V O LV. Volume#02. news: spring/summer content. 01 Director s Message 02 News & Announcements 04 Academic news

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1 McGILL SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE Volume#02 news: spring/summer 2009 content 01 Director s Message 02 News & Announcements 04 Academic news 05 Research 06 Faculty news 07 Alumni Features 09 Alumni Features 10 Alumni Exhibition: Call for Submissions E V O LV E

2 Director s Message The academic year was an all-around intense and fruitful period in the life of the School. Several initiatives begun prior to the fall term have been accomplished and others continue to move forward. New programs and courses are in place and are fully subscribed. The number and quality of admissions applications were overwhelming and a new cohort is in place for International competitions were won and the student work was of the highest quality for all program offerings. The most significant transformation comes in the form of the restructuring of curricula and program offerings in the Master of Architecture Professional program for They are described below and were advertised in November prior to application deadlines. The response and demand were overwhelming. We believe the changes open up new possibilities for meaningful research in a professional program while reaffirming our commitment to designbased inquiry and training of architects. The leveraging of graduate theory and history courses from the post-professional program within the professional program provides an opportunity found in only a handful of schools across North America and is a one-of-a-kind possibility in Canada. Additionally, a new post-professional option Cultural Mediations and Technology will commence in to better reflect research and scholarship priorities in contemporary theory, digital media and technology. In addition to new program offerings, we are in the process of constructing an area of concentration provisionally entitled Architectural and Environmental Practices. We intend to formally mount this new area in and for it to be an innovative and fundamental rethinking of issues around sustainability and the contemporary built environment. Key to this effort is a faculty search for a position in Integrative Design and Environmental Practices. We are looking to reinvigorate our commitment to building technologies and engineering as well as to take a unique, critically informed, and leading role in current debates around sustainability, the environment, and integrative design practices. With the mounting of this area and commensurate curricular adjustments, the School s defined areas of expertise and concentration for the graduate programs will be well rounded and comprehensive: the History and Theory of Architecture; Cultural Mediations and Technology; Urban Design and Housing; and the aforementioned Architectural and Environmental Practices. The number and quality of applications for the academic year were at an all-time high and deliberations were extremely difficult. Demand was great for every program, from undergraduate to PhD. Admittance to the Professional program could not have been more competitive for an extremely limited amount of spots (52 BSc; 42 Master of Architecture). This is more than the projected target enrolment and stretches the School s space and resources to the maximum but the faculty agreed that it was something we must accommodate for this upcoming year in the face of current pressures on our students. The uptake for offers was effectively 100% and the waiting lists were comprised of applicants with external funding and CGPA that most departments and other Schools would accept unconditionally. We expect the demand only to increase with the further implementation of the strategic plan and continuing curriculum and program renewal. The intention is to create an extremely provocative and adventurous educational environment with leading-edge resources and expertise. In this way we will provide the greatest opportunity for scholarship and growth for these evidently best-of-class students. Success in this endeavour is of course integrally tied to development efforts, obtaining research funding, and University and Faculty support which are continually being pursued. The strategic plan includes securing resources for the addition of: _ program and studio enhancement endowments for field trips, visiting critics, and special projects; _ a full term Study Abroad program at the graduate level; _ teaching support endowments such as architectin-residence positions, visiting scholar fellowships, and chairs and professorships; _ student fellowships and scholarships; _ capital upgrades and expansion of design studios, research space, computing and fabrication facilities; _ support for two primary research units: the Facility for Architectural Research in Media and Mediation (FARMM) and the City Design Atelier (CDA). The School received significant endowments and gifts this year with a modest increase in the Alma Mater Fund. The generous support we receive from alumni and friends allows us to augment several very important activities. The students and faculty are grateful for this generosity, and continued support is paramount to our future development as a pre-eminent international school of architecture. Two endowments secured this year are particularly noteworthy as they are simultaneously generous and transformative. The most recent is the Michael Fieldman Studio Enhancement Endowment Fund. This is a highly nimble resource that will allow an upper-level studio to incorporate and respond to opportunities and experiences for all students in that particular complement. The goal is to establish like endowments for all design years and graduate programs including the PhD. It is a paradigmatic endowment in that it allows true enhancement to the School and the education we are able to offer, thus maintaining our competitive edge. It significantly raises the educational experience for all students by providing dynamic activities and encounters within the studio from the outside. The second is the highly prestigious Schulich Fellowships as announced in Volume 1. This directfunded endowment is shared with the School of Urban Planning and supports five PhD students at $25,000/ year each. Schulich Fellows are among the most prestigious graduate fellowships to hold in Canadian universities in medicine, business, music, and now, architecture. It enables us to attract top students in the highly competitive PhD arena. Congratulations to the 2009/10 winners! On behalf of the School and University, I would like to express our sincere gratitude to Michael Fieldman, BArch 63, and to Seymour Schulich, BSc 61, MBA 65. There are several other announcements that follow in more detail, such as the School s involvement in the new Institute for the Public Life of Arts and Ideas initiative. Congratulations to Professor Ricardo Castro as one of iplai s initial resident Fellows. Welcome back to the Shaver Scholars and thank you to Adjunct Professor Robert Claiborne for mentoring this year s study abroad. Congratulations to the 14 U3 students who were finalists and the six winners in the Billes Architecture Home Design Competition. Thank you to Paul Laurendeau, BArch 91, and Masa Noguchi, PhD 04, for their effort and contributions to the Alumni Feature section. I would also like to thank and recognize Tamzyn Berman (Atelier Pastille Rose) for her organizational and graphic design work on Volume, the lecture series posters, student work catalogue, and the David J. Azrieli Lecture in Architecture publication. She received a Grafika Graphic Design Award in the category of Print Media/Cultural Poster/Series for the graphic design of the School of Architecture lecture series posters for Finally, congratulations to all of our 2009 graduates and their families. Editor s Note Welcome to the spring 2009 edition of Volume from McGill s School of Architecture! For those of you who did not receive our inaugural issue in a timely manner, we apologize for technical difficulties we experienced with delayed or misdirected mailings and in this regard we hope things have finally been sorted out. You can access Volume I of the newsletter online at: Alumni Profiles / Exhibition In the current issue, we present new full-page features profiling the work of School of Architecture alumni. I would call your attention to the Alumni Exhibition that will be held in the architecture exhibition room at the end of October 2009 in conjunction with Homecoming Weekend activities. We hope all McGill School of Architecture alumni will participate in the exhibition even if it is not possible to attend Homecoming. We have developed guidelines and a template (see below) you can use if you care to arrange your own text and graphics for the exhibition. If you don t have time for the graphic design and layout of text and graphics on your template, please send us some photos and text and we will be pleased to include you in the exhibition. If possible, please submit your information using FTP (File Transfer Protocol). FTP instructions / software links can be found at: Alternatively, you may send your information (text, images) directly to School of Architecture staff member Carrie Henzie. She is also available to assist with any technical issues or questions you may have (carrie.henzie@mcgill.ca). You may also download the exhibition template from the site below. Just right click on the compressed file and download it to your computer. #02 Request for News Please send us news of your activities, projects, and awards, as well as any suggestions you may have for improving the newsletter! Alumni Contact Information Web Page: If you would like to update your contact information, please visit Sincerely, Robert Mellin, RCA, FRAIC Associate Professor Exhibition Guidelines: Text: 500 words, with a brief biography, followed by a more detailed description of your activities after graduation from McGill (further studies, teaching, research, practice, projects, awards, community service). Describe your most significant work(s), and to conclude, please share memories of your architecture studies while at McGill s School of architecture. Images: 300dpi, 5 x 7 max. colour or grayscale jpg images with either portrait or landscape orientation. Please send us a photo of yourself, and four images (drawings or photos) of your projects. Contact information: send your mailing address, address, and the address of your web page so we can display this information on your panel. your name here your image here Practice Nulla vitae nulla massa, at molestie massa. Nullam laoreet convallis velit, eget ornare orci placerat quis. Praesent ut mauris et metus rhoncus congue. Integer aliquam, purus at sollicitudin tristique, augue lectus laoreet turpis, vitae adipiscing felis sem sit amet turpis. Suspendisse potenti. Nullam ac ultrices magna. Nunc est lorem, imperdiet sodales rutrum id, venenatis non metus. Maecenas at augue ut erat blandit vehicula quis ac eros. Praesent eget eros dignissim neque tempus porttitor. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Projects Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nulla eget est nec tortor posuere congue. Suspendisse vel diam eu sem egestas placerat. Fusce porttitor vulputate auctor. Etiam quis massa quam, at congue justo. Mauris auctor dignissim elementum. Pellentesque tortor tellus, ultricies at mattis sed, sodales nec enim. Phasellus lobortis malesuada sollicitudin. Vivamus at sem erat, quis lobortis ligula. Nam euismod elementum tortor, sed elementum enim interdum ut. Vivamus a magna nibh. In non nibh non urna placerat fermentum. Aliquam id augue quis nulla consequat commodo eu quis metus. Proin ante lacus, auctor a lobortis non, placerat vitae massa. Ut sed eros ac est condimentum porttitor. Donec mattis nisi ut leo aliquam auctor. Quisque arcu turpis, dictum et elementum pharetra, aliquam a urna. Duis euismod erat odio. Morbi sodales rhoncus enim condimentum ornare. Nam ac neque vitae sem vehicula rutrum. Proin in odio your image here elit, ac scelerisque nulla. Mauris sodales, massa vel euismod pharetra, nisl ante pellentesque neque, vel mattis tellus nibh sit amet nulla. Donec hendrerit porta tempus. Curabitur accumsan malesuada eros, nec dictum ante sodales et. Donec convallis elit non magna consequat tincidunt. Vestibulum semper, tortor sit amet scelerisque tincidunt, mi tortor elementum justo, a rutrum eros eros in libero. Sed tempus vulputate sem, a euismod augue eleifend ut. Phasellus dignissim volutpat iaculis. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos himenaeos. Ut sed nulla neque, eget venenatis enim. Quisque molestie, justo vestibulum euismod eleifend, enim turpis sollicitudin dolor, quis tincidunt lorem nunc vel ipsum. In gravida, neque condimentum convallis egestas, ipsum sapien convallis lectus, in pellentesque nunc lacus id turpis. Nulla vitae nulla massa, at molestie massa. Nullam laoreet convallis velit, eget ornare orci placerat quis. Praesent ut mauris Your Name (qualification, year) address line 1 address line 2 web site et metus rhoncus congue. Integer aliquam, purus at sollicitudin tristique, augue lectus laoreet turpis, vitae adipiscing felis sem sit amet turpis. Suspendisse potenti. Nullam ac ultrices magna. Nunc est lorem, imperdiet sodales rutrum id, venenatis non metus. Maecenas at augue ut erat blandit vehicula quis ac eros. Praesent eget eros dignissim neque tempus porttitor. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Morbi leo ligula, egestas id posuere ac, ultricies eget ipsum. Nulla eget libero magna. Proin tincidunt, magna et convallis adipiscing, neque mi porttitor lectus, vitae volutpat enim ligula eu turpis. Aenean in augue at nibh ultricies semper. Aliquam nec arcu id ipsum pretium rutrum et sed dui. Vivamus neque purus, condimentum et sollicitudin et, suscipit nec erat. Donec iaculis posuere justo sed sodales. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Aliquam mattis malesuada nibh a volutpat. Aliquam erat volutpat. Page#01 Volume#02 McGill School of Architecture

3 photo: Howard Davies news New Master of Architecture (Professional) Options In the 2009/10 academic year the School will be offering a new complement of Master of Architecture (Professional) options: Design Studio Coursework (45 credits) and Directed Research (60 credits). Option 1: The Master of Architecture Professional program Design Studio concentration requires a minimum of three terms (45 credits) for completion according to an intensive design studio-based curriculum. This option is a 3-term consecutive degree (Fall, Winter, Summer) requiring full-time residence for one calendar year. Option 2: The Master of Architecture Professional program Directed Research concentration is a fourterm (60-credit) option which, as a modified version of the regular three-term (45-credit) stream, remains a project-based investigation with an intensive research component. Candidates within this concentration option are assigned a faculty advisor and engage in project-based Directed Research through an approved curriculum. It concludes with a two-term final project that includes a written component to the projectbased investigation. Although not limited to the areas of concentration specific to the School, research will no doubt centre around the History and Theory of Architecture; Cultural Mediations and Technology; Urban Design and Housing; and Architectural and Environmental Practices. By offering the two options we will be more agile in addressing different capabilities and expectations of the variety of students that apply to McGill. In the Coursework option, more extensive professional experience is expected upon admission. This option concentrates the design studio education into one calendar year. For the first two terms all students are in the same courses and additional theory and critical thinking courses are found throughout. Both are CACB accredited degrees. The Directed Research option opens up new possibilities for meaningful research in a professional design-based program. The two primary changes in the DR option are the addition of core theory and graduate seminars and a two-term self-directed final project. The autonomy of a self-directed capstone project is an experience that cannot be underestimated in a professional education. It results in a confidence and intensity that allows the new professional to operate at a number of levels in a firm and take responsibility for a greater range of challenges. It is one where the student can pursue questions and passions that have inevitably come to the forefront after four-plus years of an architectural education. The addition of tested theory and graduate seminars to the professional curriculum capitalizes on internationally recognized expertise found in our postprofessional program. These are assets that McGill has at its disposal due to its broad and long-standing program offering. The additional seminars will provide greater integration of the two program streams (professional and post-professional) for a professional and scholarly outcome that sets the School apart globally. The enhanced programs will create a community of architectural professionals, scholars and researchers from undergraduate to PhD., and will offer the possibility of entering PhD-level studies subsequent to the Master of Architecture degree. These program changes will solidify the fundamental humanitiesbased foundation of the discipline and we eagerly anticipate the results. NUMBER02 Master of Architecture (Post-professional) Cultural Mediations and Technology option The Cultural Mediations and Technology concentration is concerned with the reciprocal nature of the intellectual and representational/generative models we construct and the lived world we inhabit. Candidates study the meaning of and the way in which architectural practices are mediated by the broader contexts in which they are rooted along with the way they in turn mediate our understanding of the built, cultural, social, technological and political environments. Studies focus on contemporary theory and cultural practices in an interdisciplinary context of architectural, artistic, vernacular and community-based activities. This concentration also investigates the impact of technology on our way of creating architectural models that subsequently shape and form the world. It capitalizes on the expertise of the architect-researcher to move freely between art and science, between content-based and empirical research, and to facilitate robust interdisciplinary teams of engineers, technologists, media artists and social scientists to understand, explain and create today s built environment. It is suited for those with a professional trajectory interested in understanding the impact of technologies on creative processes, as well as for those candidates who aim to pursue PhD level studies and research. The concentration offers the intertwining of intense theoretical and historical investigation with empirically-based project research that culminates in a Project Report. Drawing on methods in philosophy, architectural history, cultural geography, anthropology, media studies, psychology, social history, cultural landscapes, vernacular architecture studies and material culture, participants in the concentration study the various ways in which we conceptualize and realize our built world, and the reciprocal nature of the way these modes inform our phenomenological understanding and experience of the material and spatial embodiment of the built world. Final review: Design and Construction 4 (A RCH 406) H. Dav ies, w inter 2009 Architectural Design 2 (ARCH 673) photo: Howard Davies announcements Michael Fieldman Studio Enhancement Endowment Fund Through a gracious and visionary gift from Michael Fieldman, BArch 63, the School now has critical support for the annual enhancement of advanced studio activities in the form of field trips, special projects, hosting of visiting critics, and unique teaching support opportunities. The impact of this endowment cannot be underestimated in terms of immediate, tangible and nimble support for those special but essential experiences to design studio activities. Schulich Fellows Thanks to a generous gift from philanthropist Seymour Schulich, four incoming Ph.D. students will receive scholarships of $25,000. Paul Holmquist, Narrative and Map: Changing conceptions of Space, Knowledge, and Architectural Meaning in the Late European Enlightenment, (supervisor: Prof. Alberto Pérez-Gómez) Edward Houle, The Little Rooms: Intimations of Modern individuality inside Louis XV s Petits Appartements and Petits Cabinets at Versailles, (supervisor: Prof. Martin Bressani) Stacey Richardson, Souvenirs and Collections of Appalachia, (supervisor: Prof. Robert Mellin) Julia Tischer, Splish Splash: Public Baths in Montreal s Working-class Neighbourhoods, (supervisor: Prof. Annmarie Adams) Azrieli Lecture publication Safdie The School of Architecture is pleased to announce the publication of a beautifully designed and carefully produced colour book featuring Moshe Safdie s recent Azrieli lecture. All proceeds go to support the School s special projects and publications fund. We request a minimum of $25 to cover printing and mailing costs but additional contributions are welcome. If you would like to order a copy, please send a cheque payable to McGill University to Larissa Kowbuz, School of Architecture, McGill University, 815 Sherbrooke St. West, Montreal, Quebec, H3A2K6. Billes Architecture Student Design Competition Seven teams of McGill students were among ten finalists in a competition for new home designs for devastated areas of New Orleans. The teams were comprised of two U3 students each and McGill teams won three of the five awards. Top architecture schools in North America were invited to submit original concepts to be judged on originality, innovation and sustainability, among other criteria, in the Billes Architecture Student Design Competition. The jury s criteria included aesthetics, feasibility, use of green building techniques and materials, and cost. The aim was to generate a series of cutting-edge designs for single-family homes that could be built on empty lots in still-devastated areas. Students were asked to design homes with one of four neighborhoods in mind: Uptown, Downtown, Gentilly/Lakeview, and New Orleans East. Each neighborhood came with its own set of criteria, such as setbacks, height restrictions and lot sizes. Representatives from all seven McGill teams travelled to New Orleans for the awards ceremony hosted by Gerald Billes in April. The competition was run as a special topics course in addition to other normal course load requirements. It was led by Professor Page#02 Volume#02 McGill School of Architecture

4 Breezeway Jessica Da n a nd Hamza Alhbian Han Ying Michael Jemtrud with critic participation from Andrea Wolff, BArch 77, of the Montreal-based firm Architem, and Adjunct Professor Robert Claiborne. The winning McGill teams were Justin Boulanger and Ann Rodgers, Jessica Dan and Hamza Alhbian, and David Dworkind and Andrew Hruby. The other finalists were Claudia Barra de Vicenzo, Tracey Sun, Diandra Maselli, Elisa Costa, Lilia Koleva, Philippe Larocque, Erin Towsley and Valérie Lechéne. A not-for-profit organization called New Designs New Orleans (NDNO) has been established to subsidize the building of homes for local residents. NDNO will carry a catalog of design proposals comprised on the ten final designs. For additional information and to view the finalists designs, please visit the Billes Architecture website at Canadian Architect 2008 Awards of Excellence Marie-Gil Blanchette, MArch 08, has won one of four Canadian Architect 2008 Student Awards of Excellence. Her project, Watercycle, rethinks water management within the context of the city of Montreal. It attempts to create a link between the functional water treatment in the city often invisible to the public eye and the poetic celebration of water. This prototypical project treats snow, recycles residual grey water and creates a new type of urban park. The spaces guide the visitor along a journey through which one discovers the process of filtration. Jury members Bing Thom, Siamak Hariri and Christine Macy were effusive in their praise for Blanchette s project. Hariri wrote, The beauty of this project is that the architect solves a very real problem. Macy characterized it as sophisticated, forward-thinking and creative. And Thom commented, This project speaks of how to adopt another perspective on waste, and how to make something beautiful out of it. Ice Hotel, Quebec City Third-year undergraduate student Erin Towsley had the design for her room Un paysage se dissipant built at the Ice Hotel in Sainte-Catherine-de-la- Jacques-Cartier outside Quebec City. A total of 38 teams from McGill, UQAM, U de M, and Laval competed in the concours Architecture éphmère to have their designs realized in snow and ice, and three of the rooms were built. Arthur Erickson photo: V. Tony Hauser Forever Green David Dworkind and Andrew Hruby Peter Oberlander photo: David Krawitz New Datum for a Topography Under Water Justin Boulanger and Ann Rodgers Arthur Erickson June 14, 1924 May 20, 2009 Arthur Erickson died on May 20, 2009, a few weeks before his 85th birthday. He was Canada s greatest architect, our unofficial Architect Laureate. For those who knew him, the modest house and garden where he lived so comfortably in his native Vancouver will always stand as the symbol of his legacy: five decades of extraordinary buildings that have transformed cities and landscapes across Canada and around the world. Professional recognition of his work included the UIA s Auguste Perret Award, Gold Medals from the AIA, Canada and France, and countless design awards. He was a Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada and an honorary fellow of the professional colleges in Scotland, Spain, Mexico and the USA. He was an Academician of the Royal Canadian Academy of the Arts, a Companion of the Order of Canada, and he held seven honorary doctorates, including one in 1975 from McGill University, where he completed his architectural studies in In the beginning, he wanted to be a painter; he recalled with warmth the soirées that he attended as a teenager at the Vancouver home of another legend, Canadian painter Lawren Harris. But one day, in the summer of 1946, he came across an article in Fortune magazine with the first colour photographs of Frank Lloyd Wright s house and studio at Taliesin West, and he said, If an architect can do this, I m going to go into architecture. How many since then have been similarly inspired by one of his buildings? From the first houses in the 1950 s to projects that are currently underway in Vancouver, he used a surprisingly simple palette of materials and formal geometries to celebrate the poetry of architecture and the city. His buildings are Vitruvian in spirit - wellcrafted, intelligent and responsive in their planning and organization, and not merely beautiful but delightful. They engage site and program, climate, culture and history, daylight and the natural colors of materials in ways that connect them to their context with startling clarity, intentionally dissolving conventional distinctions between architecture and engineering, building and landscape. They are unimaginably original, impossibly right for their place and time, and they can be breathtaking. The purity and simplicity that mark so much of his work are linked to his love of nature, perhaps informed by his painter s eye and his encounters with artists like Harris, and to his fascination with Asian and Aboriginal cultures. He often reminded his colleagues of the need to protect the simplicity of the idea from the over-complication that comes with design development. His own design process typically started with a sketch or vignette. Projects evolved in an endless examination of alternatives expressed in the sketches and models the models were crucial that were prepared by the design teams and criticized in open and thoughtful dialogues. A patient listener, Arthur possessed an uncanny ability to find the right answer, usually somewhere in between the options on the table. The long list of Erickson s built works includes a number of stunning residences and iconic buildings such as Simon Fraser University, the University of Lethbridge and Macmillan Bloedel (with partner Geoffrey Massey); the UBC Museum of Anthropology; the Evergreen, designed as an office building at the water s edge in downtown Vancouver, now converted to residences and designated as a landmark of modern heritage; Roy Thompson Hall, Toronto; the Royal Bank of Canada, Ottawa; the Canadian Chancery in Washington, DC; the Tacoma Glass Museum, and so many more. One project, the Robson Square and Law Courts Complex in Vancouver, is the most perfect example of urban design in Canada and one of the most important public buildings in North America. It is, in Erickson s own words, a fragment of utopia. He first used that expression to characterize the university campus, but doesn t every good building present a glimpse of utopia? Arthur was like his buildings gentle and dignified, impeccable in manner and dress, eloquent and courageous. He was unique. Peter Oberlander: November 29, 1922 December 27, 2008 I don t recall exactly when I first crossed paths with Peter and Cornelia Oberlander. I think our first meeting might have been as recent as 10 years ago, but it s not important. Ten years, 20, 30 - with these two, the actual length of time just doesn t matter very much because they have this remarkable knack of making you think that you ve always been friends. In a way, they simply appeared on my radar one day, two bright blips, moving faster than anything else on the screen, following parallel but different trajectories across the screen and never too far apart from one another. Since we crossed paths (collided?) that first time, I have enjoyed many opportunities to get to know them better. I recall with pleasure numerous Leacock lunches in Vancouver and some unforgettable evenings with friends and family in their home. I also remember a lecture by Peter at McGill a few years ago, shortly after the publication of Houser, when he held an audience of close to 150 people in the palm of his hand, speaking for 90 minutes without pausing or repeating himself or even clearing his throat, without once consulting a note, and an outrageous move in a school of architecture - without projecting a single image. On another visit, he expressed interest in having a tree planted in front of the school, perhaps a gingko, he said, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of his graduation from McGill; a few months later, as if by magic, a gingko appeared, planted at his suggestion - in celebration of the lives and careers of his colleagues in the class of 44. Last year, McGill and the School of Architecture recognized Cornelia s professional achievements with an honorary doctorate - her 5th or 6th, but who s counting - but I think that Peter was more excited and energized by the gesture than Cornelia. They looked for an interesting way to express their gratitude and I think it was Peter who came up with an elegant solution, the Cornelia and Peter Oberlander Prize in Urban Design, which will be awarded for the first time this May. Like many of his professional colleagues, I was also - with characteristic stealth - recruited by Peter for the World Urban Forum in Vancouver in One minute you re in a café in Montreal talking about something two years down the road and the next, you re telling a room full of people in Vancouver how Peter talked you into joining Team Oberlander. WUF 3 was stimulating and productive, and Peter s role in shaping that event was more significant than most of us knew at the time. I think that this was Peter at his best, organizing and motivating, maneuvering on stage and behind the scenes, and most importantly, going out of his way to put people that he thought should know each other in touch with each other. Peter s zest for life was contagious, and I learned early in our relationship never to meet him for a meal or a drink or just a chat - without my notebook, usually an unlined passport-size Moleskine. My notes from those conversations are all about ideas and seem to consist mostly of names of people and organizations connected by lines and arrows. They resemble the pages of a football playbook, or the design sketches of an inspired choreographer, which is as apt a description of Peter as any - coach and choreographer. I seemed to leave every encounter with Peter recharged with ideas and filled with optimism about the world and what we should be doing to improve it. Whenever we parted company, I would leave simply feeling better. David Covo David Covo and Barry Johns Page#03 Volume#02 McGill School of Architecture

5 U2 - Studio Robert Mellin ARCH 304 Design and Construction II: Robert Mellin s students worked on the urban and architectural design of the Montreal Clay and Glass Museum, a hypothetical project located on a vacant site at the corner of Saint-Sacrement and Saint-Nicholas streets in Old Montreal. The first part of the term was devoted to site documentation, the collaborative construction of a digital site model showing the buildings in the surrounding area, architectural design precedents, program research, architectural design and representation software tutorials, and readings. The task was to design a contemporary museum that is innovative, sustainable and architecturally significant; a project that learns from and responds to architectural precedents, program requirements and the physical context. Peter Sijpkes In the U2 architectural design studio in the Winter Term of 2009 (ARCH 304), Professor Sijpkes s students worked at a very large scale on the proposed demolition and reconstruction of the Turcot Interchange. In tandem with this project, the re-use of the now vacant Turcot shunting yards has been making waves in the Montreal press and other media. The sheer scale of the projects is unprecedented: rebuilding the interchange will take $1.5 billion, and the vacant Turcot Yards cover an area twice the size of Old Montreal. The Engineering students of Professor Saeed Mirza, the Urban Planning students of Professor Nik Luka, and students at UQUAM and U de M are also working on aspects of this huge project. This effort implicitly questions the wisdom of the Quebec government to entrust the whole project to the ministère de la Voirie du Québec (the changing economic mood is making decision making even more difficult than it was in the boom times of yesterday). See: Page#04 Aaron Sprecher During the past semester, Aaron Sprecher s students participated in an ACSA competition regarding the future of concrete as a material and concept. The team engaged in the study and analysis of a number of topics related to the history, applications and physical characteristics of concrete. This investigation ultimately led to the building of a series of full scale concrete prototypes, each reflecting an innovative approach to the use of the material. These prototypes were then tested in the context of a project to design five multi-modal transport stations in the heart of Paris s 13th, 14th and 15th districts. These projects aimed at developing a bottom-up design strategy where components are organized in order to generate large structures and morphologies. These architectural systems were then analyzed in terms of their architectural, environmental and structural performance. Prof. R icardo L. Castro Professor Castro s students worked on architectural, topographical, and urban interventions in Montreal entailing the design of places for public events, and the project had several objectives. First, to allow the participants to get involved with concepts of urban mapping in order to develop a sense of urban awareness and urban design strategies. Second, to provide the participants with the opportunity of exploring the fascinating relationship of art, cinematography, literature, design, and place-making activities. Third, to provide the participants with the opportunity and challenge to design and construct a device on a one to one scale that served to heighten urban experiences. U3 - Studio Howard Dav ies The semester began with an intensive six-week charrette on the Lyceum Competition for 2009 (this is an annual student competition). The subject of the competition was the design of a blacksmith atelier and teaching facility for Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina. The research the students undertook over the course of their design development involved definitions of craft in architecture, metal working, teaching strategies and landscape stewardship as well as other ecological design issues. Volume#02 Robert Mellin s U2 Winter Term A RCH 304 students Traia n Dima Lyceu m Fellowsh ip competition Ha n Ying Studio OOGOOS U2 project (Castro section) U1 - Studio The second term of the first year design studio program reinforced skills in design, drawing, and modeling in a series of assignments that explored architectural design in relation to program, experience, structure and materials, site and landscape. Design was examined in terms defined by the late Charles Eames - as operating within the small area of overlap between the interests and concerns of the designer, the client, and society as a whole and context was proposed as the framework within which design must resolve not only site and program but also experience and narrative, history and culture, and technology. The unifying element in the first year studio program was the architect s sketchbook, a large-format (6 inch by 9 inch) Moleskine. Students were required to maintain a lively journal that documented their own life experience and the twists and turns of their adventures in design. photo: Robert Mellin Viv ia n Shao Chen & Scott Norsworthy Lilia Jia ng u2 Ecdysis graduate student Benja m in Mitchell training U2 students to CNC m ill photo: Aa ron Sprecher Va nessa Heddle & Justin Nguyen U2 Smooth Station academic The second project, called X-Shell (for experimental shell), involved the students in developing deployable structures sited within Montreal s underground city. These structures were intended to stimulate a more diverse range of activities (beyond commercial consumption) within the underground city. Several of the X-Shells explored the possibility of underground plant growth becoming large public terrariums. An interesting offshoot of this research was the possibility of modifying the climate of the underground city both socially and environmentally. M1 - Studio Torben Berns For 00G00S (Spring 2009), students were required to generate a model for the project space with very little associated data and in which diurnal and gravitybased orientations were conspicuously absent. While the project space had specific ecological relations, it had no dimension or given visible properties. Students were given 110 parcels of non-adjacent spaces that they were required to inhabit within the speculative ecosystem. These allotted parcels accounted for a little over 10% of the project space. However, since students could only talk about their own parcels, the individual speculations of the participants began to rely heavily on those of their colleagues and in effect to propose an analogous urban topology. The models proposed means for confronting methodological issues as well as issues of connotative and denotative meanings generated by the proposals themselves. Courses / Seminars: Av i Friedman Designing Sustainable Communities and Dwellings was the thrust of the Winter Session/09 Housing Project in the Affordable Homes Program. Environmental, cultural, economic and societal issues were investigated parallel to the concepts for roads, open space and dwellings in a Montreal West Island site. The program sought to find alternatives to traditional suburban developments, and built upon knowledge gained in the first term during which the students explored innovative housing solutions. McGill School of Architecture

6 Richard Klopp Students in the Advanced Construction Course saw the finishing touches of their class project come to fruition this Spring, when a 10-metre-long mosaic was installed for their winning bench design entitled Twist & Turn, located at Lambert-Closse Elementary School in the Mile End district of Montreal. The course was structured around a design-build project offering students a hands-on opportunity to engage in the design and construction of several urban furniture pieces, while at the same time fulfilling course objectives. Representatives of the Lambert-Closse elementary school, Mile End community members, and landscape architects NIPpaysage briefed the students. They also met with engineers and technical staff at Groupe Tremca, a precast concrete company that sponsored the production and installation of the winning design. Energy, Environment and Buildings Course: Prof. Klopp s students were asked to create an individual work for an exhibition entitled Speaking Out on Sustainability and the Built Environment which took place at the end of the term. Some of the work has been submitted to competitions and public events, including the 5th World Environmental Education Congress, the FormShift Ideas Competition, the Ecologer Student Competition, the 2009 Green Poster Design Competition, and the Imagine a Street for Everyone image competition. Jason Crowe The History and Theory of Architecture post-professional students finished two semesters of work on their Spring 2009 and Summer 2009 studio project with a series of architectural performances in the exhibition room. The studio explored the capacity of blogging in the production of poetic images. Each student investigated a collection of objects using the late fifteenth century Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, Claude Nicolas Ledoux s real and imaginary cities of Chaux, and JJ Abrams epic television series Lost as guides. From their studies, each student produced a prop, a transitional object, which allowed them to re-enact the experience of a particular façade of a building in Montreal. Anya Dolmesky bound herself up in a gargantuan black dress as the keeper of the turntable railroad bridge on the Lachine Canal. Chad Kraus performed reconstructive surgery on a log to bring a vision of the darkness between the façades of Old Port. Noam Shokeid attacked the Redpath Museum leaving behind the smelly entrails of his chocolate fish. Nestor Lopez repaired a strange plaque found in Place d Armes to re-found Montreal in memory of the poet Pessoa. Liam Kavanagh almost fell to his death while climbing Silo #5. Abe Gomel contacted the cast of Lost and, with their help, somehow managed to conjure up Jacques Cartier at the overlook on top of Mont Royal. Sotirios Kotoulas unmasked the Palais de Justice. Finally, unleashed his giant copper Cusaian boules from Saint Joseph s Oratory out onto the city to try and rediscover the influence of Brother Andre s heart. Advanced Construction project photo: Richard Klopp photo: Per Kefgen A RCH 623/624 Mon Island Project by Noam Shoekid research Martin Bressani Professor Bressani is completing his manuscript on architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, a book whose working title is presently Surface into Depth: A Tracing of Viollet-le-Duc s Constructive Imagination. It is an intellectual biography of a tormented French rationalist of the 19th century who is normally accused of being responsible for the birth of architectural modernism in France. Dav id Covo Professor Covo is collaborating with colleagues at l Université de Montréal on a SSHRC-funded project examining the design of the university campus, with special attention to Simon Fraser and the University of Toronto in Canada, and five institutions in the U.S. He is also working on a history of Place Ville Marie and McGill College Avenue, a project that draws from the archives of the late Vincent Ponte and interviews with James Soden and other key figures in the history of this part of the city. Michael Jemtrud Professor Jemtrud continues to establish the Facility for Architectural Research in Media and Mediation. The research unit became operational in May and has 12 students working through the summer on a variety of projects. He presented a paper with Professor Berns at the Critical Digital conference at Harvard in the spring. He recently presented a co-authored paper and chaired a plenary session at the CAADFutures 2009 Conference hosted by the Université de Montréal. Robert Mellin Professor Mellin is writing a book on Newfoundland s early modern architecture with the support of a Canada Council Visual Arts Grant. Alberto Perez-Gomez Professor Alberto Pérez-Gómez is midway through the tenure of his SSHRC funded research creation grant, which is being used to explore the potential of digital tools in the creation of poetic images. The research began with the creation of a digital version of Alberto s Polyphilo or The Dark Forest Revisited: An Erotic Epiphany of Architecture. This work includes both an online version and a version that will be available on dvd-rom. More recent work has focused on the use of game editing software as a pedagogical and creative tool in the production of architecture. Building upon research into the grammar of hypertext and more recent studies on the role of the digital in the phenomenology of reading, the game editing tools are being explored for their ability to create transitional objects, a term from developmental psychology typically used to describe a child s first possession. The resulting game will provide a framework for an exhibition in September of 2010 that will incorporate the digital Dark Forest alongside student work that builds upon Alberto s re-imagining of the fifteenth century alchemical and architectural treatise, the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili. work done for Alberto Perez-Gomez s SSHRC grant Pieter Sijpkes Professor Sijpkes is in the third and final year of his collaborative SSHRC grant The architecture of phase change at McGill. Based on large-scale manual ice construction at McGill since 1972, the team has been experimenting with robotic ice fabrication at three different scales. The project started with a small Fab@ Home rapid prototyping machine that was assembled from a kit and subsequently modified to make small (10 cm) 3D ice objects in a -20 C freezer. One scale up, the team is working with an Adept COBRA 600 robot, producing very finely detailed 3D ice objects up to 30 cm across and 20 cm high. Both these machines are controlled by a microcomputer and rely on a water delivery system controlled by micro-valves adapted for the purpose. The different melting temperatures of brine and pure water make it possible (in dual-nozzle mode) to use brine as a scaffold for the final ice model. The different melting point of brine permits the scaffolding to melt away without melting the model. Professor Sijpkes s team is now negotiating for a large architectural scale robot that can reach as far as 3 or 4 meters around and deliver a slush-mix that freezes in place to become a wall, a vault or a dome. The client for construction at this scale, the Hôtel de Glace in Quebec, is anxious for this final phase to become operational. photo: Pieter Sijpkes photo: Kalenda r Ka malkha n Bow rings Depa rtment Cu m m ings a nd Ca mpbell, photo: Robert Mellin Pieter Sijpkes: Store a nd Pa rking Ga rage, Architects: late 1950 s Egg Ca rton form in th in ice St. Joh n s, New fou ndla nd R iyad ha mosque of the Masha rifu (the religious sect of Lamu people) Page#05 Volume#02 McGill School of Architecture

7 photo: Robert Mellin Law rence Bird A mal Ja mal (left), Robert Mellin, a nd Kala nda r Ka malkha n (right) PhD program news Our program is busier and more popular than ever. We currently have 37 doctoral students and look forward to welcoming nine new students in the fall of 2009, including four Schulich Fellows. We were delighted to offer incoming students unprecedented levels of funding ranging from $10,000 to $25,000. These are the titles of dissertations defended during : Lawrence Bird Saving Metropolis: Body and City in the Metropolis Tales Supervisor: Professor Alberto Pérez-Gómez Mehran Gharaati Kopaei Knowledge Transfer in Post-disaster Reconstruction: The Problem of Post-post-disaster Reconstruction Supervisor: Professor Vikram Bhatt Amal Jamal The Kel Azjer Tuareg Culture: Public and Private Space in Ghat Supervisor: Professor Robert Mellin Kalendar Kamalkhan The Swahili Architecture of Lamu, Kenya: Oral Tradition and Space Supervisor: Professor Robert Mellin Kai Wood Mah Sites of Learning: The Architecture of Educational Reform in Toronto, Supervisor: Professor Annmarie Adams Carlos Rueda-Plata Place-making as Poetic World Re-creation: An Experiential Tale of Rogelio Salmona s Places of Obliqueness and Desire Supervisor: Professor Ricardo Castro Musa Tarawneh Sedentarization and Tourism: The case of the Zalabia Bedouin Tribe of Southern Jordan Supervisor: Professor Vikram Bhatt The old post office in Tilting N-natu res A nnmarie Adams Byeong Joon Kang Professor Adams is on the Steering Committee of the ACSA s 100th anniversary celebrations planned for She is serving as a consultant in the restoration of the interiors of the Colby-Curtis Museum in Stanstead, Quebec. Visiting Professor Kang will be juror and design topic author for the 27th Space International Architectural Students Idea Competition in Korea. He has been invited as visiting critic for a diploma session in July at Ion Mincu University of Architecture and Urbanism in Romania. Torben Berns A ndrew Silver King Having assumed the inaugural position of the Planetary Society Visiting Professor in Architecture, Professor Torben Berns has spent his first two semesters clarifying the potential contribution of the position to the professional Master of Architecture program. He presented the framework of his new position as developed thus far in a public lecture in the School of Architecture lecture series. Besides teaching in the M1 studios, Professor Berns is teaching the History and Theory Graduate Seminar for Professor Martin Bressani (on sabbatical leave). Visiting Professor King has been appointed Azrieli Visiting Professor at Carleton University for He published an article titled Clearly Invisible in the January 2009 issue of Canadian Architect and participated in the In Homage to the Model exhibition at Galerie Monopoli in Montreal in April. Martin Bressani Professor Bressani wrote an essay (with Professor Marc Grignon) on early lighting techonolgies, De la lumière et de l ombre : les fantasmagories du gaz d éclairage à Paris au XIXe siècle, to be published in Paris in a collection of essays on Architecture and the Technological Unconscious. His essay on the early pictorial work of Eugène Viollet-le-Duc will soon be published in Switzerland ( From Antique Italy to Medieval France, Eugene-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc, Einsiedeln: Stiftung Bibliotek Werner Oechslin, Studien und Texte zur Geschichte der Architekturtheorie, 2009.) Professor Bressani prefaced a re-edition of Viollet-le-Duc s Histoire d une Maison, (Lausanne, InFolio, 2009). He wrote an article in collaboration with Peter Sealy on the use of photography by architects in the 19th century, The Opera Disseminated: Charles Garnier s Le nouvel opéra de Paris ( ), for the Studies in the History of Art series of the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts of the National Gallery of Art, in Washington. Professor Bressani is on the scientific committee of a conference on interdisciplinaity held in May in Tel Aviv on Expertise: Media Specificity and Interdisciplinarity. He participated in a conference, Responsive Environments: Architecture, Technology and the Senses, in March at l Université de Montréal, and will take part in a conference in Madrid in November on Auguste Choisy. R ichard Klopp Adjunct Professor Klopp recently received a JBC Watkins Award from the Canada Council in support of his studies at the University of Cambridge IDBE programme (Interdisciplinary Design for the Built Environment). Michael Jemtrud School of Architecture Director Michael Jemtrud will be taking over from University of Toronto Professor George Baird as ASCA Canadian Director for a three-year term starting July 1, He remains on the JAE Board as the ACSA Board representative. He will be hosted by the Norwegian Embassy in August on a trip to Oslo to explore institutional partnerships and architectural/cultural exchange opportunities. He also mentored the special topics studio and accompanied the student winners of the Billes House Design Competition to New Orleans. Robert Mellin Professor Mellin has been elected to Fellowship in the College of Fellows of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, and he received a 2009 Southcott Award from the Newfoundland Historic Trust for the restoration of the old Post Office in Tilting, Newfoundland. Professor Mellin presented a lecture and exhibition of his research on the vernacular architecture, cultural landscape and material culture of Tilting, a Newfoundland fishing village on the northeast coast of Fogo Island, in May of 2009 at Dalhousie University s Faculty of Architecture in Halifax, and he was an invited critic for a studio in Pictou, N.S. His book Tilting: House Launching, Slide Hauling, Potato Trenching, and Other Tales from a Newfoundland Fishing Village was recently reprinted in paperback by Princeton Architectural Press. R icardo Castro A lberto Perez-Gomez Professor Castro s new book on the Colombian architect Rogelio Salmona ( ) is titled Rogelio Salmona: A Tribute. The launching of the book took place at the Centro Cultural Gabriel García Márquez in Bogota last December. Part of the ceremony included a public lecture at the cultural centre, which is Salmona s last work and undoubtedly one of his most impressive urban interventions. The book, which explores Salmona s architectural production and ideas during the last ten years of his life, can be considered the continuation of Professor Castro s first book on the architect. Professor Alberto Pérez-Gómez wrote the preface for A Tribute. The launching provided the opportunity for the release of a second printing of the first book titled Rogelio Salmona. Both publications have appeared in independent English and Spanish editions. The Spanish version is available for visual inspection at: Professor Perez-Gomez was recently appointed a member of the Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism Advisory Council, Carleton University. He will also be co-chairing the 99th Annual ACSA (Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture) Annual Meeting to be held in Montreal in Aaron Sprecher In February of 2009 Professor Covo was invited thesis critic for the international jury at Ion Mincu University of Architecture and Urbanism, Bucharest, Romania. Professor Aaron Sprecher s practice Open Source Architecture (O-S-A) is currently designing and curating upcoming events celebrating the centennial anniversary of Tel Aviv. Among other activities, O-S-A will develop a large-scale installation to house the results of an architecture competition on the future of the city. Open Source Architecture s solo exhibition N-natures opened at Rhode Island School of Design in March. Aaron Sprecher delivered a lecture entitled Alive and Kicking on that occasion. He also lectured at the Phyllis Lambert Seminar at the University of Montreal organized by Professor Alessandra Ponte. Aaron Sprecher s article N-dimensional Architecture was recently published in the architecture theory series , edited by Jonathan Salomon and Emily Abruzzo (Princeton Architectural Press). Volume#02 McGill School of Architecture Dav id Covo Page#06 photo: Open Sou rce A rch itectu re photo: R ica rdo L. Castro Rogelio Salmona: A Tribute The Kel A zjer Tua reg Cultu re photo: A mal Ja mal Sav ing Metropolis faculty news

8 features Paul Laurendeau Architect 24, av. Mont-Royal ouest #902 Montréal, Québec H2T 2S2 w w w.paullaurendeau.com Practice In 1995, Paul Laurendeau established his architectural practice in Montreal, after working for four years for architects in London and Paris. Laurendeau s work distinguishes itself in its simple and coherent ordering of spaces and by the use of primary geometric forms that organize the architectural composition, playing on proportion, rhythm and the sequence. Surfaces like the square, the rectangle and the circle are juxtaposed according to rules of symmetry and repetition to impose clarity, sense and memory on the architectural experience. Projects Many projects are the product of submissions to open competitions. In 1991, the multi-family housing project designed to bring back suburbanites to the city, submitted for L art de vivre en ville, a competition organized by the City of Montreal, won second prize. In 1997, the single-family house project submitted for the Nouveau confort competition organized by Hydro-Quebec won second prize for its simplicity and efficiency. In 1998, in an international competition organized by the Union Internationale des Architectes, his proposal for a 100-room hotel in Argentina received a jury mention. In 2004, his proposal for a house was selected for publication along with 20 other finalists in an international competition organized by the city of Portland, Oregon, named Living Smart, where architects had to develop a narrow lot house to increase density in suburbia. In Quebec, Laurendeau designed the interior layout and renovation for a rehearsal space for the Pol Pelletier theatre company in a former cabaret in downtown Montreal. In 2001, he designed the offices for the ad agency Fashionlab in a space initially designed in 1919 by the famous Quebec architect Ernest Cormier. The project received the 2003 Prize of Excellence by the Order of Architects of Quebec for its simplicity and sensitivity to context. In 2004, an exhibition stand designed for the SIDIM (Montreal interior design show) earned first prize in its category. The project was the materialization of studies on space and proportion, supported with a grant from the Quebec Arts Council. In 2004, Champ Libre hired Laurendeau to design the scenography of its International Video and Electronic Arts Manifestation, held in a former incinerator in Montreal. The project was nominated finalist for the 2005 OAQ Prize of Excellence for the quality of its lighting and clear organization. In 2006, the proposal elaborated in consortium with Jodoin Lamarre Pratte & Associates Architects for the Dolbeau-Mistassini theatre competition won first prize. This project received the 2006 Award of Excellence from Canadian Architect. Inaugurated in October 2008, the project received the highest praise from the public, the press and artists that have performed at the theatre. It has now been nominated as finalist for the OAQ 2009 Prize of Excellence and featured in Interior Design China. Laurendeau s current projects include a cubical single-family house, clad in black fibro-cement panels (presently under construction) and a contemporary rooftop extension for a residence in Old Montreal. Theory and practice Studying psychoanalysis for over 10 years, member of the École lacanienne de Montréal for three years, Laurendeau has gained knowledge that theory can only be derived from practice and that meaning must be sustained by sense, in other words, that the metaphor is constructed from the metonymy. In 2002, a text submitted to Pamphlet Architecture, following a call for submissions, is the starting point of this ongoing investigation. In architecture, he associates metonymy with volumes, their proportion and the links that bind them together. Knowing that the metaphor comes after the metonymy, he focuses his work on geometry and experience rather than ideas and meaning, considered beyond the architect s control and arising as an aftermath effect. In 2003, OnSite magazine published his essay titled Architecture Psychoanalyzed, stressing how knowledge is derived from experience. For this, he presented the Borromean structure as invented by Lacan, knotting the real, the symbolic and the imaginary, three consistencies that overlap while being distinct, relying on each other for the subjectivity to hold. In 2004, invited by the editor of The Annual of Psychoanalysis for a special issue titled Psychoanalysis and Architecture, Laurendeau submitted a text. Considered too difficult, too Lacanian and not Freudian enough for the readership, it was, in the end, not published. In 2006, after meeting with Kelly Crossman, editor of Architecture and Ideas, a revised version of the text was published in volume VI of the review. In 2008, with a grant from the Quebec Arts Council in literature, Laurendeau has been putting together material to publish a book titled Dolbeau-Mistassini, Analysis of a Theatre. This project was triggered in response to a lack of information for the design the Dolbeau-Mistassini Theatre. The theatre is to be graphically analyzed according to categories that relate to volume, proportion, geometry, design progress and changes, acoustics, scenography, lighting, building envelope, signage, materials and furniture, ending with professional photos of the construction process and a parallel of parameters comparing different theatres. Accompanying texts of interviews with the technical director and other professionals are to explicit theatre concepts and address the project s successes and fallacies. Paul Laurendeau, BArch 91 Born in Montreal in 1967, Paul was admitted to the McGill School of Architecture in 1986 after graduating from the Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf. After receiving a BSc in 1989, he spent a year in London with fellow classmates Eric Bunge and Stéphane Pratte, working for Munkenbeck & Marshall on high-profile projects. After receiving his BArch in 1991, he left Montreal with Stéphane Pratte, seeking work in Paris with firms that challenge traditional practice in seeking excellence (François Roche, Franck Hammoutène, Francis Soler, François Deslaugiers, Patrick Chavannes, Ken Armstrong / Arcora). In 1994, he returned to Montreal for his OAQ exams and to establish his firm to realize personal projects. The European experience influenced him on the role and position of the architect. Musée de la nation huronne Paul Laurendeau photo: Matthew Lipscomb On the McGill experience My admission to the McGill School of Architecture in September 1986 was like a dream come true. I realized I was finally getting closer to what I really wanted to do in life, being fascinated with buildings and the discovery of their spaces. Architecture seemed the best profession to embody this and allow for my creativity to unfold. Design studios were a harsh experience where success was not easily achieved and excellence could never be taken for granted. I found inspiration in professors who were demanding and opinionated, allowing me to progress and be challenged in my preconceptions. I appreciated receiving the Shaver Scholarship, allowing me to discover early 20th-century architecture in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany with Professor Adrian Sheppard and classmates Eric Bunge, Lawrence Bird, Éric Turcotte, Tony Mattenge, Joe Brown and Maria Amagasu. Most significant work _Musée de la nation huronne-wendat _Salle de spectacle Dolbeau-Mistassini Recent Work _Black cubic fibrocement house in Terrebonne _ Book project on the analysis of the Dolbeau-Mistassini Theater Dolbeau-Mistassini Theatre photo: Marc Gibert Dolbeau-Mistassini Theatre photo: Marc Gibert Fashionlab photo: Marc Cramer Page#07 Volume#02 McGill School of Architecture

9 2005 Ca nadia n Sola r Decath lon House photo: Concordia Un iversit y photo: Oxa na Noguch i From 2000 to 2004, I assisted Professor Avi Friedman in his technical course concerning the basic characteristics of building materials and methods. In 2005, while he was on sabbatical, I was appointed to take full responsibility for the course and led the sessions as Course Lecturer. My passion for teaching architectural technologies today may be derived from my early experiences at the McGill School of Architecture. Since August, 2006, I have been teaching sustainable building materials and methods, low-energy solar housing design techniques and renewable energy technologies at the Mackintosh School of Architecture at the Glasgow School of Art (GSA), which is affiliated with the University of Glasgow. Here, as Lecturer in Architectural Technology, I am also leading the postgraduate pathway of Energy and Environmental Studies. In my program, the students are led to the thorough understanding of the U.K. government s Code for Sustainable Homes as well as energy and environmental modelling based on the nation s Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP). Through a stepping stone studio experience that involves eco-housing and sustainable community developments, my students learn passive solar housing design techniques, affordable lifetime homes planning strategies and active renewable energy technologies. BBC recently filmed my course s project that attempted to discover the environmental architectonics of the Mackintosh Building ( ) designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. The GSA building celebrates the centenary this year. Indeed, this Scottish heritage art school remains a functional working building as Mackintosh always intended it to be i.e., the exemplar of sustainable architecture. On the McGill experience Designing a house for people and society might be the ethical slogan that I learned at the Affordable Homes Program, which Professor Avi Friedman, the mentor of my housing studies, directs. Prior to the academic design education, I acquired basic homebuilding skills through my carpentry experience at the Easter Seal Camp in Squamish, British Columbia, where I worked as a volunteer over one year. The name and standing of the McGill School of Architecture first came to my attention, when I visited the exhibition of Arthur Erickson s drawings and read his biography. I earned a Bachelor of Engineering in Architecture degree at Kogakuin University in Japan, Page#08 Most significant work: For a Canadian housing manufacturer, Alouette Homes, I was privileged to design Canada s first net zero-energy healthy housing (later called ÉcoTerra house) built and commercialized through the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation s EQuilibrium sustainable housing competition. On Volume#02 Photo: A louette Homes ÉcoTerra House Photo: Yves Poissa nt Teaching which leads research on solar low-energy building. In 1998, as a recipient of the Government of Canada Award for Graduate Studies in Canada, I eventually enrolled in the McGill School of Architecture. The initial offer from the school was a one-year postgraduate diploma course; therefore, I intensely studied basic design principles relevant to the delivery of affordable homes under the supervision of Professor Friedman our design project outcomes were later compiled and published in his book entitled Planning the New Suburbia: Flexibility by Design. After a year of my affordable housing studies in the diploma course, I was notified that I could be enrolled automatically in the post-professional Master of Architecture degree program this offer led me to cancel my initially intended transfer to the Mackintosh School of Architecture in Glasgow. In the research program, I focused on examining the mechanism being applied by Japanese housing manufacturers in their successful commercialization of mass-produced, yet customizable, prefabricated homes, which dominate 13% of the nation s one million housing starts. Under Dr. Friedman s constructive supervision, this study contributed to identifying the significant potential of a mass customization approach for upgrading the delivery of quality affordable housing. As well, the findings were refined through the scholarly criticism from Professor Vikram Bhatt whose keen observations reminded me of the need for further research on the design components inevitable in the development of mass-customized housing. After mastering research methodology within the Master s program at McGill, between 2000 and 2004, I occupied myself with doctoral research on the principal design components required for masscustomizing a house. This study was initially engaged with the re-examination of housing delivery processes being applied by home-builders and manufacturers in Quebec so as to identify how the innovative design approach can be adopted locally. Overall, it was carried out efficiently under the rigorous supervision of Professor Friedman. Dr. Robert Mellin filled the role of the second internal advisor, whose insightful criticism helped me enrich the scope of my study and embed the notion of sustainable development. Fortunately, Professor Colin Davidson, who previously mentored Professor Friedman s doctoral research, was appointed as my external advisor from l Université de Montréal. In consequence, a mass custom design (MCD) system model for sustainable housing was conceptualized and the effectiveness relating to the cost, quality, time and location factors associated with housing design and construction processes was analyzed by making use of value analysis techniques. To examine the universality and practicality of the idea, this theoretical MCD system approach was further presented at a number of academic conferences and industry meetings in the U.S., Canada, Japan, Hong Kong and Mexico. ÉcoTerra House Interior MEARU Mackintosh School of A rchitecture 167 Renfrew St, Glasgow G3 R6Q, UK w w w.masscustomhome.com Natural Resources Canada s CANMET Energy Technology Centre-Varennes, which is now called CanmetENERGY-Varennes, invited me to join their program with the aim of researching commercialization strategies for mass-marketable solar photovoltaic zero-energy homes. Accordingly, immediately after graduating from McGill in 2004, I started this practicebased research at the federal government. Over the two-year contract, I was also assigned to participate in the IEA Photovoltaic Power Systems Programme Task 10 research activities, as well as coordinated the Solar Photovoltaic Housing Technical Mission to Japan in collaboration with the Consulate General of Canada in Osaka. ÉcoTerra House On-site Assembly Photo: Masa Noguch i McGill Students at 2005 Ca nadia n Sola r Decath lon House MEARU The Glasgow School of Art Practice Photo: A louette Homes Masa Noguch i Masa Noguchi the 9th November, 2007, the grand opening of the ÉcoTerra house was held at the construction site located in Eastman, Quebec, where the Honourable Christian Paradis, Secretary of State, made the inaugural address and congratulated Alouette Homes on the successful completion. The design features of the ÉcoTerra house were documented in the Open House International journal (Vol.33, No.3) in which I took the role of guest editor. Recent work: I am engaged with a 1.5-million industry-academia collaborative R&D project aimed at constructing 10 zero-carbon mass custom homes in Aberdeen, Scotland, by My teaching and research activities today are still based on the knowledge gained at the McGill School of Architecture. I hope that this three-year R&D project supported by the U.K. government through the KTP program will have adequate leverage on the quest for zero-carbon housing solutions in a way that also tackles issues arising in the 21st century sustainable home development. McGill School of Architecture

10 alumni news Cart Shelter Reza Aliabadi design: Scribner Witold Rybczynski Book Launch Poster Reza Aliabadi, MArch 06 Toronto, ON Reza Aliabadi received an honourable mention in the 2009 OAA Awards of Excellence for the design of Cart Shelter. Justin Chen, BSc(A rch) 08 Vancouver, BC Justin created two artworks for an issue of Crow Toes Quarterly, a magazine for children s literature. See He also provided illustrations for an essay and a short fiction piece in Ricepaper Magazine that focuses on the art and culture of Asian Canadians ( J. Kent Fitzsimons. BSc(A rch) 95, BA rch 96 Bordeaux, France In the fall of 2008, J. Kent Fitzsimons was appointed Maître assistant (equivalent of Associate Professor) at the École Nationale Supérieure d Architecture et de Paysage de Bordeaux, in France. This comes in the wake of his position as Resident Director of Rice School of Architecture s Paris Program since 2002, and the completion of his Doctor of Architecture at Rice University in Barbara (Cordeau) Hopewell, BA rch 73 Toronto, ON Barbara Hopewell was the lead architect for a recent project by Zeidler Partnership Architects, the Scripps Research Institute s new facility in Palm Beach County, Florida. The grand opening was on February 26, Hal Ingberg, BA rch 85 Montreal, QC On May 20, 2009, the National Capital Commission (NCC) announced that Montréal artist Hal Ingberg has won a cross-canada public art competition to create a new work of art in the heart of Canada s Capital Region. The Artwork, entitled Papa, will be installed at the corner of Boulevard des Allumettiéres and Maisonneuve Boulevard, in Gatineau. The principal defining element of Papa is an enclosure created by large-scale, multicoloured, transparent glass walls. The interior space will provide a small public plaza where passersby can sit and observe the ever-changing conditions produced by the passage of light through the coloured glass walls. Hal Ingberg is an artist and architect. He has played a leading role in the design of numerous buildings, including the expansion of the Palais des Congrés de Montréal. David Theodore, BA rch 96, MArch 01 Cambridge, MA Fifteen young PhD students received $2.7 million worth of scholarships from the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation on May 20, Amongst the recipients is David Theodore (B.A. 1991, B.Sc.Arch. 1994, B.Arch. 1996, M.Arch. 2001), until recently a research associate and third-year studio design teacher at the McGill School of Architecture, and currently a Ph.D. student at Harvard undertaking a double doctorate in Architecture and Urban Planning. He is studying the architecture of health-care buildings as a form of medical technology influencing health care. The Trudeau Scholarships, worth up to $180,000 each, will help the students advance research on crucial topics such as affordable housing, gambling addiction, water supply management, assistance to refugees, and health worker migration. The Scholars are all actively engaged in their fields and expected to become leading national and international authorities on issues that affect local and global societies. Trudeau Scholarships not only accelerate the careers of those who receive them, but also enable recipients to make a significant contribution to Canada and to Canadians. We reward excellence and provide young doctorate students with the best conditions to ground their work in the real world, said Foundation President P.G. Forest. The annual $60,000 bursaries, for up to four years, subsidize tuition fees and living expenses and allow the Scholars to travel for research and scholarly networking and knowledge dissemination. The Trudeau Scholarships are the most generous awards of their kind in Canada. For additional information on the foundation and its awards, please visit the Trudeau Foundation scholarships website at Vivian Manasc, BSc(A rch) 77, BA rch 80 Edmonton, AB Vivian Manasc was recently appointed to the National Capital Commission s Advisory Committee on Planning, Design, and Realty (ACPDR). See asp?cid= &lang=1. She gave the Annual Waisman Endowed Lecture at the University of Manitoba School of Architecture in January of 2009, entitled Learning in Four Directions: Working with First Nations and Integrated Sustainable Architecture. Suresh Perera, MArch 04 Montreal, QC Suresh Perera and Julie Charbonneau won the competition Paysages Éphémères Mont-Royal for a temporary installation on Mont-Royal Street in Montreal. Suresh also won the competition Jardin de Métis for an installation at the International Garden Festival at the Reford Gardens in Métis, Québec. Witold Rybczynski, BA rch 66, MArch 72, DSc 02 Philadelphia, PA Witold Rybczynski, has been appointed to serve a second term on the Commission of Fine Art in Washington, D.C. The Commission, founded in 1910, reviews buildings and memorials in the U.S. capital. Previous members have included Gordon Bunshaft, John Russel Pope and Daniel H. Burnham. Rybczynski, who continues to teach at the University of Pennsylvania, is also architecture critic for Slate. His latest book, a collection of memoir essays, is My Two Polish Grandfathers. He gave a reading at the launch of the book in March at Shaughnessy House on the McGill campus. Professor Rybczynski is a celebrated writer, critic and columnist, known for his award-winning books such as Home and A Clearing in the Distance. Here are two excerpts from his new book on his educational experience at McGill: My curriculum at McGill was as much an initiation as an education. To begin with, we the incoming students were divested of our preconceptions about architecture... We were being taught to make a new kind of architecture Modern Architecture but it was one that most of us had never actually seen. We did not compete for grades, although these were important...what we valued was one another s esteem and, above all, the favor of our professor. Norbert Schoenauer, our studio master, was generally considered the best design teacher in the school... He spoke slowly, with a thick accent, but that just gave him more authority. You should live as if architecture were the most important thing, he used to tell us, but you should remember that it is not the only thing. Tom Verebes, BSc(A rch) 87, BA rch 89 Hong Kong Tom Verebes left the position of co-director of the Design Research Lab at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London to start his new role as Associate Professor in the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Hong Kong Papa Hal Ingberg John A. Schweitzer: Acute Liaisons Last fall, Montreal collagist John A. Schweitzer selected eight American and European collages from his private collection to be married with eight works of his own oeuvre to curate, not merely an exhibition, but an installation at the Gallery of the McGill University School of Architecture. The event, according to the artist, celebrated the centennial birth of the medium of collage. It has been argued that the first collage appeared in one of the ink studies Picasso did for Les Demoiselles d Avignon in The title of the exhibition, Acute Liaisons or Liaisons aiguës, refers to the use in colloquial French of collage that connotes illicit relations and undoubtedly qualifies the eight unexpected, improbable unions, as it were. Since the formative decade of the 1970s, Schweitzer has explored a variety of media, which have included, sculpture, installation work, photography, cinematography, performance art, and painting. His artistic practice has been coloured with parallel activities as art dealer, curator, collector, and critic. Collage-maker is, however, the most accurate way of describing Schweitzer s true passion of over thirty years, one that has been extremely fruitful: the artist has produced to date eight collage series. It is this notion of maker that qualifies Schweitzer s identity to create a sense of syndesis, (connection, from the Greek) through the pairing of his own work with that of other artists received influences including Joseph Beuys, Anthony Caro, Joan Mitchell, and Robert Motherwell. As Schweitzer openly states, these improbable juxtapositions can be considered a form of play in the medium of collage. Play, in the Motherwellian sense, requires a predisposition towards the joyful manipulation of plastic elements. Thus, one of the collages, Motherwell s America-La France Variations VIII, a powerful vertical work divided into two large chromatic fields displaying clear traces of its making, has an echo in Schweitzer s The Smith from his Of Porphyry series. In the latter, a broken pool cue is juxtaposed onto two chromatic fields, connecting them physically yet perceptually dividing them. There is textual allusion to Daedalus, whom diverse classical sources consider the first architect, the maker of the labyrinth, the inventor of carpentry and more importantly in the context of the exhibition, the mythical craftsman. Another binary liaison consists of an intimate Beuys photo-collage (Cooper Union, 1970) coupled with one of Schweitzer s monumental works The Erehwön Cycle: IV. The connection of both collages appears to lie in the shared theme of temporality and seriation, in other words, the veritable construct of the viewing experience of this show. However, it is in Schweitzer s Les Charpentiers (2008), the intriguing lonely ninth collage that is conceptually mated with Picasso and Braque works of 1912, that Schweitzer renders full tribute to these two artists whom he considers the original Cubist carpenters. Through the installation and particularly through this alluring single collage, a seminal part of the display, Schweitzer has indeed emulated and celebrated these true mythical craftsmen of modernity. Ricardo L. Castro, MRAIC Schweitzer Exhibition Poster design: John Schweitzer Page#09 Volume#02 McGill School of Architecture

11 your name here CALL FOR Your Name (qualification, year) address line 1 address line 2 web site SUBMISSIONS FOR ALUMNI EXHIBITION your image here your image here Projects elit, ac scelerisque nulla. Mauris et metus rhoncus congue. Integer SHARE YOUR Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, MEMORIES sodales, massa vel euismod aliquam, AND purus at sollicitudin tristique, augue lectus laoreet turpis, consectetur adipiscing elit. pharetra, nisl ante pellentesque Nulla eget est nec tortor posuere neque, vel mattis tellus nibh vitae adipiscing felis sem sit congue. Suspendisse vel sit amet nulla. Donec hendrerit amet turpis. Suspendisse potenti. ACHIEVEMENTS diam eu sem egestas placerat. porta WITH tempus. Curabitur accumsan malesuada eros, nec dictum est lorem, imperdiet sodales YOUR Nullam ac ultrices magna. Nunc Fusce porttitor vulputate auctor. Etiam quis massa quam, at ante sodales et. Donec convallis elit non magna consequat Maecenas at augue ut erat blan- rutrum id, venenatis non metus. congue justo. Mauris auctor dignissim elementum. Pellentesque tortor tellus, ultricies at mattis sed, sodales nec enim. Phasellus tincidunt. Vestibulum semper, tortor sit amet scelerisque tincidunt, mi tortor elementum justo, dit vehicula quis ac eros. Praesent eget eros dignissim neque tempus porttitor. Lorem ipsum Practice Nulla vitae nulla massa, at molestie massa. Nullam laoreet convallis velit, eget ornare orci placerat quis. Praesent ut mauris et metus rhoncus congue. Integer aliquam, purus at sollicitudin tristique, augue lectus laoreet turpis, vitae adipiscing felis sem sit amet turpis. Suspendisse potenti. Nullam ac ultrices magna. Nunc est lorem, imperdiet sodales rutrum id, venenatis non metus. Maecenas at augue ut erat blandit vehicula quis ac eros. Praesent eget eros dignissim neque tempus porttitor. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. COLLEAGUES AT HOMECOMING lobortis malesuada sollicitudin. a rutrum eros eros in libero. Sed dolor sit amet, consectetur adipi- Vivamus at sem erat, quis lobortis tempus vulputate sem, a euismod augue eleifend ut. Phasellus ligula. Nam euismod elementum tortor, sed elementum enim dignissim volutpat iaculis. Class OCTOBER interdum ut , Vivamus a magna aptent 2009 taciti sociosqu ad litora nibh. In non nibh non urna placerat fermentum. Aliquam id per inceptos himenaeos. Ut sed torquent per conubia nostra, augue quis nulla consequat com- nulla neque, eget venenatis enim. modo eu quis metus. Proin ante Quisque molestie, justo vestibulum euismod eleifend, enim lacus, auctor a lobortis non, placerat vitae massa. DEADLINE FOR Ut sed eros SUBMISSION: turpis sollicitudin dolor, quis tincidunt lorem nunc vel ipsum. ac est condimentum porttitor. Donec mattis nisi ut leo aliquam In gravida, neque condimentum convallis egestas, auctor. Quisque arcu turpis, ipsum dictum et elementum pharetra, sapien convallis lectus, in pellentesque nunc lacus id turpis. SEPTEMBER aliquam a urna. Duis euismod 01, 2009 erat odio. Morbi sodales rhoncus enim condimentum ornare. molestie massa. Nullam Nulla vitae nulla massa, at laoreet Nam ac neque vitae sem vehicula rutrum. Proin in odio convallis velit, eget ornare orci placerat quis. Praesent ut mauris Page#10 Volume#02 McGill School of Architecture scing elit. Morbi leo ligula, egestas id posuere ac, ultricies eget ipsum. Nulla eget libero magna. Proin tincidunt, magna et convallis adipiscing, neque mi porttitor lectus, vitae volutpat enim ligula eu turpis. Aenean in augue at nibh ultricies semper. Aliquam nec arcu id ipsum pretium rutrum et sed dui. Vivamus neque purus, condimentum et sollicitudin et, suscipit nec erat. Donec iaculis posuere justo sed sodales. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Aliquam mattis malesuada nibh a volutpat. Aliquam erat volutpat. design :

12 Volume#02 McGill School of Architecture Macdonald-Harrington Building 815 Sherbrooke Street West Montreal, Quebec H3A 2K6 Canada work McGill School of Architecture Publication available David J. Azrieli Lecture Series, 2007 Moshe Safdie: Megascale, Order & Complexity The School of Architecture is pleased to announce the publication of a beautifully designed and carefully produced colour book featuring Moshe Safdie s recent Azrieli lecture. All proceeds go to support the School s special projects and publications fund. We request a minimum of $25 to cover printing and mailing costs but additional contributions are welcome. If you would like to order a copy, please send a cheque payable to McGill University to Larissa Kowbuz, School of Architecture, McGill University, 815 Sherbrooke St. West, Montreal, Quebec, H3A2K6. photo: Timothy Hursley Dav id J. A zrieli Lecture Series publication: Habitat 67 Catalogue available WORK: McGill School of Architecture A catalogue of student work from the academic year , including selections from the professional program (both undergraduate and Master s) and the post-professional program (both Master s and PhD). If you would like to order a copy, please send a cheque for $20 payable to McGill University to Larissa Kowbuz, School of Architecture, McGill University, 815 Sherbrooke St. West, Montreal, Quebec, H3A2K6. Watercycle: Marie_gil Blanchette interior perspective Publication available Solar House: Team Montreal Entry to the 2007 Solar Decathlon The Solar Decathlon is a biennial international competition that challenges university teams across the United States, Europe and Canada to compete in designing, building and operating a 100% solar powered house. This book documents the 2007 entry of TEAM MONTREAL, a consortium between l École de Technologie Supérieure (ETS), l Université de Montréal faculté de l aménagement, and the McGill University School of Architecture. The competition presented an opportunity for the team members of TEAM MONTREAL to put themselves at the front of the field on the path to integrated, high performance building design. The Team finally placed 8th among 20 competing universities. Technical details, a discussion of strategies for sustainable building design today, and a survey of the 2007 competition entries are included. This publication is also accompanied by another one, which documents the Team North Entry to the 2009 edition of the competition from the pan-canadian consortium of Waterloo, Simon Fraser and Ryerson universities. Now returned to Montreal, the TEAM MONTREAL house Lumen Essence has been installed at the Museum of the Environment, on the grounds of the Biosphère on île Sainte-Hélène, and is open for visits by the public during museum hours. 120 p./96 p., full colour, full french and english text For a modest $20 per pair, this shimmering package is available by contacting Anna Rocki at anna.rocki@gmail.com.