After evaluating the quality of the research, scientific writing and oral presentation during the two-day conference, the members of the Academy’s prize jury selected the winner of the prize for the best paper. This jury was chaired by Paul Quintrand, Former President of the Academy of Architecture. The Academy of Architecture Prize for the best paper of the SCAN’20 conference was awarded to Aurélien Catros, doctoral student in architecture at the Université de Montréal, under the supervision of Jean-Pierre Chupin and Bechara Helal, for his paper entitled: “A categorization of BIM models within scientific models”.
Non classé
Tiphaine Abenia wins the France/Québec prize of the thesis in co-tutorship 2020
On October 19, 2020, the Consulate General of France in Quebec City, following the recommendations of the evaluation mission of the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and lʼInnovation, designated Tiphaine Abenia as the French winner of the 2020 cotutelle thesis prize. The French and Quebec cotutelle thesis prizes, in the amount of $1,500, were awarded at the Gala organized by Acfas (Association francophone pour le savoir) held virtually on December 9.
Under the direction of Daniel Estevez (ENSA Toulouse) and Jean-Pierre Chupin (UdeM) for the individualized doctorate in architecture, Tiphaine Abenia’s dissertation “Potential architecture of the Large Abandoned Structure (L.A.S.): categorization and projection” was defended in June 2019. An architect and engineer, Ms. Abenia now teaches at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL).
Jean-Pierre Chupin named honorary member of the AAPPQ 2020
It was at the launch of the 2020 Reference Manual of the Association des architectes en pratique privée du Québec (AAPPQ) that the name of the honorary member she has chosen was unveiled, a title granted to a person who contributes to promoting architectural quality and enhancing the importance of architects in society.
According to Anne Carrier, President of the AAPPQ, “this title is awarded to a committed individual who, through his or her career, contributes to promoting the architectural quality of the built environment and the importance of architects in society in general. This year, the Board of Directors of the AAPPQ wished to emphasize the importance, for the private practice of architecture, of cooperation with the university community. The contribution of research, based on knowledge, is indeed essential to identify, qualify and define best practices.
This year’s honorary member has played a pioneering role in researching and documenting the role of competitions as tools for creating and improving quality in architecture. »
During this event, the 25 achievements selected by the Reference Manual selection committee were presented. Among them, the Science Complex of the MIL Campus of the Université de Montréal, realized by Menkès Shooner Dagenais Le Tourneux Architectes | Lemay | NFOE, in consortium.
Jean-Pierre Chupin curator of the exhibition DEVOIRS D’ARCHITECTURE (6 elementary school competitions in Quebec)
Exhibition presented from September 24, 2020 to January 20, 2021 at the Centre de design de l’UQAM in Montreal (dir. Louise Pelletier) thanks to a collaboration between LABÉCOLE, LEAP, CRC-ACME and Centre de design. all details here
The 5 competitions of the LABécole fully documented exclusively on the CCC
As part of a collaboration with the LABécole organization, the Canadian Competitons Catalogue is the first to deliver all 160 projects submitted in 2019 to the 5 competitions for the construction or expansion of elementary school in Shefford, Rimouski, Gatineau, Maskinongé and Saguenay. The official unveiling of the winners took place on Monday, August 24.
LAB-ÉCOLE | Agrandissement et rénovation de l’école Saint-Joseph à Maskinongé
LAB-ÉCOLE | Rénovation et agrandissement de l’école primaire Pierre Elliott Trudeau à Gatineau
LAB-ÉCOLE | Construction d’une nouvelle école primaire à Shefford
LAB-ÉCOLE | Construction d’une nouvelle école primaire à Rimouski
“In 2020, judging by the number of architecture competitions held in Quebec over the past two decades and the number of award-winning buildings, it is easier to find an excellent library than an elementary school worthy of the name. This series of 5 competitions – open and in two phases – organized by the LAB-École organization therefore confronted two contradictory convictions: the certainty that places of schooling forge and shape what we are since early childhood and this conviction, widespread among public decision-makers, that we could basically study and teach anywhere. Particularly well organized by LAB-École, these competitions show, on the contrary, that architecture is not a luxury, but a necessity. For contexts as different as Saguenay, Maskinongé, Rimouski, Gatineau and Shefford, the proposals prove to be rich in reflections demonstrating that the question of primary school remains complex and cannot be circumscribed in models that can be repeated – in blue, wood or aluminum – whatever the context.”
Thanks to the teams of students from Université de Montréal working on the CCC and to CRC-ACME for this intense digital documentation work.
Several LEAP researchers participated in 27 brainstorming sessions on the determinants of quality in architecture at the invitation of CRC-ACME
For three weeks in May 2020, 3 groups of researchers and professionals across Canada participated in 3 brainstorming sessions per week, with 9 Zoom sessions per group, for a total of 27 sessions. This series of remote exchanges is part of both the establishment of a large collaborative and research network on the quality of built environments (AREA) and the design of a digital platform or « Atlas of Excellence in Architecture » capable of supporting long-term research on the understanding and dissemination of best practices in the Canadian context (AEA). This database is decentralized and in open access. Coordination: Jean-Pierre Chupin (Université de Montréal), Terrance Galvin (Laurentian University) Doctoral students and assistants: Mandana Bafghinia, Aurélien Catros, Sherif Goubran, Firdous Nizar, Lucie Palombi, Alexandra Paré, Anne-Lise Belbezet
Understanding the Awards of Excellence (Issue 191 of Architecture Québec magazine) : Researchers from LEAP and the Canada Research Chair in Architecture, Competitions and Mediations of Excellence present some results of their recent work on awards of excellence in all areas of design
This special issue on Awards of Excellence does not introduce new winners or reveal any results that were not previously known. Its purpose is to call for more attention to a phenomenon – the celebration of excellence – on which there is strangely little critical attention. What is to be understood from the plethora of award-winning projects, achievements and practices year after year? Certainly, the images are part of an intense ballet at each local, regional or national award ceremony. Images of architectural excellence, no doubt about it. However, it is necessary to “freeze frame” the images to begin to question the definitions of quality that they are supposed to summarize, symbolize, perhaps measure. The reader who would like to be convinced of the extent of the phenomenon in a few figures can start this issue at the end, as we draw up an unprecedented statistical portrait of it, revealing in particular the exponential increase in the number of organizers and prizes in a decade. Georges Adamczyk first of all proposes to shift the “waiting horizon” from the reception of architects or the public to the interest of the academic world. In fact, he takes award-winning projects as models: “projects that are judged excellent by their peers for their exemplary aesthetic and functional qualities are also potential projects for learning about design and production in architecture”. David Theodore places the Quebec awards in a broader Canadian context. While Quebec architects do indeed distinguish themselves in Canada and even abroad, his survey shows that it is certain types of buildings and architectural practices that are distinguished, rather than excellence or the best buildings in general. Paradoxically, he wonders whether the awards really promote good architecture. This is confirmed by Aurélien Catros‘ reflections on heritage distinctions. The recent history of the categories of excellence in conservation first reveals the fluctuations of the underlying policies. And what could be more up-to-date than a policy for school architecture? On this point, Alexandra Paré‘s retrospective look shows that school architecture remains a poor relation of awards. She agrees with the conclusions of Theodore and Adamczyk in inviting us to conceive of prices as a true school of architectural quality. The articles by Sherif Goubran and Carmela Cucuzzella question the growing importance of ecological and environmental criteria in contemporary quality recognition. The statistics compiled by Goubran shed light on the multiplication of definitions of sustainability. Cucuzzella’s analyses show in detail that certain awards literally force the use of ever more “eco-didactic” visibility. She concludes that awards would not only play a recognition function, they would determine a form of excellence. In essence, this inversion is the game proposed by Lucie Palombi who, by temporarily obliterating the images of the prize-winning projects, wonders what a foreign visitor to three prize-winning libraries might understand by considering only the rare comments of the juries. We’ll let you guess. For as long as the lists of prize-winning projects are not accompanied by the reasons, analyses, judging criteria and therefore the jury reports, there is a risk that the prizes will remain nothing more than nice celebrations and not stages in the full and effective recognition of an “architectural quality policy”. Editorial: Prices, freeze frame! (Jean-Pierre Chupin, Professor, Université de Montréal) Taking Home the Prize: Distinguishing Québec in Architectural Awards (David Theodore, Professor, McGill University) Three award-winning libraries (the reverse visit) (Lucie Palombi, doctoral student, Université de Montréal) School architecture, the poor relation of prizes (Alexandra Paré, doctoral student, Université de Montréal) Learning from excellence in residential architecture (Georges Adamczyk, Professor, Université de Montréal) Quebec in the Canadian sustainable development awards concert (Sherif Goubran, PhD student, Concordia University) The allegory of heritage through the filter of awards of excellence (Aurélien Catros, doctoral student, Université de Montréal) What is the purpose of architectural awards? (Jean-Pierre Chupin, Professor, Université de Montréal) “Eco-education”: Are “green awards” forcing the visibility of green devices? (Carmela Cucuzzella, Professor, Concordia University)
ARCHIVES OF EXEMPLARITY IN ARCHITECTURE AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT (AREA)
The Archives of Exemplarity in Architecture and the Built Environment (AREA) is an open construction site!
AREA-BE is an initiative of the Canada Research Chair in Architecture, Competitions and Mediations for Excellence (CRC-ACME), held by Jean-Pierre Chupin, Ph.D. , architect MOAQ, MIRAC, DPLG, DipArch (2), Professor at Université de Montréal. This initiative is actively supported by a network of Canadian and international scholars.
The current website of the AREA (www.architecture-excellence.org) has been officially launched in November 2019 for information purposes.
The AREA website foreshadows an important documentation and research platform to be launched in 2021 / 2022
This long-term initiative is supported by the Canada Foundation for Innovation and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada through the Canada Research Chairs Program.
In the coming years, the establishment of an AREA partnership of researchers based in Canadian schools of architecture and research universities will ensure the reliability, regular updating and sustainability of this scientific platform regrouping resources, knowledge transfers and analyzes on best examples of architectural design, landscape design and urban design in Canada.
Thanks to the contribution of institutions delivering awards and to professional teams giving access to data on projects and buildings, researchers and students will be able to contribute to a better understanding of the current evolution of quality in the built environment. The data, information, analyzes, comparisons, visualizations that will be progressively delivered – in open access – on the AREA platform will take advantage of award-winning projects and buildings in Canada, from year to year, in order to identify and better understand best practices.
The AREA collective platform will be meant to provide scientific data in order to support education, policies, actions and mediations aiming at excellence in the built environment.
More information on CRC-ACME’s program can be found at www.crc.umontreal.ca/en/ as well as definitions, data and insights in the “science blog” section of the same site.
Lucie Palombi, doctoral student, receives a FRQSC scholarship for her research project
Lucie Palombi, individualized doctoral student under the supervision of Jean-Pierre Chupin, receives a doctoral research scholarship from the Fonds de Recherche Société et Culture du Québec, worth $77,000 over 4 years (from 2020 to 2024) for the research project entitled “La mise en compétition de l’écriture en architecture. Herméneutique du texte gagnant et de l’ouvrage primé”, attached to the Research Chair in Architecture, Competitions and Mediations of Excellence.