Archinect - News

5468796 Architecture wins one of five WAN 21 FOR 21 Awards

2013-06-05T20:22:00-04:00

Canadian firm 5468796 Architecture has been selected for the WAN 21 FOR 21 Award by World Architecture News in London, UK. 5468796 was one of five emerging architectural practices chosen from over 150 entries and a longlist of 50 firms from around the world.

Michael Maltzan selected to design Inuit Art and Learning Centre for WAG

2012-11-28T13:58:00-05:00

The award-winning American architect Michael Maltzan has been selected to design the Inuit Art and Learning Centre at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. The Centre will house both the WAG’s celebrated collection of contemporary Inuit art, the largest of its kind in the world, and the Studio Art and Learning programs. Michael Maltzan will be the Prime and Design Architect for this historic project, and supporting his team will be Cibinel Architects, Ltd, led by principal George Cibinel, acting as the Associate and Technical Architect in Winnipeg.

This past August, 65 prospective architectural teams from 15 countries responded to the Call for Expressions of Interest for the IALC project. In September, the architect selection committee narrowed it down to six finalists who submitted expanded proposals and were interviewed last month. The selection committee was unanimous in choosing Michael Maltzan as the winning architect, and this recommendation subsequently received overwhelming approval...

Domus on MAD's Absolute Towers

2012-11-07T18:52:00-05:00

For over a century, a simple dilemma has vexed architects. How to escape the formal monotony of a series of identical stacked plates, without losing the efficiency of the canonical high-rise formula? Through a series of astute formal moves, and by evoking empathy, Chinese architecture practice MAD has achieved a rare breakthrough.

Local architects power Winnipeg’s reinvigorated design

2012-10-19T20:32:00-04:00

Like the meeting of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, there’s a compelling confluence of urban activists standing next to each other on the sidewalk of Portage Avenue in downtown Winnipeg. To my right is a group of First Nations flood evacuees protesting (politely) against cuts to their daily living allowance. To my left, below the gleaming, mirror-polished aluminum balconies of the Avenue on Portage mixed-use development...

Melting permafrost plagues Dawson City

2012-08-16T15:42:00-04:00

Dawson City spent more than $600,000 last year dealing with damage to roads and pipes caused by melting permafrost. A recently-published report says the shifting ground, a result of climate change, can do a lot of damage to infrastructure such as water and sewer systems.

Why Canada's houses are getting smaller

2012-07-17T12:09:00-04:00

The Milllennials, the generation born from 1983 onwards, enjoyed a childhood free of bunkbeds or even shared bathrooms. Growing up in plush megahomes undoubtedly helped them become, in the words of one author, “self-centred, needy, and entitled with unrealistic work expectations.” Oddly, it also spawned a group of people patently unimpressed with backyards and breakfast nooks.

Winners of AZURE Magazine’s 2012 AZ Awards

2012-06-15T19:08:00-04:00

Big names of the international architectural and design community recently gathered at Toronto's Thompson Hotel as AZURE Magazine revealed the winners of its second annual AZ Awards, the only international, multi-disciplinary design competition in Canada. Representing a global snapshot of the world of architecture and design, submissions were open to designers, architects, firms and manufacturers of all disciplines, as well as students in these fields.

A towering artist’s studio on a Canadian island

2012-04-19T14:42:00-04:00

Fogo Island is less than 100 square miles just east of Newfoundland and Labrador. The craggy island isn’t the most hospitable place, but the roughly 3000 inhabitants are committed to living there and even taking steps to draw tourists to their rocky shores. Across the island, six artist’s studios designed by Saunders Architecture are taking shape. The hope is that the island will draw the kind of cultural tourists that have flocked to places like Marfa or Bilboa.

bracket [goes soft]: Buoyant Light

2012-04-16T18:24:00-04:00

In anticipation of this week's event, Publish Or... bracket [GOES SOFT], we will be showcasing a piece from the book each day this week. We hope to see you this Thursday!

Buoyant Light
by Claire Lubell and Virginia Fernandez

The Canadian Arctic is a vast landscape, dotted with remote communities whose lives depend on natural cycles for subsistence. While imagining widespread distribution, Buoyant Light is sited in Igloolik, an Inuit community of 1600 at 70 degrees North with active creative and research programs. Like much of the Arctic, Igloolik is witness to acute changes in permafrost, sea levels and ice. As an island, it is particularly vulnerable to unreliable freeze-thaw cycles of the sea which directly affects safe hunting and traveling.

Image: View of Igloolik at night, illuminated on land and water by a distributed series of buoyant lights.

Buoyant Light consists of a balloon and a buoy which serve a dual function: to harvest solar energy, providing Iglooli...

Éclats de verre by Atomic3

2012-04-09T16:31:00-04:00

Montréal-based design outfit Atomic3 has shared with us their light installation, "Éclats de Verre" for Montreal's Quartier des Spectacles on Emilie-Gamelin square.

Éclats de verre
Place Émilie-Gamelin / Montreal / Canada
December 15th, 2011 - February 26, 2012

Montreal has long been known as the ”city of a hundred steeples”. Through the heart of this northern metropolis, ATOMIC3 has scattered Éclats de verre: a giant shattered stained-glass window reorganised into a playful maze that offers a unique immersive experience to its visitors, and a colourful panorama to passersby.

Winner of the Créer l’hiver competition, Éclats de verre is one of three works that make up Luminothérapie 2012. The goal of this event produced by the Partenariat du Quartier des Spectacles in Montreal is to beat the winter blues, using interactive light-based installations.

Éclats de verre transforms Place Émilie-Gamelin, located in the Latin Quarter, into a field of vibrant hues. Passersby ...

Calatrava's Peace Bridge to open tomorrow in Calgary

2012-03-23T19:37:00-04:00

“It has been extraordinarily controversial and I made no bones of the fact that it’s not a project I would have supported if I had been on council at the time,” said the mayor. “But the thing is, it’s there. It’s an indelible and a permanent part of the landscape of our city. “It would all do us good to grow to love it.” The span, designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, is officially pegged at $24.5 million, but is expected to cost more.

Beach & Howe Tower Proposal Vancouver BIG Tower Bjarke Ingels Group

2012-02-14T18:37:00-05:00

The proposal is for a mixed-use development. On the Howe Street side, there will be a 49-storey residential tower with a 9-storey podium which includes market rental housing, commercial uses, and a childcare facility. The building height is at 150 metres and will be the tallest building on the southern end of downtown and the 4th tallest building in the city, unless the Ritz Carlton site gets developed before this, in which case it would be the 5th tallest.

Jane Jacobs compares Toronto & Montreal, 1969

2012-02-09T17:29:00-05:00

From CBC TV's "The Way It Is" program, circa 1969, urbanist and author Jane Jacobs compares late 1960s Toronto and Montreal on how they have been planned and built, while condemning major highways planned for GTO.

Very cool: Warming-hut designs win big at The Forks

2012-01-29T00:10:00-05:00

Three huts were chosen from an open design competition with the winning designs coming from the Czech Republic, Norway and New York. A fourth was chosen from student submissions at the University of Manitoba while the fifth was designed by world-renowned architect Frank Gehry.

Portuguese Architect Diogo Burnay appointed director of the school of architecture of the Faculty of Architecture and Planning of Dalhousie University

2012-01-19T12:00:00-05:00

The portuguese architect Diogo Burnay to head Faculty of Architecture and Planning of Dalhousie University, at Halifax, Canada, after being selected among three finalists in an international competition.

The Portuguese architect Diogo Burnay was appointed to be the director of the School of Architecture of the Faculty of Architecture and Planning of Dalhousie University, at Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, after being shortlisted among three finalists in an international call for applications.

Diogo Burnay applied last year to the post of Director of the School of Architecture at Dalhousie University in Halifax, and in August was selected for a "short-list" which also included an American, an Italian and a Norwegian architect.

Working outside of Portugal is not new for this 46 year old architect who founded in 1999 in Lisbon, next to Cristina Veríssimo, the office CVDB (1). Diogo Burnay was living in Macau when he taught at the Department of Architecture of the University of Hong Kong. He also taught in various universities in the United States, the School of Architecture at the University of Texas at Arlington and at the College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture and the...

Amnesty: Canada ‘required’ to arrest George W. Bush

2011-10-12T18:40:50-04:00

Amnesty International called on Canadian authorities Wednesday to arrest and prosecute George W. Bush, saying the former U.S. president authorized “torture” when he directed the U.S.-led war on terror.

Ledcor to build new Royal Alberta Museum

2011-09-15T14:45:25-04:00

A design-build team led by Ledcor was announced Wednesday as the winning bid for construction of the new Royal Alberta Museum in downtown Edmonton.

Architecture and the edible city

2011-08-19T15:49:09-04:00

For the first time in a long time, the future doesn’t look better than the past. Faced with the prospect of climate change, environmental degradation, economic upheaval and diminished resources, it’s not unexpected that architects such as Susan Fitzgerald have started to look at the world beyond the building. The Halifax practitioner, just announced as the winner of the Canada Council $50,000 Prix de Rome, will spend the next two years figuring out how cities can be made more productive.

From the School Blogs: A House for Douglas Coupland

2011-07-18T14:45:56-04:00

Douglas Coupland, the Canadian author, also buddies with our Professor Tony Robbins was the surprise client for our final studio project. After the installation gallery and precedent studies we tasked with designing a small house for a hypothetical client. The client was described as an artist and a writer and these two professions dictated the dualities of his personality.

Rebuilding Haiti: Houses for Haiti's homeless

2011-07-13T12:36:27-04:00

Quebec tent designer Maurice Monette thinks he has the solution to Haiti's housing crisis in his prototype home of foam and aluminum dubbed The Human

"I want something that will work in the culture of my country," he said. "I don't like foreigners bringing ideas that are not right for my country." Haitians who viewed the house loved it. Boulos calls his development "The Dignity Project" — bringing jobs and proper homes to his people, as opposed to the squat, 200-square-foot transitional homes rapidly erected in some neighbourhoods often referred to as "doghouses."

Alleged Forced Resignation at McGill University Stirs Backlash from Students

2011-06-24T12:37:28-04:00

Word has been spreading since yesterday about the resignation of Michael Jemtrud, Director of McGill's School of Architecture. Archinect has just been anonymously informed, however, that "a very reliable senior faculty source within the school" has confirmed that the resignation was forced and that Jemtrud is not allowed to talk about it.

The message we received follows:

On Thursday, June 23, 2011, Michael Jemtrud was forced to resign from his position as Director of McGill University School of Architecture. Jemtrud was hired four years ago with a mandate to integrate current technologies into the professional programs, to reinvigorate critical discussion and research about their use, and to foster a clearer organizational structure and closer collaborations within the school's many professional and post-professional programs. Jemtrud approached the job with a distinct vision and direction, and an ability to move quickly while continuing to foster the school's longstanding str...

Allied Works Architecture unveils design of new National Music Centre in Calgary

2011-06-22T19:14:00-04:00

Two years after holding an international architectural competition that saw world-renowned designers face off in a public presentation, the National Music Centre revealed the extraordinary final design by Allied Works Architecture, the winner of the competition.

Canada’s First New School of Architecture in 40 years will transform Downtown Sudbury

2011-05-24T18:20:08-04:00

“This investment is a significant step towards realizing the School of Architecture,” said Floyd Laughren, Chair, Board of Governors of Laurentian University. “The School will be the first one to offer programs in French outside Quebec, and will enable Aboriginal and northern perspectives to be further reflected in sustainable design.”

Fifth anniversary of Montreal UNESCO City of Design

2011-05-13T18:16:44-04:00

The Montreal UNESCO City of Design initiative aims at creating opportunities for designers in Montreal so as to give vital and tangible expression to Montréal’s status as a UNESCO City of Design. First launched throught an investment of $1.2 million over three years (2007-2011), the initiative aims to fund design and architecture competitions as well as promote made-in-Montréal design initiatives via various digital communication tools.

To celebrate the 5th anniversary of Montréal's designation of a UNESCO City of Design, the city will be hosting a year-long event titled Montréal, UNESCO City of Design, from May 2011 to May 2012.

Building culture means cutting the compromises

2011-05-09T14:05:14-04:00

“We wanted … for the work to speak for itself,” says Mr. Kuwabara, who won the 2006 RAIC Gold Medal, awarded for a significant and lasting contribution to Canadian architecture. For the group, every project matter, he says. “A lot of architects do some kind of work just to keep the cash flowing,” says Mr. Kuwabara. “They’re always waiting for the next big project where they’re going to do exactly what they want. [But] it never happens.”

Swiss Team Wins Student Design Competition for 2015 Pan American Games Award Pavilion

2011-04-19T13:19:32-04:00

A group of four recent graduates from Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland has won the First Place in the AIAS competition for the awards pavillion of the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto, Canada. Team members were Manuel Gross, Patrik Staub, Yannick Vorberg, and Stefan Vetsch.