WINNER OF A 2022 CANADIAN ARCHITECT AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

“Very good architecture gives more than expected in bringing a solution to a challenge. In this project, the architectural solution takes the envelope of a sewer heat exchange system to a new level. It acts as programmed, enclosing the system, but it also delivers a beautiful and elegant object that improves the public realm and draws the pedestrian into a learning experience.” – Louis Lemay, juror

At the corner of Princess Elizabeth Avenue NW and 109th Street NW in Edmonton, sewage is about to intersect with sculptural form. The Blatchford Redevelopment, which aims to transform decommissioned airport lands into Canada’s first carbon neutral community, will rely on several renewable energy centres to provide more than 90% of the energy for heating, cooling, and domestic hot water to up to 30,000 residents. One part of this District Energy Sharing System (DESS), the Blatchford Sewer Heat Exchange (SHX) commands attention visually and functionally. It will extract thermal energy from the 2,400-mm combined sewer trunk located on the site. The facility’s Sharc 880 packaged units for solids removal and heat exchange, in combination with several heat pumps, will provide an average February heating capacity of 6,600 kW and an average August cooling capacity of 6,600 kW. 

Typically, sewage processing facilities are buried or concealed in tucked-away, utilitarian buildings. The Blatchford SHX, however, will be a community icon. Like an elegantly stylized elephant trunk, its odour-dissipating chimney rises up out of park-like public realm space. The building’s striking form and the views it opens up to its inner functions celebrate urban infrastructure’s civic potential, while highlighting the impact of human daily living on the urban environment.

The above-ground form of adjacent, offset parallel bars, with one angling off and curving up to form the chimney, expresses the concept of thermal energy heat transfer: the two volumes run side by side at a point of intersection and then go their separate ways, moving both horizontally and vertically. This is similar to the movement of energy within the Blatchford SHX itself, rising from the sewer line up through the building and then out into the DESS.

Below ground, sewage is extracted from the sewage line and passes through grinding and filtering processes as it is pumped up and into the SHX basement. Screened wastewater then passes through heat exchangers that transfer thermal energy between the wastewater and the DESS. The same heat exchangers can provide both heating and cooling.
After additional processes, the warmed or cooled wastewater is returned to the sewer main. The odour control mechanisms include a bi-polar ionizer installed in the air handling unit and the expelling of exhaust air through an activated carbon system. Any remaining odour is released well above street level, through the 22-metre-tall chimney stack.

The Blatchford SHX is clad in thin white brick with a dark grout—materials chosen for streamlining and horizontal emphasis. The masonry is manipulated to frame views into a subterranean machinery hall and other parts of the building: the northwest end of one bar of the building and the southeast end of the other terminate in large, deep corbelled soffits that that draw the eye inward. On the chimney, offsets in alternating rows of brick create a gradient textured effect; the increased degree of offset as the chimney rises subtly conveys dematerialization, which is entirely fitting for its function.

CLIENT City of Edmonton | ARCHITECT TEAM gh3*: Pat Hanson (FRAIC), Raymond Chow (MRAIC), Vanessa Abram, Nicholas Callies, Joel Di Giacomo (MRAIC). S2: Peter Streith (FRAIC), Erin Jess (MRAIC) | STRUCTURAL/MECHANICAL/PROCESS/ELECTRICAL/CIVIL Associated Engineering | LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE gh3*| AREA 1,800 m2 | BUDGET $50 M | STATUS Design Development | ANTICIPATED COMPLETION TBD 

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WINNER OF A 2022 CANADIAN ARCHITECT AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

“This project is a beautiful and complete expression of the Indigenous program and ethos with which it was designed. In plan and section, its sinuous form acts as a powerful foil to the colonial buildings amongst which it sits. The Mukwa Waakaa’igan Indigenous Centre is appropriately sited at the forefront of the residential school to which it is attached,
creating a powerful building that reorients your spatial experience of the campus while inviting you to a place of learning and healing. Its deep integration into the landscape is exemplary.” – Betsy Williamson, juror 

This is a hopeful project for a place of painful memories. At the entry to Algoma University stands Shingwauk Hall, an imposing former residential school. In the 19th and 20th centuries, children from 184 First Nations communities across Canada were separated from their families and brought to that institution, where school work, religious instruction, and farm chores filled their days. 

In 2021, the Children of Shingwauk Alumni Association and Algoma University held a design competition for the Mukwa Waakaa’igan Indigenous Centre of Cultural Excellence, which will be erected next to Shingwauk Hall. It is envisioned as a place for truth telling, healing, teaching and learning, cultural preservation and transformation. The winning design team of Moriyama & Teshima Architects and Smoke Architecture aspires to design a campus gateway that will embody the promise that reconciliation can be achieved, and foster universal principles of respect toward one another and the planet. Programmatically, it will combine archival, library, and exhibition space with spaces for sacred ceremony, a teaching kitchen and greenhouse, classroom and lecture/recital hall space, and offices.

The name Mukwa Waakaa’igan—“Bear’s Den,” in Anishinaabemowin—was given to this building through spiritual Ceremony, prior to the design competition. To the seven Anishinaabe clans, Mukwa, the Bear, is a medicine carrier, protector, and healer of mind, body and spirit. “The building emerges from the land and rises up above Shingwauk Hall, evoking Mukwa’s profile,” the design team explains. “Visitors can stand high, as if on Mukwa’s shoulders, supported and given a new perspective to be above the pain of the residential school, looking down with empowerment.” 

Other guiding principles drawn from Indigenous teachings find expression in the building’s form and orientation. Points of entry and space planning take cues from the Medicine Wheel’s four cardinal directions and its three additional sacred directions (up, down, and centre). The intertwined strands of a sweet grass braid inspired a circulation system of three pathways, each connecting the building to its landscape: Past, honouring the experiences and hardships of the children of the residential school; Present, attaining a perspective of empowerment; and Future, exploring and sharing indoor and outdoor cultural learning spaces that can lead Algoma University’s Indigenous and non-Indigenous community members toward a more sustainable future.

Constructed from locally sourced mass timber, Mukwa Waakaa’igan will nestle into the landscape and invite people to ascend the paths leading to its topmost green roof promontory. In addition to ceremonial and gathering spaces and a garden for Indigenous foods and medicines, the centre’s outdoor spaces include forest, dry and wet meadow, and riparian landscapes, all of which will be planted to mitigate the effects of invasive species and stimulate the recurrence of native species. Through its integration with the landscape, Mukwa Waakaa’igan blurs boundaries between indoor and outdoor space. On pathways through the site, visitors encounter monuments that prompt reflection on the residential school era, and natural settings that may stimulate thought about our place on this planet—now, and moving forward.

CLIENT Algoma University | ARCHITECT TEAM Carol Phillips (FRAIC, Moriyama & Teshima Architects), Eladia Smoke (MRAIC, Smoke Architecture), Mahsa Majidian (Moriyama & Teshima Architects), Larissa Roque (MRAIC, Smoke Architecture), Jay Zhao (Moriyama & Teshima Architects), Carolina Mellado (Moriyama & Teshima Architects), Ehsan Naimpour (Moriyama & Teshima Architects) | AREA 3,437 m2 | BUDGET Withheld | STATUS Design Development | ANTICIPATED COMPLETION 2024

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WINNER OF A 2022 CANADIAN ARCHITECT AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

“Simplicity is very difficult to achieve. This project has a delightfully simple air to it that provides a nuanced and subtle reference to traditional morphology for this ceremonial building, and avoids the pitfalls of colonial representation. The very thoughtful use of pattern, repetitive structural elements, and a clever balance of structural systems creates a shelter that hovers over the Prairie landscape awaiting the celebrations of deep-rooted traditions on the lands. The physical connection to the land is appropriately light and ephemeral. The project will be delightful in a state of celebration, and also in the state of quietness between powwows.” – Peter Hargraves, juror

Drum groups and dancers often spend their summers on the powwow trail, making cross-country treks to compete for titles, share songs, dance, and revitalize traditional ways while engaging with community members from across many First Nations.

Muscowpetung Salteaux Nation is based on a Qu’Appelle Valley reserve, approximately 70 km northeast of Regina. The design of the Muscowpetung Powwow Arbour draws inspiration from Indigenous building traditions, including the demountable structures that First Nations of the Great Plains carried with them as they followed the buffalo. Although the arbour is a permanent building, like a teepee it makes efficient use of materials that are lightweight, locally sourced, and readily available. It uses local timber and a system of cables that, the design team explains, “works like the stored energy of a drawn bow-string and the tensioning elements of drum heads.”

Developed in consultation with community and band leadership, the arbour’s design also considers and capitalizes on present-day local knowledge, labour and materials. Its lightweight system of spanning components avoids bending moments, and allows for onsite assembly by the local community. It is envisioned that the community will harvest pine and spruce poles from the bush; these poles will be cut to length and debarked on site, ensuring precise dimensionality and eliminating the need to outsource. Local metal fabricators who would normally fashion parts for farm machinery could be employed to fabricate the metal connectors.

The circle has great symbolic significance in many Indigenous cultures, and the arbour’s structural system requires a circular geometry to balance its loads. The arbour is to be erected on a field planted with shade-tolerant grasses; this vegetation provides the dance surface within the perimeter drum circle. The structure is oriented to the four cardinal directions, with Grand Entry from the east.

Open to the sky at its centre and constructed in concentric rings—with some vertical separation between them for light penetration and ventilation—the wide, conical roof hovers above the plain. Around the perimeter, slender, teepee-style log tripods support the canopy and the stands.

The roof’s design incorporates rainwater harvesting techniques and renewable energy technologies that offer significant benefits to the community. Precipitation harvested from the 4,900-square-metre roof surface will irrigate an adjacent medicine garden and orchard. As well, the roof is designed to accommodate photovoltaic panels capable of generating 378,000 kWh per year—enough to meet approximately half the energy needs of all houses on Muscowpetung Saulteaux Nation land.

CLIENT Muscowpetung Saulteaux Nation, Saskatchewan | ARCHITECT TEAM Richard Kroeker, Brad Pickard (MRAIC), Sam Lock (MRAIC), Rory Picklyk (SAA, FRAIC), Meghan Taylor, Tanis Worme, Ashley Graf | STRUCTURAL Jon Reid, Wolfrom Engineering | LANDSCAPE Oxbow Architecture | AREA 2,100 m2 | BUDGET Withheld | STATUS Design Development | ANTICIPATED COMPLETION Summer 2024

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WINNER OF A 2022 CANADIAN ARCHITECT AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

“Simplicity, harmony and beauty. A rich diversity of spaces—both for the public and for art—are woven amongst a fabric of existing buildings. The museum neither overwhelms the context, nor does it defer to it, but creates a new world of occupation in the neighbourhood. The reuse of the existing fabric buildings is economical, sustainable and creates a rich juxtaposition for the modern intervention.” – Betsy Williamson, juror 

In 2021, Montreal’s multidisciplinary contemporary arts hub PHI launched an international competition for the design of PHI Contemporary, its new home. Located in the Old Montreal historic district, the site comprises four heritage buildings—most conspicuously Maison Louis-Viger (c. 1765) and Maison Du Calvet (c. 1770)—and a vacant lot. The winning design, by Berlin-based Kuehn Malvezzi and Montreal-based firms Pelletier de Fontenay and Jodoin Lamarre Pratte architectes, integrates old and new, indoors and out, with an emphasis on giving artists open, unencumbered space to bounce their ideas off of, and making the results readily accessible to the public. “Instead of proposing a new building, we are proposing a new infrastructure, where a variety of events can take place,” the design team states. “Artists need to take possession of all the spaces in surprising and unexpected ways. In this spirit of appropriation, no space should be off limits.”

The design layers a roof garden-topped platform onto the sloping site and extends two levels below grade. From Rue Bonsecours, the platform—the level on which much of the exhibition space is concentrated—reads as a simple glazed band that slots in behind the Maison Louis-Viger façade and connects to the second storey of Maison Du Calvet. Perpendicular to Rue Bonsecours, a wide void extends through the site from north to south; the void begins at the gutted Maison Louis-Viger interior and traces the width of the house through the platform. (Interiors of both houses had been altered extensively and often over the centuries, and there were condition issues. The design team chose to pare these stone structures back to their shells to highlight their original construction, while also creating as much flexible gallery space as possible.)

Multiple points of entry connect to a thoughtfully conceived circulation system. At the platform level’s southwest corner, an entrance through a new courtyard provides direct access through the building to the rooftop, via a ramp. At the core of all three main floors, a linear gallery transects the north/south void. The cruciform circulation system maximizes exhibition space and helps visitors intuitively grasp PHI Contemporary’s spatial organization. The partially unroofed “open field” section of the top floor’s circulation system blurs boundaries between indoors and out and opens up views between levels. Below the platform, entries provide access to a semi-basement level containing reception, a café/bar, auditoriums, and archives. 

The roof garden promises to be a new landmark destination in Montreal’s signature historic district. Upper portions of Maison Viger and Maison Du Calvet emerge from PHI Contemporary’s rooftop plane as though extruded through it. The crystalline forms of a new winter garden greenhouse and studio spaces add to the impression of the roof garden as an elevated arts playground that beckons passers-by to come up and view the old streetscape from fresh perspectives.

CLIENT PHI | ARCHITECT TEAM Kuehn Malvezzi—Johannes Kuehn, Simona Malvezzi, Wilfried Kuehn, Johannes Wigand, Robert Elert, Raquel Torres, Janis Kaisinger. Pelletier de Fontenay—Hubert Pelletier, Yves De Fontenay, Yann Gay-Crosier, Alexis Deleporte, Julien Beauchamp. Jodoin Lamarre Pratte—Nicolas Ranger, Ariane Latendresse | LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT Atelier Le Balto | STRUCTURAL/CIVIL Latéral Conseil | MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL Dupras Ledoux | MULTIMEDIA Trizart Alliance Inc. | DEEP FOUNDATIONS Substructur expert-conseil | HERITAGE DFS Inc. | SUSTAINABLE DESIGN AND BUILDING CLIMATE Transsolar Canada Inc. | AREA 6,900 m2 | BUDGET $47.3 M | STATUS Design Development | ANTICIPATED COMPLETION 2026

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WINNER OF A 2022 CANADIAN ARCHITECT AWARD OF MERIT

“This project represents a simple adoration of a by-gone era with an appropriate level of adornment. The syncopation of the fenestration in the intervention pays recognition to the past, referencing the old brick façade, and yet the project still manages a degree of autonomy, important for a hopeful and different future. The simplicity of the project, including the understated furnishings and interior detail, are appropriate: they do not betray the history of the place, yet offer a level of finesse fitting for the intended users of the Ateliers. Delightful without kitsch.” – Peter Hargraves, juror

Located inside the brick-and-steel shell of the Locoshop Building’s southern portion, Les Ateliers Angus offers an imaginative transformation of a decommissioned industrial site in Montreal. 

The Angus Shops complex, once part of the railway network originally run by Canadian Pacific Railway, consists of several buildings used for manufacturing train components. This includes the Locoshop Building, an industrial shed that has since been converted into studios, offices, and stores. The linearity and rhythmic nature of the railway operations inspired the addition of a project running parallel to the historic façade’s massive brick wall. 

Les Ateliers Angus is a series of craft studios, made of twelve lightweight units assembled in a continuous strip. In keeping with the historic use of the site, the project accommodates light-industrial uses by professional artisans, from cabinetmakers to potters. The studios front a large, open-air hall, activating it as a public space. 

Each 56-square-metre unit includes a semi-public space on the ground floor for exhibitions, paired with a private mezzanine loft. A large, operable skylight brings in diffuse daylight and allows for natural ventilation. Units can be combined to maximize flexibility for occupants. Facing the public hall, floor-to-ceiling glazing transforms the studios into a series of tableaux vivants, showcasing the activities within and inviting a spontaneous theatricality. 

The proposal includes the conversion of the existing parking area, facing the new Ateliers, into public space. The new workshops will be built alongside the freestanding brick wall; from the south, views are framed by the façades of both the existing and new structures. The space in-between new and old will be animated by people coming and going.

As the interior programming establishes itself, the project will evolve into a new cultural destination. The commercial spaces, workshops, open-air events and exhibition areas will create a strong sense of place, informed by the distinct history of this Montreal neighbourhood. The texture, materiality and strong geometric lines of the addition yield a fresh but grounded take on Angus Shops’ rich industrial heritage.

CLIENT Société de développement Angus | ARCHITECT TEAM Gil Hardy, Charles Laurence Proulx, Maxime Déom, Pascal Labelle | AREA 680 m2 | BUDGET $2.6 M | STATUS Design Development | ANTICIPATED COMPLETION Spring 2024

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WINNER OF A 2022 CANADIAN ARCHITECT AWARD OF MERIT

“The project proposes a well-designed urban solution to the housing problem. The vibrant mix of forms and uses would create a strong community feeling. Bringing back the traditional Montreal alley as a pedestrian space is a strong solution, tying together the different parts and providing a playful environment. The relatively low-volume massing should help with sun penetration and mitigate wind.” – Louis Lemay, juror

Montreal’s Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve borough is about to become a lot more populous. On multiple mega-blocks in the shadow of the former Olympic Stadium’s looming, leaning mast—a constant reminder of the dangers of thinking big without thinking things through—several major residential/mixed-use redevelopments are underway.

One of these, Canoë by developer Rachel Julien, designed by Aedifica and ADHOC architectes, comprises approximately 650 condominium units, 200 rental units and 158 social housing units, in tandem with at least 5,600 square metres of retail space. Its mix includes 20% community housing, 20% rental housing and a wide range of family-centric affordable housing units. The Canoë team’s two main strategies for thinking smart while thinking big are inclusive, pedestrian-priority urbanism and a holistic approach to a new neighbourhood’s resource management and energy consumption.

Residential buildings of three to twelve storeys are organized around Canoë’s Allée des Artistes, a pedestrian street that slices through the site on a diagonal. Amenities directly bordering this promenade include multiple art galleries and an artists’ workshop, six playgrounds, a grocery store, a gym, multi-purpose space, and co-working space. Other on-site features are a pharmacy, a day care and several coffee shops. 

Along one edge of Canoë’s site, 10% of the land will be developed as a linear park. Multiple courtyards and green roofs provide additional respite in a development that will concentrate a large supply of new housing units near two metro stations. A variety of circulation routes helps ensure that multiple speeds and modes of travel—on foot, on a bike, in a car—can be integrated safely and harmoniously. 

The varying heights and diverse footprints of Canoë’s buildings are a starting point for endowing an entirely new development with some of the variety of a cityscape that has evolved over time. Along l’Allée des Artistes, façades are bevelled at the street edges to reduce massing and shading; varying this faceting from one building to the next adds animation to this activity-oriented corridor. Meanwhile, the materiality acknowledges that facing a street is a very different condition from facing a courtyard. The “public” façades will have mineral and masonry cladding that complements the colour and materials palette of the surrounding blocks. On courtyard-oriented façades, a light metal cladding will help compensate for more limited exposure to natural light.

The developer has partnered with Énergir to integrate renewable energy sources and thermal energy redistribution initiatives into an infrastructural loop that targets a 60% reduction in energy consumption and at minimum an 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, compared with conventional developments. In addition to increasingly common technologies such as a geothermal system and the preheating and precooling of ventilated air, sustainability strategies include heat recovery from grey water, recovering remaining energy from electric vehicles via reversible terminals, and even collecting energy generated by humans exercising on gym equipment such as stationary bikes. As well, members of Canoë’s community will have opportunities to grow some of their own food and support a beekeeping program.

CLIENT Rachel Julien | ARCHITECT TEAM Aedifica— Alain Bergeron, Hugues Daly, Amélie Lessard, Benoit Laurion. ADHOC—Jean-François St-Onge, Anik Malderis, François Martineau, Pascale Jetté | STRUCTURAL Leroux + Cyr | MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL Bouthillette Parizeau | CIVIL Marchand Houle | LANDSCAPE Bao Nguyen | AREA 90,000 m2 | BUDGET $400 M | STATUS Design Development | ANTICIPATED COMPLETION 2023-2029

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WINNER OF A 2022 CANADIAN ARCHITECT AWARD OF MERIT

“With poetry as its inspiration, the rhythm of structure and light envelops spaces that enrich and celebrate the history and soul of the community. Housing a diverse and changing program over multiple floors, this sustainable building becomes a place of learning and exploration while promoting the importance of light, health and wellness through its architecture.” – Betsy Williamson, juror 

“You must inhabit the space where you find yourself, with its faces and its landscapes, its particular rhythms, and the ancient dream of transplantation, because man is a tree that walks.” – Dany Laferrière, Haitian-Canadian author  

The Bibliothèque et Centre culturel du Coeur-Nomade is a new-generation library and cultural centre that will showcase the largest collection of Caribbean and Afro-Canadian literature in North America. Referring to a story by celebrated Haitian-Canadian author Dany Laferrière, the name Coeur-Nomade evokes a place of passage where people of diverse backgrounds converge. Laferrière and Quebec poet Pierre Nepveu served as inspirations throughout the design process. 

Montreal North is one of the poorest urban districts in Canada.  More than half of the population identifies with a visible minority and immigrants from Haiti, the Maghreb, and Latin America make up more than 40 per cent of residents. 

Current political discourse in Quebec suffers from a stagnant debate between multiculturalism and nationalism. Pierre Nepveu has imagined a third way—a type of altruistic pluralism that celebrates, as he writes, ‘’the capacity of poetry to support the profound nature of democratic citizenship’’ and that posits the inclusion of difference as the fundamental role of democracy. The design team avidly debated the issue of cultural appropriation: what does it mean for a group of privileged architects to design a cultural centre for a community with considerably less agency?  

Before it congealed into a recognizable aesthetic in the 1960s and 70s, Brutalism had a social mission. Coeur-Nomade revisits both the social and formal dimensions of Brutalism and updates this vision with Pierre Nepveu’s idea of geographic proximity as a generator of identity. Harnessing Brutalism’s basic tenet of collaborating with end-users at an intensely local level, the architects assembled a project team rooted in the literary and artistic community of Montreal North. 

Facing the city with assurance, the urban shell of Coeur-Nomade protects a flexible, intimate, and brightly lit interior. At once an energy-efficient envelope, an acknowledgement of historic Montreal architecture and a nod to the Brutalist aesthetic, this front elevation is a key element of the building’s image. Evoking the animistic spirituality generated by Dany Laferrière’s weaving together of earth, trees, and mankind, a dynamic colonnade barely touches the sidewalk. Perched on elegant legs, Coeur-Nomade appears ready to travel the world. The library is a tree that walks.

Coeur-Nomade is designed so that the citizens of Montreal North recognize themselves in their library. The welcome begins with an inviting layout that recalls familiar places, such as the lush tropical vegetation of the winter garden, public spaces defined by earthy colours, and abundant natural light. The program is organized by a simple stacking of functions that fills the complete zoning envelope. The public moves between floors following an artistic circuit anchored by a mural in the entry hall, and segueing into thematic sections for digital arts, African sculpture, and Nordicity, as well as display cases for the Caribbean and Afro-Canadian collection.

CLIENT Ville de Montréal | ARCHITECT TEAM Gavin Affleck (FRAIC),  Richard de la Riva,  César Herrera, Mylène Moliner-Roy, Lucas Cormier-Affleck, Diego Diaz Bolaños, William LeBlanc, Florence Dallaire, Cédric Grossi, Giovanna Andaluz | STRUCTURAL/CIVIL ARUP—Steven Cerri, Charles Ormsby | MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL Martin Roy | LANDSCAPE François Courville | ART CONSULTANTS Guy Mushagalusa Chigoho, Benz DeBrosse | AREA 5,120 m2 | BUDGET $25.5 M | STATUS Design Development | ANTICIPATED COMPLETION November 2025

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WINNER OF A 2022 CANADIAN ARCHITECT AWARD OF MERIT

“A modest building that defies the simplicity of its expression with rigorous sectional development. The sinuous flow of spaces allows the building to work both as an art museum and as a hub for the community, blending the abstraction of the volumes with the richness of the forest. The quiet and controlled palette of natural materials nods to minimalism, while anticipating the patina that will begin to merge the building with its surroundings.” – Betsy Williamson, juror 

Hornby Island lies off the coast of central Vancouver Island, on the unceded territories of the K’ómoks First Nation and Pentlatch Peoples. Its 30 square kilometres of forest, slate beaches, and sandstone beaches have made it a longstanding pilgrimage site for artists, potters, architects, and back-to-the-landers. Its unique building culture is rooted in a “peasant palette” of inexpensive local materials and hand-trowelled stucco over stacked split firewood logs. For over 20 years, the Hornby Island Arts Council has been fundraising for a new building to bring cultural programming under one roof for this community of 1,200 permanent residents and 5,000 summer residents. 

The Hornby Island Arts Centre is sited on a plateau in a small forest clearing, a space already used for music events and poetry readings. Surrounded by fir trees but still visible from the main road, the new building will attract visitors and locals alike. Originally envisioned as an art gallery, the Centre has evolved to encompass a broader reach within the community. As the first new public building on the island in nearly 40 years, it must offer something to everyone. It will operate as a gathering space: a place to host movie nights, dances, art shows, yoga classes, potlucks, performances, lectures, and more. 

To do so, the Centre is an agglomeration of interior spaces with varying spatial and light qualities. During the day, its rough white stucco will shimmer in the forest, while at night, the warm glow from its interior lighting will filter through the trees, illuminating the paths that wind around the building. The cladding is made of 3.7-metre-tall fence posts that wrap around the floating roof’s soft corners, turning inward and narrowing to draw attention to the large wooden pivot door of the main entrance. 

The roof’s prefabricated trusses are sized to fit on the small ferry that services the island. In the gallery, these trusses are curved to accommodate a large south-facing clerestory window. Operable windows allow the space to be naturally cooled.  

The building’s geometry aligns a new community classroom with the main walking trail and the bustling outdoor farmer’s market. A long semi-circular wood bench anchors the outdoor gathering space, creating a forum for storytelling and restful contemplation.

CLIENT Hornby Island Arts Council | ARCHITECT TEAM D’Arcy Jones (MRAIC, design lead), Jonny Leger (project lead), Shane Hauser (renderings), Derek Krasnodembski (renderings), Luis Yanez Hernandez (site model), Melody Chen (plaster model) | STRUCTURAL Wicke Herfst Maver Structural Engineers—Dan Wicke, Thomas Van Wermeskerken | MECHANICAL AME Consulting Group—Cassidy Taylor, Leif Watson | ELECTRICAL RB Engineering Ltd.—Clayton Skinner | CODE McAuley Consulting—Tavis McAuley | GEOTECH Ryzuk Geotechnical— Christian Flanagan | AREA 427 m2 | BUDGET Withheld | STATUS Construction Documents | ANTICIPATED COMPLETION Fall 2023

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WINNER OF A 2022 CANADIAN ARCHITECT AWARD OF MERIT

“The project is about reconciliation more than celebrating pain. It is remarkable at different levels. The choice of the location—in the heart of what was once the Jewish community—is appropriate. The volumes interpret the heritage of St. Laurent Boulevard by modulating the massing, and the project democratizes the museum functions by opening the building to the street. The outdoor landscaped garden is a fine solution to provide natural light, vegetation and quietness. The transparency and the subtle play of natural light enhance the quality of the interior spaces and the visitor’s experience.” – Louis Lemay, juror

Founded in 1979, the Montreal Holocaust Museum launched an international design competition in 2021 for a purpose-built home. The site, on St. Laurent Boulevard (“The Main”) is in the heart of what was Montreal’s largest Jewish immigrant community in the first half of the 20th century—and where many successive newcomer populations have since put down Canadian roots. The new museum bears witness to the Holocaust and the nearly 10,000 Holocaust survivors who found refuge in Montreal shortly after the Second World War. It also recalls the massing of the old storefronts and walk-ups that lined St. Laurent Boulevard in the decades when the area was the city’s Jewish Quarter.

Several narrow buildings—typical in their massing for this neighbourhood—previously occupied the site. The former lot lines are expressed as narrow, glazed and skylit voids incised through the museum, from St. Laurent Boulevard to the south to St. Dominique Street to the north. The museum is highly transparent at grade along St. Laurent, with views through an open reception area, named the Agora, to a courtyard garden planted with birch trees, and into the museum’s bookstore, café, and multipurpose room. In contrast with the clearly public ground floor, the galleries on the upper two floors are inward-focused spaces: closed off from the street and clad in grey Quebec limestone, they quietly direct attention to the artifacts and information panels they contain, while also offering courtyard and rooftop garden views as a respite.

Near the main entrance, an external forecourt is framed by the Wall of Memory, a major organizing element that extends through the ground floor in successive sections, passing through indoor and outdoor spaces. Inscribed into the wall are quotations and the names of annihilated Jewish communities. Another section of the Wall of Memory divides the garden courtyard from an interior commemoration space that faces toward a smaller courtyard containing a solitary birch tree, emerging from a water mirror. Narrow ledges on the Memory Wall’s commemoration space side offer places where museum-goers can place small stones, the customary token of remembrance left by visitors to Jewish gravesites. 

Central to the museum’s design is the concept of nature as a counterbalance to horror. In addition to the garden views encountered throughout the building, the narrow lot-line voids, with their transparent flooring insets aligned below roof-level skylights, bring shafts of natural light into the building that wax and wane in accordance with the weather and time of day. 

A combination of structural steel framing and simple rectilinear volumes helps ensure that this project’s schedule and budgetary constraints can be met. It also maximizes the openness of the ground floor: suspending the volumes above the agora from trusses makes possible an expansive, column-free reception area that invites visitors into the museum. “The Museum must be a welcoming, inclusive space that speaks to resilience and hope,” the design team states, “even while addressing one of our darkest histories, a catalyst for change and for social justice.”

CLIENT Montreal Holocaust Museum | ARCHITECT TEAM KPMB Architects—Shirley Blumberg (FRAIC), Paulo Rocha, Nick Choi, Devorah Miller. Daoust Lestage Lizotte Stecker Architecture— Renée Daoust (FRAIC), Rachel Stecker, Lucie Bibeau, Anthony Bouchard, Dominique Morin-Robitaille, Marie-Josée Gagnon. Special Advisors—Robert Jan van Pelt, Sherry Simon | STRUCTURAL/MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL Tetra Tech | SUSTAINABILITY JMV Consulting—Joshua Monk Vanwyck | COST GLT+ | AREA 4,180 m2 | BUDGET $33.5 M | STATUS Design Development | ANTICIPATED COMPLETION 2025

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WINNER OF A 2022 CANADIAN ARCHITECT AWARD OF MERIT

“This exploration of a housing typology is an excellent response to issues of climate change, life-work balance, housing security, urban form, and inflation. The design ambition of addressing these issues with a response that is sublime is ambitious. Especially notable are the scale of the project, the interplay of materials in the façade treatment, the careful planning on a small site with options for a variety of unit designs, and the careful design of the building section to use light and material within the building. All work together to establish a sanctuary of calm, away from the loud world beyond the highly insulated shell of the duplex.”  – Peter Hargraves, juror

Passiv(doppler)haus in Search of the Sublime is a duplex designed to evoke the concepts of sanctuary and resilience by harnessing the calming character of Zen and the awe-inspiring essence of the Sublime. 

The property is located in Toronto’s Riverside neighbourhood, on a street with mature trees and a variety of low-rise housing, from Confederation-era bungalows to three-storey contemporary townhomes. The site originally contained an 1860s cottage-style bungalow near the end of its lifespan. The wedge-shaped massing of the new building responds to zoning requirements and site context, reflecting the different heights of the neighbouring homes. 

The concept of the Sublime is invoked through the home’s sense of mystery and depth. One steps into a grounded entryway of earthy materials, such as clay tile and artisanal plaster. The subdued light proceeds to brighten upwards as light flows from a central skylight. The striated and interlocked forms speak to the multi-unit typology common in the neighbourhood, and clearly articulated in the bifurcated façade of this duplex. The materiality of the lower and upper units also establishes the tonal, earthy palette. A brick base speaks to Toronto’s historic building vernacular, while the upper unit is clad with 2×2 vertical wood slats, thermo-treated and fire-resistant, distinguishing it from its lower neighbour and providing a sense of warmth to the façade. 

This home is designed to be Passive House Certified. The windows and skylights are triple- or quadruple-glazed, and the roof angle has been calibrated in accordance with a solar analysis of the ideal angle for photovoltaic panels. The operational energy emissions are substantially reduced through the integration of an airtight envelope, extra-thick insulation, minimal thermal bridges, Passive House-certified windows and doors, and a controlled ventilation system to provide effective heating and cooling.

The house is nestled close to its southern neighbour to allow for the possibility of a future driveway, limiting openings on the south façade. However, extra glazing for northern light is incorporated by sloping a large glass plane above the stairway—angled just enough to count as a roof instead of a wall.

CLIENT Withheld | ARCHITECT TEAM Eric Tse  | STRUCTURAL Passive House One | MECHANICAL ZON Engineering | PASSIVE HOUSE CERTIFIER RDH Building Sciences | AREA 208 m2 | BUDGET Withheld | STATUS Under construction | ANTICIPATED COMPLETION Spring 2023

THERMAL ENERGY DEMAND INTENSITY (TEDI) 14.6 kWh/m2/year | AIRTIGHTNESS 0.6 ACH | PRIMARY ENERGY RENEWABLE (PER)  53 kWh/m2/year 

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WINNER OF A 2022 CANADIAN ARCHITECT STUDENT AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

“The project is an interesting experiment in optimizing renewable resources, paired with a study of potential assembly systems. The idea of transforming and using different components of wood to create diverse kinds of enclosures is very appropriate to the generation of sustainable architecture.” – Louis Lemay, juror

Since the industrial revolution, Western building systems have relied on a static understanding of materials and a false sense of control. This often results in muted uniformity and a material system incompatible with the natural dynamic of the environment. What happens when we align our industrialized building paradigms more closely to the patterns of natural systems? 

Herrling Island is the last undiked island within the Fraser River in British Columbia. This project invites the chaos and behaviour of natural systems to guide the design and construction process. By working with chaos, vulnerability, and improvisation, it aims to discover an architecture that is more flexible, active, and effective in addressing contemporary problems. 

The large-scale clearcutting of Herrling Island’s native cottonwood forest has devastated the local ecosystem. This restoration proposition relies on both land-based and water-based interventions, with structures built with wood sourced from the black cottonwood trees already harvested from the island. 

The interventions will be built with unrefined and non-standard components. Traditionally, cottonwood trees are not suitable for construction due to the wood’s tendency to warp and bend during the drying process. But the lumber can be rough cut and processed by hand in ways that respond to this wood’s unique characteristics.

A weir—the low barrier that controls the flow of water in rivers—has served in Indigenous culture to sustainably manage fish stocks; contemporary weirs are used to count the annual salmon run, assess the health of the stocks, and collect other scientific data. The weir proposed for this project blends historic Indigenous and contemporary western methodologies. 

The weir also serves as a pedestrian bridge to the island. It is designed so that each spawning season, the main holding pens, platforms, and fishing fence will be rebuilt by the community and serve as a land-based learning activity. 

To supplement the weir, a wet-lab structure will accommodate workers and visitors during spawning season. The removal of vegetation from the edge of the island channel has affected critical animal habitats, and compromised the island’s natural erosion resistance. To aid in their restoration, each layered component of the wet lab mirrors the functions of its natural counterpart. Instead of a structure that explicitly defines the boundaries of humans and nature, the architecture invites nature to reclaim its territory. 

In response to the mass clearcutting that has damaged the island, dynamic netted tripod structures across the seasonally flooded area will nurture the vegetation and provide temporary habitat for young fish fry and birds. 

The field lab acts as a home base for all land restoration efforts. The massing and articulation of the structure are inspired by lumber stacks and log cabins. The thickness of the lumber counteracts the unstable nature of cottonwood, stabilizing the structure without any fasteners. The elevated walkway creates a vantage point for mapping and surveying the land, especially during the flooding season. As the forest regrows, the walkway will allow visitors to stroll under the tree canopy.

Advisor: Lancelot Coar 

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WINNER OF A 2022 CANADIAN ARCHITECT STUDENT AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

“The translation of material into space is a fundamental tool of architecture. Loom to Room works between digital models and craft. It pairs computational tools with ancient material practices that are literally mediated by the hand of the architect. It creates an unconventional tectonic language, using one material, through which to describe changing spaces, thresholds and openings.” – Betsy Williamson, juror

From Loom to Room investigates the spatial, conceptual, and performative possibilities of weaving in three dimensions and its potential integration within the built environment. It is a study of how to translate material into space, movement into form, and design into collaboration. 

Historically, weaving has provided an occasion to gather generations together. It is a shared activity, traditionally done by women. Today, feminist scholarship recognizes the important role of these weavers within our cultural history. The repetitive interlacing of thread to make fabric is a form-generating process, transforming time into material. This inspires the question: how does the action of “making” inform and respond to design intentions? 

To understand the relevance of this gendered labour in architecture, Naomi Julien set off to weave an entire room. To accomplish this, she moved back and forth between digital and analog design processes. She began by using a rigid two-metre-wide maple cube as the frame, then scored all twelve edges of the cube equally on each side and chose a highly elastic synthetic blend for the thread. She connected edges together by transforming lines into surfaces, networks into patterns, and layers into obstacles. 

Julien used parametric design to test possible thread intersections, and computational tools to script the logical sequence of the weave. This sequence generated a weave that simulates bodily movement and transcends the loom itself. On further iterations, the warp and weft began to articulate a series of emerging openings, intersections, thresholds, and passages. Together, they challenge our preconceptions about spatial boundaries, agency in design, and materiality. Each thread expresses a negotiation between outside and inside, beauty and use, private and public, art and design. 

While this research does not propose an alternative to rigid building structures, weaving of this type could subdivide interior spaces by creating semi-transparent partitions, or connect building façades with filamentary canopies. Weaving can promote the engagement of people with the built environment, where a form comes into existence as the embodiment of a rhythmic collective movement.

Advisor: Theodora Vardouli 

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WINNER OF A 2022 CANADIAN ARCHITECT STUDENT AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

“The jury members were required to check their abhorrence at a future in which humans merely become cogs in a machine that grinds through product and waste in a cycle of existence that doesn’t result in much hope. This student clearly had the courage to explore a future, based on present trajectories, that point towards a dystopia which seems disagreeable from the perspective of the spirit of humanity. The work is evocative: subversive while remaining rigorous in the response to what this might all mean. The drawings and illustrations were complete and comprehensive, allowing for appropriate critique.” – Peter Hargraves, juror

The suburbs are made possible by sprawling systems of resource extraction, infrastructure, and shipping. The outputs of these systems are accumulated and assembled into recognizable symbols of suburban culture. 

But the industrial roots of suburbia are obscured by the separation between industry and other suburban typologies. Landscapes of production and landscapes of consumption are kept culturally and physically distant. This is evident in Bowmanville, Ontario, where a large industrial waterfront is separated from the communities it supports and impacts by an infrastructural buffer zone. 

This thesis proposes a new typology: a community that merges industry and domesticity, melding their iconography together and making industrial systems visible. Here, we can learn what it means to live with industry, through flattening landscapes of consumption and landscapes of production. The proposal, Subindustria, is a bio-mechanical community designed for a strip of land between the Bowmanville cement plant and Highway 401.

Subindustria’s residents live in superstructures, oriented around a central bio-materials factory. This facility processes hemp, mushroom and thatch grown in the surrounding community and transforms them into viable building materials, such as hempcrete and mycelium wall panels. The infrastructure and industrial systems that construct the houses become a direct extension of it, resulting in one continuous system that blurs industry and domesticity. 

All of Subindustria is elevated. By raising it off the ground, it refuses to engage with zoning by-laws or land-use policy. This upward shift also opens up large swaths of land underneath to be claimed by nature, enjoyed by the community, or used as productive agricultural land. Each superstructure module sits above a hemp field. It can roll aside to provide sunlight as needed, with a system of mirrors drawing in light throughout the day. Mushroom farms are located underneath the module’s street. People, resources and waste are transported to and from the module along a central spine, aligning flows of materials with flows of people. 

The design of each house is a subversion of a typical Bowmanville home. Their unique character merges bio-materials, suburban construction, and the celebration of mechanical systems. Each house includes a series of flexible indoor-outdoor rooms and verandas, clad in mycelium panels. The project blurs the line between where houses end and the machine begins.

Advisor: Blair Satterfield

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WINNER OF A 2022 CANADIAN ARCHITECT PHOTO AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

“There is an aura of mystery encompassing this image. The scene is very cinematic, with its characters in action, and the fog that gently envelops the whole space. Something seems about to happen! The building rises like a character too. And then, the balance between the colours is just perfect.” – Félix Michaud, juror

The Dory Shop in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, was constructed in the late 1890s for storing fish and salt. The shop is now used to build dories—wooden boats made to traditional Nova Scotian designs.

This image is one of a series I made last year on behalf of architect Brian MacKay-Lyons. The language, craft and construction techniques of Nova Scotia’s vernacular architecture—fish sheds, boat houses, farm barns and others—have been a constant muse for the contemporary practice of the Mackay-Lyons Sweetapple studio.

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WINNER OF A 2022 CANADIAN ARCHITECT PHOTO AWARD OF MERIT

“I like this idea of showing a building in a temporary state, an unfinished process. This image creates a mysterious and soothing atmosphere.” – Félix Michaud, juror

I drove past this site many times before committing to document it. Each time I passed, I found myself drawn to the condition of a hard building covered by a soft blanket; it wasn’t until this day that the weather allowed me to make the frame that fit my imagined narrative. Within an image that could be reasonably interpreted as sad, or bland, or cold and lifeless, I enjoy the subtlety of the muted tones, the bright reflections off the snow, and the honesty of the frame.

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WINNER OF A 2022 CANADIAN ARCHITECT PHOTO AWARD OF MERIT

“Very soothing, conducive to contemplation. The path leads us to a figure who also seems to be in a contemplative state. The eye is constantly redirected inward. It twirls around, like the butterflies, here and there. This structure is imposing, but seems so light at the same time.” – Félix Michaud, juror 

A visit to Montreal’s new Insectarium is an enchanting journey of discovery, where the line between built and natural space is intriguingly dissolved. 

A labyrinth of immersive underground chambers experienced from an insect’s point of view leads to a grand tomb-like dome adorned with butterflies and bugs. The metamorphosis for the visitor ends in the grand Vivarium, pictured here. 

The photograph is from a series I was commissioned to make by the project architects, Berlin’s Kuehn Malvezzi and Montreal’s Pelletier de Fontenay with Jodoin Lamarre Pratte. 

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