Rozon and Mathias Madelein (recent graduates from McGill University)
The winners of the Canadian Centre for Architecture’s (CCA) Interuniversity Charette 2024 were recently announced during an awards ceremony, held at the CCA in February.
This year’s edition of the CCA Charrette, called Beyond the Roof, invited participants to choose the roof of an existing building and propose an intervention that “challenges the roof as a fifth facade and calls into question the notions of property, habitat, use and legislation.”
The jury evaluated a total of 48 proposals submitted by teams composed of undergraduate and graduate students, as well as recent graduates from the Université de Montréal, McGill University, Concordia University, UQAM, Carleton University, University of Ottawa, University of Toronto, Université Laval, University of Waterloo, University of British Columbia, and Ontario Collage of Art and Design University.
The jury members included Nicolay Boyadjiev, an architect, Practice Lab Director at re:arc institute and Studio Director of Antikythera’s philosophy of technology think tank hosted at Berggruen Institute; Daniel Zamarbide, an architect, co-director of the ALICE laboratory and Superstudio at EPFL, and founder of BUREAU; and Alena Prochazka, who holds a Ph.D. in Urban Studies, teaches architectural studio at the schools of architecture in Quebec, and has led an international research team involving scientific and architectural scholars form Montreal, Chicago and Paris on the subject of Urban Roofscape through the prism of Energy and Ecosystems. This year’s edition of the Interuniversity Charrette was organized by the CCA in partnership with the Université du Québec à Montréal, the Université de Montréal, and McGill University.
The first place winner was Elevating Montreal’s horizons: A Watertower Renaissance by McGill University graduates Julien Rozon and Mathias Madelein.
“Bern and Hilla Becher’s well-known series reenacted, re-tuned up to chant our relation to natural resources. A well-presented collection of possibilities opening up the roofs to a new landscape of efficiency and aesthetics,” said the jury.
The second place winner was Guide populaire de premiers soins pour des bâtiments souffrants by Lucas Ouellet, Charles Cauchon and Christian Molina from the Université de Montréal.
“Protocols instead of elaborated solutions to a given problem. A way to operate architecture as one of the actors of the city network (or mesh, in the words of Timothy Morton). A manual that involves the care of the urban fabric and its transformational tools. As opposed to the gravitational principles of the construction of new buildings, the proposal starts at the top of the existing ones, to suggest further transformations moving downwards,” said the jury.
The third place winner was Le théâtre de la nuit by Tatiana Lassu, Antonia Wutte, Sean Field and Sumya Gogte from McGill University.
“One of the territories that most architecture has not dealt with is the realm of the night. The Théâtre de la Nuit proposes to work within this gap and with the help of the culture of temporary structures, occupy the roofs for a poetic nightlife,” said the jury.
Special mentions were given out to Pantheon by Conor Nicell by Max Godfrey from Carleton University and La grande Brassée by Eva Mcsweeney and Jérome Belanger from the Université du Québec à Montréal.
