Canadian Architect December 2011

$10.00 dec/11 v.56 n.12

2011 Awards of Excellence

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Contents

18 B+H Bunting Coady Architects Inc.

20 Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects in association with Smith Carter Architects and Engineers

22 Patkau Architects Inc. in joint venture with Kearns Mancini Architects Inc.

24 gh3 Architects and Landscape Architects, R.V. Anderson Associates Limited

26 Zeidler Partnership Architects in joint venture with Snøhetta

28 Williamson Chong Architects

30 Saucier + Perrotte Architectes in joint venture with Hughes Condon Marler Architects

32 MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects Limited

34 McFarland Marceau Architects Ltd.

gh3 Architects and Landscape Architects, Kasian Architects Interior Design and Planning Ltd.

35

36

5468796 Architecture Inc.

37

Marc Blouin, Architecte

9 Awards of Excellence This year’s selected projects distinguish themselves through unique and accomplished responses to broader notions of ecology and architecture.

12 The Winners

38 John Duerksen, University of Manitoba

39 Prithula Prosun, University of Waterloo

december 2011, v.56 n.12

The National Review of Design and Practice/ The Journal of Record of the RAIC

Profiles of the 2011 award recipients.

42 List of Entrants Rendering of the Remai Art Gallery of Saskatchewan by Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects in association with Smith Carter Architects and Engineers.

COVER

12/11 canadian architect

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Teague Schneiter

Viewpoint

Two Attawapiskat teenagers seek refuge inside appallingly substandard housing comprised of plywood and plastic sheeting.

ABOVE

The recent political scandal focusing on the Attawapiskat First Nation community is shameful. Rather than taking steps to resolve an acute housing crisis and consider a sustainable urbanplanning strategy, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government has chosen to blame the problem on the band council’s inability to manage its own finances. Harper’s political posturing has merely resulted in a federally appointed third-party manager to oversee the financial activities of the reserve—essentially removing the band council’s ability to manage itself independently. Not surprisingly, upon arriving at Attawapiskat, the government-appointed accountant was duly sent away by Chief Theresa Spence, who was later quoted as saying, “It is incredible that the Harper government’s decision is that instead of offering aid and assistance to Canada’s First Peoples, their solution is to blame the victim.” Spence added, “This rationale is mere political deflection as the conditions cited by the department are present in numerous other First Nations communities.”

Located on the western shore of James Bay, the Attawapiskat crisis situation is heart-wrenching and embarrassing to Canadians. As sub-zero winter temperatures take hold in this northern Ontario community, many of its 2,000 residents continue to live in overcrowded shacks constructed of mouldy plywood with no insulation or running water. More than two dozen residents have been forced to move into tents while others continue to live in conditions where plasticcovered window openings are expected to protect them from minus-20-degree temperatures.

Centred around the Attawapiskat scandal is the claim that the federal government has given the reserve $90 million since 2006 with apparently little to show for it. Placing the band council under third-party management is the government’s solution to determine where that supposed figure has been spent; meanwhile, the band 6 canadian architect 12/11

council claims that the government has audited and accepted the veracity of their finances over the past several years.

Waking up Canadians to what is occurring within our borders, the crisis has been attracting donations to the Red Cross and to non-profits like Habitat for Humanity’s Aboriginal Housing Program to help the people of Attawapiskat. Since 2007, Habitat for Humanity has been successful in building 35 homes for Aboriginals across Canada—both on and off reserve. Ottawa-based True North Aid is another charity which has been helping Aboriginal communities. One of their teams recently delivered a truckload of warm clothing and supplies to Attawapiskat. Such generosity is appreciated, but it is not sustainable and only extends the short-lived media circus that is producing newsworthy stories during this gift-giving holiday season.

Possible solutions do exist. The Victor Mine, one of the world’s richest diamond mines, is situated 90 kilometres west of Attawapiskat—and on Cree land. Mining royalties from here flow directly to the provincial government, not to the Cree First Nation community of Attawapiskat.

While De Beers Canada—the owners of the Victor Mine—have donated heated trailers to the Attawapiskat community as a temporary response to the housing crisis, greater partnerships must be established with this and other resourcebased industries to build the local economy and improve residents’ health and prosperity.

Shouldn’t the government help improve Attawapiskat’s long-term financial state by providing it with revenue-sharing opportunities derived from resource-based royalties? Couldn’t those living in Attawapiskat be given a chance to work as skilled labourers in the mines? These are but two examples that provide the local Cree population with greater incentives to sustain and develop their communities, offering a preferred alternative for Attawapiskat than to continue receiving demeaning financial handouts monitored by bureaucrats and accountants thousands of kilometres away.

From an urban-planning perspective, Attawapiskat barely qualifies as a viable community in its current form. From a humanitarian and cultural perspective, we cannot tolerate such deplorable living conditions in any community in this country. Canada has an obligation to provide adequate health-care facilities, schools, housing for the elderly and other essential infrastructure requirements for all citizens. With no simple resolution, one thing is certain—political posturing and inaction don’t result in better housing in First Nations communities like Attawapiskat.

Ian Chodikoff

ichodikoff@canadianarchitect.com

­Editor Ian Chodikoff, OAA, FRAIC Associate Editor Leslie Jen, MRAIC Editorial Advisors John McMinn, AADipl.

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Awards of Excellence 2011

Architecture and Ecology

An unusually strong group of submissions to the 2011 Canadian Architect Awards of Excellence made it a difficult task for the jury to isolate those projects truly deserving of the distinctions of Excellence and Merit.

Since 1968, the Canadian Architect Awards of Excellence have been given each year to architects and architectural graduates for buildings in the design stage, and this year’s winners have been selected by a jury consisting of Diarmuid Nash of Moriyama & Teshima Architects in Toronto, Walter Francl of Walter Francl Architecture in Vancouver, and Peter Sampson of Peter Sampson Architecture Studio in Winnipeg. All three practitioners were in agreement that the unusually large number of strong project submissions made the selection of this year’s winners particularly difficult, but they nevertheless managed to pare down a rather lengthy shortlist to a group of projects that distinguish themselves through their highly sophisticated responses to ecology and architecture.

In order to provide a bit of context to the adjudication process, it is perhaps useful to include some of the jurors’ comments on their overall thoughts about the submitted projects and the current state of architectural practice.

According to Walter Francl: “In number and quality, this year’s submissions achieved a very high standard and yielded more award-worthy projects than could be recognized. Viewing the work submitted this year, one is struck by the power of landscape, both urban and natural, to inform and inspire the architectural response.

The variety and range is a reflection of the physical and cultural diversity of this country. Projects like the Fort York Visitor Centre and the West Coast Middle School engage the natural landforms

in vastly dissimilar settings and to very different effect. Other projects, such as the Environmental Learning Centre on the west coast and the Two Hulls House on the east coast explore the bar as building form, evoking a heightened and cali­ brated appreciation of their bi-coastal settings.

Smaller projects are particularly noteworthy and widely divergent, exemplars of projects that are of their place. St. Matthews Parish Church is constructed with a cultural and regional language unique to the north. The Storm Water Quality Facility in Toronto registers a deep and enigmatic note in its tough urban landscape. One submission that we seriously considered but which did not receive an award—Acton Ostry Architects’ English Bay Bistro in Vancouver—envelops its program in multi-coloured glazing that resonates with the celebrations and sunsets for which the site is famous. In form, materiality and expression, each is redolent of a particular environment or urban setting. A sustainable design narrative from earlier years that wore its fins and louvres as additive accessories has now matured. The best of the recent work, such as the Ryerson University Student Learning Centre and the UBC Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, has developed beyond these earlier themes into a convincing architectural language of fritted-glass cladding and deepwalled sections that can still achieve the required envelope performance.”

Diarmuid Nash speaks of form and landscape.

“In reviewing the projects we selected as deserving of an Award of Excellence, I have noted that

Walter Francl, Peter Sampson and Diarmuid Nash intently pore over the 204 entries to the 2011 Canadian Architect Awards of Excellence.

ABOVE

they are highly sculptural in nature; we seemed to gravitate to cantilevered box-like compositions such as the Remai Art Gallery of Saskatchewan, the Two Hulls House and the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of British Columbia. Abbey Gardens and the West Coast Middle School also possessed these similar geometric qualities that seemed to tie into and connect to the landscape; the box forms seem to float above as viewpoints from which to survey the surrounding context.”

A uniquely comprehensive approach was adopted by Peter Sampson in his personal assessment of the intensely engaging adjudication process, distilling his thoughts into three distinct strands and providing a useful framework for interpreting where the architectural profession is in Canada today and how it reflects and addresses current global realities.

The first strand concerns architecture and ecology. “As a member of this year’s jury I was curious about coming away with a sense of what it means to practice today in a country like this in the second decade of the 21st century. This year’s submissions confirm that accomplished responses to ecology and architecture exist in a variety of forms, approaches and actions. Present in many of the winning entries is an architecture charged with 12/11­canadian architect

9

negotiating the massive and not yet fully realized implications of shifting global ecologies. In particular, a number of projects have close relationships to water, suggesting a predominant preoccupation with the current state of the environment and how Canadians practicing architecture situate themselves relative to this topic. Whether the relationship to ecology is aestheticized or acted upon, architecture’s immediate kinship to ecology—over, say, art—seems to be emerging as a central platform in this generation of work.”

Secondly, Sampson isolated a theme of residue and rehabilitation. “In a country dependent on

fragile and failing infrastructures and on a straining relationship to nature, I am drawn to architecture that makes, invents, or rehabilitates ecologies at the residual edges and in-betweens of conventional development. Refreshingly different than the pseudo-scientific, gumpy fanfare of an engineered environmentalism of earlier decades, this generation’s response to the presence of ecology in our practice reveals promising work that is knowledgeable, confident, and playful in its commitment to place, people, technology and time.”

The third strand explores the inherent difficulty in the categorization of awards, and the dis-

tinctions to be made between that which truly qualifies as excellence and that which meets a standard of merit. “In thinking about a categorization of Awards of Merit, there were projects compelling enough to be meritorious, but not necessarily comprehensive enough to advance past a purely architectural idea. What compels me about most of the works that ended up receiving Awards of Excellence is that they presented a full activity of the architect who reveals how the components or events of an ecology surrounding an idea—in its complete and multi-faceted nature— can be negotiated.”

Walter Francl

Diarmuid Nash

Peter Sampson

After graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from the University of Alberta, Walter Francl received a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of British Columbia, followed by a Master’s degree from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. After several years in practice with a number of firms in Vancouver and Boston, Francl launched his own firm in Vancouver in 1994. His work encompasses a broad range of project types, including institutional, infrastructure/transportation, commercial/retail and residential/mixed use. Along with a number of transit stations for the Greater Vancouver Regional District, recent projects include the Rennie Art Gallery & Offices (see CA, October 2010), the Creekside Community Recreation Centre (with Nick Milkovich Architects Inc.), and the False Creek Energy Centre. Francl has also taught as a sessional instructor at the University of British Columbia’s School of Architecture. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including several Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia Awards, a Design Award for Sacred Land­scapes from the American Institute of Architects, a Globe Foundation Award for Excellence in Green Building, and a Canadian Architect Award of Excellence.

Diarmuid Nash has enjoyed over 20 years with Toronto-based Moriyama & Teshima, having joined the firm in 1988 after completing work on the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo, a $137-million designbuild project. A partner since 1998, Diarmuid is particularly skilled and adept at managing complex projects, delivering award-winning buildings on time and on budget. A graduate of the University of Manitoba, Nash has taught at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Architecture, Landscape & Design, and was President of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada in 2001. He acted as partner in charge of the new Canadian War Museum in Ottawa (a recipient of a Governor General’s Award in 2008), and the recently completed multi-phase Queenston Plaza border-crossing redevelopment.

As architects of record, Moriyama & Teshima are responsible for the $250-million fast-track multiphase Aga Khan Museum complex in Toronto, a project that Nash is currently leading. Additionally, he is directing the M&T team on the new $300-million City Hall project for the City of Surrey in British Columbia. Nash has been honoured with the President’s Medal from the American Institute of Architects and from the Federacion de Colegio de Arquitectos de la Republica Mexicana.

Peter Sampson is a practicing architect who has taught at the Universities of Toronto, Waterloo, and Manitoba. He has a degree in Literature from McGill University and received his professional degree in Architecture from the University of Toronto. Having mentored with Levitt Goodman Architects in Toronto, he established Peter Sampson Architecture Studio in Winnipeg where he now resides with his wife and children. He is a founding partner of the DPA+PSA+DIN Collective, the architects of the University of Winnipeg’s Buhler Centre and Plug In ICA’s new contemporary art gallery. Committed to work that enables the pursuit of a socio-ecological architecture practice, his 10-person studio continues to contribute to the evolution of net-zero-energy design and construction—albeit, one small step at a time. Current commissions include a downtown bike lab, urban design for a northern community, health, wellness, and educational facilities, affordable housing, and private residences. Peter also finds time to pursue freelance writing opportunities, and is the proud recipient of a Canadian Architect Student Award of Excellence—an achievement that dates back to 1999.

10 canadian architect 12/11

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winners The B+H group is a full-service architecture and design firm recognized for the delivery of sus­ tainable and technically complex projects which range from medium to large scale. B+H Bunting­ Coady Architects is an innovative architectural practice with a reputation for creating highperformance buildings and is the B+H global centre of excellence in the development of sustainable projects. The firm creates “living, breathing buildings” through a holistic design process, which results in the creation of healthy environments that balance ecological concerns and which strive to produce buildings in the most responsible manner possible. Each project care­ fully considers its environmental, economic and social impact with the intent of creating better buildings and enriching our communities, which ultimately help build better cities. Left to right: Dylan Durst, Stephanie Gust, Dwayne Smyth, Mike Wartman.

Based in Vancouver, Patkau Architects seek to explore the full richness and diversity of archi­ tectural practice, understanding it as a critical cultural act that engages our most fundamental desires and aspirations. They refuse singular def­ initions of architecture: as art, as technology, as social service, as environmental agent, as political statement. Instead, they embrace all these defin­ itions, together, as part of the rich, complex and vital discipline that they believe architecture to be. In over 30 years of practice, both in Canada and in the United States, the firm has been re­ sponsible for the design of a wide variety of build­ ing types for a diverse range of clients. Current work includes the Marcel A. Desautels Faculty of Music and the School of Art at the University of Manitoba, the Goldring Centre for HighPerformance Sport at the University of Toronto, a series of cottages at Fallingwater in Pennsylvania, as well as a variety of residential projects in diverse locations ranging from a northern island

12 canadian architect 12/11

off the coast of British Columbia to a farm in Ad’Diriyah, Saudi Arabia. Patkau Architects is recognized internationally for design excellence, and has received 12 Governor General’s Awards, four Progressive Architecture Awards, and 16 Canadian Architect Awards of Excellence. Estab­ lished in 1984, Kearns Mancini Architects Inc. is a progressive and innovative design firm with a strong commitment to serving client and user needs. They are very closely attuned to their cli­ ents’ requirements, respecting their social and cultural aspirations, and they are particularly conscious of the need for sustainable, contextual design that respects the environment. KMA has been honoured with numerous awards for excel­ lence in architectural design from the Ontario Association of Architects, Cana­dian Architect magazine, and the City of Toronto. KMA buildings have been featured in many public exhi­bitions and in numerous publications, both in Canada and internationally. In 2009, the firm won OAA

awards for the George Brown College Centre for Hospitality and Culinary Arts and Ireland Park.

The firm is well known for its public and com­ munity buildings which address personal, social and life skills development, rehabilitation and wellness. One of its larger projects in recent years, within a consortium of architects, was the design of the new campus for the Centre for Ad­ diction and Mental Health in downtown Toronto.

At present, KMA’s institutional and educational work includes the University of Waterloo’s Stu­ dent Health Clinic addition, and the new Micro Satellite Technology Centre and the redesign of the main campus entrances at the University of Toronto. Back row, left to right: Luke Stern, Mike Green, John Patkau, Shane O’Neill, James Eidse, Peter Ng, Jonathan Kearns, Tony Mancini.

Front row, left to right: Peter Suter, Michael Thorpe, Dimitri Koubatis, Patricia Patkau, Thomas Schroeder, Dan McNeil, Lucy O’Connor, Gabriel Didiano.

The association of Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects (KPMB) with Smith Carter Architects + Engineers Incorporated (SCAE) for the Art Gallery of Saskatchewan (AGS) continues a successful history of collaboration producing award-winning architecture. This includes Mani­ toba Hydro Place and the Canadian Embassy in Berlin (a joint venture of KPMB, Gagnon Letellier Cyr architectes, and SCAE). The team for the AGS includes Transsolar Engineering with whom KPMB and SCAE worked as an integrated design team on Manitoba Hydro Place. In August 2011, SCAE/KPMB/Transsolar was one of ten invited

international firms who submitted a design com­ petition scheme for the new headquarters for ENI, Italy’s major energy provider and the sixth-largest in the world. KPMB is one of Canada’s premier architectural practices, and their work has been recognized by the highest honours in the field of architecture, including 11 Governor General’s Awards. The AGS is KPMB’s 11th Cana­dian Architect Award of Excellence. KPMB played a lead­ ing role in Toronto’s Cultural Renaissance, with six projects including Canada’s National Ballet School, the Royal Conservatory, and the Toronto International Film Festival Lightbox. In addition

to the AGS, current clients include the Massachu­ setts Institute of Technology (MIT), Princeton University, and the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Established in 1947, SCAE is one of Canada’s leading integrated design practices. Through its offices located in Winnipeg, Calgary, Ottawa, Atlanta and Washington, SCAE works with clients from government, institutional and private-sector organizations across Canada and around the world. Collaboration has facilitated innovation at the firm, and areas of expertise range across all types of complex projects with specialties in the design of health-care and re­ search environments. Of particular importance to the firm are projects that support the vital urban fabric of the communities in which they are locat­ ed, including the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, Manitoba Hydro Place, University College of the North, and the Art Gallery of Saskatchewan.

Top row, left to right: Thomas Auer, Matthew Krivosudsky, Paulo Rocha, Brad Cove, Neil Hume, Marcus Colonna. Bottom row, left to right: Matthew Wilson, Bruce Kuwabara, Vince Varga, Shirley Blumberg, Grant Van Iderstine.

Founded in 1988 by Gilles Saucier and André Perrotte, Saucier + Perrotte architectes is a multidisciplinary practice internationally re­ nowned for its institutional, cultural and resi­ dential projects. The firm represented Canada at the prestigious Architecture Biennale of Venice in 2004, and has been honoured with numerous awards, including seven Governor General’s Medals and Awards in Architecture and two International Architecture Awards (presented by the Chicago Athenaeum and the European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies).

Saucier + Perrotte’s highly acclaimed buildings have been published the world over, reflecting the office’s status as one of Canada’s premier de­ sign firms. While continuing to add to its signi­ ficant body of built work in Canada, the firm is expanding its international portfolio of work in Japan, China, the Middle East and Africa.

In 2009, Saucier + Perrotte received the RAIC

Award of Excellence for Best Architectural Firm in Canada. The firm believes that the architectur­ al process can touch all aspects of design inter­ vention—from master planning and redevelop­ ment to single-family homes, from sustainably designed dwelling complexes to museums and theatres, from interiors to object design. Since its inception, Saucier + Perrotte has integrally linked its architecture to geology and the land­ scape, stressing the physical and symbolic im­ portance of the site and reflecting the firm’s understanding of architecture’s role in shaping the contemporary city and the rural landscape.

Hughes Condon Marler Architects (HCMA) is a team of 45 people with a passion for sustainable, integrated and innovative architecture. With offices in Vancouver and Victoria, the firm is a collaborative practice where the four principals— Roger Hughes, Darryl Condon, Karen Marler and Stuart Rothnie—and nine associates take a truly

hands-on approach and work closely alongside all staff members. HCMA’s open studio environ­ ment facilitates dialogue and problem-solving among senior architects, project work groups, and industry experts and specialists. Since the founding of the predecessor firm in 1976, HCMA has worked with a wide range of clients on many projects including civic/public structures, edu­ cational and health-care institutions, mixed-use and residential developments, offices and recreation facilities. HCMA has developed an ex­ tensive knowledge of LEED and the application of this rating system to a variety of different build­ ing types. Top row, left to right: Roger Hughes, Bill Uhrich, Craig Lane, Paul Fast, Rachel Lacey, Nick Worth, Craig West. Bottom row, left to right: Gilles Saucier, David Moreaux, Dominique Dumais, Marc-André Tratch, Yutaro Minigawa, Olivier Krieger, Patrice Begin, Greg Neudorf, Charles-Alexandre Dubois, André Perrotte.

12/11­canadian architect

13

Zeidler Partnership Architects (ZPA) has had overlapping partners continuously since it was first formed in 1880 in Peterborough, Ontario; the Toronto office opened in 1955. Senior part­ ners today are Alan Munn, Tarek El-Khatib and Vaidila Banelis plus six others. Worldwide, ZPA has some 220 professional and support staff members. The Toronto office is headquarters for the firm with 10 other offices in Calgary, Vancou­ ver, Victoria, West Palm Beach, Beijing, Shang­ hai, Chengdu, Abu Dhabi, Berlin and London.

ZPA’s projects cover virtually the entire range of architectural, urban and interior design, and the scale of projects varies from large mixed-use complexes to small residences and offices. The

firm’s major body of work is located in Canada and the United States, but it has also, over the past 25 years, developed a significant inter­ national presence in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. SNØHETTA formed as an architecture, landscape and interiors collaborative in 1989 when its members designed the competitionwinning entry for the Alexandria Library in Egypt. Since then, SNØHETTA opened an office in Oslo, Norway, and its two founding members established an office in New York City after win­ ning the commission to design a new museum at the World Trade Center site in 2004. The collab­ orative and multi-national character of the office has allowed it to work in a wide range of cultural

contexts from Asia to Africa, Europe and the Americas. Recently having completed the new National Opera and Ballet in Oslo, SNØHETTA has gained a number of other prominent projects including the new King Abdulaziz Center for Culture in Saudi Arabia, the James B. Hunt Jr. Library in Raleigh, North Carolina, the Ryerson Learning Centre in Toronto, the redesign of Times Square in New York, and the expansion of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Left to right: Tarek El-Khatib, Vaidila Banelis, Mike Smith, Dennis Rijkhoff, Mitsuru Delisle, John Kontuly, Misako Murata, Samuel Brissette, Anne Rachel Schiffmann, Michael Cotton, Carrie Tsang, Michael Loverich, Craig Dykers.

Williamson Chong Architects is the architecture and design office of Betsy Williamson, Shane Williamson and Donald Chong. The partnership emerged out of their collective interest in archi­

tectural craft as expressed through the synthesis of new technology with traditional methods of construction. They view projects as opportunities to explore the intricate relationship between site,

program and materiality, creating well-detailed modern environments that shape positive and engaging experiences. From institutional pro­ jects and urban design strategies to residential architecture and furnishings, the office aims to create tailored solutions for each client. The work of Williamson Chong has been recognized with numerous awards for design innovation and ex­ cellence from the Ontario Association of Archi­ tects, the City of Toronto, the Design Exchange and the North American Wood Council. The part­ ners have been recognized for their innovation in the field with the Ronald Thom Award for Early Design Achievement from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Young Architect’s Prize from the Architectural League of New York, a selection to Dwell magazine’s 100 Houses We Love, and a nomination to the Marcus Prize for Architecture.

Left to right: Chris Routley, Vlad Berezovskiy, Ultan Byrne, Donald Chong, Shane Williamson, Betsy Williamson, Dimitra Papantonis.

14 canadian architect 12/11

Halifax-based MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Archi­ tects is a practice that works locally and inter­ nationally on cultural, academic and residential projects, providing full architectural and interior design services. There are two partners—Brian MacKay-Lyons and Talbot Sweetapple—and one senior associate—Melanie Hayne. In over 30 years of work, the practice has built an inter­ national reputation for design excellence con­ firmed by over 90 awards, including five Govern­ or General’s Medals and the American Institute of Architects Honor Award. In addition, the firm’s work has been featured internationally in over 300 publications and 100 exhibitions. Both partners are active in architectural education: MacKay-Lyons has been a full professor and faculty member at Dalhousie University for 30 years, and Sweetapple is also an adjunct profes­ sor, with 14 years of teaching under his belt.

Together, they have held 18 endowed academic chairs and visiting professorships at leading uni­ versities worldwide, such as the Peter Behrens School of Architecture, Washington University in St. Louis, and Harvard University. They have also given over 200 public lectures on their work worldwide. Left to right: Brian MacKay-Lyons, Talbot Sweetapple.

gh3 was founded in 2006 by Pat Hanson and Diana Gerrard, each with over 30 years of experi­ ence in their respective careers. The firm designs in the complex realm where architecture, urban­ ism and landscape overlap. With a Modernist’s eye to order and beauty, and an environmental­ ist’s awareness of sustainability and long-term thinking, their studio-based practice brings together expertise in architecture, landscape, urban design and ecology. They believe that the full spectrum of the built environment should benefit from thoughtful design, and approach every design problem with a context-specific ap­ proach supported by technical research that uses site and architecture to make inspiring and beautiful places to live, work and play. The firm has quickly established itself as one of Canada’s most innovative integrated design practices, having garnered 12 major awards, including a 2010 Governor General’s Medal.

SWQF team, left to right: Pat Hanson, Diana Gerrard. Louise Clavin, Raymond Chow. Missing: Grazyna Krezel.

Castle Downs team, clockwise from top left: Pat Hanson, Diana Gerrard, Joel Di Giacomo, Kamyar Rahimi, Simon Routh, Raymond Chow, Byron White, Louise Clavin.

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McFarland Marceau Architects Ltd. (MMA) is an established Vancouver-based architectural prac­ tice specializing in the programming, planning, and full architectural services of communitybased, educational, recreational and institutional projects. Together, partners Larry McFarland and Marie-Odile Marceau offer over 45 years of architectural practice along with an extensive portfolio of buildings, including over 50 com­ munity-based and First Nations projects, all de­ livered with particular attention to client needs, scope, schedule and budget. The firm is commit­ ted to environmentally responsible building design, incorporating sustainability concepts

within each project. They have extensive experi­ ence with LEED, including designing the first Platinum-certified building in Canada—the Gulf Islands National Park Reserve Operations Centre in Sidney, BC. The office has been recognized with a wide range of awards and honours includ­ ing a Governor General’s Award in 1994 for the University of British Columbia First Nation House of Learning, a Holcim Award in 2008 for the North Vancouver Outdoor School Environ­ mental Learning Centre in Squamish, BC, and most recently, a Canadian Green Building Award for the Deep Bay Field Station—Vancouver Island University’s Centre for Shellfish Research. MMA

5468796 Architecture Inc. is a Winnipeg-based studio, established in 2007.

Clockwise from top left: Eva Kiss, Jordy Craddock, Aynslee Hurdal, Sharon 16 canadian architect 12/11

currently employs a staff of 11, which includes registered architects, intern architects, experi­ enced architectural technicians, and architectural support staff. Collaboration and design excel­ lence are at the forefront of their approach, and they strive to produce buildings that are sensitive to local site conditions and to the global environ­ ment while responding to the demands for func­ tionality, flexibility and practicality. Left to right: John Hemsworth, Andrea Davison, Alvin Martin, Larry McFarland, Marie-Odile Marceau, Craig Duffield.

Ackerman, Ken Borton, Johanna Hurme, Sasa Radulovic, Colin Neufeld, Mandy Aldcorn, Zach Pauls, Jayne Miles, Shannon Wiebe.

Architect Marc Blouin has founded an innovative Quebec firm that stretches beyond typical bound­ aries to encourage an interdisciplinary approach that encompasses architecture, landscape archi­ tecture and urban design. Based on the rigorous contextual analysis of each project, the firm’s broad approach promotes collaboration and establishes an atmosphere of constructive dia­ logue and mutual exchange. The firm’s steadfast belief in sustainable design forming the heart of every project affects every stage and scale of intervention. Marc Blouin was the architect in charge of the multidisciplinary team involved in the TOHU project at La Cité des Arts du Cirque in Montreal, a building whose positive impact on the community has been widely recognized and celebrated. For many years, Blouin has been in­ volved in various northern communities and has contributed to northern cultural expression and economic development. The firm has gained indepth knowledge through these experiences, and has developed an acute awareness of the challen­ ging realities of northern life through the suc­ cessful completion of several projects in the Nunavik territory. These projects include the design of cooperative hotels, offices, stores, so­

cial housing and public buildings in a number of villages in Nunavik, where the firm eagerly ex­ plored new construction approaches adapted to

John Duerksen is a recent graduate of the Master of Architecture program at the University of Manitoba, and also holds a Bachelor of Environ­ mental Design from the same faculty. Throughout his studies, Duerksen has acquired an interest in adaptable and performative architecture, which was emulated in his final thesis. He lives in

Steinbach, 60 kilometres south of Winnipeg, and has spent much of his life in the lake country of both Manitoba and Ontario. Consequently, the rural setting has become a desired canvas on which he hopes to study the sensitive and reactive characteristics of architecture. Duerksen is cur­ rently interning at PSA Studio in Winnipeg.

Prithula Prosun received her Honours Bachelor of Architectural Studies degree in 2008, and her Master of Architecture with Distinction in 2011 from the University of Waterloo. She is a LEEDaccredited professional working as an intern architect at CS&P Architects Inc. in Toronto.

Prosun received the ECOPOLIS Design Award and Research Grant for the research and devel­

this specific geographical context. Left to right: Marc Blouin, Maxime Héroux, Philippe Nolet, Sylvain Bilodeau.

opment of the LIFT House in 2009, the ARCC/ King Student Medal in 2010, and a NSERC In­ novation Challenge Award in 2011. Her work has been featured in numerous publications world­ wide, including the upcoming book Design Like You Give a Damn 2 by Architecture for Humanity and Housing Solutions for a Rapidly Changing World

by Bridgette Meinhold.

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award of Excellence

West Coast Middle School

ARCHITECT LOCATION

B+H Bunting Coady Architects Inc. Anmore, British Columbia

The underlying goal of the new middle school design is to create an environment for learning that captivates the imagination of the students and actively encourages exploration and growth. The space intends to simultaneously stimulate teachers, staff and visitors through their experience within the school. The result is a design that creates a series of carefully considered, lightfilled spaces which seamlessly integrate into the natural landscape.

Understanding the manner in which children learn, interpret and discover our world provided the underlying methodology for the design of the new middle school which focuses on education through interaction. The result is a design concept which places emphasis on student exploration and provides a learning-based environment which has been conceived “through the eyes of the students.”

The school takes the form of a U-shaped building where the two primary classroom wings and the centrally located library open onto a common elevated courtyard space. The connection to nature and specifically the adjacent forest creates a place where children learn to interact with their environment, while playing without structure or program. As a core philosophy, there is a belief that sustainability is ultimately achieved through education.

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Inspiration for the building massing and formal architectural character of the new school has evolved by means of an abstracted derivative produced through interpretation of intrinsic geometry that is evident in the natural world. This is readily apparent in areas where receding mountain ranges vanish into obscurity as the foreground mountains remain backlit and left as a stark silhouette. The abstraction of these innate natural forms has informed the manner in which the building has been shaped and carved to receive natural daylight, and to respond to solar orientation and the environment, all while creating a diminutive building profile that recedes into the natural milieu.

The building’s U-Shaped form creates an elevated courtyard. OPPOSITE TOP A section through a classroom wing illustrates the school’s integration with the landscape. OPPOSITE MIDDLE, LEFT TO RIGHT The connection between nature and the school’s interior spaces re­­ inforces an educational environment that is immersive with its site.

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but in a quiet way. I think this will be a great school environment to contain and nurture the restless movement, boundless inquisitive energy, and the endless conversations and laughter of young students.

PS This is a promising composition whose

WF This project recasts the typology of the school

and the environment that supports education.

Building forms abstracted from and nested into a terraced natural setting, reconnecting student and teacher with the landscape. This would be a wonderful place to be a student or a teacher.

DN This school has a geometric composition

that seems through its drawings to blend with the site, taking advantage of views and capturing natural light. The geometry creates these wonderful interior spaces, which seem to make for some great opportunities for learning environments. The presentation has a confidence and a muted quality that seems to reflect a design that is very thoughtful and sculpturally powerful,

ecological foundation does not get submerged beneath the predictable and easy-to-digest tropes of sustainable architecture. Rather, its disciplined and dynamic response to site and program appears to shape a pedagogical foray into a kind of hopefulness that is fitting not only of a generation of schools that is emerging, but of the optimism of architecture itself.

Refreshingly devoid of the technical, formal and graphic stylistics of an environmental aestheticism, and delightfully confident in its expectation that architecture shapes futures, this project promises a response to ecology that is about site and experience as materials themselves. The qualities of health and ecology here form the building blocks of rich architectural

experiences which, I expect, will contribute to pedagogical mandates and ideas about ecological stewardship in our public institutions for decades to come.

CLIENT Coquitlam School District No. 43 ARCHITECT TEAM Teresa Coady, Dwayne Smyth, Mike Wartman, Stephanie Gust, Dylan Durst, Keith Holmes, Justin Thompson, Ian Allmark, Daniel Dubugras, Michael Scarborough STRUCTURAL CWMM Consulting Engineers Ltd. MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL MCW Consultants Ltd.

LANDSCAPE Sharp & Diamond Landscape Architecture Inc. INTERIORS B+H Bunting Coady Architects Inc. AREA 5,400 m2 BUDGET withheld COMPLETION 2013

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award of Excellence

Remai Art Gallery of Saskatchewan

Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects in association with Smith Carter Architects and Engineers LOCATION Saskatoon, Saskatchewan ARCHITECT

To be built in one of Canada’s fasting-growing urban communities and healthiest economies, the Remai Art Gallery of Saskatchewan is critical to the urban vitality of Saskatoon. It contributes to the realization of a 30-year plan to transform Saskatoon’s south downtown into the River Landing, an urban redevelopment project to create a cultural and community hub between the city and the South Saskatchewan River. The gallery is conceived as the civic heart of River Landing.

Since the Mendel Art Gallery opened its doors in 1964, the city has nearly doubled in size, diversified its economy, embraced a global perspective, and become known as the “Gateway to the New North.” The new gallery builds on the Mendel’s legacy to serve the city and its environs, and the design responds to community, context, resources and program. It focuses equally on the gallery spaces and the spaces between the program to offer Saskatoon and its citizens a comfortable, engaging public realm through all seasons, and particularly during the extreme cold winter months.

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The massing strategy responds to the L-shaped site located between 1st and 2nd Avenues. It faces south to the river, and east to one of a series of roundabouts that connect the city to the riverbank. The form responds to the low, flat topography of Saskatchewan’s prairie landscape and evokes agrarian traditions of building indigenous low-rise rectilinear sheds and barns. Four cantilevered horizontal volumes engage the river edge to the south and 2nd Avenue to the east. The south elevation spans the length of the site and the ground floor is fully glazed to provide continuous daylit public spaces with access to the river. Entrances at each end integrate the gallery into the new pedestrian flows along the riverbank.

Each of the four stacked horizontal volumes is designed as flexible loft space and oriented for views to the river. The horizontal stratification maximizes south exposure for views and access to natural sunlight. Double-height areas and atria draw light deep into the floor plate, optimizing the low sun angles for passive solar heat gain.

Overhangs and screens block sunlight during warmer seasons. These and other architectural and technical strategies are designed to collectively achieve 50% lower energy consumption compared to international gallery standards.

Every public space on every level is organized

The new art gallery is poetically sited along the South Saskatchewan River. BELOW Renderings of the gallery’s upper meeting room and main lobby.

ABOVE

to face the river, and a central atrium organizes the plan, while supporting a daily range of amenities and special events. The ground floor features a generous connecting stair which initiates

a continuous path—an interior, vertically connected community street—through all levels.

The exterior will be clad in a copper-coloured metal screen. The use of copper was inspired by the Bessborough Hotel (CNR, 1932), one of Saskatoon’s historic architectural landmarks located further north along the river.

The new architecture of the gallery simultaneously looks back and forward. It forges a strong relationship to the legacy of the Mendel and creates a platform to reinforce the role of art for the “advancement of Saskatoon as a creative city dedicated to life-long learning.”

DN The public spaces outside the individual gal-

leries, the gallery lounge, conference rooms and administrative space seem to take full advantage of what I would imagine as magnificent views of the South Saskatchewan River and the incredible changing skies that dominate this part of the country. The building has a strong sculptural quality with cantilevered box elements floating away from the main building mass, which gives the gallery a sense of presence and gravitas.

PS The rational composition of gallery and theatre volumes on the banks of Saskatoon’s river valley will be a compelling addition to the city’s south downtown precinct. The project is well situated and will bring an important cultural identity to the city’s green-space development. I was intrigued by the clarity of the ecological mandate for the gallery, the effectiveness of which will certainly be tested by the large surface areas at cantilevers and the scheme’s many glass walls.

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The gallery’s plaza invites community engagement and interaction.

CLIENT City of Saskatoon and The Art Gallery of Saskatchewan ARCHITECT TEAM Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects (Design Architects): Bruce Kuwa­ bara, Shirley Blumberg, Matthew Wilson, Paulo Rocha, Matthew Krivosudsky, Terry Kim. Smith Carter Architects & Engineers Incorporated (Architects of Record): Grant van Iderstine, Brad Cove, Neil Hulme, Marcus Colonna.

STRUCTURAL Entuitive MECHANICAL Crossey Engineering ELECTRICAL Mulvey + Banani LANDSCAPE Phillips Farevaag Smallenberg INTERIORS Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects MUSEUM PLANNING CONSULTANTS Lundholm Associates Architects CLIMATE ENGINEERING Transsolar COSTING ttcm2r ACOUSTICS Daniel Lyzun & Associates VIBRATION ENGINEERING Aercoustics SECURITY, IT, AV Mulvey Banani LEED CONSULTANT Enermodal CIVIL AND TRANSPORTATION MMM Group CODE Leber Rubes SIGNAGE Enro-Creative Fire LIGHTING Tillotson FOOD SERVICES PLANNING & DESIGN Kaizen Food RENDERINGS Adrian Phiffer/KPMB AREA 11,500 m2 base building and parking BUDGET $71 M construction cost; $84 m project cost COMPLETION Spring 2015

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award of Excellence

Fort York National Historic Site Visitor Centre

Patkau Architects Inc. in joint venture with Kearns Mancini Architects Inc. LOCATION Toronto, Ontario ARCHITECT

Fort York, considered the birthplace of Toronto, is a national historic site. It represents the single-most important cultural heritage link to British military and social history remaining in the city of Toronto. The Fort’s layered historical themes and associations with a rich archaeological past reinforces the need for sensitivity in design; the larger challenge of this project is not only to present the above-ground cultural heritage resources and to preserve the below-ground archaeological resources, but also to contribute in making the social, military and intangible histories of this site more present and palpable.

The project is the winner of an international competition to design and construct a new visitor centre at the Fort York National Historic Site in downtown Toronto. The Centre manages to address the natural and historical context of the site while simultaneously gaining efficiencies from a partially buried north façade and large concrete mass. The complex site chosen for the Visitor Centre sits directly beyond the Gardiner Ex­ press­way which runs along the southern end of the site.

The Centre is part of a plan to revitalize the entire 17-acre site and is scheduled for completion in 2012 for the Bicentennial Commemoration of the War of 1812.The Fort York Visitor Centre will inform and educate the public about the history 22 canadian architect 12/11

TOP A ribbon-like steel armature defines the spine of this intensely programmed visitors’ facility. BOTTOM This section illustrates how the building slips underneath the Gardiner Expressway, transforming a dank, barren wasteland into active and useable space.

of this great site.

Caught in a maze of giant infrastructure, the Visitor Centre participates in the architecture of lines and liquid landscapes of Fort York. Below the Common, the Centre constructs an escarpment of weathering steel, an extended wall to the site, one capable of joining with the scale of the Gardiner Expressway above to form the wall and roof of an extra-large new urban space for Toronto. The steel escarpment re-establishes the original sense of a defensive site, stretching

across the site to meet the grassed escarpment directly below the Fort.

The outlines of former structures on the Common are projected down onto the urban site.

These terraces trace footprints of an archaeology that is no longer actually present on the site due to the construction of the Gardiner Expressway.

Traces differ in surface from contemporary terraces and are inscribed in various ways with text.

At the point that the land disturbed by the construction of the Gardiner ends, the lower Fort

York Archaeological Site begins. Access to this site is carefully controlled. Visitors walk only on raised boardwalks to view the activities of the dig.

On exiting the Centre, visitors can choose to ascend into the “ghost screen” to a viewing platform. At this height, an overview stretches between Fort York and the small cemetery to the west. The viewing platform is a prime location for watching re-enactment events on the Common.

Neighbours will continue to use the flatness of the Common for play, dog-walking and general recreation. The new pedestrian/bicycle bridge over the rail lines to the north connects across the Common, down the cut between the steel escarpment and the old concrete retaining wall toward the armoury. Other bike routes connect along the north edge of the fort, under Bathurst Street to eastern neighbourhoods and the new library and through the cemetery to the west. At night, the softly illuminated site and ghost screen encourage community events, signalling a new, safe, active and unique urban place to reconnect with history and play out the occasions of modern life.

Cor-ten steel is used both as a canopy and as cladding to provide an appropriate counterpoint to the overwhelming scale of the Gardiner Expressway above. BOTTOM A rendering of the overall facility imbues the project with a dream-like quality.

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as mediating different grades for views and access to the main fort works very well with the site and the adjacent Gardiner Expressway. The sculptural “panels” facing Fort York Boulevard create a type of ephemeral view that suggests it could disappear if the panels are closed.

WF This project invites the public to engage in a

project that lays siege to the Gardiner Expressway. It takes the difficult underbelly of the expressway as the raw foil for an architecture of robust simplicity. Both additive and subtractive in its composition, the building speaks to the ongoing exploration of the history of the site.

PS Set between a decaying Modernist infrastruc-

ture and a hard-to-access heritage site, this project spans two fading histories which form an intriguing context and story about place. How we handle the remnants of civic infrastructure is becoming a critical discussion in Canada. Because of this, I think there is a poignancy to the urban condition in this proposal that reaches beyond Toronto. All Canadian cities are facing the hardships of decaying highways and bridges. Pressures to tend to the preservation of historical sites are as strong as the increasing demands to

DN Framed from above by the Gardiner Express-

way, the main façade of the visitor centre creates a strong and interesting elevation along Fort York Boulevard. The innovative way the architectural massing of the centre brings people through it in section, unrolling the history of Fort York as well

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CLIENT City of Toronto ARCHITECT TEAM John Patkau, Patricia Patkau, Jonathan Kearns, Tony Mancini, Mike Green, Michael Thorpe, Dan McNeil, Peter Shuter, Luke Stern, Dimitri Koubatis, Shane O’Neill, Thomas Schroeder, James Eidse, Peter Ng, Lucy O’Connor, Gabrial Didiano STRUCTURAL Read Jones Christoffersen Consulting Engineers MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL Cobalt Engineering LLP LANDSCAPE Janet Rosenberg and Associates Landscape Architecture INTERIORS Patkau Architects/Kearns Mancini Architects HERITAGE CONSULTANTS Unterman McPhail Associates PROJECT MANAGEMENT O.P. McCarthy & Associates Inc. QUANTITY SURVEYOR A.W. Hooker Quantity Surveyors LIFE SAFETY AON Risk Solutions FOOD SERVICES FS Strategy AREA 1,980 m2 BUDGET $12.3 M COMPLETION December 2012

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maintain failing bridges and highways. My hope is that the Centre, by bringing people in close proximity to this discussion, will nurture a kind of latent understanding of the severity our cities face in being able to successfully tend to both issues in years to come. The scheme itself promises to be a strong urban experience.

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award of Excellence

SWQF

gh3 Architects and Landscape Architects, R.V. Anderson Associates Limited LOCATION Toronto, Ontario ARCHITECT

Situated in Toronto, the Storm Water Quality Facility (SWQF) will treat urban runoff from the new West Don Lands development. While the project represents state-of-the-art handling and treatment of storm water, the design for the facility enclosure and site also elevates the spatial role of the infrastructure, evoking other historic infrastructural works—the R.C. Harris Treatment Plant, the Bloor Street Viaduct, and the Hearn Power Station—whose architectural character has helped define Toronto’s identity. The site, on the northeast corner of Lake Shore Boulevard and Cherry Street, will house a facility comprised of four major elements. The first is the storm-water reservoir, a 20-metre-diameter shaft covered by a radial steel grate that acts as an inverted siphon and receives untreated storm water from the surrounding development. Directly above is a discrete pump building perched on the edge of the reservoir. Finally, the most prominent elements of the facility are the storm-water treatment plant itself and the surrounding ground plane of stone paving that provides vehicular access.

The design for SWQF takes these constituent 24 canadian architect 12/11

parts and unifies them into a whole that renders the infrastructural function legible, didactic and aesthetically compelling. By intensively treating storm water, SWQF supports world-leading municipal standards for water quality in the city; by supporting the urban, mixed-use development of the West Don Lands, it contributes to vibrant and sustainable neighbourhoods; and through compelling design, it declares and celebrates the importance of public infrastructure to a thriving city.

The 300-square-metre facility will be a highly visible gateway to the West Don Lands. The client, Waterfront Toronto, wanted a landmark building to fill this crucial role in defining a new and distinctive precinct of the city. Creating this possibility within the site required a design that successfully addressed the intensive character of the surrounding infrastructure, including a railway bed to the north, and the ramps and roadways of Lake Shore Boulevard and the Gardiner Expressway to the south. The faceted, limestoneclad plant is set on a plane of the same material, creating a monolithic composition whose formal abstraction provides a striking counterpoint to the infrastructural complexity around it. Strategically placed glazed apertures within the façade reveal glimpses of the building’s inner workings, and become luminescent highlights

The artful expression of this waterfiltration facility belies the importance of its function. BELOW The stoic masonry building exudes a sculptural counterpoint to the elevated expressway in the background.

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within the form at night. Even when seen at high speeds from the Gardiner and Lake Shore, the form and site plinth register as a poetic ellipsis amid the intensity of their surroundings.

Programmatically, the SWQF is a building that

tells a story of water. The design of the facility enclosure comes from the idea of a stone well, inverted to manifest as a sculptural form above ground. This modern interpretation of an ancient vernacular is further embellished by etchings on its surface that are transformed by precipitation into a system of rain channels running from roof to wall, to ground plane and shaft—a narrative of the larger system of urban hydrology in which the building is embedded. Additionally, exterior and interior LED luminaires will abstractly register information about the building’s performance. Thus, an infrastructural system that, in another context may have been completely opaque or ille­gible, here registers transparently and com­pel­ling­ly the work of sustaining a city to its inhabitants.

The fundamental intent of the SWQF is to contribute to a more sustainable model of city-building. In treating urban storm water that would otherwise discharge directly into the surrounding watershed, the facility speaks to a future in which dense urban development and healthy natural ecosystems are integrated and mutually beneficial. At the level of built design, both the facility and landscape utilize a local stone that is light in colour as the predominant exterior finish—a material that will have a low construction footprint, mitigate solar heat gain, and will last well beyond the service life of the facility. The result is a building whose individual performance will match its contribution to the broader project of sustainable development in the West Don Lands.

WF A concise urban insertion, exquisitely polished and set with lapidary

precision into the site. It is at once enigmatic and compelling in its simplicity. A beautifully crafted piece that engages both its plaza forecourt and the public in the dialogue about a valued resource.

DN A strong design in the tradition of elevating the architectural role of

infrastructural work. In Toronto, this is in keeping with such work as the Hearn Power Station and the R.C. Harris Treatment Plant. It is a strong sculptural piece that simultaneously fits in and stands out in a very intense concrete grey industrial area, framed by a raised expressway, ramps, roadways and a railway bed. The material palette is clean and simple.

PS Starkly formal but intense in its integration of weather, site, and the

management of urban hydrology, this project finds delight in the residue of the engineered act. Absent is the glorification of the mechanics of treatment, and very present is the promising and sustained enjoyment of the aural and active event of treating water itself. I am drawn to the pure simplicity of this small performance as it transforms an urban ecological infrastructure from act into art. It is confident, bold, and superbly disciplined in its intentions. Mostly, I have fallen in love here with the promise of reestablishing architecture at the core of an otherwise overly engineered landscape of civic infrastructure that defines our cities.

A bird’s-eye view of the new facility with the Gardiner Expressway looming in the background. ABOVE An interior view of this new state-of-the-art water filtration facility conveys a darkly ominous ambiance.

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CLIENT Waterfront Toronto ARCHITECT TEAM gh3 (design architects): Pat Hanson, Diana Gerrard, Raymond Chow, Louise Clavin. R.V. Anderson Associates Limited (prime infrastructure consultant): Grazyna Krezel.

STRUCtuRAL/MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL/CIVIL/INTERIORS R.V. Anderson Associates Limited LANDSCAPE gh3 CONTRACTOR Eastern Construction FAçADE ENGINEER Picco Engineering AREA 3,000 ft2 BUDGET $1.5 M COMPLETION 2012

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award of Excellence

Ryerson Student Learning Centre

Zeidler Partnership Architects in joint venture with Snøhetta LOCATION Toronto, Ontario ARCHITECT

Located at the northeast corner of Yonge and Gould Streets in downtown Toronto, the new eight-storey Ryerson University Student Learning Centre (SLC) will mark Ryerson’s new face on Yonge Street and provide a gateway to the ever-

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expanding Ryerson community. Featuring an elevated plaza and glass façade with bridges to the existing library, the SLC is home to a range of academic, study and collaborative spaces for Ryerson’s students, faculty and staff. Yonge Street frontage will feature destination retail at and below grade, creating a prominent storefront and continuing the commercial fabric of the street.

A view of the spectacularly clad student learning centre at the corner of Yonge and Gould Streets. BELOW The “valley view” of the main lobby.

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Each level will have a distinctive character— some will be open and interpretive with flexible furniture, while others will have enclosed study

rooms dividing the floors into various configurations. The 6th-floor “beach” will be open with terraced seating, ramps and furniture defining the casual study areas while the 7th-floor “forest” will be divided by a wall of study rooms into quadrants to encourage independent quiet study and contemplation.

The program required establishing an educational building with an iconic presence on a commercial street known for its billboards and advertisement. To achieve this, the building has two faces: a retail face at grade along Yonge Street, and a series of stairs, ramps and seating areas which form a public plaza and the entry to the SLC. The lightweight transparent high-performance glass skin will feature a surface design that will vary lighting intensity within the interior space.

While the concrete structure is visibly rugged and heavy, the glass skin of the building will be lightweight and transparent. A frit pattern emphasizes this delicate nature, while also creating varying lighting qualities within the interior. The fritted coating also acts to improve the shading coefficient and to increase thermal comfort and provide glare control. This will allow students to find a place to study that could be in direct sunlight or under more diffused lighting conditions.

Construction on the building is expected to begin early next year, with a targeted completion date of Winter 2014.

WF Delicately clad glass fritted façades overlaid

on a robust concrete armature. It announces and animates the entry to the Ryerson campus. A serThe “beach” on the sixth floor encourages interaction and engagement amongst students and faculty.

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ies of spatially interleaved floors animates the adjacent library that it supports. It gives life and renewed purpose to the existing building and proposes a new suite of spaces to support a range of learning options in a very public way.

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DN The building seems to work as a gateway to

the campus, and the materiality of the transparent glass skin, fritted with intriguing patterns, offers interesting views into the building, which will be welcome along this portion of Yonge Street. It will serve as a great visual portal into the activities of the student centre, opening up the university to the city.

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PS Not all university campuses have the privilege

of giving shape and energy to their downtown cores. There are a handful in Canada that, through location alone, can extend their cam­ puses beyond the gates and into the city. I am drawn here by the serious investment that Ryerson is making to its neighbourhood. From sheer energy and density of activity alone, the Learning Centre will transform Toronto’s Dundas Square into a hybrid civic and campus commons. The building itself is richest in its sectional composition where it seems to unfold the city into its complex of interior spaces. I am intrigued by the project’s mandate to expose real-time energy consumption in a way that brings occupants and machines as close together as the dashboard of a car. The high-performance glass skin will mediate between site and occupancy into a performance that is at once mechanical and artistic. Moves like these seem to transpose the elements and discourse of energy management squarely into the discipline of architecture where it should reside.

North-South Section

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1 entrance hall/events space 2 retail 3 casual seating 4 study area 5 study room 6 classroom/seminar room 7 computer station 8 computer instruction/multimedia lab 9 office 10 office support/lounge 11 building services/storage 12 digital media zone (DMZ) 13 entry plaza

CLIENT Ryerson University ARCHITECT TEAM Zeidler: Vaidila Banelis, Tarek El-Khatib, Mike Smith, Mitsuru Delisle, Dennis Rijkhoff. Snøhetta: Craig Dykers, Michael Cotton, Jon Kontuly, Anne-Rachel Schiffmann, Carrie Tsang, Samuel Brissette, Misako Murata, Siobhan Rockcastle, Fred Holt.

STRUCTURAL Halcrow Yolles MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL/TELECOM/LIGHTING/SUSTAINABILITY Crossey Engineering Ltd. CIVIL RV Anderson ACOUSTICS Aercoustics PLANNING Bousfields CODE LRI INTERIORS ZPA/Snøhetta CONTRACTOR EllisDon AREA 155,460 ft2 BUDGET $60 M COMPLETION January 2014

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award of Excellence

Abbey Gardens

ARCHITECT LOCATION

Williamson Chong Architects Haliburton County, Ontario

Through the Abbey Gardens initiative, the design team is working with a group of concerned residents who have accepted the challenge to work together to make Haliburton County a hub of environmental initiatives and provide a demonstration of what a community can do in response to the challenges of climate change, carbon reduction and greening. Abbey Gardens is the masterplan proposal for a prototypical community village. The project aims to revisit food as the natural binding social agent towards building naturally sustainable communities whose foundation would be a long-term framework for sharing food and ideas.

Serving its immediate locale, as well as a broader regional audience across Southern Ontario and Quebec, the scheme is centred around distinct built projects which would, over time, stitch into existing open “rooms” left behind what was once a gravel quarry—on a 210-acre lot three hours north of Toronto in Haliburton County, Ontario.

Abbey Gardens is a reclamation project, an opportunity to reuse what may otherwise be leftover “carcass” land while rekindling a community and 28 canadian architect 12/11

launching a vibrant social enterprise. The initial built project would begin with a series of greenhouses, then later flanked with a low-level armature housing a visitors’ centre, gallery spaces and a restaurant which would provide chef training and menu-tasting of local foods. This area would also host conferences and lectures, known as “Thought for Food,” aiming to appeal to the emerging breadth of people who find food to be central to their disciplines and/or interests.

Using the artists-in-residence format, people from all walks of life who in their own way engage food—nutritionists, agriculturalists, urbanists, chefs, farmers, food-policy planners—could find a home at Abbey Gardens, where seemingly disparate interests can provide a place for a healthy coalescence of advanced thinking. In many ways, the gardens can be an “abbey” where ideas are cultivated and developed with thorough study, focus and collegial input.

Through a series of modular greenhouse structures which can grow in stages, the flagship structure known as the Cradle would shape itself along a cresting path which houses a public viewing loggia. This loggia would structurally support a climate-controlled trunk route which would accelerate efficient ventilation and air exchange by virtue of the tapered tower stack—which doubles

Plate-like roof forms above the low-lying building make for a dramatic statement within the landscape.

ABOVE

as the lateral-resisting side core for a ninestorey Food Spire.

The Food Spire would be the repository for all resources and ideas in the form of traditional library-format stacks but also open-source media storage and retrieval. The uppermost floor is equipped with a dining hall and test kitchen for conferences, workshops and small-format lectures, dovetailed with a lookout towards the surrounding lakes. It will also provide an observation laboratory in which to survey growth patterns, wind and climatological conditions over time and calibrated for the possibility of sharing data across similar points throughout the region.

As the flagship project—which is positioned to grow in modules around a solar-optimized arc facing south but with slightly varying angles—the Cradle would frame the forecourt Nest, which would draw any water from the south-facing sloping surfaces. The Cradle frames the moatlike liner which is configured with a masonrywetland-cistern strategy for gravity-drawn natural filtering in a xeriscaped landscape to enhance local flora and fauna activity.

WF An ambitious examination of the inter足

relationship between community, food production, and the architecture that might enable intensive agricultural production.

DN This is a very smart and exciting project, fus-

ing reclaimed and regenerated land with production buildings. I am not sure if we made a connection between the Storm Water Quality Facility and Abbey Gardens, but it seems both these projects have very strong infrastructure components that address the notion that great design emerges from a clear, strong program, and a sense of connection to their respective contexts. Good designers recognize the architectural potential of these project types. In terms of the landscape and architectural design, the master plan delineates all the pieces that comprise Abbey Gardens.

PS The proposal for Abbey Gardens is a compel-

ling reclamation of otherwise residual and underused land. The commitment to a social ecology here is strengthened by the architectural response to program and site, linking the place and its users to the broader region and its community. The inherent suggestion that shelter, like food, is a natural adhesive for community positions the architecture as a fundamental maker not of form, but of people, their values, and the manner in which they commit to the places they inhabit. The successful investment that architecture makes here is not simply a promotion of values but rather, it is the actual commitment the project makes to sustaining the emergence of a local quality of life.

A rendering of the new performing arts centre. ABOVE a sectional perspective of the cradle, which shapes itself along a cresting path.

TOP

CLIENT John Patterson ARCHITECT TEAM Donald Chong, Shane Williamson, Betsy Williamson, Chris Routley, Vlad Berezovskiy DRAWINGS AND RENDERINGS Williamson Chong Architects AREA 28.5 hectares (70 acres new landscaped area; 25,800 m2 building area) BUDGET withheld COMPLETION 2016

The Cradle

Marketfront

Performing Arts Centre Site Plan

Cradle Plan

Volume Diagram

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award of Excellence

Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences/CDRD

Saucier + Perrotte Architectes in joint venture with Hughes Condon Marler Architects LOCATION Vancouver, British Columbia ARCHITECT

The design for the Pharmaceutical Sciences/CDRD Building reflects the faculty’s world-class researchers and the University of British Columbia’s status as an internationally recognized institution in scientific endeavours. A stateof-the-art facility, the new project houses both the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences and the University’s Centre for Drug Research and Devel­op­ment.

Critical to the design is the ability to go beyond the norm to thoroughly promote enjoyable, liveable, and sustainable spaces for research and learning.

Its architectural expression gives the building a striking presence on campus, and when coupled with the project’s technological functionality, the facility becomes a new, cutting-edge part of the UBC landscape.

Located on the corner of Wesbrook Mall and Agronomy Road, the site consists of a 20,240-square-metre parcel of land, immediately north of the UBC Thunderbird Parkade, and is restricted to a maximum buildable height of five to six storeys above grade, plus a basement. At this strategic location, the new building becomes an important landmark for the southeastern edge of the campus core. Functioning architecturally as an active gateway or entry point into the academic core, the building engages the community with a ground floor that is transparent, inviting, and will openly showcase the research taking place within.

Adjacent to the site are the University Endowment Lands/UBC residential communities to the east of Wesbrook Mall, the Life Sciences Building to the north of Agronomy Road, and “Agronomy Knoll,” a large open space to the west. This public plaza terminates the mid-block greenway that connects the southern part of campus, through UBC’s athletic facilities, to the Health Science Precinct.

The new Pharmaceutical Sciences Building becomes a notable building for the entire city and region—one filled with inventive and innovative ideas. To successfully contribute to UBC’s legacy of architecture and pharmaceutical research, the design was intended to produce a signature building that would become the standard by which future education and high-level research 30 canadian architect 12/11

ABOVE

The view from Agronomy Road, looking east.

buildings will be measured—both in Canada and abroad.

The building creates spaces for the exchange of ideas and research—for both intellectual and social interaction. The project’s unconventional layout affords students and researchers opportunities that traditional university buildings have not. By means of the careful implementation of programmed and public spaces, students and faculty are able to work both collaboratively and independently as they study, conduct research, or carry out experiments.

Just as it will become a vibrant node of the sciences and new technology, the building has taken into consideration the current and future needs of the University’s pharmaceutical program. In this way, the exchange of knowledge is the principal factor behind the design of the new building and is the catalyst for its unique architectural form. western red cedar finish

lounges

Level 6

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Level 4 black painted steel stairs Level 3

Story of Medicine hall

Section through central atrium

Level 2 Level 1

WF I admire the way in which the main floor circulation spaces draw

the ground plane into the building and then continue spatially to infuse the concrete armature of the upper floors of the building. A passionate narrative of interconnected spaces informing a rational and rigorous architecture.

DN I like the strong sculptural qualities of this building with the wood

boxes wrapping the labs and teaching spaces. The pixellation of a tree canopy into a Cartesian grid of wood boxes (foliage) provide a sculptural framework for this building, especially the west façade overlooking the main entrance and a plaza where the wood box elements appear to be transforming into a grid or escaping from the grid. In a way, this project reminds me of the powerful concrete qualities of Erickson’s MacMillan Bloedel office building in downtown Vancouver. Furthermore, the presentation seems to capture an atmospheric quality of the site.

PS This project is strongly presented and the drawings clearly describe the

character and intentions for an architecture that can be seen as a social infrastructure for knowledge. Clearly designed for durability, this project is accomplished and despite its nod to a kind of signature institutional

Foliage

Laboratory Volumes

ABOVE A view of the main lobby. MIDDLE A series of diagrams explaining the evolution of the design concept. BOTTOM, LEFT TO RIGHT the north elevation brings in plenty of natural daylight; the contrasting south elevation is more cloistered and abstractly sculptural in comparison.

Modernism, it will be relevant for years to come. The simplicity of the box controls the project’s sustainable mandate, while its free and fluid public spaces, especially at ground level, promote a social foundation for the scheme that slips the campus into the building.

CLIENT UBC Properties Trust ARCHITECT TEAM Gilles Saucier, André Perrotte, Roger Hughes, Bill Uhrich, David Moreaux, Craig Lane, Dominique Dumais, Paul Fast, Marc-André Tratch, Craig West, Yutaro Minagawa, Rachel Lacey, Olivier Krieger, Nick Worth, Eli Wolpin, Nicko Elliott, Joel Legault, Patrice Begin, Charles-Alexandre Dubois, Greg Neudorf, Charles Leman STRUCTURAL Glotman Simpson MECHANICAL/LAB Stantec ELECTRICAL AES LANDSCAPE KPA CONTRACTOR Ledcor ARCHITECTURAL CONCRETE UCC Group AREA 11,500 m2 BUDGET $93 M COMPLETION September 2012

Emerging tree forms

New ground plane

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award of Excellence

Two Hulls House

ARCHITECT LOCATION

MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects Limited Port Mouton, Nova Scotia

This project is situated in a glaciated, coastal landscape with a cool maritime climate. The geomorphology of the site consists of granite bedrock and boulder till, creating pristine white sand beaches and turquoise waters. The two pavilions float above the shoreline like the hulls of two ships up on cradles for the winter, forming protected outdoor places both between and under them. This is a landscape-viewing instrument—like a pair of binoculars, first looking out to sea. A third transverse “eye” looks down the coastline, and forms a linking entry piece. A concrete seawall on the foreshore protects the house from rogue waves.

This is a full-time home for a family of four, consisting of a “day pavilion” and a “night pavilion.” One approaches from the understated land side between the abstract, library ends of the two pavilions, then passing through toward the sea—or left into the living pavilion, or right into the sleeping pavilion. One structure contains a central core, while the other contains a side core. The seaward ends of the two main forms (living and master bedroom) delaminate, creating protected outdoor porches or nighttime “lanterns” over the water. The third linking form contains the generous entry foyer, core, and the kitchen. The great room contains a floating 24-foot totemic hearth. The house remains a fertile research vehicle in the education of an architect.

This is a steel-frame house with a wood skin. Its white steel endoskeleton resists both gravity loads and wind uplift. The 32-foot cantilevers and concrete-fin foundations invite the sea to pass under without damage. The wooden rain screen consists of 8-inch vertical board-on-batten on the two “hulls,” while the linking piece is a monolithic block of weathered wood inside and out, clad in 4-inch horizontal shiplap. The lantern ends dematerialize by eliminating the 1-inch channel joints. The fenestration of the 32 canadian architect 12/11

The house’s two linked pavilions RESEMBLE a pair of binoculars lookING out over the dramatic and awe-inspiring coastal landscape of the Atlantic Ocean.

ABOVE

“binocular” ends is minimalist curtain wall with structural silicone, while the side elevations contain storefront glazing. The concrete floors contain a geothermally heated hydronic system. This sculptural yet calm and mature project contains generous white volumes on the interior, and exhibits the ironic monumentality of boats on the exterior.

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6 kitchen 7 day pavilion lantern deck 8 first bedroom 9 second bedroom 10 master bedroom

CLIENT withheld ARCHITECT TEAM Brian MacKay-Lyons, Talbot Sweetapple, Kevin Reid, David Bourque, Omar Gandhi, Sawa Rostkowska, Jordan Rice STRUCTURAL Campbell Comeau Engineering Limited INTERIORS MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects Limited CONTRACTOR Delmar Construction PRESENTATION Rimon Soliman, Marc Holland, Piotr Kolodziej, Peter Braithwaite PHOTOGRAPHER Greg Richardson AREA 3,360 ft2 BUDGET withheld COMPLETION December 2011

WF A pair of crafted spatial armatures, lofted above the smooth undulating

stone shoreline. A finely calibrated response to site with a material palette that speaks to its nautical roots.

Longitudinal Section

interior there seems to be a sense of contrasting lightness created by the light, colour and expansive views of the exterior.

PS The familiar discipline that articulates the authorship of this work is, as

DN Very strong in its execution with a unified material palette. The Two

Hulls House has a simplicity, rigour of scale and detailing that stands perhaps in contrast to the refined and very fine work of Ian MacDonald. The residence sits or, it seems, balances on the landscape, and the way the cladding wraps around the exterior unifies the composition, while on the Inside one of the 32-foot cantilevered structures; the space in between the two pavilions; each lantern’s steel construction cage remains exposed at the point where protected balconies overlook the ocean vistas.

BELOW, LEFT TO RIGHT

always, formidable. The work is clearly presented, beautifully drawn, and the submission demonstrates that the project can be built to the same standards of excellence. Two Hulls reveals to me what many of us cannot afford to lose sight of, and that is that the built work has to be as relentless in its pursuit of excellence as the first sketch. Here, the early sketches promise a commitment to technical simplicity and they expose a confidence of knowledge in construction and its procedures. As the work advances into construction, it becomes evident that an honest regard for the autodidactic capacity of the making itself is present here. It has the ability to stir the master builder aching for attention in many of us.

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award of Merit

Environmental Learning Centre

ARCHITECT LOCATION

McFarland Marceau Architects Ltd. Brackendale, British Columbia

The intent of the Environmental Learning Centre (ELC) is to create an experiential environment that blends natural, human and building ecologies. It is the first building in a master plan that will repair an important ecosystem compromised by years of inappropriate development. Set in a lush river valley in the Coast Mountains of BC, the building will provide a critical context for learning at the heart of the North Vancouver Outdoor School’s rural campus. The facility includes a “welcoming” space (with a nature gallery and exhibition space), a multi-purpose hall, dining hall, commercial kitchen, multi-purpose learning spaces, administrative offices and washrooms.

The building itself will act as an educational tool and demonstration facility, integral to the educational programming of the Outdoor School.

The project’s dependence on outside sources of energy and its impact on the environment are minimized to uphold the philosophical principles of the school, which aims for LEED Platinum.

In direct response to the linearity of the valley and river, the building assumes a narrow linear form, raised above the forest floor on pilotis, 34 canadian architect 12/11

TOP A view of the new school from across Canoe Pond. ABOVE, LEFT TO RIGHT The classroom spaces hover above the forest floor and provide direct views of the forest canopy; A cross-section of the school reveals its concrete pilotis.

whose underside inscribes the line of the 200year-old floodplain. The carefully proportioned form is slotted between stands of mature conifers—preserving trees and forest floor alike. The users are permitted to occupy an unexpected vantage point within the forest canopy while the area beneath the building becomes a “found” program space, providing generous cover for outdoor activities. This direct response to the forces of the site lifts the users into an intimate position within the canopy, preserves the integrity of local habitat, and renders the floodplain both evident and moot.

PS This project is deserving of attention in that like many of the other award-winning projects, it asks where the ground lies for new architectures.

This rational treehugger caught my attention because of the way it registers present and potential grounds in the midst of a floodplain. The restorative nature of the architect’s intervention here is promising and the school will be a rich learning environment for students, teachers, and parents alike. I am especially drawn to the mixed foreground of columns and tree trunks that merge in such a way as to float the building into a hovering canopy.

WF This project responds to site and program

with a finely proportioned sequence of spaces that invites exploration and student participation. The raised linear platform lifts the students into a novel and intimate relation to the forest canopy.

DN Up on stilts and among the trees, this pencil-

box tree house features wood cladding as the dominant material on the walls, roof and soffit.

It is a strong composition in its simplicity.

CLIENT North Vancouver School District #44 ARCHITECT TEAM Larry McFarland, John Hemsworth, Alvin Martin, Andrea Davison, Marie-Odile Marceau, Craig Duffield STRUCTURAL Equilibrium Consulting MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL Stantec Consulting LANDSCAPE Maruyama Landscape Architects CIVIL Kerr Wood Leidel Associates ENERGY Enersys Analytics ENVIRONMENTAL Cascade Environmental COMMISSIONING Cobalt Engineering INTERIORS McFarland Marceau Architects KITCHEN CONSULTANT Lisa Bell & Associates CONTRACTOR DGS Construction AREA 950 m2 BUDGET $5.7 M COMPLETION Spring 2012

award of Merit

Castle Downs Park Pavilion

gh3 Architects and Landscape Architects, Kasian Architects Interior Design and Planning Ltd. LOCATION Edmonton, Alberta ARCHITECT

Located in a suburban park, the Castle Downs Park Pavilion unifies a wide range of outdoor recreational facilities and helps imbue them with a collective sense of place. Housing primarily public washrooms and storage facilities, the strong linear form of the building—along with the extension of its primary axis by a path and future viewing platforms—creates an armature for broader spatial organization within the park. Inspired by the pattern of a Hudson’s Bay Company blanket, the coloured bands of east-west datum recall the city’s historic roots while acting as a staging and orientation zone for the diverse users who occupy the site. The iconography of the design evokes Edmonton’s historic trading-post roots in its coloured bands, with green and red bands denoting entry points into the building, while yellow and black bands denote future shelters/viewing platforms.

The path along the north side of the building extends across the breadth of the park. The path is interspersed by the coloured bands of the iconic HBC blanket at each entry point to the building as well as at the locations of future shelters/viewing platforms to the west. Indigenous trees are planted alongside the path to further delineate its presence. Public art installations will be concentrated within the spine, and should have an interactive or dynamic component that echoes the energetic activities of the park.

The building is organized into a punctuated horizontal bar. Storage components are housed in the east module of the building, which are accessed through a bright green entry niche.

ABOVE Children play in front of the linear park pavilion. BOTTOM LEFT Mirrored stainless steel cladding will be both impact- and vandal-proof. BOTTOM RIGHT A bright-red glazed portal will provide access to washrooms, and office and administration areas.

Further to the west, a second portal offers entry to the remaining program spaces: this vibrant red portal is glazed, allowing views through the building while providing enclosed circulation space for the washrooms, office and maintenance areas of Phase 1, as well as the user-funded programs of Phase 2. By arranging program components into modules around shared portals, the design allows for flexible access, phasing and growth.

Taking a holistic approach to sustainability, the building uses both passive and active strategies to address the challenge of sustainable design. Multiple skylights ensure uninterrupted daylight in winter months and rain-harvesting capabilities address storm-water requirements. Features such as roof-mounted solar panels, and an onsite bio-filter system for reusing grey water help reduce the building’s resource demands. Materials like post-industrial recycled stainless steel and fly-ash concrete help ensure the building’s environmental footprint is further decreased.

Clad in composite stainless steel panels, the façade’s reflective facets mirror the surrounding park, its users, and the changing conditions of the days and seasons. Public washrooms, often bereft of natural light, are glazed with one-way mirrored glass, allowing for both abundant daylight and privacy.

WF A carefully calibrated structure that is part

installation, part pavilion and part abstracted artifact. The folded reflective plates multiply and amplify the activities on either side. Coloured

portals link the fieldscape on either side, at once concealing and revealing the promise on the other side. Animated and vigorous, it will feed the youthful energy of the place.

DN This pavilion is innovative in its use of material, which will look very interesting against those endlessly long days of summer, mirroring the blue skies and reflecting the sun. The form of the folded plates seems appropriate for this material. I very much like the innovative consideration of what a pavilion in a playground should be.

PS Materially, structurally, formally, artistically

pure, this project’s complexity emerges from a programmatic hybridity of sport and art brought into the everyday. A delicious little project, it is encouraging to see work like this amidst a des­ pair­ing landscape of the beige ideas that are its surrounding ecology. I can only hope every child in the park and in this neighbourhood will be touched by this project in ways that will challenge their status quo.

CLIENT City of Edmonton ARCHITECT TEAM gh3: Pat Hanson, Diana Gerrard, Raymond Chow, Louise Clavin, Simon Routh, Joel di Giacomo, Byron White, Kamyar Rahimi. Kasian: Vaugh Hoy. STRUCTURAL Chernenko Engineering MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL/LEED CONSULTANT Vital Engineering LANDSCAPE gh3 PHOTOGRAPHER gh3 AREA 783 m2 BUDGET $2.6 M COMPLETION 2012

Concept

Site Plan

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award of Merit

Bond Tower

ARCHITECT LOCATION

5468796 Architecture Inc. Winnipeg, Manitoba

Envisioned as a distinct landmark by day and glowing billboard by night, Bond Tower is an 11-storey office building that stands in clear contrast to the downtown Winnipeg skyline. Rising as a thin, black bar between the city centre and the Red River, the building absorbs daylight and frames unique views through a series of apertures that pierce its rigid skin.

After polling local business owners, it became clear that a need for purchasable office space exists in the downtown, and the idea for business condominiums emerged. To ensure a complete sellout, the project requires the right scale of units—from a configuration of 20 small owners to one large tenant—depending on market demand.

The ownership model within the project has been structured so that floors can be broken up into multiple tenants per floor, sold as individual levels, or combined into multi-floor offices, de­pend­ing on the company’s programmatic requirements.

The tower overcomes its tight 33’ x 108’ footprint by stretching skyward, offering ten 4,200-square-foot floors of office condomin-

iums and views of the downtown, resting on a commercial base. While the main level sits within the city’s setback regulations, the upper storeys cantilever 15 feet over the sidewalk on each short end, engaging the streetscape below, extending the useable floor space and capturing daylight.

Due to the narrow lot width, it becomes necessary to build flush with the side yards in order to maximize square footage requirements. As a result, no windows are permitted directly on the east or west façades. In addition, while the shorter north and south façades can be constructed with full-height glazing, they cannot provide enough natural light on their own to serve the entire building. Thus, the introduction of horizontal “courtyards” cutting through the structure allows the space to be broken up into smaller compartments, increasing access to light, views and fresh air.

The tower’s rain screen consists of 2’ x 8’ clear-coated, cold-rolled steel panels that are installed proud of the building, creating a cavity where lights can be installed, thereby allowing the structure to read as an electronic billboard and giving life to a building that would otherwise be unoccupied in the evenings.

Bond Tower stands in stark contrast to its environs. BOTTOM, LEFT TO RIGHT The narrow sliver of a building strives to catalyze development; views of the city from one of the building’s “incisions.”

ABOVE

WF Revisits the stock building conventions of the

urban office tower as both an urban artifact and the everyman’s working environment. The apertures into and through the building offer varied opportunities for indoor-outdoor relationships for the tenants of the building. These landscaped incisions, with views out the city, suggest a novel understanding of how the urban office tower is to be occupied.

DN In close proximity to the Canadian Museum

for Human Rights, the building is distinctive in its narrow floor plates with holes cut into the party walls. As a spec office tower, it seems to have the potential to create some intriguing work environments for creative agencies and ateliers looking for an alternative to warehouse space.

PS This schematic presentation is playfully ideal-

istic in its reassurance that architecture has the capacity to bring plausible solutions to the world of commercial development. The presentation was thin in its ability to demonstrate how the engineering disciplines would enrich the architectural concept, yet the strength of the parti alone and its ability to convey architecture’s capacity to solve challenges for urban development are deserving of recognition.

CLIENT Mark Penner, Green Seed Development Corporation ARCHITECT TEAM Sharon Ackerman, Mandy Aldcorn, Ken Borton, Jordy Craddock, Aynslee Hurdal, Johanna Hurme, Eva Kiss, Jayne Miles, Colin Neufeld, Zach Pauls, Sasa Radulovic, Shannon Wiebe PHOTOGRAPHER 5468796 Architecture Inc. AREA 45,500 ft2 BUDGET $8 M COMPLETION construction begins 2012

36 canadian architect 12/11

award of Merit

Saint Matthew’s Parish Church of Puvirnituq

ARCHITECT LOCATION

Marc Blouin, Architecte Northern Village of Puvirnituq, Nunavik Territory, Quebec

The Puvirnituq Anglican parish seeks to reconcile the traditional religious values of the community and the iconic representation of the church to create a visual and spiritual beacon for the village.

The church is located in the heart of the village and will be built adjacent to an existing church, which will then become a community centre annex in the second phase of the project. The community square, whose stairway gives onto exposed rock, will become a dynamic public space that will also accommodate snowmobiles and other vehicles.

Resting on wood railings, the lightweight structure anchors a delicate metal skin. Translucent and luminous walls and wood beams are painted white, and close off both ends of the church, heralding its presence in the boundless landscape.

Entering the church and standing under the white vault is like inhabiting the interior layer of a shell that seems to have been carved out of the icy snow itself. The channels of light that pierce through the vault reveal the thickness of the structure, creating a sanctuary for contemplation that is removed from the outside world. With its simple lines and isolated ample volume, the new church will be equipped with a heating/natural convection heat-recovery system in which the bell tower will act as a withdrawal chimney. The volume thus becomes a modern interpretation of the igloo. The church will be a wood/steel hybrid structure with prefabricated insulated floor panels, exterior walls and a roof-panel system. A local labour employment plan will guarantee that a maximum number of resources from the community will be involved in this major parish project.

The firm’s involvement in several cooperative public-housing projects in Nunavik and Puvirnituq led to this project, which began in 2008 and has benefitted through long-term planning and fundraising.

WF A beautifully considered exploration of the evolving possibilities of

spiritual architecture in the Canadian north. It is interpreted in a language

the essential components of the church: a lightweight wooden base, a metal skin, translucent walls at each end, and a vaulted interior shell inspired by ice structures. BOTTOM, LEFT TO RIGHT the church in its northern context; the vaulted iglooinspired interior compels with its iconic simplicity.

ABOVE

drawing on nomadic roots, to posit future meanings for the building typology in an evolving native culture. The building forms, construction and materiality have the lean tautness required in a land and culture of limited resources and vast distances.

DN This project stands in contrast to many other submissions that seemed

cliché in the expression of First Nations cultural elements and site. The drawings express a simplicity of form and rigour with respect to the religious icon of the church steeple and how it flows into the walls and roof of the building. The honesty in the expression seems appropriate in this small northern community.

PS There is a subtlety to this project which deserves merit. Although im-

bued with a stylized western symbolism, this project is appreciated when held up against a number of other northern works that were submitted.

There is little attempt to appropriate native symbolism as a tack-on to contemporary technologies. Rather, the project—and I have to assume the architect as well—attempts to learn from a lightness of indigenous approaches to building that inform how we inhabit structures and places. Embedded in the work is a soft attention to detailing, light and ground that promises a strong experiential quality.

CLIENT Saint Matthew’s Parish Church of Puvirnituq ARCHITECT TEAM Marc Blouin, Philippe Nolet, Sylvain Bilodeau, Maxime Héroux, Kim Pariseau, Julie Marchand, David Giraldeau STRUCTURAL/MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL Équation Groupe Conseil LANDSCAPE/INTERIORS Marc Blouin, Architecte PROJECT MANAGEMENT Pierre Roy AREA 515 m2 BUDGET $2.9 M COMPLETION 2012

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Student award of Excellence

Reinhabiting a Lost Landscape—Farming Fish An intricate model conveys the project’s complexity. BOTTOM, LEFT TO RIGHT a view of the south elevation; the public arm seen from below the water’s surface.

LEFT

forces of river, he was able to develop an architecture that reacts to the various dimensions of the site. Seasonal changes and fluctuations determine the form and nature of the architecture as a constantly shifting environment, and provide unique opportunities for the public to access and experience the river.

WF A compelling feat of architectural modelling.

John Duerksen, University of Manitoba

STUDENT

In an attempt to study architecture’s ability to merge rather than resist the living landscape, University of Manitoba architecture student John Duerksen set his sights on the Bergman Cutoff, an abandoned rotating bridge isolated on the Red River in the heart of Winnipeg. This bridge is replete with memories of an optimism to engage with the river. At one point, a single person within the central rotating point of the bridge determined the flow of both train traffic across the river and boat traffic along it. To access the site and experience the river, Duerksen rented a kayak with intentions to paddle to the central isolated point of the bridge. Through his experi-

ence, he recognized the volatility of the river at various points along his journey. These “knuckles”—or points where the liveliness of the landscape forces a physical reaction—represent a common dilemma between architecture and the Red River. Architecture asks to be positioned and static, and with the datum of the river constantly shifting, architecture—as most commonly seen— is not able to react.

Programmatically, Duerksen’s response was to propose a catfish farm. The channel catfish of the Red River is one of the largest species of catfish in the world, and the nutrient-rich waters of the Red River are ideal grounds for its existence.

The architectural proposition of this thesis revolves around the study of the river and its forces.

Developing a physical analogue topography of the

This project has three-dimensionalized an exploratory design process for rehabilitating a found architectural artifact. The reinhabitation of abandoned structures is a theme of increasing relevance in the discussion of how to repurpose derelict components of the urban fabric in a sustainable and meaningful way.

DN This was a beautifully considered, drawn and

modelled building that grew from an idea developed while canoeing on the Red River. Using an existing structure like the bridge as the main frame for this commercial enterprise gives it strength. This is a labour of love that is meticulously explored and delightfully resolved. I would love to see a cluster of these on the river along with the restoration of a once-thriving industry kickstarted to a new life.

PS A disciplined critique of the imprint of urban

architecture on the ecologies that it occupies, this inhabitation of the ever-active Red River in Winnipeg is a compelling and hypnotic journey into the fantastical construction of an otherwise modest notion of kinetic architectures. The intimacy and the level of authorship present in this project stands out for me in particular because much of the student work submitted was too broad in scale to fully imagine the worlds they had authored.

Site Plan

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Student award of Merit

LIFT House

Multiple stages of construction of the LIFT House in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

LEFT

that provides the vertical guidance and stability for the two amphibious bamboo units when floating. The rainwater-harvesting system is located in the service spine where water is collected and filtered during the rainy season and further recycled through filtration to be used throughout the year. Electricity is derived from two 60W solar panels for lighting and fans. The shared composting toilet allows the residents to create compost from human waste that can be sold or applied to the vegetable garden after 10 years of use. Urine is directed to the garden as a source of nutrients through an underground pipe system.

The pilot project was tested successfully by sim­ ulating a flood to make the amphibious units float during the inauguration in January 2010. The LIFT House represents Bangladesh; an embodiment of what is important to the country, its people, its environment, its economy, and its water.

WF This project is a reminder of to all of us in

Prithula Prosun, University of Waterloo

STUDENT

The LIFT House (Low-Income Floodproof Technology) pilot project was designed and constructed in Dhaka, Bangladesh as a solution for sustainable housing for low-income communities in flood-prone areas. It is an approach to housing that provides all the basic services to its residents without connection to the city service systems, through the use of indigenous materials and local skills.

Millions are displaced and many lives are lost during severe floods due to the overflowing of rivers, inadequate drainage and monsoon rains in Bangladesh. Floods cause the most damage to the low-income population who live in informal settlements throughout the urban centres of the country. As the city’s population continues to grow, access to adequate housing is denied to low-income citizens, forcing 3.5 million people— representing 37.4% of the region of Dhaka—to find shelter in slums. More than ever, concerns for global warming have brought the issues of flood mitigation to the forefront for low-lying areas around the world, where improvements in

the profession of our collective responsibilities to the vast majority of humanity that we typically do not serve. Kudos to the group of faculty and students that took the time to actually build a working prototype of a building that would be of practical use in many flood-prone areas of the world. Not great and glorious capital “A” architecture, but a replicable, indigenous architecture in the service of humanity. flood protection are mandatory in order to mitigate future catastrophes.

The LIFT House provides low-cost floodresilient housing that is amphibious, functioning both in land and in water. The two amphibious units of the LIFT House float upwards with rising water levels due to floods and return to ground level as the water recedes. Amphibious architecture is a cost-effective and safe alternative to permanent static elevation and is achieved by the design of buoyant foundations.

Instead of relying on the struggling service sys­ tems of the city, the LIFT House is self-sustaining in providing basic services without relying on city infrastructure by using passive resources such as solar power, natural ventilation, rainwater harvesting, and composting toilets.

Buoyancy is achieved by two different methods that allow the house to float with rising water levels: a hollow ferro-cement foundation for one house and a bamboo-frame foundation filled with used plastic water bottles collected from a local hotel for the other. Both foundations perform similarly by floating when surrounded by water. The service spine of the house is a static structure, constructed out of brick and concrete

DN A very powerful idea in addressing the con-

stant threat of flooding in urban environments located in unregulated flood zones. I like the idea of building the lifting and floating capacity into a house during the construction process, contemplating devastating emergencies that may or may not arrive, providing a level of security and safety to homeowners and their families. The fact that Thailand recently experienced its worst flooding—with a land mass equivalent to the area of France under water—made the LIFT House a very real and urgent proposition that should be further explored and researched.

PS With this project, I am encouraged by the presence of mind that brings research, technology, ethics, practice and academics together to succeed in pulling architecture into action. The LIFT House is not by any stretch high architecture. It does, however, challenge Canadian architects to examine our place of privilege in the world. Although prosaic, LIFT asks us to consider architecture as a mechanism that negotiates the pending shifts in the ecologies of our future, and I suspect this question will remain with us permanently.

12/10­canadian architect

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Acknowledgements

List of Entrants 2011 AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE

In addition to this year’s winners, the editors thank the following individuals and firms for partici­ pating in the 2011 Canadian Architect Awards of Excellence:

BRITISH COLUMBIA Acton Ostry Architects, Allen + Maurer Architects, Battersby Howat Architects Inc., Brian G. Hart & Company, Broadway Architects, Campos Leckie Studio, Cannon Design, CEI Architecture Planning Interiors in joint venture with Parkin Architects, Clifford Wiens Architect, DSK Architecture, Evoke International Design Inc., Helliwell + Smith—Blue Sky Architecture, Henriquez Part­ ners Architects, Joe Y. Wai Architect Inc., JWT Architecture and Planning, LWPAC—Lang Wilson Practice in Architecture Culture, Matthew Soules Architecture, Omicron Architecture Engineering Ltd., One Seed Architecture + Interiors, Perkins+Will Canada, Public Architecture + Communication, Salikan Architecture Inc.

kalns Miller Architects, MacLennan Jaunkalns Miller Architects/HIP Architects—architects in joint venture, Montgomery Sisam Architects Inc., Page + Steele/IBI Group Architects, Parkin Architects Limited, Paul Raff Studio, PLANT Architect Inc., PLANT Architect Inc. and Douglas Coupland, Queen’s Quay Architects International Inc., RAW Design Inc., RDH Architects Inc., Spiracle Design, Stantec Architecture Ltd., Stantec Architecture Ltd./KPMB Architects— architects in joint venture, TACT Architecture Inc., Taylor Hazell Architects, Teeple Architects Inc. + Architecture ATB, The Ventin Group Toronto Ltd., Tyler Sharp, Unit A Architecture Inc. & RAW Design Inc., Zeidler Partnership Architects in association with DSRA Architects.

ALBERTA DIALOG Alberta Architecture Engin­

QUEBEC AFO—Atelier Big City/Fichten Soifer­

eering Interior Design Planning Inc., Gibbs Gage Architects, Riddell Kurczaba Architecture, Sherri Turpin Architect, Stantec Architecture Ltd., Stur­ gess Architecture, Terry Frost Designer Architect Ltd., The Marc Boutin Architectural Collaborative Inc., Toker + Associates.

man & Associés/L’OEUF, AKA, Andrew King with Nicolay Boyadjiev, Anne Vallières Architecte, Architecturama, Architecture Open Form, ARCOP/FGM—architects in joint venture, Atelier Pierre Thibault, Brière Gilbert + Associés Archi­ tectes, Cannon Design/DCYSA Architects, CGA + D, Chevalier Morales architectes, Dan Hanganu architectes, Dan Hanganu + Côté Leahy Cardas architectes, DMG + Bourgeois | Lechasseur Architectes en Consortium, Fichten Soiferman et Associés Architectes, Fournier Gersovitz Moss Drolet & Associés Architectes, KANVA, Lachance & Associée Architectes, Laroche et Gagné + Labbé, Lemay, L’OEUF in collaboration with NIP paysage, Paul Laurendeau | François Beauchesne | Architectures en consortium, Pelletier de Fon­ tenay, Régis Côté & Associates, Smith Vigeant Architectes, TBA (Thomas Balaban Architecte).

SASKATCHEWAN RBM Architecture Inc. MANITOBA Cibinel Architects Ltd. & Batteríio Architects Ltd., Number Ten Architectural Group, Smith Carter Architects & Engineers Inc., Stantec Architecture Ltd.

ONTARIO 25:8 Research + Design, architects­ Alliance, Atkinson Architect, Baird Sampson Neuert Architects Inc., Batay-Csorba, B+H Architects, BBB Architects Toronto Inc., Cindy Rendely Architexture, Climans Green Liang Architects Inc., CSV Architects, Diamond and Schmitt Architects, Drew Mandel Design, duToit Architects Limited, George Friedman Architect, Hariri Pontarini Architects, HOK, Ian Mac­ Donald Architect Inc., Jason Dobbin Architect, Levitt Goodman Architects, Levitt Goodman Architects in association with Walter Fedy and Phillip H. Carter Architect, MacLennan Jaun­

42 canadian architect 12/11

NEW BRUNSWICK Acre Architects Inc. NOVA SCOTIA MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple

Architects Limited in association with ARCOP, Omar Gandhi, Rayleen Hill Architecture + Design Inc., Susan Fitzgerald Architecture.

COLORADO IBI Group.

2011 STUDENT AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE

In addition to this year’s winners, the following architecture students were chosen by their schools to enter their thesis projects in this year’s awards:

Drew Adams (University of Toronto), Janak Alford (Carleton University), Jordan Allen (University of Calgary), Natalie Badenduck (Uni­ versity of Manitoba), Matthew Beall (University of British Columbia), Ryan Beecroft (Dalhousie University), Michael Blois (Ryerson University), Frédérick Boily (Université de Montréal), Erik Boyko (University of Waterloo), Liana Bresler (University of Waterloo), Christopher Chevalier (University of Calgary), Jon Cummings (Uni­ versity of Toronto), Yusef Dennis (Dalhousie University), Michael Faciejew (McGill Univer­ sity), Ali Fard (University of Toronto), Chantal Galibois (Université Laval), Mindy Gud­zinski (Dalhousie University), Derek Judson (Carleton University), Muhidin Kadric (Université de Montréal), Lilia Koleva (McGill University), Nicolas Labrie (Université Laval), Monica Leung (Dalhousie University), Michael Lis (University of British Columbia), Alison MacLachlan (Uni­ versity of Calgary), Chad Manley (University of British Columbia), Ashley Marcynuk (Carleton University), Robert Micacchi (University of Waterloo), Ariel SJ Mieling (University of British Columbia), Brett Osness (University of Calgary), Simon Pelletier (Université Laval), Gabrielle Poirier (McGill University), Jeff Powers + Byron White (University of Toronto), Nadia Qadir (Ryerson University), Dustin Sharrow (Univer­ sity of Manitoba), Kendra Spanton (Carleton University), André St-Pierre (Université Laval), Jason Tsironis (McGill University), Rose Uomo­ bono (Université de Montréal), Elmira Yousefi (Ryerson University).

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