In our December issue

2024 Canadian Architect Awards of Excellence: The Winners Are…

The 2024 Canadian Architect Awards were tightly contended. Over two days of deliberation in October, jurors Andrea Wolff, Matthew Hickey, and D’Arcy Jones considered 143 entries to arrive at a selection of four Awards of Excellence winners and six Award of Merit winners. They also considered 35 student entries—the top architecture thesis projects in Canada as nominated by their schools—to select three Student Award of Excellence winners.

Photographer Lisa Stinner-Kun joined the jury to select one Photo Award of Excellence winner and two Photo Award of Merit winners. In our newly introduced Student Photo category, one entry was selected to receive a Student Photo Award of Excellence.

You can read our jury’s full comments here.

Here are this year’s winners:

Awards of Excellence

Confederation Centre of the Arts Revitalization | Abbott Brown Architects

Montreal Old Port Infill | architecture écologique

11 Brock | SnN Architects+ Planners

Warehouse Park Pavilion | gh3* (park design in collaboration with design lead CCxA)

Awards of Merit

Éva-Circé-Côté Library | Lapointe Magne et associés and L’OEUF Architectes, in consortium

Bibliothèque de Mont-Laurier | Chevalier Morales Architectes

Annex House | WAO (Wei Architecture & Objects Ltd.)

The Open: East Village Public Washroom & Pickleball Court | Public City

Coronation Park Sports and Recreation Centre | Joint venture between hcma architecture + design and Dub Architects, in collaboration with FaulknerBrowns

Tofino Fish Pier | Leckie Studio Design + Architecture

Student Awards of Excellence

Heritage of a Rural Patrimony | Rosalie Laflamme, Université Laval

Parkdale People’s Palace | Matthew Dlugosz, University of Waterloo

Ascending Worlds | Jose Power, University of Toronto

Photo Award of Excellence

L’École du Zénith | James Brittain

Photo Awards of Merit

St. Albert Place | Stationpoint Photographic

La Tour du Port | James Brittain

Student Photo Award of Excellence

Église Précieux-Sang | Jenna Carolynne Bosc

On behalf of the magazine and the jurors, we wish to extend thanks to all of our readers who participated in this year’s awards program, and congratulations to all of this year’s winners.

See all the 2024 Awards of Excellence winners

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In our November issue

Architecture has traditionally been a profession of generalists, but technical specialization plays an increasing role in today’s landscape. Our November issue focuses on projects whose success hinged on in-depth technical knowledge.

We start by visiting T3 Bayside (3XN with WZMH) and T3 Sterling Road (DLR Group with WZMH), two Toronto projects that are testing the market for mass timber commercial buildings. Lloyd Alter explores how dowel-laminated timber (DLT) and cross-laminated timber (CLT) products are deployed in the two buildings, and what it means for their sustainability profile.

Out towards the city’s Pearson airport, we dive under the wings at Bombardier’s new manufacturing facility, by NEUF architect(e)s. Ian Chodikoff details the highly detailed work that went into creating the mega-sized facility for the precision-driven work of assembling aircraft.

For our cover story, Odile Hénault looks at how the rest of Canada can learn from Quebec’s provincial system of architecture competitions. Case in point: two recent Montreal libraries, both complex project which adaptively reuse existing structures to create vibrant new community hubs.

Last, Adele Weder visited Old Crow, Yukon, at the northwest corner of the country. Here, Kobayashi + Zedda Architects has crafted a community centre for the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation. Weder argues that the technical rules for building may need to be rethought for the North: “it may be time to consider encouraging flexibility with certain code requirements and energy targets in such communities.”

Our November issue also includes a review of a compendium on vernacular architecture, an interview with Canadian planetarium expert Bill Chomik, and an afternoon at a giant domino run in Toronto.

-Elsa Lam, editor

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In our October issue

Three years ago, Canadian Architect and Twenty + Change first partnered to bring a curated showcase of emerging Canadian architectural practices to the pages of this magazine. This year, we are thrilled to have done so again.

The sixth edition of Twenty + Change, called New Perspectives, is the result of an open call for submissions, and careful consideration by a curatorial team representing architectural practices from across the country—many of whom were showcased in earlier editions of Twenty + Change. The team included Marie-Chantal Croft of Écobâtiment (Quebec City), Susan Fitzgerald of FBM (Halifax), Andrew Hill of StudioAC (Toronto), Ben Klumper of Modern Office of Design + Architecture (Calgary), , Heather Dubbeldam of Dubbeldam Architecture + Design (Toronto) and Elsa Lam of Canadian Architect (Toronto).

One of the trends we observed in this year’s selection was the rise of firms rooted in environmental sustainability practices. Three of the firms chosen this year—architecture écologique (Montreal), BoON (Quebec City), and Poiesis (Toronto)—boast one or more Passive House-certified designers, giving them the expertise to design buildings that require minimal operating energy.

Other firms, such as COMN (Toronto) and Alexandre Bernier (Montreal), are focused on infill housing, contributing towards a vital component of a sustainable future. Further west, AtLRG (Winnipeg) has built a reputation for tackling complex urban sites, from new-builds to office-to-residential conversions.

One of the most ambitious change-makers in our showcase is Mindful Architecture (North Vancouver), a partnership between an architect and an industrial designer with a patented cradle-to-cradle living wall system. Their mass timber Métis Cultural Centre in Fort McMurray, Alberta, is currently under construction, and projects in development include insulation made of human hair, and a 3D-printed solar pit house inspired by traditional circular Indigenous dwellings.

The idea of replacing conventional construction with technologydriven solutions is also key to projects by Leckie Studio Architecture + Design (Vancouver) and VFA Architecture + Design (Toronto). While both firms practice conventionally, they also have side-hustles: Leckie’s Backcountry Hut and TripTych are prefabricated designs for cabins and urban housing; VFA’s Ukkei Homes harnesses prefabrication to create affordable laneway suites that can be added to existing properties.

What is the potential of new models for practicing architecture? Two Montreal firms—LAAB and Pivot—are asking precisely this question. LAAB leans heavily on quantitative analysis, using UX modelling to ground services anchored in strategic design. Pivot, for its part, is one of a handful of architecture co-ops in Canada—an egalitarian model that opposes the hierarchical structure of traditional architectural practices.

Cross-disciplinarity is in the DNA of another trio of firms. Nonument (Toronto) positions itself at the intersection of art and architecture, while Future Simple Studio (Montreal) embraces branding and object prototyping alongside residential and commercial interiors, and Oxbow (Regina and Saskatoon) describes architecture as a subset of landscape design.

The broader context—whether a forested West Coast island, northern city, or southern metropolis—is key to a set of practices that might be seen as addressing the concerns of critical regionalism. Laura Killam (Vancouver) is deeply attuned to her childhood landscapes along the Salish Sea, while s.no has set up a thriving practice in Whitehorse, and blanchette’s designs carry an intent to bring out the Nordic character of Montreal.

Three final firms take a cross-cultural approach to architecture. Odami (Toronto) is a partnership that blends and blurs ideas from one partner’s training in Europe with the other’s Canadian education. Rafael Santa Ana Architecture Workshop (Vancouver) prides itself on a diverse staff comprised mostly of newcomers to Canada, who bring a vibrancy of ideas to the practice. And EHA (Vancouver) takes both a cross-cultural and cross-generational view of design: they specialize in environments for community- based elder care, with several initial projects blending in elements from traditional Japanese homes to align with their clients’ background.

In the AIA Canada Society Journal, Pauline Thimm interviews Daerion Williams and Maisie Berens, co-presidents of the Indigenous Design and Planning Students Association (IDPSA) at the University of Manitoba, about the unique challenges of emerging as Indigenous design professionals.

Rounding out our October issue, this month’s editorial reflects on what the long entry-ramp to establishing your own firm means for architects. We also include some tips on marketing for small firms, and take a peek at a new exhibition on the work of Kiyoshi Izumi, Canada’s first known architect of Japanese descent.

-Elsa Lam, editor, with Heather Dubbeldam, Twenty+Change

The twenty selected firms listed alphabetically are:

Alexandre Bernier, Montreal, Quebec

Architecture écologique, Montreal, Quebec

AtLRG Architecture, Winnipeg, Alberta

blanchette archi.design, Montreal, Quebec

BoON Architecture, Quebec City, Quebec

COMN Architects, Toronto, Ontario

EHA, Vancouver, BC

Future Simple Studio, Montreal, Quebec

LAAB architecture, Montreal, Quebec

Laura Killam Architecture, Vancouver, BC

Leckie Studio Architecture + Design, Vancouver, BC

Mindful Architecture, North Vancouver, BC

Nonument, Toronto, Ontario

Odami. Toronto, Ontario

Oxbow Architecture, Regina and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

Pivot, Montreal, Quebec

Poiesis Architecture, Toronto, Ontario

Rafael Santa Ana Architecture Workshop, Vancouver, BC

s.no architecture, Whitehorse, Yukon

VFA Architecture + Design, Toronto, Ontario

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In our September issue

Our September issue opens with an update about a court challenge to the Rebuilding Ontario Place Act, which enables the province to bypass environmental assessments and heritage regulations in the redevelopment of this designated cultural landscape. While the challenge failed, it brings light on how the present provincial government has been actively reshaping the legislative environment, sidestepping heritage and planning laws for the purpose of facilitating private development.

On a brighter note, we take a look at the celebratory events underway to mark the 100th anniversary of architect Arthur Erickson’s birth. The centenary is being marked by a film festival, lectures, exhibitions, and other events across the country—as well as the reopening of the Museum of Anthropology, which has been renewed (and in large part, rebuilt) by longtime Erickson collaborator Nick Milkovich.

September is back-to-school season, and our reviews focus on new school and university buildings. First up is a look at the four completed elementary schools that were part of Quebec’s Lab-École program. Design competitions were held to create model schools on the sites, which span the province, with impressive results.

In Montreal, we also look at the HEC business school’s Hélène Desmarais building, designed by Provencher_Roy. Situated on a steep, comb-shaped site next to a basilica, the building deftly brings clarity to its challenging infill location.

We also head to the East Coast to visit the Canadian Centre for Climate Change and Adaptation at UPEI, designed by Baird Sampson Neuert architects. Like the province it’s located in, the building punches above its weight in its sustainability achievements—all on a modest budget and tight timeline.

Architects themselves are often lifetime learners. Lawrence Bird visits three designers in Western Canada whose fabrication arms—Patkau Design Lab, Omer Arbel, and Anvil Tree—allow them to explore essential ideas about architecture.

Our issue also includes reviews of new books on contemporary West Coast houses, the battle to build Toronto’s Luminous Veil, and Louise Blanchard Bethune, the United States’ first professional woman architect.

On a final sombre note, David Covo pays tribute to longtime McGill School of Architecture director Derek Drummond, who passed away last year.

-Elsa Lam, editor

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In our August issue

Our August issue celebrates the 12 winners of the Governor General’s Medals in Architecture. This year’s Medals went to projects from coast to coast, from the SFU Stadium by Perkins&Will in Vancouver, BC, to Cabot Cliffs Residences, Halfway Hut and Pro Shop by FBM Architecture | Interior Design in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.

We also take a look at a cluster of past Governor General’s Medal-winning-buildings, situated around a single intersection in downtown Waterloo, Ontario. Jake Nicholson considers the impact of four buildings at this corner: the Seagram Museum by Barton Myers (GG, 1986); the Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery by Patkau Architects (GG, 1997), the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics by Saucier+Perrotte (GG, 2006) and the Centre for International Governance Innovation by KPMB Architects (GG, 2014).

Further afield, Peter Sealy takes us on a visit to artist Kapwani Kiwanga’s installation, entitled Trinket,  in the Canadian Pavilion at this year’s Venice Art Biennale—which he describes as a “stunning delight” that is also “a provocative commentary upon the exploitative imbalances which fuelled colonial commerce.”

The Moriyama & Teshima-designed Ontario Science Centre was abruptly closed by the Province of Ontario on a Friday in late June, supposedly because of public safety concerns linked to the presence of RAAC (Siporex) roof panels. I was one of the first with architecture-trained eyes to thoroughly read the engineers’ roof report, and to see that it didn’t recommend full closure—as well as realizing that the suspect roof panels weren’t even over key exhibition areas.

In the following weeks, I’ve become deeply involved in advocacy calling on the Province to reopen, repair, and reinvest in the Ontario Science Centre at its current location. A selection of the articles I’ve written on this topic are included in the August issue of Canadian Architect, including my analysis of the RFP for a temporary space, and a synopsis of how we could start paying for long-term repairs by using the money it’s taking to close the building. I’ve since written about the true cost of repairing the Science Centre—which is much less than the numbers the Province has cited—and debunked the Province’s additional reasons behind closing the Science Centre. The closure is based on a manufactured crisis, which wrongfully posits that instead of maintaining this major public building, it should be vacated and demolished.

I would invite readers to consider signing and circulating this petition opposing the closure, including if you are outside of Toronto—and for readers in Ontario to consider writing to your MPP and calling the Premier at 416-325-1941 (lines open 24/7).

-Elsa Lam, editor

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In our June issue

Our June issue focuses on health and wellness.

For our cover story, Adele Weder travelled to Iqaluit’s Inuusirvik Community Wellness Hub, designed by Toronto-based Lateral Office with Winnipeg-based Verne Reimer Architecture. Inspired by Indigenous vernacular structures, the building is packed with services from a daycare, to wellness research centre, to community kitchen.

We also review two medical spaces that were crafted with the wellbeing of both patients and staff in mind. First, David T. Fortin visits Jaliya Fonseka’s Galt Clinic in Cambridge, Ontario; next, Naomi Kriss reports on Stantec’s renovation of Mount Sinai’s emergency department in Toronto.

Recreational facilities are also part of our coverage this month. We tour MJMA’s Churchill Meadows Community Centre and Sports Park, the winner of this year’s Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Architecture in Ontario. In Quebec, Odile Hénault reports on the latest phase of the Promenade Samuel-De Champlain, whose design was led by Daoust Lestage Lizotte Stecker. It’s the winner of Quebec’s top architecture award—the Grand Prix d’Excellence.

A trio of book reviews looks at designing for wellness at different scales. Tye Farrow’s Constructing Health looks at the theory and application of salutogenic design—creating buildings that actively promote health. Alan Tate and Marcella Eaton’s Designed Landscapes: 37 Key Projects is a sourcebook of outstanding landscape projects. Zooming out further, Avi Friedman and Alexandra Pollock’s Fundamentals of Planning Cities for Healthy Living looks at urban design’s integral role in shaping public health outcomes.

Rounding out our coverage, Ted Landrum reviews the CCA’s latest documentary film, Where We Grow Older, featuring a pair of progressive visions for senior living. My editorial examines the legislative push in Ontario to accelerate housing approvals, and asks: will it result in more affordable homes?

-Elsa Lam, editor

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In our May issue

Our May issue is a celebration of winners.

Topping the list is the RAIC’s Gold Medal recipient, Justice Murray Sinclair. His recognition marks the growing importance of dialogues around Indigenization, de-colonization, and reconciliation within Canadian architecture.

The RAIC International Prize winner, Aotearoa-based Ngā Aho, recognizes a national organization of Maori design professionals who have come together to support each other to better serve the design aspirations of Maori communities. Ngā Aho serves as an inspirational model for how Indigenous practitioners can deploy Indigenous ways of knowing and doing to affect positive change in the built and natural environment.

The RAIC’s top architectural practice this year is Dubbeldam Architecture+Design, a Toronto-based studio that blends built work, design research, and advocacy in its commitment to an improved public realm. The RAIC’s emerging practice award goes to Peter Braithwaite Studio, a practice that sees buildings as members of overarching ecological systems.

The winner of the RAIC Research & Innovation Award is Patkau Design Lab, a research and fabrication wing of Patkau Architects. Building Equality in Architecture Toronto (BEAT) cinched the RAIC’s Advocate for Architecture Award. Two RAIC Architectural Journalism and Media Awards were announced: one of which goes to The Edit, a publication by The Site magazine, and the other of which goes to architectural journalist, editor, and advocate Jim Taggart.

We also profile the 12 winning projects from this year’s National Urban Design Awards, a program jointly run by the RAIC, Canadian Institute of Planners (CIP), and Canadian Society of Landscape Architects (CSLA).

My editorial examines the characteristics of the top award programs—and of winning entries.

Our issue also includes reviews of 5468796’s recent publication platform.Middle: Housing for the 99 percent, RIBA’s 100 Women Architects: Architects in Practice, and Marieke Gruwel’s Manitoba Women in Design. We also look at photographer Steven Evans’ homage to Ontario Place. In our In Memoriam section, David Covo pays tribute to architect and educator Radoslav Zuk, who passed away earlier this year.

-Elsa Lam, editor

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In our April issue

Our April issue looks at how architects are tackling housing on complex sites.

We start in Winnipeg, where 5468796 Architecture has transformed a long-abandoned heritage pumphouse into a vibrant mixed-use development. “A breakthrough was achieved when 5468796’s team (at that time including designer Kenneth Borton) realized that an office floor could be hung from an intact gantry crane, locating a new level above and to one side of the machine room,” writes Trevor Boddy. “This created a visually stunning working perch that could be leased to a commercial tenant, tipping the building’s pro forma into viability.”

In Montreal, we visit two projects. First, MSDL Architectes’ Corbusian-inspired Laurent & Clark adds two elegant towers to a site adjacent the Quartier des Spectacles. “More than its striking façades, what distinguishes Laurent & Clark is how its massing intricately responds to the constraints of a complex site,” writes Claire Lubell.

Odile Hénault then tours Laponte Magne et associés’ Îlot Rosemont, a mixed-use social housing development that sets a new benchmark for transit-oriented densification in Montreal. “Municipal leadership should be applauded for leading the way, by demonstrating how its own properties can be developed in ways that embrace complex programs and sites, as well as promoting affordable housing,” writes Hénault.

To complete our tour of la belle province, Marco Marini interviews Suresh Perera about PERCH architecture’s recently completed modular mass timber apartment building in remote Chibougamau, Quebec. Back in Montreal, Peter Sealy reports on Design for the Global Majority, an exhibition that surveys 50 years of research by McGill University’s Minimum Cost Housing Group.

Spring has increasingly meant increased forest fire activity across Canada. Douglas MacLeod examines why those fires are more dangerous than ever—and how architects and homeowners can design and maintain their properties to be “fire smart.”

We round out the issue with reports on a pre-fabricated mass timber approach to transitional housing, an editorial on the effort to reform egress requirements for small multi-unit residential buildings, and a letter to the editor on why the CMHC’s new housing design catalogue isn’t a universal fix for affordability.

-Elsa Lam, editor

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In our February issue

Our February issue explores civic landmarks in cities across Canada.

Our cover story is Lawrence Bird’s review of The Leaf, a new conservatory in Winnipeg’s Assiniboine Park designed by KPMB Architects in association with Architecture49 with HTFC Planning & Design and Blackwell.

Going up in scale, John Lorinc takes a visit to The Well—the city’s first mega-development, with seven high- and mid-rises set on the 7.7-acre former Globe and Mail lands in the city’s downtown core. And at a tiny scale, we look at a generator enclosure by RDHA that elevates a mundane piece of infrastructure to become a piece of urban sculpture.

We also dive into two controversies surrounding two future projects. First, my editorial debunks the Ontario government’s plans to relocate the Ontario Science Centre from the landmark Moriyama and Teshima-designed building to Ontario Place. I also take a deep dive into the federal government’s decision to award the design of the National Memorial to Canada’s Mission in Afghanistan to a team different than the one selected by the design competition jury.

Our issue also pays tribute to two landmark figures in Canada’s architectural community. Ronji Boorooah remembers his late colleague and friend Jerome Markson, who passed away this winter; while many in the Winnipeg architecture community have contributed to a book on the life and work of David Penner, who died in 2020.

Our February issue also includes the RAIC Journal, which reports on the organization’s fall Congress on accelerating climate action, and reviews structural engineer Paul Fast’s memoir and Jeannie Marshall’s book All Things Move: Learning to Look at the Sistine Chapel.

-Elsa Lam, editor

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