sub-areas, creating a civic core for 25,000 residents. The TOD project’s design centres on a pedestrian esplanade linking the REM Panama station to parks, plazas, and shared streets. A large central park anchors redevelopment, while mixed-use density, gradual building transitions, and a rich network of public spaces foster vitality. Strategies integrate diverse housing, commercial hubs, schools,

and community facilities with active and collective mobility beyond TOD principles. Climate-adapted design, greening, and integrated parking aim to reshape a 1970s car-oriented landscape into a human-scale urban fabric. Developed through extensive public consultation and reviewed for health impacts, the plan delivers a model for inclusive, connected, and resilient suburban transformation.

LANDSCAPE & TERRITORIES

+ Environmental Project

Baoshan Sanitation Center

Completed 2024 China BY Ballistic Architecture Machine (BAM) China bam-land.com

Treasure Mountain of Renewal

In Shanghai’s Baoshan district, Ballistic Architecture Machine (BAM) transforms a vast waste-to-energy plant into an urban landmark—camouflaging industry within a landscape of learning, leisure, and ecological integration.

On a 128,000 square-mile site in the city’s industrial north, the Baoshan Sanitation Center combines a four-line incinerator turning 3,000 tons of waste into energy each day, while transforming 8,000 tons of organic matter into biogas. Rather than hide behind walls, BAM shapes the building into a mountain with a façade echoing geological strata and perforations that soften its scale. A 10-hectare roof park conceals operations while offering recreation, education, and views into the facility below. On the west side, the

“mini-city” inserts vibrant, box-like volumes into the façade, enclosing exhibition and leisure spaces, leading visitors up to a green roof promenade. By merging architecture, landscape, and public programming, BAM reframes waste management wonderfully as part of the civic realm, shifting perceptions and advancing a circular economy where infrastructure serves both the city and its people.

Groupe Montoni Québec, Canada groupemontoni.com

Green Horizons & Blue Skies

With Montoni at the helm, Écoparc Saint-Bruno tops two vast industrial buildings with a 246,000-sq.-ft. green roof. More than an eco-gesture, it’s a workplace oasis—where biodiversity, comfort, and performance share the same fertile ground.

Montoni’s Écoparc Saint-Bruno turns the idea of “industrial park” on its head by planting a living landscape above 1.6 million sq. ft. of workspace (the equivalent of more than four soccer fields). Zero Carbon certified and on track for LEED Gold, this Ohasis Tech and Toiture D. Jean—features native vegetation, smart water retention, and high-performance insulation to slash energy use and cool the urban heat. The roof’s paths, shaded seating, and outdoor

work zones make it a place to connect as much as to recharge. Its modular design invites replication, multiplying its environmental reach and inspiring similar projects. With over 90% fewer GHG emissions, 2,000 jobs on the horizon, and $450M in investment, the campus shows how ambitious sustainable design can go hand in hand with economic vitality.

LANDSCAPE & TERRITORIES

+ Landscape + Lighting

+ Landscape + Art Integration

Aux Mille-Voix High School

Completed 2024 Canada BY Version Paysage Québec, Canada versionpaysage.ca

Learning Landscapes

Between concrete, trees, and sky, Aux Mille-Voix High School gains an outdoor campus where learning extends beyond walls. Version Paysage transforms the grounds into a sculptural topography—at once park, classroom, and stage for student life.

In Montréal-Nord, the project unfolds through a cube-based design language: blue aluminum planters, concrete benches, and wooden stools compose spaces for gathering or retreat. Native plantings— black maple, hop-hornbeam, and three pre-selected mature trees—immediately root the site in greenery, one anchoring a glass courtyard as a calm enclave for classes or events. Creating pathways for students and staff, pale concrete replaces asphalt to cool the grounds, while a sedum roof layers ecology over-

head. As daylight fades, discreet lighting maps paths and reveals architectural details, turning circulation into choreography. The journey culminates with Marc-Antoine Côté’s Les possibles: five metal columns evoking strata and temples, symbols of knowledge rooted in the present and open to the future. An open-air campus where light and art turn learning into landscape.

LANDSCAPE & TERRITORIES

+ Landscape + Water

Landscape in Flow

Stuart Webster Design reimagines The Manor’s heritage courtyard as a seamless and evocative interplay of greenery and water, where historical symmetry meets quiet contemporary refinement.

In the heart of The Manor Condominiums, the courtyard linking its neo-classical former convent to the 1980s residential wing has been reborn as a living composition. The design honours its original symmetry, expanding planted areas and framing intimate, sheltered spaces. Large black metal planters host linden trees, hedges, and layered vegetation, their varying heights blending effortlessly with the terrace. Water, too, becomes architecture: a reinterpreted fountain forms three black granite basins—two elon-

gated, one square—mirroring sky and foliage in ever-changing reflections. Some stretch into benches, inviting pause; others let water cascade softly, infusing the courtyard with a quiet rhythm. At the centre, an overflowing square basin releases a gentle column of water, recalling a spring at Mont-Royal’s heart—a timeless source that animates a landscape where nature and water flow as one.

LANDSCAPE & TERRITORIES

+ Courtyard + Landscape + Innovative Idea

JARDIN DES SENS

Completed 2023 Canada BY Art & Jardins Conception Québec, Canada artetjardins.net

A Timeless Garden of the Senses

This courtyard blends landscape and innovation, orchestrating a flower-filled kitchen garden and refined outdoor setting that cater to peaceful strolls and awaken the senses, where nature, heritage, and elegance converse with ease.

Conceived in close collaboration with the owners, the garden reflects their own personalities: simple, chic, and sensitive. The restored low stone wall now frames a space where vegetable beds, flowers, and walkways meet. Preserved apple trees are paired with a gravel path, ideal for autumn picking. Planting beds with crisp lines and deep greens are enlivened by aromatic herbs, vegetables, and colorful perennials, bringing structure and vitality to the garden. A cast-concrete basin clad in Saint-Marc stone, along

with the paving, steps, and pathways, were custom-built. Along the edge, a discreet fountain completes the tranquil atmosphere. Like a green zigzag ribbon, the path guides exploration and enhances biodiversity. Thoughtfully innovative, the design integrates seamlessly into its panorama, balancing the surrounding natural environment with a timeless appeal.

Fragments Completed 2021 Canada BY Réflex Paysage Québec, Canada reflexpaysage.com

LANDSCAPE & TERRITORIES

+ Facade Landscaping

Fragments in Stone and Steel

In Saint-Gédéon-de-Grandmont, Réflex Paysage shapes a lakeside facade into a sculptural landscape of granite, Corten steel, and foliage—an organic composition inspired by the fractured ice fields of Lake Saint-Jean in winter.

For Fragments, Réflex Paysage reimagined a steep, sandy site to echo the jagged ice masses offshore in winter—large, irregular plates that hint at their original form. Local black granite, quarried just five kilometers away, forms custom-cut stairs and drylaid walls without mortar, evoking authentic stonework. The facade’s signature staircase was built one riser at a time, balancing comfort with sculptural impact. Minimal railings, in glass where needed, pre-

serve views. Corten steel planters, dense foliage, and climbing plants soften the mineral structure, reversing gravity as greenery cascades downward. Every angle was carefully studied to harmonize with the home’s contemporary lines while anchoring it in its territory. The result is a tactile, fluid landscape where architecture, material, and site speak in unison.

LANDSCAPE & TERRITORIES

+ Prestige Landscaping

A Masterpiece in the Mountains

A showpiece of prestige landscaping, this Laurentians retreat is a masterful study in craft, timeless elegance, and precision—an outdoor sanctuary where every view feels intentionally curated and profoundly serene.

Here, landscaping is more than design; it is choreography. Every stone, line, and leaf is placed with intent, balancing durability, beauty, and status, with artisan attention to texture and season. At its heart, a sleek inground pool, outlined in natural stone and high-end pavers, commands the scene while discreet lighting extends twilight gatherings. The grounds flow through sunlit terraces, a heated dining pavilion, and twin fireplaces, each woven into the terrain with

seamless grace. A Saint-Marc stone porch sets the stage, while stormwater disappears into eco-engineered drains, filter beds, and permeable surfaces that preserve the site’s natural rhythm. From fitted garden-level amenities to the quiet luxury of sculpted greenery, this is outdoor living perfected by Laurentian landscapers CHN, where nature is refined and refinement feels natural.

2025 GRANDS PRIX

DU DESIGN

LANDSCAPE & TERRITORIES

+ Concept

Biodiversity Corridor – Beaulac Street

Conceptual Phase Canada

BY Domus architecture + design urbain Québec, Canada domus.design

Life in the Fast Green

In Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Domus architecture + design urbain envisions Beaulac Street as a biodiversity corridor—linking neighborhoods, a regional park, and natural habitats, uniting active mobility, ecology, and quality of life in a forward-looking plan.

The concept for Beaulac Street’s redevelopment and extension seeks a new balance between accessibility, livability, and ecological regeneration. A landscaped central axis combines efficient cycling routes, meandering trails edged with native vegetation, and rest areas designed for pause and contemplation. Conceived as a living green corridor, the plan connects Saint-François Bay to the Beauharnois Canal, strengthening ecological continuity. Its curving layout, inspired by natural forms, offers a transition to

the regional park, turning mobility into an immersive experience. Here, infrastructure is imagined as more than transit—it’s designed as a framework for physical, ecological, and social connections. Inspired, integrated and innovative, the Biodiversity Corridor – Beaulac Street concept shows how an urban boulevard can be reimagined as both functional and life-supporting.

Art in the Cellar

Neither shelf nor sculpture, Fade Out distills the cellar into art, poised between order and void. Frédéric Cordier’s deconstructed grid and Cellart’s craftsmanship fuse utility with abstraction, making wine itself the protagonist of a bold, almost weightless installation.

Fade Out—Award of the Year in Art & Photography— created by Swiss-Canadian artist Frédéric Cordier with Cellart, stretches 23 feet wide and 12 feet high, holding 700 bottles yet feeling weightless. Precisionengineered tolerances keep lines razor-clean even at this monumental scale. The cellar’s familiar grid unravels, subtracting elements until order dissolves into a fading rhythm of full and empty. The bottles become part of the score, displayed with decreasing density, like notes trailing into silence. Finishes com-

bine the sobriety of matte black with the gleam of white lacquered panels, a contrast offered also in silver maple to suit settings. Each slender rod is inserted into acrylic and fixed from behind, creating an invisible, refined structure. Even the air flows, gently regulated from above. In this balance of structure and absence, utility gives way to art. The cellar becomes a stage where wine is both muse and masterpiece.

Prisms of Time and Light

In Hongqiao City Park, China, Li Hao’s Pop Star Spectrum urban art installation turns public space into a clock of light, tracing the day’s passage through prismatic color, shifting shadows, and luminous nightscapes—each installation uniquely tuned to its place, people, and light.

Inspired by the artist’s years living in the rarefied air of Yulong Snow Mountain, over 2,000 meters above sea level, the art piece distills the clarity and dynamism of high-altitude light into a sculptural experience. By day, sunlight fractures across semi-transparent, refractive panels, casting vivid, shifting patterns. By night, LEDs choreograph radiant sequences that move like time itself. Site-specific and collaborative, each iteration embraces local architecture, natural

light, and cultural narratives. From every angle, the form reveals a different facet—fragmented yet whole—inviting viewers to move, discover, and assemble their own visual journey. More than an object, it is an ever-changing bridge between people and place, transforming light into a shared language of connection.

DU DESIGN

ART & PHOTOGRAPHY

+ Architectural Photography

KAFD Completed 2024 United Arab Emirates BY Shoayb Khattab United Arab Emirates shoayb.net

A Year in Riyadh’s Skyline

In Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Shoayb Khattab’s year-long architectural photography series meticulously captures the King Abdullah Financial District—over 90 landmark buildings by visionary architects like Zaha Hadid, Foster + Partners, and Henning Larsen—revealing its immense scale, bold innovation, and global stature.

In an era of fleeting images, the artist devoted a full year to documenting the King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD), the world’s largest mixed-use business center with LEED Platinum certification. Spanning more than 90 buildings, the district showcases work by some of architecture’s most celebrated names. Khattab’s lens captures it in shifting light and weather, from golden dawns to deep night scenes,

revealing subtle details and dramatic forms. His curated selection distills thousands of frames into a visual narrative of innovation, ambition, and urban identity. Beyond its skyline-defining presence, KAFD stands as a beacon of sustainable development in the Middle East.

ANNE CORMIER

Photos Pierre Leduc

ALL THAT JAZZ

With Anne Cormier, architecture plays like jazz: improvised yet precise, a dialogue in constant motion between buildings and their surroundings. Architect, professor, cofounder of Atelier Big City, and the first woman to lead the School of Architecture at the Université de Montréal, she has long championed a vision where art meets the public realm and memory is reimagined in service of community life.

She works in two registers—thinking in plans, feeling in emotions. To her, the city reads like a story, with chapters, pauses, and emphases. She looks for rhythm and cadence, nuance and resonance, turning built form into lived experience. Every project becomes a score where memory and invention, rigor and freedom converge, always with the same ambition: to bring architecture closer to the lives it shapes.

A graduate of McGill University, Cormier went on to study in Paris under historian Jean-Louis Cohen, an experience that reinforced her conviction that cities are narratives to be read.

In 1987 she founded Atelier Big City with her husband Randy Cohen and architect Howard Davies, imagining the city itself as a laboratory for ideas. Their projects—whether derived from competitions, open calls, or direct commissions—are inventive, playful, sometimes even wry with humour. The studio has earned major recognition, from the Canada Council for the Arts Prix de Rome to the Ordre des architectes du Québec Grand Prix d’excellence. Yet no matter how far their work travels, it always comes from a strong place of belonging.

From 2007 to 2015, Cormier served as the first female director of the Université de Montréal’s School of Architecture, a role she describes as “a long relay race interrupted by unpredictable sprints.” Building on the legacy of previous chair holders Roger-Bruno Richard and Georges Adamczyk, she reshaped the curriculum, retooled the bachelor’s program, backed the launch of a doctorate, and welcomed the school’s first Ph.D. students. It was, she says, an intense education of her own, sustained by a generation of students already alert to social and environmental stakes. Their challenge, she reminds them, will be to stay idealistic while navigating the realities of practice.

Research and creation hold a central place in her career, offering the freedom to pose unusual questions, test hypotheses, and imagine new ways of inhabiting the world. Practice, by contrast, calls her back to the concrete: users, materials, budgets. Out of this fertile tension between imagination and reality emerges an architecture that is both thoughtful and humane.

Her sensitivity also extends to the memory of place. In the renovation of her family’s 1900 triplex, she and Randy Cohen chose modest yet daring solutions—laminates in bold colors that transformed the kitchen. For her, respecting history while jolting it awake with a contemporary note is a guiding principle, as relevant to everyday interiors as to city-scale projects.

Social housing is another major thread in her work. For Big City, it is never simply utilitarian but a fertile ground for reinventing how we live together. Their landmark project Le Christin exemplifies this vision: 114 units for vulnerable and at-risk residents, designed with dignity through creativity. “Color says everything about our force of impact,” she insists, underscoring how architecture can deliver hope and vitality even under the tightest constraints.

1 From left to right: Howard Davies, Anne Cormier and Randy Cohen. Circa 1990. © Rodolfo Borello

2 From left to right: Anne Cormier, Howard Davies, Randy Cohen. © CCA

3 From left to right: Anne Cormier, Giovanni de Paoli, Phyllis Lambert. On the occasion of Phyllis Lambert’s lecture on her book Building Seagram. © Raphaël Thibodeau

4 PABOS BOURG INTERPRETATION CENTRE – 1992–1994

Recognized among the most important national projects of the 20th century by The Canadian Architect (2000), Grand Prix d’architecture, OAQ, 1994. Governor General’s Medal in Architecture, 1994. The Canadian Architect Award of Excellence, 1992. Winning project in the 1992 architectural competition. © Richard Laverdière

The philosophy of Atelier Big City? “The city is a marvelous ground for experimentation,” she reminds us. To them, projects should always converse with their context. She points to Unity 2, in Montreal’s Paper Hill district, built alongside the historic Unity building. Echoing the scale and details of its neighbor, the new project reshapes the block with a semi-public courtyard, open and inviting, that draws in passersby and sparks community life. Farther away, in Gaspésie, Québec, the Espace NAPAGA interpretation center immerses visitors in over 250 years of local history, through a sensory mise en scène that fuses landscape, memory, and imagination.

In a profession long dominated by men, Anne recalls having to “prove herself twice over to be taken seriously.” Over time, that pressure became a strength: a distinct sensibility, a different way of imagining space, and a determination to inspire the next generations of women architects. And through it all, one metaphor lingers. “Jazz,” she says. “Because architecture, like jazz, lives in mastered improvisation, in unexpected dialogues, in the ongoing conversation between buildings and the world around them.”

5 Le Christin Building, Montréal, 2024. For the Société d’habitation et de développement de Montréal (SHDM). © James Brittain

6 UNITY 2, 2002. The Canadian Architect Award of Excellence, 2003 Governor General’s Medal in Architecture, 2006. Ville de Montréal Architectural Integration Award, 2008. © Alain Laforest

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