MONTREAL, June 20, 2019 – Canada’s science minister Kirsty Duncan announced the April and October 2018 Canada Research Chair Awards, including one in Architecture, Competitions and Mediations for Excellence, granted to Université de Montréal architecture professor Jean-Pierre Chupin. One of the few Tier-1 chairs in Canada dedicated to the study of contemporary architecture, it will help Professor Chupin better define the attributes, parameters and criteria for recognizing quality in architecture and understanding its renewal in current practices.
Alexandra Paré (Individualized PhD in Architecture) is the winner of the 2018-2019 competition of the Daniel Arbour and Associates Scholarship that promotes innovation and new approaches in environmental design by highlighting the competence of a student enrolled in a program in studies of the Faculty of Environmental design ($ 20,000).
During a ceremony held on April 23, Lucie Palombi was awarded the very first Geneviève-Bazin Fellowship, created to honor the memory of the one who set up what would become the Rare Books Library. and special collections (BLRCS) of the Université de Montréal. A PhD student at the UdeM School of Architecture, Ms. Palombi received this $ 2,000 scholarship because of the importance of the BLRCS documents in her research project as well as for the quality of her work.
This chapter presents the theoretical model elaborated by Jean-Pierre Chupin to categorize theories and doctoral thesis in architecture. It is presented in a new collection on architectural research published by the French Ministry of Culture.
UN COMPAS DES THÉORIES DANS L’OCÉAN DOCTORAL EN ARCHITECTURE
in
L’Architecture
Entre pratique et connaissance scientifique
Sous la direction de Jean-Louis Cohen
Coll. Recherche & Architecture
Editions du Patrimoine
2018
16,5 × 24,5 cm – 176 pages – 68 illustrations
The “Artificial Intelligence” faculty fellowship, worth $ 2,000 CAD, was awarded to support a doctoral research project entitled “Representation and Simulation of Architecture Project Qualities through the Prism of Building Data Modeling Systems”. This project aims to determine, through a series of comparative analyzes of different scientific models, the part of the numerical modeling of the architectural project in the appreciation of the architectural quality during its design. This research is part of the Montreal Declaration’s “Knowledge”, “Responsibility”, “Autonomy” and “Well-being” components for responsible development of artificial intelligence by promoting the transparency of design algorithms and processes. numerical modeling analysis, now widely democratized in professional practice.
The Mitacs Globalink Research Award provides $6,000 in Canada to conduct 12–24-week research projects at universities overseas. The fellowship is awarded to support a doctoral research entitled « The Skyscraper: a viewing instrument for the metropolis ». The investigation of Shanghai’s buildings is particularly relevant to my research, both in terms of the quantity of observation decks located in the city and in terms of their design and operation. Besides the development of the thesis, the research stay will generate publications and support the development of a collaboration on high-rise buildings between Jiao Tong university and UdeM.
Aurélien is an architect graduated from the Lyon School of Architecture.
He first worked alongside heritage architects in France before undertaking a doctoral thesis at the University of Montreal under the supervision of Jean-Pierre Chupin and Bechara Helal.
Thesis project title: “Reciprocal transfers between physical and digital models in the architectural project”.
Like their analog counterparts, digital models influence architects’ appreciation of projects throughout the design process. These singular theoretical objects generate a great deal of critical analysis but are rarely theorized in conjunction with analog models, although these models are regularly used in concert. Ontologically, these productions are dissimilar: in terms of medium (what is the model made of?), objectives (what is the purpose of the model?) and temporalities (is it a static or dynamic model?). As the reciprocal transfers between the different medium diversify, the productions on either side of these operations potentially admit new uses and therefore new evaluation criteria. From a theoretical point of view, it seems essential today to question the factors put in crisis during the transfers between these different supports since these criteria will reciprocally participate in defining architectural quality. How do digital models contribute to redefining the evaluation criteria of the architectural project with or against analog models?
This research deals jointly with analog and digital models as instruments of representation and simulation of the architectural project. We propose to : 1) Update existing categorizations of modeling in architecture in order to situate these productions within the general theory of models, 2) Compare the different digital models to their supposed analog “equivalents” according to the proposed categorization in order to understand the modalities of transfers between them within contemporary practice, 3) Identify the biases and potentials of the joint and disjoint uses of these models through their interactions in order to improve and optimize their respective uses by designers.
Our theoretical framework is based on general categorizations of models that have already been the subject of attempts to adapt them to analog and digital models in architecture. This categorization will constitute the analysis grid that will allow us to study the successive iterations of the modeling of different projects. Considering that these iterations beget the evaluation of the project by the architect and thus its evolution, our methodological approach is in line with the qualitative and theoretical comparatism proposed by the Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA). We will identify the similarities and differences between successive study models in order to identify how the characteristics of these models (supports, objectives, temporalities) influence the modification of the project and the creation of the next model. In particular, we will seek to isolate different factors for evaluating the quality of architectural models that would prove – if applicable – specific to the design of the project in the digital age.
Aurélien is an architect graduated from the Lyon School of Architecture.
He first worked alongside heritage architects in France before undertaking a doctoral thesis at the University of Montreal under the supervision of Jean-Pierre Chupin and Bechara Helal.
Thesis project title: “Reciprocal transfers between physical and digital models in the architectural project”.
Like their analog counterparts, digital models influence architects’ appreciation of projects throughout the design process. These singular theoretical objects generate a great deal of critical analysis but are rarely theorized in conjunction with analog models, although these models are regularly used in concert. Ontologically, these productions are dissimilar: in terms of medium (what is the model made of?), objectives (what is the purpose of the model?) and temporalities (is it a static or dynamic model?). As the reciprocal transfers between the different medium diversify, the productions on either side of these operations potentially admit new uses and therefore new evaluation criteria. From a theoretical point of view, it seems essential today to question the factors put in crisis during the transfers between these different supports since these criteria will reciprocally participate in defining architectural quality. How do digital models contribute to redefining the evaluation criteria of the architectural project with or against analog models?
This research deals jointly with analog and digital models as instruments of representation and simulation of the architectural project. We propose to : 1) Update existing categorizations of modeling in architecture in order to situate these productions within the general theory of models, 2) Compare the different digital models to their supposed analog “equivalents” according to the proposed categorization in order to understand the modalities of transfers between them within contemporary practice, 3) Identify the biases and potentials of the joint and disjoint uses of these models through their interactions in order to improve and optimize their respective uses by designers.
Our theoretical framework is based on general categorizations of models that have already been the subject of attempts to adapt them to analog and digital models in architecture. This categorization will constitute the analysis grid that will allow us to study the successive iterations of the modeling of different projects. Considering that these iterations beget the evaluation of the project by the architect and thus its evolution, our methodological approach is in line with the qualitative and theoretical comparatism proposed by the Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA). We will identify the similarities and differences between successive study models in order to identify how the characteristics of these models (supports, objectives, temporalities) influence the modification of the project and the creation of the next model. In particular, we will seek to isolate different factors for evaluating the quality of architectural models that would prove – if applicable – specific to the design of the project in the digital age.
Lucie Palombi est architecte diplômée de l’École d’Architecture de Versailles (France).
Projet doctoral : Textualité et projet en architecture
Approche herméneutique et comparative de l’écrit en situation de concours
Au croisement de deux disciplines apparemment disjointes – l’architecture et l’écriture – repose la textualité. Si le texte peut sembler secondaire par rapport aux pratiques du dessin et du modèle, des écrits rédigés par des architectes nous sont parvenus depuis la plus haute Antiquité. Certains d’entre eux sont même devenus des monuments littéraires : De l’architecture (Vitruve, 15 avant J.-C.), L’art d’édifier (Leon Battista Alberti, 1485), L’architecture considérée sous les rapports de l’art, des mœurs et de la législation (Claude-Nicolas Ledoux, 1804), ou encore Vers une architecture (Le Corbusier, 1923) – l’un des livres les plus lus du XXème siècle -, autant d’ouvrages publiés par de grands éditeurs de littérature. La discipline architecturale connaît une production livresque considérable entre traités, manifestes, monographies, textes de présentation de projets, romans et autobiographies. Il existe même des prix qui soulignent l’excellence des ouvrages d’architecture : le Grand Prix du Livre de la ville de Briey, le Prix du livre de l’Académie d’Architecture, le Prix Alice Davis Hitchcock, ou encore le Prix DAM (Deutsches Architecktur Museum). La textualité architecturale est doublement en concours : parfois, le texte accompagne le projet d’architecture en situation de concours ; d’autres fois, la textualité est l’objet même du concours.
Dans cette thèse, nous cherchons à comprendre la nature de la textualité en architecture, ou, plus précisément, les attributs des écrits rédigés par des architectes – dont le rôle premier est apparemment de concevoir des bâtiments avec le dessin – ou l’image – comme outil privilégié. Qu’est-ce qui caractérise l’écriture en architecture ? Que cherche à combler la textualité ? Peut-on identifier une sorte d’identité architecturale véhiculée par le texte seul ? Les objectifs de notre projet de recherche sont les suivants : (1) Contribuer à une théorisation de l’écriture primée (2) Raffiner les connaissances sur la textualité en architecture. Notre démarche scientifique sera essentiellement d’ordre herméneutique et comparative. L’analyse discursive usera de la capacité de la représentation en architecture à séparer texte et image.