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$6.95 sep/13 v.58 n.09

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18 UBC Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences/CDRD

James Brittain

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Contents

11 News

Saucier + Perrotte architectes/Hughes Condon Marler Architects design a new institutional facility on Vancouver’s UBC campus that facilitates collaboration and cutting-edge research. TEXT Tanya Southcott

inners of the Architecture Canada W British Columbia Advocacy Awards an­­ nounced; call for proposals for Warming Huts competition in Winnipeg.

38 Report

27 Josephson Opticians

Design firm Partisans incorporates a multitude of optical allusions into the creation of a subterranean retail space for high-end eyewear. TEXT Chloe Town

32 Centre Culturel du Royaume du Maroc A cultural centre in downtown Montreal by ACDF Architecture aims to integrate Moroccan immigrants into the greater fabric of Quebec. TEXT Newsha Ghaeli

42 Review

Steve DiPasquale peels back the layers of the ambitious and provocative Grand Hotel exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery.

46 Books

Atelier Barda

A n interview with key figures in the Canada Council for the Arts reveals the evolution of the funding program for architecture over the past decade.

wo new publications feature the work of T Saunders Architecture and Montgomery Sisam Architects.

49 Calendar YAS: Young Architects of Spain at Ryerson University’s Paul H. Cocker Gallery; Winnipeg Design Festival.

50 Backpage

SEPTEMBER 2013, v.58 n.09

The National Review of Design and Practice/ The Journal of Record of Architecture Canada | RAIC

dile Hénault effuses about atelier O barda’s heirloom vegetable installation at the Jardins de Métis.

UBC Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Centre for Drug Research and Development by Saucier + Perrotte architectes/Hughes Condon Marler Architects. Photograph by Marc Cramer.

COVER

09/13 canadian architect

5

Guillaume Lévesque

Viewpoint

Above Mission Kitcisakik, an initiative to train First Nations residents of a Quebec community in the construction expertise needed to improve their offreserve dwellings, was recognized with a 2012 Governor General’s Medal in Architecture. The project subsequently received a Canada Council grant to expand to other communities.

Architectural awards and grant-supported pub­ lic outreach projects are key to how the profes­ sion is perceived by those outside of it. Recently, two important Canadian programs—the Gov­ ernor General’s Medals in Architecture and the Canada Council’s architecture grants—have undergone shifts that reflect the progressive aspirations of professionals across the country.

Since their beginnings in 1982 as a continua­ tion of the 1950-1970 Massey Medals program, the Governor General’s Medals have predomin­ antly honoured cultural and institutional build­ ings. In 2004 and again in 2010, by contrast, nearly half of the recipients were high-end resi­ dential buildings. The 2012 Medals marked a decisive turn back towards recognition of archi­ tectural works in the public sphere.

One recipient was particularly remarkable in its social aspirations. Mission Kitcisakik, an in­ itiative led by Emergency Architects of Canada and Frontiers Foundation, trained First Nations locals in the construction skills needed to re­ vitalize their community’s dilapidated housing stock. While Nikolaus Pevsner would certainly have grouped the resulting modest homes with his bicycle shed rather than with Lincoln Cath­ edral, this type of effort is emblematic of efforts within the profession—especially among its younger practitioners—to make a renewed bid for public relevance. The last time an overall in­ itiative rather than a specific building was rec­ ognized in the program was in 1986, when an Award of Merit was given to city staffers Stephen G. McLaughlin and Ken Greenberg for their role in shaping Toronto’s downtown development—a much higher-profile endeavour than building houses in a rural Quebec community.

The recently named jurors for the 2014 Gov­ 6 canadian architect 09/13

ern­or General’s Awards bring forward a com­ bined experience that covers a broad range of pro­ject types in the public realm. The peer as­ sessment committee includes Vancouver’s James K.M. Cheng, Montreal architect Maxime Frappier, PlaNYC board member Roberta Brandes Gratz, Denmark’s Dorte Mandrup, and David Miller of MacLennan Jaunkalns Miller Architects. Their choice of award recipients will be worth waiting for—particularly with the possibility of a surprise choice like Mission Kitcisakik and its declaration of architecture’s expanded role.

Holding a lower profile but arguably no less influential place in promoting Canadian archi­ tecture, the Canada Council’s architecture grant programs have now been in place for a decade.

As longstanding program officer Brigitte Des­ rochers and others from the agency discuss in “Grantmakers for Architecture” (page 38), the grants have supported an astonishing number and variety of projects during this time—from books and exhibitions to festivals and walking tours.

Earlier this year, I had the privilege of sitting on an advisory committee charged with evaluat­ ing a new version of the program’s application guidelines. A revised set of forms is now in ef­ fect, which lifts unproductive restrictions and simplifies wording, making the program more accessible.

This fall, publishers, local architecture groups and galleries can apply for funding as­ sistance through a program named Architec­ ture: Grants to Organizations (formerly Assist­ ance to the Promotion of Architecture) while professionals can apply to Architecture: Grants to Individuals and Firms (formerly Assistance to Practitioners, Critics and Curators of Archi­ tecture). Strict definitions of what qualifica­ tions applicants must possess have been re­ placed with more general criteria. The guide­lines name many categories of projects that qualify—web-based initiatives, competi­ tions, and architectural guidebooks among others. And while grants have been given in the past to exhibitions of work overseas, the pro­ gram is now explicit in supporting projects that engage public audiences abroad.

As peer-assessed programs with fairly broad criteria, both the Governor General’s Medals and Canada Council grants are structured to be flexible, responding to changes in the profes­ sion as measured by the professional commun­ ity itself. But the programs simultaneously act as drivers of change, supporting new initiatives and approaches that have the potential to ad­ vance the pertinence of architecture—both within Canada and beyond.

Elsa Lam

elam@canadianarchitect.com

­­Editor Elsa Lam, MRAIC Associate Editor Leslie Jen, MRAIC Editorial Advisor Ian Chodikoff, OAA, FRAIC Contributing Editors Annmarie Adams, MRAIC Douglas MacLeod, ncarb, MRAIC Regional Correspondents Halifax Christine Macy, OAA Montreal David Theodore Winnipeg Lisa Landrum, MAA,AIA, MRAIC Regina Bernard Flaman, SAA Calgary David A. Down, AAA Vancouver Adele Weder Publisher Tom Arkell 416-510-6806 Associate Publisher Greg Paliouras 416-510-6808 Circulation Manager Beata Olechnowicz 416-442-5600 ext. 3543 Customer Service Malkit Chana 416-442-5600 ext. 3539 Production Jessica Jubb Graphic Design Sue Williamson Vice President of Canadian Publishing Alex Papanou President of Business Information Group Bruce Creighton Head Office 80 Valleybrook Drive, Toronto, ON M3B 2S9 Telephone 416-510-6845 Facsimile 416-510-5140 E-mail editors@canadianarchitect.com Web site www.canadianarchitect.com Canadian Architect is published monthly by BIG Magazines LP, a div. of Glacier BIG Holdings Company Ltd., a leading Cana­dian information company with interests in daily and community news­papers and business-tobusiness information services.

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NEWS Projects

Located in the growing region of Surrey in British Columbia, on a lightly wooded and gently sloping site adjacent to an agricultural land reserve, the new 36,000-square-foot Christ Worship Centre serves a congregation of predominantly Chinese parishioners. Quiet in form and expression, rich in symbolism, and robed in the colours of gold, frankincense and myrrh, the new Christ Worship Centre houses the fellowship functions that form the backbone of the congregation’s community life. As the first phase of a larger congregational complex, the recently opened facility serves as a Fellowship Hall that accommodates a feature lobby, daycares and classrooms, a library and dance studio, administrative offices, a dining hall with a commercial kitchen, a choir room, and a gymnasium with stage. The latter is serving as a temporary worship space until all phases are complete. Subsequent construction will include a small chapel and a large sanctuary solely for worship. When finished, the complex will provide 64,000 square feet of congregational space. Situated to the south of the site, preserving field, forest and creek to the north, the Centre takes advantage of an existing hedgerow to frame the current structure and the future chapel. Construction materials are modest but durable: buff concrete block, concrete, glass and Jerusalem stone. A focal space was designed in the first phase of the project to express the ongoing spiritual aspirations of the congregation, without detracting from their loci in the future chapel and sanctuary.

York University’s Engineering Building by ZAS Architects + Interiors breaks ground.

York University recently held a groundbreaking ceremony for the $85-million Lassonde School of Engineering, which aims to graduate entrepreneurial engineers with a social conscience and a sense of global citizenship. The 169,000square-foot five-storey building, which will open in 2015, will accommodate academic space for three engineering disciplines—electrical, civil, and mechanical engineering. Design workshops, project areas, classrooms and laboratories will be included in the five floors of space. Special emphasis has been placed on social and public areas that will encourage undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate students to mix with faculty members and researchers. The Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities has invested $50 million, and York University is investing $35 million in the

Martin Tessler

Acton Ostry Architects celebrates opening of Christ Worship Centre in Surrey.

The Christ Worship Centre by Acton Ostry Architects is the first phase in a planned complex for the suburban community of Surrey, British Columbia.

ABOVE

project, including a recent $5 million gift from Ignat Kaneff. The design reflects the School of Engineering’s commitment to redefining engineering education. Conceived as a cloud—a natural object that is both scaleless and everchanging—the building will hover over a landscape that combines artificial and natural landscape features. A prominent feature of the landscape, a rock inspired by the geology of Georgian Bay, will provide a roof over design workshops and project areas. In contrast to laboratory spaces that support rigorous en­ gineering research, the project areas will accommodate activities for creative design and production. Currently a parking lot, the site for the new Engineering Building is in the southwest quadrant of York’s Keele campus, immediately west of the Scott Library and overlooking the Stong Pond and Arboretum to the south and west.

Awards Winners of the Architecture Canada British Columbia Advocacy Awards announced.

Our cities and communities are better because of five remarkable British Columbians and organizations. The recipients of the 4th Annual Architecture Canada BC Awards are: Gregor Robertson, Mayor of the City of Vancouver; Leslie Van Duzer, Director of the UBC School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture;

Bob Williams, Vancity Board of Directors and former Provincial Cabinet Minister and Chair of ICBC; Michael Apostolides, the Vancouver League for Architecture and the Environment; and Stanley Kwok, architect, urban planner and city builder. These annual awards celebrate outstanding citizens who, through their vision and extraordinary efforts in the built environment, have made a significant contribution to our society. As a result of their leadership and dedication, our lives are richer, our communities more sustainable and our cities more vibrant. The awards evening on Nov­em­ ber 7, 2013 will include a keynote presentation by distinguished Vancouver architect James K.M. Cheng, FRAIC. Brook McIlroy and Ryan Gorrie receive International Architecture Award.

Brook McIlroy and Ryan Gorrie recently received an International Architecture Award for 2013 from the Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and the European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Design. The Gathering Circle will be recognized alongside 60 prestigious new design projects from 20 nations in a special exhibition during the 14th International Biennial of Architecture in Buenos Aires this fall. After Buenos Aires, the exhibition will travel throughout Europe, opening at the European Centre’s Contemporary Space Athens in Greece.

09/13­ canadian architect

11

Hundreds of projects were submitted for this year’s global awards program. Christian Narkiewicz-Laine, President of the Chicago Athenaeum, said, “From an impressive and visionary array of new submissions, the New York jury selected 60 outstanding projects, each of which positively impacts its larger community—sometimes modestly, but most often massively.” The Gathering Circle occupies a highly visible location on the downtown waterfront overlooking Lake Superior and Thunder Bay’s Sleeping Giant landform. The design reflects Aboriginal concepts of the inclusive circle, peaceful coexistence and respect for nature. It serves as a central landmark in the downtown that grounds residents and visitors in a fuller understanding of the city’s deep origins, while giving expression to its Aboriginal founding culture. The Gathering Circle’s design reflects an adaptation of a traditional Aboriginal bentwood building technique, using modest means of construction and sustainable building practice. It gives expression to a rich culture and strives to serve as a common ground—a place of meditation, mediation and celebration—gathering together all cultures.

12 canadian architect 09/13

Phyllis Lambert Design Montréal Grant call for entries.

Aimed at young design professionals, this annual grant is intended to recognize and promote the talent of emerging designers in Mon­t real and to advance their professional recognition. The 2013 winner will receive a $10,000 grant for a professional development activity in one of the 34 cities of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network. The grant rewards the talent of a Montreal designer with fewer than 10 years of professional practice who has stood out due to the exceptional quality of his or her studies and work, as well as for particular interest in the city. The grant must be used for a professional development project, such as a study trip, a work internship or participation in a competition, design workshop, symposium or other pertinent activity for advancing a young design career. The members of the 2013 jury are: Martin Houle, Architect, Founder and Director of Kollectif; Mario Mercier, Partner and Creative Director of orange­tango; Gilles Saucier, Partner and Architect, Saucier + Perrotte; and Nancy Shoiry, Senior Director, Service de la mise en valeur du territoire, Ville de Montréal. Recipients of the grant benefit

from a promotional campaign designed to enhance their profile within the design community as well as in the eyes of the general public.

Through the UNESCO Creative Cities Network, many of them receive invitations to show their work internationally, in the process growing their reach and reputation beyond Quebec’s borders. Interested candidates are invited to complete the registration form available on the website and submit their applications no later than 4:30pm on October 4, 2013. www.mtlunescodesign.com Nova Scotia Power Corporate Head­quarters recognized by numerous awards.

Completed in the Fall of 2011, the Nova Scotia Power Corporate Headquarters (NSPCH) has been recognized with a multitude of awards: the 2011 Nova Scotia Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Excellence in Engineering for Refurbished Historic Buildings, the 2012 Nova Scotia Lieutenant Governor’s Medal of Excellence, and the 2013 SAB Magazine Canadian Green Building Award. The NSPCH is also currently shortlisted for the 2013 World Architecture Festival Awards and the 2013 International INSIDE: World Fes­t ival of Interiors Award for Creative

Reuse. Designed by Toronto-based WZMH Architects with Halifax-based Fowler, Bauld & Mitchell Ltd. as Associate Architect, the building occupies a prominent location in downtown Halifax, with significant frontage on the public boardwalk that lines the western edge of the city’s harbour. The LEED Platinum project involved the retention and adaptive reuse of a former power-generating plant to become offices for the provincial electrical utility. An innovative construction strategy was utilized that involved the reuse of the existing steel structure and exterior concrete cladding, in conjunction with the insertion of floors within the existing volume. A five-storey atrium connects the neighbourhood to the waterfront, offering spectacular views of the harbour. This public space, in conjunction with a galleria that provides an indoor street that parallels the boardwalk, promotes casual interaction between employees. Glazed inter-floor stairs on the building perimeter and exterior balconies at the atrium keep users in contact with the harbour. In a gesture that acknowledges the building’s initial use, the original steel structure has been retained as a feature, and skylights sit in the base of former chimney stacks along the

roof of the galleria. The facility houses over 500 staff in approximately 18,000 gross square metres and provides parking for 150 cars.

Competitions Call for Proposals for Warming Huts: An Art & Architecture Competition on Ice.

Warming Huts v. 2014 is launching a call for proposals for design teams to create three new unique shelters for the Forks River Trail on the Assiniboine River in Winnipeg. The shelters will be installed along the world’s longest skating trail between the end of January and the beginning of March, 2014. This is the fourth annual competition that continues to investigate the zone shared by the disciplines of art and architecture. Winnipeg is unique for a city of nearly one million people for the intense climate in winter. The hardy citizens of Winnipeg have grown to expect excellent art, design, architecture and cuisine on the river trail.

While there is no specific theme for the competition, teams are encouraged to investigate the relationship between built artifact and the frozen riverscape. The huts will be placed along the skating trail following the final week of

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construction. The completion of the construction of the huts will be held at The Forks in Winnipeg, which is located in the city’s downtown at the junction of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers which, historically, has made the area a popular meeting place for millennia. In recent times, the site has developed into a popular destination for tourists and locals alike. In winter, the Assiniboine River is also used as an alternate route to access downtown by foot, bike, skates and skis, and there are opportunities for curling, hockey and much more. The deadline for registration is September 30, 2013 at 2:00pm CST. www.warminghuts.com FAR ROC competition finalists announced.

FAR ROC is structured as a two-part design ideas competition that will explore best practices and innovative strategies for the planning, design and construction of resilient and sustainable developments in waterfront areas. The competition aims to provide ideas and the basis of a master plan for the sensitive development of Arverne East, an 80+-acre site located in a FEMA Special Flood Hazard Area Zone, a section of the Rockaways in Queens, New York that

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experienced significant storm surge inundation during Hurricane Sandy. It is anticipated that the results of the competition will be used as a basis for further planning work with regard to Arverne East and as a prototype for long-term planning and development strategies in other densely populated seaside communities in the Rockaways and beyond.

The competition attracted 117 unique design proposals from over 20 countries around the globe—a truly international response to a design problem that will face more and more of our world’s communities in coming years. From those entries, four finalists and six honourable mentions were selected. The four finalists will each receive a stipend of $30,000 to aid in further development of their design proposals, which they will then present to the FAR ROC design jury in advance of the oneyear anniversary of Hurricane Sandy. The finalists are: Rockaway Rising

by Lateral Office of Toronto; F.R.E.D. by Ennead Architects of New York; Far Rockaway by Seeding Office of London, UK; and Small Means and Great Ends by White Arkitekter of Stockholm. www.farroc.com/finalists/ 5th Advanced Architecture Contest.

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With the theme of “self-sufficient habitat,” the aim of this competition is to promote discussion and research through which to generate insights and visions, ideas and proposals that help us envisage what the city and the habitat of the 21st century will be like. The competition is open to architects, engineers, planners and designers who want to contribute to progress in making the world more habitable by developing a proposal capable of responding to emerging challenges in areas such as ecology, information technology, architecture, and urban planning. The prize (total value 50,000 Euros) will be distributed at the discretion of the competition jury, which is comprised of architects, professionals from a wide range of fields, and directors of some of the world’s foremost architecture schools. The competition seeks outstanding proposals at any scale, for any city in the world, such as smart cities, eco-neighbourhoods, self-sufficient buildings, intelligent homes, or any other proposal that analyzes the phenomena of self-sufficient habitats. The submission deadline is September 30, 2013. Registration is free, and all competition entries must be submitted digitally via PDF files. www.advancedarchitecturecontest.org

What’s New Laurentian Architecture welcomes Fall 2013 charter class.

The Laurentian University School of Architecture welcomes the charter class of students for the Fall 2013 launch of Canada’s newest architecture school. Seventy students have begun studies at the downtown Sudbury site of the new school, and were selected based on their creative portfolios, personal letters of application, OSSD grades, and letters of reference. Forty female and 30 male students, most of whom are from Northern Ontario and other regions of the province comprise the class; more than 17 percent are Francophone or fluent in French, and 7 percent are indigenous students. Laurentian Architecture will specialize in Northern and sustainable design, with a particular focus on incorporating Francophone and Aboriginal culture, history and design in the curriculum. Each year, Francophone and indigenous students will be eligible for renewable departmental scholarships, in addition to the financial support offered to all Laurentian University students. Members of the Fall 2013 cohort will have terms of co-operative study beginning in the summer of 2014, and students will also take part in international co-op placements by their third year of study. www.laurentian.ca

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The new home of UBC’s Faculty of Pharma­ ceutical Sciences includes a good dose of vibrant public spaces that invite in researchers, students and community members.

Project Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Centre for Drug Research and Development, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia Architects Saucier + Perrotte Architectes/Hughes Condon Marler Architects Text Tanya Southcott Photos Marc Cramer unless otherwise noted

If every building had a theme song, who would select it and what would it say about the experience of the place? Perhaps Montreal-based Saucier + Perrotte Architectes and local collaborators Hughes Condon Marler Architects would not have chosen Good Times by American electronica band Owl City and BC native Carly Rae Jepsen for the new Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD) at the University of British Columbia (UBC). At any rate, the 2012 summer anthem became the soundtrack for the school’s official lip dub, the latest outlet for school spirit amongst university students and faculty.

The four-and-a-half-minute YouTube video feels like karaoke’s answer to the music video, combining lip synching and audio dubbing while following a new student around on her first day of class in a single unedited shot. From the main entrance off the university’s spine road, Wesbrook

Opposite Meeting rooms jut out at various depths, creating a dynamic west façade. Above The lobby houses two auditoriums in sculptural enclosures, while a black painted steel stair leads to a lounge and exhibition mezzanine.

W es br oo k Ma ll

Mall, she is greeted by a chorus of students and faculty that winds through the facility’s main foyers, staircases, atria, classrooms and labs, cul­m inating in a balloon-wielding, lab coat-clad crowd jumping frenetically across the new plaza in front of the school’s iconic west façade.

The lighthearted song lyrics and gangnam-style dancing remind viewers that while large institutional facilities like this one support millions of dollars in leading-edge research and experimentation, such buildings are at their best when they bring people together in collaboration and enthusiasm.

Buildings across UBC’s Vancouver campus evidence a strategy of entic­ ing top-ranked students through iconic architecture. Recently completed projects like Patkau Architects’ Beaty Biodiversity Research Centre and Perkins+Will Canada’s Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability, as well as projects currently under construction such as Dialog’s Student Union Building and the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health by Stantec Architecture reflect the university’s commitment to research excellence and a visionary campus. While the Faculty of Pharmaceutical

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Sciences and CDRD follows UBC’s overall strategic plan, the building itself is the brainchild of former dean Robert Sindelar. His vision for the facility as an international destination bringing together teaching, learning, research and community outreach activities in one structure was a significant driving force.

The new 27,311-square-metre glass box of a building on the Point Grey campus consolidates the faculty for the first time since its inception in 1946 and integrates a new program collaborator, the CDRD—a national not-for-profit drug development and commercialization centre founded in 2007. The two tenants are woven around and through the public spaces of the building, overlaying the routines of students, faculty and private researchers with opportunities for chance encounters. “Conversation as a catalyst for innovation” is the phrase chosen by Sindelar to describe his intention to bring together different disciplines and welcome the public into the depths of a research-sensitive facility. The interactive exhibition The Story of Medicines, located in the lobby and mezzanine, communicates pharmacy’s contributions to a wide audience and is clearly part of this broader initiative.

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Although everyday life at the facility likely falls short of the over-thetop celebration depicted in the student-made video, the visual tour reveals the vibrancy and dynamism of its public spaces when actively in use. For Gilles Saucier, the project’s lead designer, the sheer size of the building’s public interface speaks to the university’s responsibility to communicate itself as a public institution. The carefully choreographed boundary between public and private space—what is accessible and to whom—is key to the success of the design, yet virtually invisible to users of the facility.

Security and privacy are top priorities for research facilities of this calibre; indeed, the row of emergency generators to the south attests to the value of work being done in the labs. But the building also houses one of UBC’s main IT hubs, which, together with several specialized labs, are tucked away securely below the plaza level. Above, the open and trans­ parent main floor remains intensely used throughout the school year as a catchall for students entering the campus and moving between classes in the Health Science Precinct.

Despite the university’s heavy construction program, breathtaking natural scenery sets the Vancouver campus apart. Fringed by beaches,

Olivier Blouin

A yellow portal to the main lecture hall slices through an earth-textured, board-formed concrete plane; Offices and meeting rooms are cleanly detailed with wrap-around cedar ceilings and walls; A subtle joint in the north façade marks the intersection of the six-storey lab and public areas with the eight-storey office volume. OPPOSITE BOTTOM, left to right A series of diagrams shows the sculpted ground plane, the placement of wood-clad atriums likened to tree trunks, the insertion of white laboratory volumes, and the final wrapper—a foliage-like grid of offices.

OPPOSITE TOP, left to right

large expanses of water and views towards the North Shore Mountains, the para­d isiacal quality of the setting is further enhanced by the Pacific Spirit Regional Park and greenbelt, which buffer the campus from the city. In exterior photographs and renderings, the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences supports this narrative of pavilions in a park-like setting.

Despite its close proximity to other buildings in the precinct, it appears isolated: an iconic object surrounded by little context other than grass, paving and expansive sky. The design team received few directives on how to fit in with the overall campus architecture. The emphasis from a planning perspective was rather to create a campus gateway that supported the flow of pedestrians. Its site—a long narrow slice of a lot—left few options for the building’s orientation. Its overall form abides by the

campus’s rectilinear street grid and masks the Thunderbird Parkade directly to the south.

From the approach along Wesbrook, the dark glass box dissolves into its surroundings. On a sunny summer day, its liquid smooth skin recalls the depths of a reflecting pool, mirroring Vancouver’s open blue sky and the red brick façade of the Life Sciences Centre to the north. As the newly planted larch trees wrapping around the building’s southwest corner mature, their reflected foliage will imprint the building with nature’s changing seasons.

The building’s character changes significantly to the west. Here, a plaza and grassy knoll—a cherished student meeting point and venue for picnics, impromptu Frisbee games, and last-minute studying—are

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Western Red Cedar finish

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Running the length of the building, a skylit corridor provides visual connections between the offices to the left and the labs to the right. Above A view down the light-filled east atrium, with lab areas on both sides.

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framed by the dynamism of the building’s west façade. Likened by Saucier to a pixellated tree canopy, four storeys of meeting rooms project at random over the newly paved plaza, breaking down what could have been a monolithic glass façade into a careful composition of individual rooms.

Like a chiselled rock face, each surface catches the light at a slightly different angle, creating a pattern of reflection and shadow that transforms over the course of the day. The façade’s appearance is also manipulated by the users of these rooms who open windows, adjust roller blinds, reconfigure furniture and turn task lighting on and off according to their needs. These are the most coveted spaces of the facility. As non-assigned rooms rather than private offices, these spaces can be booked for meetings, lessons, and impromptu study sessions. Their accessibility is no 22 canadian architect 09/13

coincidence given the ongoing fundraising mandate for the project.

Rooms are named for donors, and the size of the signage roughly correlates to their donation level.

The building’s simple volume disguises a complex puzzle of interior spaces. While the site itself is relatively flat, the differential between the height of the perimeter offices (2.3 metres) and the interior labs (3.6 metres) translates to an eight-storey building in some locations and a six-storey building in others. The joint where the levels split reads most clearly from the north elevation, where the two systems interlock in a zigzag. Inside, a slash-like atrium connects the lab and office areas, allowing faculty and students to maintain visual contact and a sense of the greater community of the building.

Saucier uses the analogy of a tree to distill the building’s complexity into a simple idea: the tree as life force, supporting, connecting, and growing.

He begins with a sketch of two trees that represent the building’s two main forms, their trunks distinct silhouettes yet their branches intertwining in a single canopy and their roots growing together below the ground’s surface. The building itself is not so literal, but draws inspiration from the experience of moving through a primordial forest, much like the rainforests that once covered UBC’s Endowment Lands. With elemental grandeur, the plaza’s ground plane folds into a monolithic concrete trunk, whose board-formed texture reads like tree bark at a super-scale next to

long narrow benches that push like root tendrils through the rational paving grid.

Inside, the materials continue to transform into canted walls of cedar strips that fold up and across the ceiling like the underside of branches. Ribbons of wood spiral upwards through the atria to the skylights above. Three white lab volumes float above the main level, nested between two generous atria that bring light and air deep into the building. The ensemble is then wrapped in a grid of offices and meeting rooms, the skin of the building. Here, wood returns as part of the material palette. Throughout the building, materials meet with knife-edge precision. These deliberate joints are a testament to the building’s high quality of craftsmanship despite its accelerated construction schedule.

The complex deserves commendation for the ease and elegance of its design. At times restrained, at times overt, it responds to its context and the needs of its users in clever yet subtle ways.

The Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences and CDRD is the first project realized by the transCanadian partnership of Saucier + Perrotte and Hughes Condon Marler. While both firms boast portfolios of acclaimed institutional and community-oriented projects, the facility’s design and construction benefit from clearly defined roles within the team, and a collaborative approach to the project. The design language is overtly Saucier + Perrotte, seen in signature details like the steel-clad bridges and stair bisecting the atrium, as well as the play of opacity and reflection between planes of textured concrete, shiny black glass and floor-to-ceiling windows. Their resolution in real space is a credit to the management and creativity of the Hughes Condon Marler team.

The clarity of the design team’s initial vision in the finished product speaks to the firms’ strong working relationship despite some 5,000 kilometres separating the two offices. The success of the partnership will be tested again in two current projects, the Saint-Laurent Sports Complex and the Saint-Michel Indoor Soccer Centre, this time on Saucier + Perrotte’s home turf in Quebec.

If, as Sindelar suggests, conversation is a catalyst for innovation, then architecture in turn is a catalyst for conversation. Beyond its iconic architecture, the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences and CDRD exemplifies collaboration on many levels: bringing together academia and industry, faculty and students, and design firms from across the country. In doing so, it challenges boundaries, pushing individuals to build beyond the traditional box. CA Tanya Southcott is a Montreal-based architect and writer.

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Client UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (UBC) PROPERTIES TRUST Architect Team S+P—Gilles Saucier, André Perrotte, David Moreaux, Patrice Begin, Charles Alexandre Dubois, Dominique Dumais, Nicko Elliott, Olivier Krieger, Joel Legault, Yutaro Minagawa, Greg Neudorf, Marc-André Tratch, Vedanta Balbahadur. HCMA—Roger Hughes, Bill Uhrich, Craig Lane, Darryl Condon, Paul Fast, Melissa Higgs, Rachel Lacey, Charles Leman, Kourosh Mahvash, Carl-Jan Rupp, Craig West, Eli Wolpin, Nicolas Worth.

Structural GLOTMAN SIMPSON Mechanical STANTEC Electrical APPLIED ENGINEERING SOLUTIONS (AES) Landscape PERRY + ASSOCIATES

Interiors SAUCIER + PERROTTE ARCHITECTES/HUGHES CONDON MARLER ARCHITECTS Contractor LEDCOR ARCHITECTURAL CONCRETE UCC GROUP WAYFINDING AND SIGNAGE SMART DESIGN GROUP LABORATORY DESIGN STANTEC Lighting TRIPPED ON LIGHT Civil CORE GROUP CONSULTANTS Area 27,311 m2 Budget $92 M Completion September 2012

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Making a Spectacle

A bold Toronto firm employs sophisti­ cated technological tools to create an eye-catching storefront.

Project Josephson Opticians, Brookfield Place Concourse Level, Toronto, Ontario Designer Partisans Text Chloe Town Photos Michael Fiala Studio

Below the roads and streetcars of Toronto, beneath the city’s downtown towers, Mies van der Rohe seeded what would become the longest underground shopping complex in the world. The PATH system, as it is known today, connects more than 50 buildings through 28 kilometres of linked passage. Doubling density without paralyzing congestion, the PATH is remarkable because it is hidden in clear sight. The concourse is so discreet, in fact, that it is hard to recognize it as a Miesian legacy, let alone know how large it is or how to enter from the street.

The grandest entrance to the underground is not through the TD Centre but via Brookfield Place (formerly BCE Place), under a vaulting white steel canopy by Santiago Calatrava. Acting as a gateway, this muscular and exuberant structure—rather than the lure of logos, menus or merchandise— entices pedestrians to head down below. And here, within a modest retail

Above A ribbon of CNC-cut panels wraps the perimeter of the concourse-level boutique, evoking a weave of optical nerves.

space below grade, Toronto-based design practice Partisans has tested its own hand at the allure of expressive form-making.

In their second commission for Josephson Opticians, Partisans has revisited the challenge of translating digitally conceived ideas into built form. The clients wanted something contemporary but the building’s management had to be convinced to veer from their Postmodern script.

Further, Partisans had to demonstrate that they could complete the job— from demolition to occupancy—in less than three weeks flat.

Partisans is led by two University of Waterloo School of Architecture graduates, Pooya Baktash and Alexander Josephson, deeply committed to contemporary form-making and conceptual ideas. There are four design strategies used in the store. The first is the most straightforward: diffusely lit glass shelves float above open-faced drawers, and two tall red walls enclose an optician’s office. The second is the big move, a sculptural intervention: a cumulus-like form clings to three edges of the retail box.

The third is not site-specific but is equally provocative: several freestanding podiums and a table have preternaturally pitted surfaces. And the last is a series of conciliatory moves that bridge between the space-age 09/13­ canadian architect

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tropes of floating rectilinear and organic volumes to unify the design.

These include a kidney-shaped void on a mirrored wall and an amoebalike carpet.

Given that Josephson Opticians is essentially a decorated container, this does not diminish Partisans’ talent. Mies famously insisted that all of the PATH storefronts be uniform. He even wanted the signage to be the same everywhere. Yet today, novelty has become an exalted goal.

Uniformity is at stark odds with current modelling and manufacturing possibilities. In terms of creative capital, it is to the profession’s credit that designers continue to develop new ideas and working techniques.

It is ingenuity that keeps architecture relevant as a creative practice.

Partisans belongs to a growing number of designers who research, develop and construct their work using computational software. Move one coordinate and an entire shape modulates to form a continuous surface. Josephson’s stands out from its PATH neighbours precisely because it showcases irregular geometries and the ease with which these can be conceived today. The classical symmetry of Calatrava’s canopy seems dated by comparison.

To design the sculptural ribbon that frames the store, for example, Partisans used Rhino (three-dimensional modelling software) and Grasshopper (a graphical algorithm editor) to produce the data required for the assembly process. Grasshopper requires limited knowledge of programming or scripting but is an important tool because it provides the means to numerically control and construct amorphous shapes. The software is rich with potential. Used well, parametric tools allow architects to experiment with form while tracking tangible dimensional implications at the same time.

ABOVE Left The unique texture of the fitting table is a digitally modelled play on classic tufted leather. ABOVE Right On the front elevation, the ribbon descends from the ceiling and a lens-shaped opening displays the latest in eyewear design.

The ribbon itself is comprised of a series of 19mm high-density foam panels threaded together by nerve-like tendrils, a subtle reference to the anatomy of an eye. Each component piece—over 3,500 of them—is unique.

As a whole, the ribbon appears animated. At mechanical vents, the spac­ing between the panels widens to allow for air circulation. Elsewhere, it compresses, like a muscle in contraction. It is as if the form has been captured mid-movement, a kind of frozen snapshot of the process of peristalsis.

At the pedestrian corridor the ribbon splits to create an opening. This shape recalls the lens in a pair of glasses. The aperture frames a view into the store and onto a display of eyewear for sale. It also suggests that the form has exerted gravitational pressure upon the ground plane. Just as the upper portion droops, another section rises from the floor. Like a lava lamp, it appears as if the mass can separate only if a new volume emerges elsewhere. This lower piece is especially deft because it furthers the store’s coherence and fences off Josephson’s from the monotony of the mall beyond.

To the side, two podiums similarly demarcate the retail space. These podiums, along with the table at the centre of the room, are part of a larger series of furniture projects by Partisans called Tuftit. Like the ribbon, Tuftit relies heavily on parametric modelling and associative machining.

Reminiscent of the furniture by French design collective Objectile in the late 1990s, Partisans’ hard surfaces mimic a modulated terrain. In this instance, the terrain is a loose play on tufted leather. At the table, the scale is so enlarged that voids are formed in the place of fasteners. The surface collapses in on itself. It is not the reference to leather that is compelling—architects have long looked to fabrics for inspiration—but the realization of a new topographic logic.

This manipulation of scale is both the most exciting and frustrating aspect to parametric design. On the one hand, the limitless modification of form expands design possibilities for architects. Source inspiration becomes abundant. Notational ideas seem realizable. Yet, these new tools also run the risk of suggesting that the traditional skills of an architect— such as knowledge about materials and construction, even spatial sensitivity—are less important than radicality. It is important to ask what is driving the design process: the software or the designer’s vision?

Partisans are not unaware of this line of questioning. Baktash and Josephson readily admit that the ribbon could have taken on any number of permutations to achieve a similar result. There is little to wed the pits on the Tuftit terrain to one precise location over another. It is the evocation that is the goal. In this way, their use of parametric tools is as much about process and software capabilities as it is about a final product. We must take this approach at face value. The merit lies in seeing talented designers and architects readily pursue sculptural ideas. The ultimate test will be measured by the longevity of this optimism. CA Chloe Town is a designer and educator based in Toronto. She currently works at LGA Architectural Partners.

Clients Josh Josephson, Amin Mamdani Design Team Alexander Josephson, Pooya Baktash, Jennifer Francis, Ivan Vasyliv, Shamir Panchal, Betty Vuong Mechanical/Electrical TMP nc Interiors PARTISANS and Jenny Francis Contractors Group5 Inc., Thom Hirtz and JDMcNicoll Inc Fabricator Nick Regina Area 1,000 ft2 Budget Withheld Completion July 2013

09/13­ canadian architect

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Cultural Ambassador

Craft traditions and contemporary design meet at a new Moroccan cultural centre in downtown Montreal.

Centre culturel du Royaume du Maroc—Dar Al Maghrib, Montreal, Quebec Architect ACDF Architecture Text Newsha Ghaeli Photos James Brittain unless otherwise noted Project

In the heart of Paris, Jean Nouvel’s Institut du Monde Arabe remains an icon. A product of globalization and an attempt to integrate Arab immigrants into the French metropolis, the building’s intricate façade skillfully combines traditional Islamic ornamentation with contemporary European design.

A new building in Montreal is trying the same trick. Dar Al Maghrib, or Morocco House, caters to Quebec’s 80,000 individuals who identify as Moroccan. The centre is the first in a series of Moroccan cultural centres planned worldwide— predominantly in French-speaking cities—an endeavour entirely funded by the North African country. Its objectives?

To strengthen cultural ties within the Moroccan community and to Quebec and Canada at large.

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The choice to establish the first of these centres in Montreal reaffirms longstanding economic, political and institutional links between Morocco and Quebec. Since the mid-1960s, the province has acted as a major North American destination for French-speaking Moroccan immigrants. The inauguration of the centre by Moroccan royalty in 2012 marked 50 years of bilateral relations between the National Assembly of Quebec and the House of Representatives of the Kingdom of Morocco.

Designed by Montreal-based architects ACDF, Morocco House sits rather unassumingly on the northern edge of the city’s historic Old Port district, on a small piece of land owned by the Moroccan monarchy. The project is an expansive renovation of a four-storey, 1960s structure where very few cuts and modifications have been made to the building’s exterior.

Holding the corner of two main streets just a few blocks south of the bustle of the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) and the animated crowds of the Latin Quarter, the building overlooks the barren Square Viger that covers the buried Ville-Marie Expressway. A barely visible Moroccan flag waves lazily atop the roof. A rather understated awning adorned with traditional Islamic patterns hangs from the faded stone façade and announces the glass entrance doors to the concrete field across the street. These subtle cues are the only outside indications of the building’s purpose, making one liable to miss it altogether.

By contrast, upon entering, the building reveals an exceptional interior transformation. Architect Maxime-Alexis Frappier and his team have har-

Opposite Vertical teak slats wrap the main stair and second-floor balcony of the new Moroccan cultural centre. Above left Tradi­ tional tile walls were handcrafted by a team of Moroccan artisans, and topped by a plaster border that subtly incorporates maple leaves. Above right A highly reflective black ceiling provides an expanded sense of verticality in the entry hall.

moniously blended a refined contemporary design with traditional elements common within the walls of an ancient Moroccan medina. The program includes all the elements expected in a place of cultural exchange: a multi-functional hall, an event space that doubles as a gallery, meeting rooms and classrooms, a traditionally furnished Moroccan living room and a médiathèque. These are all pushed to the periphery of the building surrounding the existing service core. The design team knew they had to compose the central core to draw the movement of people around it. “This became our base concept,” says Frappier. “So right from the beginning, the core had to be something strong. Something poetic.”

The solution came during a trip to Morocco where the design team was introduced to zillij, a form of traditional mosaic art that has been practiced in Morocco since the 10th century. Small terracotta tiles are set into plaster, creating intricate geometric patterns that cover the country’s imperial cities, from floors to ceilings and fountains to pools. ACDF knew instantly that they needed to integrate this stunning work into the project. They decided to spend a large portion of their modest budget in bringing Moroccan artisans to Canada to embellish the building’s central service core—a decision leading to tradeoffs such as the bashful exterior.

The resulting mosaic tiles that adorn the central heart are rich in colour like a Moroccan spice market, and are arranged meticulously into blossoming circular patterns. Each floor radiates with a different palette: royal red, the colour of the nation’s monarchy and flag; saffron yellows warming to hues of turmeric and steaming couscous; emerald greens glittering like jewels and cooling to an aromatic mint tea; and sapphire blues reminiscent of ancient Islamic pottery glazes. The tiny diamond- and square-shaped terracotta tiles are laid with mathematical precision. The mosaics are crowned by a half-metre-thick trim that forms a continuous band around the core. Sculpted from plaster into an intricate motif, the ornamentation reveals Moroccan stars, fleurs-de-lis, and maple leaves.

In terms of organization, the compact building is simply arrayed around the core on each floor. The only deviation is a west-facing doubleheight hall linking the bottom two floors and main programs—the event space and the exhibition room. Directly off the entrance, daylight floods into this hall through newly added windows on the west façade. An ornate laser-cut lattice filters this light, and shifting patterns of shadow mark the passage of time throughout the day. The lattice is reflected in a black, almost mirror-like dropped ceiling, giving the impression of a much 09/13­ canadian architect

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ACDF

A kitchenette adjoining the main exhibition space incorporates backlit Moroccan stars, with fleur-de-lis-shaped air vents above.

The entrance features an intricate zillij tiled wall; A close-up of a laser-cut lattice from the second floor; The building’s unassuming entrance on Rue Viger. Opposite A detail of a hand-tiled wall.

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Above, left to right

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larger space. An imposing grand staircase featuring a solid teak balustrade descends through the centre of the hall, commanding attention. The teak continues on the upper balcony railing, folding like a wrapper to its underside. Understated wall treatments grace the rest of the building: arid chalk-white walls evocative of Moroccan stone structures are contrasted by lustrous black doorframes and subtle baseboard reveals.

Perhaps the most successful aspect of Dar Al Maghrib is the thoughtful coexistence between the traditional embellishments and ornamentations and the sleek functional design. The most calculated attempt at this coexistence is through ACDF’s subtle transitions between the traditional motifs and contemporary finishes. The ornamentation in the building is literally framed within a slender stainless steel border. The zillij and plaster carvings are all supported and protected by this ribbon—as if to pre­ emptively delineate the space within which the Moroccan artisans would operate. The frame is a subtle detail but applies a slight drop shadow that allows the embellishments to glow.

After three separate visits, however, Dar Al Maghrib seems to be as empty as the park across the street. A year after opening, its website has just come online, and weeks trickle by between various modest events.

Unfortunately, the site’s peripheral location between the Latin Quarter, UQAM and the Old Port does not lend itself to casual passersby, re­ inforcing the importance of site selection for a public building of this nature. Luckily, the careful architectural blend of clean, modern design and ancient decorative traditions ensures a repeat visit once one has discovered the place. The centre’s programming will hopefully soon find ways to fully inhabit this promising building, luring both Moroccan and non-Moroccan Montrealers to venture through the mute façade and discover the oasis within. CA

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Newsha Ghaeli is a recent Master of Architecture graduate from McGill University and holds a Bachelor of Architectural Studies from the University of Waterloo.

Currently, she is planning a research endeavour called China in Superlatives with a travel and exhibition grant from the John Bland Scholarship.

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5 6 Client Consultat général du Royaume du Maroc à Montréal Architect Team Maxime-Alexis Frappier, Sylvain Allaire, Louis-Philippe Frappier, Laurence Le Beux, Laure Giordani, Denis Dupuis, Gabriel Villeneuve, Jean-Philippe Parent, Patrick Morand, Véronique Taillefer, Robert Dequoy, Simon Horman Structural Pasquin St-Jean Mechanical/Electrical Pageau Morel Contractor Construction Artco Inc. Area 2,400 m2 Budget $6.5 M Completion January 2012

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“ The Holcim Awards did bring attention to the river project and in turn triggered new rehabilitation initiatives including an additional international design competition.”

Aziza Chaouni, Architect, Aziza Chaouni Projects and Assistant Professor, University of Toronto, Winner of the Holcim Awards Global Gold prize in 2009.

4th International Holcim Awards for sustainable construction projects.

Prize money totals USD 2 million.

Renowned technical universities lead the independent juries in five regions of the world.

They evaluate projects at an advanced stage of design against the “target issues” for sustainable construction and allocate additional prizes for visionary ideas of young professionals and students. Find out more about the competitions at www.holcimawards.org The Holcim Awards is an initiative of the Swiss based Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction. It is supported by Holcim and its Group companies and affiliates in around 70 countries, including Holcim Canada.

Holcim Ltd is one of the world’s leading suppliers of cement and aggregates.

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Report

Grant-Makers for Architecture Canada Council’s Robert Sirman, Sylvie Gilbert and Brigitte Des­rochers discuss the positive impact of their agency’s architecture grant programs over the past decade—and future directions.

This year, the Canada Council for the Arts celebrates the 10th anniversary of its architecture programs. These funding programs have had a significant impact on an evolving culture of architecture in Canada and have made the creative talent of our architects more accessible to the public at large.

How did the Council get involved in promoting architecture in the first place? Ten years ago, there was a general feeling in the architectural community that the practice had shifted. Architectural research had moved beyond the era of studio-based architecture proposals, which might be funded under the Canada Council’s grants to artists, and was beginning to move towards the study and public presentation of built work. After holding a national consultation on the nature and promise of this shift, the Canada Council realigned its support.

Two architecture grant programs were created: one for individual applicants and architecture offices, and the other for organizations. These programs aimed to help fund professionally produced books, exhibitions and events focused on Canadian-built projects in order to nurture a dialogue about architecture that would be firmly rooted in the public sphere.

And the public responded. Over the years, close to one million people have visited the shows, watched the films, attended the events and read the books supported by the grant programs, which have also generated considerable media coverage.

To mark the 10th anniversary of the architecture grant programs, Cana­dian Architect met with the Canada Council to discuss the programs’ impact on the evolution of architectural culture in Canada. We spoke with Director and CEO Robert Sirman, Head of the Visual Arts Section Sylvie Gilbert, and Architecture Program Officer Brigitte Desrochers.

Looking back at the first decade of these programs, how has the Canada Council for the Arts generated a discussion about architectural excellence and what are some of the tangible results of this dialogue?

Canada Council for the Arts

Robert Sirman: Architecture is specifically cited as an art form in the

Above A selection of architecture books published with the assistance of Canada Council for the Arts grants. Opposite, top to bottom In 2009, design think tank archiTEXT led youth in a series of design charrettes to build a community centre in a priority Toronto neighbourhood; Visitors to the Jardins de Métis enjoy a rest at Dymaxion Sleep (curled up), an installation

by Jane Hutton and Adrian Blackwell; Next City Talks is a popular Pecha Kucha-style event at Storefront Manitoba’s Winnipeg Design Festival; Young participants from No. 9’s Imagining My Sustainable City school program stand alongside their model at Toronto’s Metro Hall.

38 canadian architect 09/13

Canada Council for the Arts Act and it may well be the art form that affects Canadians most, and in the most profound way. Buildings surround us at almost every moment of our lives and they determine, in large part, the quality of our experience of being in the world. They are meant to outlive us and to have lasting value—not just economic but artistic. We’ve seen our role as motivating a public discussion on what good architecture is, and what it brings to the world, with the firm belief that this discussion can in turn lead to better architecture and quality of life.

Sylvie Gilbert: The Canada Council has advanced this interest by open-

ing the door to professionals across the country to support projects that make sense and matter in the context of their own cultural environments.

We’ve insisted on having those projects carried through by professional organizations such as public galleries, museums and publishing houses.

In this way, the architecture community has gained entry to a broad range of spaces across the country, which in turn has contributed to scholarship, lifted the quality of production, and improved public outreach.

Brigitte Desrochers: Certainly one of the more visible and lasting legacies of these first 10 years is the stream of professionally produced architecture books that has been created. There were very few of them 10 years ago, and we’re beginning to have a fairly good collection now, focusing on the Modernist period as Newfoundland Modern does, or encompass-

ing a broader historical scope, seen in Building New Brunswick, Exploring Vancouver, and the recently published Architecture of Saskatchewan.

What about projects targeted to younger audiences? And how do you encourage applicants who may be new to curating projects and events?

SG: There has been a growing ambition among Canadian architects to Architext

bring forward live, engaging and democratic conversations on architecture. With Canada Council funding, public architecture festivals have been launched, and in almost every case, maintained through the years.

Road shows have made their way across the country, with Migrating Landscapes, Spacing magazine and, a few years back, a group of emerging architects travelling in a bus. This fall, a first national architecturally themed Pecha Kucha is originating from Edmonton. We’re also seeing a multi­ plication of web-based projects. Well-edited architecture websites have appeared over the last 10 years. Some of them, like the Winnipeg Architecture Foundation’s website, list significant buildings marked by a QR code that links to online information. Audio-guide applications offering architecture tours of Canadian cities are being developed for mobile devices.

Robert Baronet

RS: Council staff welcome the chance to engage newcomers to architec-

ture and to the Canada Council grant programs in a conversation about their ideas and how to bring them to fruition. We keep track of the knowledge gathered in past projects and do our best to make it available to new applicants; sometimes we even connect people who might gain from one another’s experiences and ambitions. In other words, there’s a legacy of knowledge gained and lessons learned that are cultivated thanks to the continuous operation of this program.

What lessons have you learned about running the programs so as to encourage leadership, innovation, and the exploration of new directions for architecture in Canada?

SG: We’ve trusted the milieu, its instinct and its capacity to make things

Andrew Lovatt

happen in style. Baby boomers are retiring, leaving behind a strong legacy. A whole new generation of architects are finding their voice. Our relationship with digital culture is evolving fast and furiously, and unique organizational structures are being created. This opens the door to promising projects and new models. Networks of like-minded cultural activists have never been easier to create. Architects are defining new roles for themselves, as firms large and small engage a much broader range of clients and mandates by way of pro bono work. First Nations clients have multiplied and some of them are defining new roles for the architect. It’s fascinating and we are eager to see what will come of it all.

BD: And we don’t pick the projects to receive funding. Grants are awarded

No.9

through a peer assessment process involving architects from all corners of the country, all age groups and all firm sizes. They make the decisions and demonstrate a consistent wisdom in doing so. We’re comfortable with this process, and over the years, we have broadened the variety of proposals the jury considers. Competitions have been added to the list of eligible projects in 2007, which provided wonderful surprises: the Green Line Competition in Toronto, among other projects, could not have been supported otherwise. This year, the programs have been adjusted once again, 09/13­ canadian architect

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Cassandra Pollock with icons from www.nounproject.com

Architectural projects supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, 2003-2013

Book Event Exhibition Conference/Lecture Multimedia Project Visitors’ Guide

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Research

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in response to the changing environment, but also as an expression of trust in the peer assessment process.

What kind of proposals and projects do you expect to see in the future?

There’s a vital and interesting conversation happening out there.

In your experience, what qualities make for the strongest proposals and the most successful results?

BD: The best projects are often created by people with a deep love and re-

BD: Well-researched projects on canonical works should remain a core

component of projects supported, and innovations are likely to happen in the ways they are presented. Currently, applicants who bring forth these projects seek ways to make their knowledge available to audiences that are mobile, connected and who cultivate a wealth of different cultural interests.

Projects for solidly edited architecture guidebooks, applications and websites have been on the rise over the last year and it’s such a basic and smart offering that I expect to see more of that. For example, Ottawa’s last architecture guidebook was published 30 years ago and is long out of print as you may imagine. The Council is supporting the production of a new one, to be published on the occasion of Canada’s 150th anniversary celebrations. It’s a wonder to think that Canada’s capital city would have gone that long without an up-to-date and readily available architecture guidebook.

spect for architecture, who have found ways of teasing out all that’s good and interesting about it. Or they may pick up on what’s strange, unresolved, in progress, and worth a good talk. They’ve found partners and made a plan that is solid, and likely to have good traction with the public.

Proposals are, in fact, evaluated on the quality of the buildings to be discussed, the relevance of what’s being brought into the public conversation, and the project’s capacity to reach out to the public. Criteria also include having a realistic budget, a good timeline and team structure, and the right mix of skill sets. Once you look at the variety of projects supported through the programs, you realize there’s nothing cookie-cutter about it. It’s very much about loving architecture and understanding context, but it can take hundreds of different forms.

RS: These programs have, in fact, been very adept at supporting novel

SG: The possible rise of guidebooks is interesting, insofar as it values

first-hand experience of buildings. It’s a live experience, it involves the senses and the emotions and it responds to a kind of thirst that the population seems to have today, as tourists as well as in their hometowns.

We’re also likely to see an increase in international initiatives. They’ve been few and far between in the program’s first decade, but we’ve made our programs more welcoming in this regard. Given the flourishing network of architecture venues abroad, the increased attention Canadian architects have received in the international media, the growing mobility of practice and the internationalization of the construction industry, we’re bound to see an increase in proposals that aim beyond our borders.

40 canadian architect 09/13

types of organizations. Festivals such as the International Garden Festival at the Jardins de Métis near Rimouski and the Warming Huts in Winnipeg are held by societies whose core structure is supported by a broader base of activities: historical gardens in Quebec, and a surprising roster of functions including a public market in Manitoba. Those are precisely the organizations with the greatest stability, the broadest international ambitions, and the greatest amount of media attention worldwide. To take another set of examples from Quebec and Manitoba, DOCOMOMO Québec and the Winnipeg Architecture Foundation both shine in their capacity to welcome largely volunteer-based contributions and to make smart use of new media, while upholding high standards in terms of production qual-

Marc Boutin Architectural Collaborative Morley von Sternberg, courtesy of Bing Thom Architects

Nadir Bellahmer

Edmonton’s design community spearheaded an annual First Nations Conference on Sustainable Buildings and Communities; The Roadshow brought nine designers on a cross-Canada bus and lecture tour from Vancouver to Halifax; As part of the 2008 London Festival of Architecture, curator Trevor Boddy’s Vancouverism exhibition included an undulating installation around Canada House designed by Bing Thom Architects and StructureCraft; The Green Line competition led by Workshop Architecture solicited ideas for re­­dev­ el­oping a Toronto hydro corridor.

Clockwise from above

ity and curatorial oversight. Looking further into the extremely broad spectrum of recipients of this grant program reveals the inherent agility of this environment, its capacity to generate new organizational structures, new ways of conceiving of architecture, new types of connections with diverse publics and the wider world. If I were pressed to name one thing that fares well in these programs, it’s this agility.

SG: And, probably, the outward-looking, vivacious and welcoming dis-

position that often underlies it. We tread a fine line between keeping high professional standards and presenting friendly access points into the art of architecture. As Brigitte pointed out, jury members are very adept at locating the projects that fare well in this regard. They seek out what’s collective, smart and pertinent.

Workshop Architecture Inc.

RS: Architecture is a deeply social art, and it does seem to fit that it should

be the subject of a deeply socialized conversation. We like to think that these grant programs bring architecture into public awareness, but the reverse is also true. They bring an awareness of the public into architectural discourse. Just 10 years ago, this might have seemed like a dubious proposition. Today, it is proving to be fertile ground for invention and mutual benefit. CA 09/13­ canadian architect

41

Review

Rachel Topham, Vancouver Art Gallery

Grand Hotel

Six years in the making, the ambitious Grand Hotel exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery engages viewers with delightfully complex and provocative themes.

Text

Steve DiPasquale

Grand Hotel: Redesigning Modern Life sets out its agenda in clear and sober terms—to track the hotel’s development from “an isolated utilitarian structure to a cultural phenomenon that figures prominently within the global landscape.” But the show’s curators, Jennifer M. Volland, Bruce Grenville and Stephanie Rebick, have done well to permit themselves an array of indulgences in charting this transformation, and take palpable pleasure in fulfilling the latter portion of their mandate. It is in their attempt to lay bare not just the typological evolution of the hotel, but also its myriad roles as a cultural agent that exhibitors transcend the merely ambitious and set course for the truly audacious. The hotel, it turns out, is a promiscuous character, its bedfellows scattered across the various realms of pop culture, and tracing out its couplings is no small feat. Sequencing 42 canadian architect 09/13

our way through themes of Travel, Design, Social and Culture, we’re asked to put a story together from a densely layered collection of media and artifacts—photos to films, postcards to adverts, cutlery to furniture, drawings to models, magazines to records.

In the first two adjoining rooms on Travel, exhibitors offer a savvy introduction that works to first establish the hotel’s straightforward familiarity before immediately problematizing it in its global complexity.

On one side of the room is the hotel’s origin story—photos and text portraying the informal lodgings that peppered the ancient trade routes of Kazakhstan, Syria and Iraq. On the other, sublime façades of Middle Eastern hotels erected mid-century sit together with adverts of the age pairing leisure jet travel with safe exoticism. The locations represented— the Middle East and the former Soviet Union—make Conrad Hilton’s infamous credo land with potent irony: “World Peace through International Travel and Trade.” Arranged as it is, the presentation bounces the visitor from the organic simplicity of the mud hut to Cold War-era geopolitics in an instant, concisely laying out in text and artifact the ways in which countries leveraged hotels as tools of international diplomacy, foreign

Jeremy Pelley © Ace Hotel Group

Nico Schärer © Therme Vals

Rachel Topham, Vancouver Art Gallery

OPPOSITE A gigantic model of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Manhattan dominates; behind, replicas of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Imperial Hotel in Tokyo and the Raffles Hotel in Singapore can be seen. ABOVE, LEFT TO RIGHT A striking black-and-white theme entices in the gallery’s grand rotunda staircase; Peter Zumthor’s stunning Therme Vals hotel and spa in Switzerland; the Ace Hotel lobby in Portland attracts hipsters to its shabby-chic environment. BOTTOM, LEFT TO RIGHT An installation view of the Chateau Marmont area of the Culture section; a wall graphic features the locations of various Canadian Pacific hotels.

effect in wandering among these pieces: heavily individuated and exquisitely crafted, each model captivates by virtue of its own persona. The group responsible for shaping these personalities—Vancouver’s own Goodweather Studio—do an exemplary job of exploiting the possibilities of the architectural model, treating it not as another medium of literal representation, but as an accessible way to materialize a project’s op­ erative strengths. Frank Lloyd Wright’s Imperial Hotel in Tokyo is a judiciously reduced wooden diptych in axial alignment with Mount Fuji; Schultze and Weaver’s Waldorf Astoria overwhelms Manhattan in scale

Rachel Topham, Vancouver Art Gallery

Rachel Topham, Vancouver Art Gallery

policy, and their own nationalist agendas. It’s a riveting introduction, and by the time we’ve left this opening stage, we’ve bought into the show’s thesis and are primed for the next edifying genealogy.

For those with an interest in the history of the built environment, the first stop of the Design portion of the show is perhaps the most extraordinary of the bunch. The long room is dominated by large physical models set out as a kind of chronological architecture park, an assemblage of 10 buildings that represent some of the most important typological turns of the modern hotel. There’s an unmistakably dramatic

09/13­ canadian architect

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Courtesy of UNLV Libraries, Special Collections

Peter Angelo Simon

Canada, Dept. of Interior/Library and Archives Canada

Nick Simonite CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT The famed Chelsea Hotel in New York; an image from the 1950s of the low-slung Flamingo Hotel on the Las Vegas strip; an early historic photo of the majestic Banff Springs Hotel constructed in 1887; a renovated red vintage trailer offers unique accommodation on the 18-acre El Cosmico nomadic hotel and campground in Marfa, Texas.

and stature while simultaneously holding its urban complexity in the vignettes of its windows; and Peter Zumthor’s Therme Vals, modelled in stone, almost disappears in its homologous relation to its geography, now disclosing the adjacent hotel as something, well, extraterrestrial.

The models are also contextualized by accompanying photographs, periodicals, and relevant passages from heavyweight critics, as well as a supersized graphic timeline of hotels running the entire length of the room. Having just read Langston Hughes’s poem from New Masses satir­ izing the displacement of the poor to make room for the new Waldorf Astoria, we can hold in our gaze the interpretive model of the hotel, its oversized graphic icon, and Rem Koolhaas’s assertion from his Delirious New York that “[a] Hotel is a plot—a cybernetic universe with its own laws generating random but fortuitous collisions between human beings who would never have met elsewhere.” The exhibition shines in inviting us to consider these artifacts at once.

In sourcing their raw materials, the curators have not so much cast a net far and wide as they have supercharged a magnet to do the heavy lifting for them: pulled through the ages and around the globe, figures as dazzling as Hughes, Koolhaas and Frederic Jameson, and artifacts as varied as Dennis Hopper’s Easy Rider, Philippe Starck’s Lou Read chair, and Brion Gysin’s dream machine leap up and accrue, sometimes tangling together in wild but cogent strings. This is not to say the curators’ task was easy, only that portions of the exhibition show up like ingenious works often do, as surprising that no one had done it before, as something sure-footed enough to seem inevitable. Tied together and presented as 44 canadian architect 09/13

they are, all these magnetic chains make a strong case that the hotel might be considered, as surmised, “a quintessential building of the modern world.”

It must be said that the show’s strengths—its incredible diversity and fearless adjacencies—are also the source of its compromise. When we see, for instance, that the Algonquin Hotel was the first to let rooms to solo women travellers, that hotels are part machine designed for maximum throughput of meals and laundry, that hotels have also been sites of institutionalized racism, our minds begin reeling with tangential questions— but entertaining them lies beyond the scope of the project. Grand Hotel is, in fact, the first show of its kind (never before has there been such a survey exhibition on the subject) and its contribution is in the network of relations it suggests, and the flights of varying altitudes and velocities it easily supports. Those interested in the design of hotels, their social function as leisure getaways, their role in the political economy, or the ways in which they act as generators of culture will all find ways to be excited and enriched—and will no doubt be left buzzing to find out more.

To them, the hotel will never look quite the same. CA Steve DiPasquale is an intern architect at Hughes Condon Marler Architects in Vancouver.

The Vancouver Art Gallery has created a dedicated microsite at http://projects. vanartgallery.bc.ca/publications/Hotel/home/ to allow visitors an immersive virtual experience of the Grand Hotel exhibition.

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BOOKS

Todd Saunders: Architecture in Northern Landscapes Edited by Jonathan Bell and Ellie Stathaki. Boston: Birkhäuser, 2012.

Building in the remote North is often seen as a unique aspect of Canadian architecture. Obviously, Canada isn’t the only place up North, nor the only one oscillating between an earnest search for a Northern identity and the savvy marketing of its icebound landscapes. In many respects, Scandinavians are similarly fascinated by their geographical location.

The work of Todd Saunders, a Canadian architect based in Norway, epitomizes a currently popular approach to building in the North. On both sides of the North Atlantic, Saunders sensitively inserts contemporary architecture into magnificent empty landscapes. In this respect, the cover of the new book Todd Saunders: Architecture in Northern Landscapes is in complete accordance with its title. A dramatic picture shows a Newfoundland landscape with, off-centre, a white box that occupies only a small fraction of the total image.

This modest abstract object is one of the artistin-residence studios Saunders designed on Fogo Island for a foundation set up by philanthropist Zita Cobb.

Inside, the book offers many similarly impressive photos, along with rather uncon­ vincing texts by editors Jonathan Bell and Ellie Stathaki. The latter are sullied by crooked reasoning (“romantic yet powerful”) and shallow descriptions (“his architecture is about how space relates to place”). Bell and Stathaki do not offer much insight into what it is to build in Northern landscapes, and the rather detached presentation of the architecture, mainly through exterior photos, deprive it from the content one is inclined to project on this work.

It simply looks too good to believe there is nothing more to the story than this delicious cocktail of unspoiled nature with a pinch of delicate 46 canadian architect 09/13

architecture. Canada and Norway offer plentiful opportunities for this blend, thanks to an overall average density of 3.3 and 14.5 inhabitants per square kilometre respectively, with around four-fifths of their populations concentrated in urban areas.

Just as the North isn’t exclusively Canadian, the idea of a harmonious combination of architecture and landscape doesn’t really distinguish the North from other cardinal directions. The same formula is at work in thinly populated places elsewhere, such as in Chile (Smiljan Radic, Pezo von Ellrichs­ hausen), rural Switzerland (Valerio Olgiati) and Australia (Glenn Murcutt). Geography, vegetation and climate may be totally different in each case, but the components are basically identical: contemporary shapes in a bucolic or sublime natural setting, using local materials and often relying on vernacular construction methods.

In Scandinavia, the idea of the North is in­­ formed by another idea: that of the South.

Through­out his career, the Norwegian architect and writer Christian Norberg-Schulz explored the complex relationship many Scandinavian architects hold with the Mediterranean. In his book Nightlands: Nordic Building (originally published in Norwegian in 1993, translated to English in 1996), he contended that the best way to examine “what Nordic building truly is” entails “contrasting it with its counterpart: the classical architecture of the South.” From Aalto and Asp­lund to Lewerentz and Utzon, many Scandinavian architects have produced work whose “Nordicness” at least partly relies on classical Roman and Greek motifs of the South shining through.

While in Scandinavia there is a longing for the South and for something beyond its own borders, in Canada there is a longing for the North within its territory. In the usual national narrative, Canada’s North and South are contrasted with the innocence of a children’s book.

On one hand stands the essential purity of sensitively designed and executed buildings in full harmony with the equally pure nature of the North. On the other lies a grotesque con­ fed­eration of shopping centres, suburbs and downtowns. Since that alleged ugliness is the daily reality of 80 percent of Canadians, one could claim that the essence of Canada resides Down South instead of Up North. The North is ultimately a place—or a concept—as foreign to most Cana­d ians as the Mediterranean is to Scandinavians.

Hans Ibelings is an architectural historian based in Montreal.

Place and Occasion: Montgomery Sisam Architects Edited by David Sisam. London: Artifice Books, 2013.

Starting in the 1970s, Toronto firm Montgomery Sisam Architects built a body of fine work, testing ideas mainly on small commissions. Then, over the last decade, the firm had a boom in output, resulting in an extraordinary group of projects varying in size and program. The new monograph Place and Occasion highlights these efforts. The projects are generally public in nature: a horticultural centre, a treatment facility for children, long-term care facilities, a yacht club, a convent. Of the drawings that accompany the photos and text, almost all are site plans or axonometric drawings, as if the architects are showcasing how their buildings are linked to something larger—an existing urban site, a rugged landscape, a campus.

The joy of the projects lies behind the straight­ forward volumes, in the interiors. The Norview Lodge Long-Term Care Facility, for instance, is a green-clad collection of simple, gable-roofed housing wings. Inside, wood-covered spaces are washed in natural light: the interior public spaces show an attention to detail and craft more common in a museum. Or consider the dining and common area of the Island Yacht Club, with its wood floor, wood ceilings and full glazing on three sides. A narrative titled “Light and Air” introduces design themes as clearly as the projects presented. Architectural ideas like the Fresnel Square, a diagram comparing the similar areas of a big block and a thin, corridor-like building, are meaningful; indeed, this diagrammatic organization is evident in buildings such as the convent for St. John the Divine.

Essays by design luminaries Bruce Kuwabara, Beth Kapusta and Ken Greenberg bracket the work. A singular theme runs through them: with an economy of means, Montgomery Sisam Architects designs effective buildings that are smart and beautiful, regardless of their function. You could ask no more of an architect.

Freelance writer David Steiner lives in Toronto.

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48 canadian architect 09/13

Your product or service could be promoted here!

1/8 PAGE

Ad Sizes 1/4 Page, 100 Words 1/8 Page, 50 Words For information about placing an ad in our Showcase & Literature Reviews, contact: Tom Arkell 416-510-6806 1/4 PAGE

Canadian Architect 80 Valleybrook Dr Toronto, ON M3B 2S9 www.canadianarchitect.com

Calendar Swiss Positions—33 Takes on Sustainable Approaches to Building

graduates, Harry Seidler, over a ca­ reer spanning nearly 60 years.

September 12-22, 2013 This exhibi­tion at the AIBC Gallery in Vancouver features 33 emblematic Swiss pro­ jects built over the past 20 years. http://aibcenews.files.wordpress.com/ 2013/08/press_info_eng1.pdf

Winnipeg Art Gallery Archi­ tectural Tour

YAS: Young Architects of Spain

September 12-October 4, 2013 Selected by an international jury of highly acclaimed architects and critics, this exhi­bi­tion at the Paul H. Cocker Gallery in Ryerson Uni­ versity’s Architecture Building features 62 projects representative of a new generation of Spanish architects. www.arch.ryerson.ca/2013/08/yas/ Harry Seidler: Architecture, Art and Collaborative Design

September 18, 2013 This tour will examine the state of preservation of Winnipeg’s Modernist build­ ings, situating the gallery in its architectural context and focusing on the role architecture has played in rejuvenating Winnipeg’s down­ town since the 1970s. www.winnipegarchitecture.ca Winnipeg Design Festival

September 18-21, 2013 Taking place in various locations throughout the city, the Winnipeg Design Festival is an annual open and public event that aims to share, discuss, pro­ mote and celebrate design culture in the province of Manitoba. www.winnipegdesignfestival.net

September 12-October 10, 2013 This exhibition at the University of Interior Design Show West Manitoba’s Faculty of Architecture September 19-22, 2013 The Vancouver Magazine 1 11-10-13 4:03hosts PM the features the work ofads onepress of its3.75x4.875.pdf own Convention Centre West

larg­est interior design show in West­ ern Canada, showing over 300 curat­ ed exhibits and features in­clud­ing meticulously hand­crafted items, highly anticipated guest speak­ers and world-class installations. www.idswest.com Doors Open Waterloo Region

September 21, 2013 This event is a free heritage and architecture tour of special, occasionally “secret” places in the region. With the theme of Waterloo Region Modern, 42 participating sites will be open to the public on this one day. www.regionofwaterloo.ca/doorsopen Green Building Festival

October 3, 2013 This event at Toron­ to’s Daniels Spectrum continues the exploration of 2030 Districts which are at the forefront of re­ gion­a l efforts to create strong environmental partnerships, coalitions and collaboration sur­ rounding Architecture 2030. http://sbcanada.org/gbfestival

Scotiabank Nuit Blanche 2013

October 5-6, 2013 From sunset to sunrise, more than 110 contempor­ ary art projects will captivate audi­ ences across Toronto. City-pro­ duced exhibitions are centralized downtown along the subway lines, while independent projects are lo­ cated at various sites across the city. www.scotiabanknuitblanche.ca International Conference on Adaptation and Movement in Architecture

October 11-12, 2013 This conference at Ryerson University aims to pro­ vide a forum for architects, engin­ eers, designers and researchers to discuss future challenges on adaptability and transformation in architecture. www.icama2013.com For more information about these, and additional listings of Canadian and international events, please visit www.canadianarchitect.com

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09/13­ canadian architect

49

Martin Bond

BACKPAGE

Holy Tomato!

A series of miniature chapels at the Jardins de Métis pays homage to Quebec’s forgotten heirloom vegetables.

Text

Odile Hénault

The Jardins de Métis, situated on the southern shore of the St. Lawrence River as it widens towards the Atlantic Ocean, testify to the love and care of Elsie Reford’s transformation of a dense coniferous woodland into a cultivated showcase in the early 20th century. The Gardens are now headed by Elsie’s great-grandson Alexander Reford, who in 2000 introduced a competition for artistic installations that has since evolved into one of the world’s major contemporary garden festivals.

The festival’s 14th edition attracted 290 proposals from 31 countries.

Among the six projects selected, one stands out, reaching back through time to Elsie. Sacré potager (holy kitchen garden) was designed by atelier barda, a Transatlantic team comprised of three young architects (Antonio Di Bacco, Cécile Combelle, Patrick Morand) and a graphic artist (Julien Pinard) from Montreal and Paris. Their proposal, a humble yet poignant homage to “forgotten” vegetables, is, in their words, “a pretext to initiate a common understanding that […] promotes biodiversity.”

As they searched for a poetic way to raise awareness of the disappearance of heritage food crops, members of atelier barda were inspired by tiny shrines disseminated throughout the Quebec and French countryside. They built 18 small chapel-like structures, each displaying votive candles normally found in churches, where they are lit to obtain favours from higher powers. Lyne Bellemare from Seeds of Diversity, an organization dedicated to traditional knowledge related to garden plants, selected 50 canadian architect 09/13

Above left A miniature chapel and plantings commemorate the Dr Carolyn White Tomato, a species once planted on Quebec farms. Above right The votive candle drawings for nine of the 18 plants in Atelier Barda’s installation.

18 now-rare species once cultivated by Quebec farmers.

The tiny plywood chapels, some tall and slim, others more closely connected to the ground, are each dedicated to a single species. Corresponding live plants are sown alongside. An illustration of each species adorns some of the candles while others feature a descriptive text. The project takes on its full commemorative power at night when the lit candles shine through the grove.

One cannot help but think back to plant-hunting pioneers such as Frank Kingdon-Ward, who a century ago embarked on countless expeditions to the Far East—often putting his life at risk—in order to bring back specimens that would astonish gardeners in the Western world. Or Elsie Reford, a pioneer in her own right, who obtained Himalayan blue poppy seeds—long the signature plant of the Jardins de Métis—from KingdonWard. One wonders how, after dedicating their life to diversity, these two would have reacted to the eradication of so many species by modern single-minded agribusiness demands for low-cost efficient production.

They would probably have applauded atelier barda’s efforts, an homage to unusually shaped and coloured heirloom vegetables that are exquisite to both the eyes and to the tastebuds. A sacré good job! CA Odile Hénault is an architecture critic, curator and professional advisor. She lives on the South Shore of the St. Lawrence River, two hours from the Jardins de Métis.

by

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