RAIC gold medal 2018
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A Passion for
olivier blouin
The professional journey of Gilles Saucier and André Perrotte
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Olivier Vallerand
Gilles Saucier and André Perrotte have built an impressive legacy based on close relationships: with clients, with partners, and—most of all—between themselves. The two met during their studies at Université Laval’s architecture school in the early 1980s. In 1988, while working for Cayouette Saia in Montréal, they realized a goal they had since their university days and started their practice. This desire to achieve what they see as important for them and their clients, combined with their shared appreciation of drawing and making, characterizes their career and practice. While their partnership is often characterized by Saucier’s role as design partner and Perrotte’s expertise in coordinating and managing design and construction development, they truly work in symbiosis around a shared sensibility and passion for architecture. The pleasure they have of working together is palpable, in the way Saucier effusively approves and completes Perrotte’s precise comments. Saucier and Perrotte kickstarted their career with a film production facility in an existing building in Montréal’s Plateau district. The rec-
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ognition won by this project combined with a boom in theatre production in Montreal led to Saucier + Perrotte being commissioned to design extensive transformations for the Théâtre du Rideau Vert and the Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui (both 1991) that attracted more visibility for the young firm. These projects also established the firm’s restrained language from the beginning, in reaction to the post-modernism that was visible in much of Montreal’s design at the time. This commitment to a contemporary reading of modernism first appeared while they were in university, challenging the post-modern tenets that were still inf luencing studio education. “We studied during a time when we were rejecting some things,” says Saucier. “We wanted to return to something closer to the great modernists, which had an impact on our approach. At the beginning, we surprised people because we were working with a sort of synthesis of these references.” Perrotte adds: “We have been extraordinarily lucky to have started during this period where there was a moment
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