A doctoral student in architecture receives prestigious Trudeau Scholarship

Paloma Castonguay-Rufino, an individualized doctoral student in architecture at the Faculty of Environmental Design’s School of Architecture, has been selected as a 2024 Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Scholar. This year, nearly 450 applications were submitted, from some 40 Canadian universities and 60 universities around the world.

Paloma Castonguay-Rufino is an individualized Ph.D. student in architecture at the Université de Montréal. After obtaining a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in architecture, she completed a professional internship specializing in the conservation of built heritage. Her doctoral research lies at the intersection of environmental, heritage and social considerations. In a reflexive approach, she takes a critical look at the notion of industrial heritage across Canada, through the analysis of contemporary projects that reuse urban industrial remains.

Paloma takes part in collaborative research projects, in particular the SSHRC partnership “Quality in Canada’s Built Environment: Roadmaps to Equity, Social Value and Sustainability” led by the Canada Research Chair in Architecture, Competitions and Mediations of Excellence (CRC-ACME). She has been involved with the next generation of architects, notably through mentoring of student architecture projects, and her volunteer work with Héritage Montréal’s Next Generation Committee, as well as in editorial activities for different architecture and design publications. She is a member of the board of directors of the Association québécoise pour le patrimoine industriel (AQPI).