Architectural ideas competitions and the reflection they stimulate constitute an open field for planning professionals to step back and examine the structural and institutional frameworks that govern their practice. In the fall of 2021, Urbanarium launched The Mixing Middle Competition, an ideas competition aimed at encouraging reflection on the densification of single-family neighbourhoods through the introduction of mixed-use development in Metro Vancouver. Competitors were asked to come up with alternative narratives for the future of these neighbourhoods that are considered single-use and subject to restrictive regulations. Through their proposals, they were to challenge the models of financing, ownership and zoning that still dominate land-use planning practices and in so doing contribute to shaping living environments.

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These two competitions, one for the Bassin Louise in Quebec City, the other for the Jack Layton Ferry Terminal in Toronto, are separated by three decades of design thinking on waterfronts. We offer a comparison that will appear somewhat unbalanced, however, since no less than seventy-five proposals were submitted in Quebec City in 1984 and only five in Toronto in 2014. People talked a lot about the relationship between public spaces and private financing in 1984, they talk more frankly about inclusive spaces and user expectations in 2014. The black-and-white ink drawings with rare perspectives for the Louise Basin are also a testament to a time, not so long ago, when we were betting big on a few sketches that the jury had to figure out how to interpret. It is not certain that today's students would still be able to read such "to scale" drawings, since the question of scale remains at the heart of urban landscape issues. To be convinced of this, you just have to open these competitions in two windows of your browser and appreciate the overflow of didactic, realistic and colorful visual representations that it is important today to provide to competition juries. To your bathing suits!

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In this update of the Canadian Competitions Catalogue, we present three competitions organized by the City of Montreal from 2017 to 2020 on urban sites considered strategic. Comparisons will reveal three very different ways of designing a "public square."

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Competitions for architectural and urban design projects are always necessary when the problem is complex, undecidable a priori. And what could be more complex than the preservation and transmission of the memory of the Holocaust? This problem was coupled with another, more urban, more contextual, one that some of the 32 teams selected in the first phase sometimes underestimated the level of complexity: this place of memory will have to act, on a daily basis, in the symbolic heart of Montreal, on Saint-Laurent Boulevard, on the "main."

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Launched on June 15, 2020, this competition, addressed to students of the four faculties of design and architecture in Quebec, called for innovative approaches, in a context of humanitarian, climatic and health crises. The development of student projects coincided with major social upheavals, from the significant deterioration of public health caused by the first waves of COVID-19 to repeated and umpteenth instances of crimes and injustices committed against visible minorities all over the world. All spheres of design are now involved in the implementation of various solutions to address these issues: in order for our society to evolve in the face of the above-mentioned crises, the practice of architecture and the legislative framework surrounding the profession must change. To this end, can the innovative thinking that "Repenser la rue commerciale" incites be a vector for the evolution of the architectural profession? Can we perceive, among the solutions that were proposed, views which may capture tomorrow’s inclusive city?

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The Canadian Competitions Catalogue is proud to be first to presents all the projects submitted by the 11 national and international teams selected to participate in the two phases "Block 2" competition in Ottawa in 2021 and 2022. The administrative term "Block 2" does not say anything about the democratic, cultural, historical, heritage and urban importance of this segment of Wellington Street located in front of the Canadian Parliament. In the words of John Rauston Saul, the moral compass of this great competition, it was no more and no less than the completion of Parliament Square, which began a century and a half ago in a great inaugural architectural competition.

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The City of Montreal launched the Vivre le chantier Sainte-Cath: Mise en valeur de la rue Sainte-Catherine Ouest competition in the spring of 2016 with the aim of mitigating the impacts of the redevelopment of one of its most emblematic arteries. A subject rarely tackled, the mitigation of construction sites gave rise to a multidisciplinary reflection on the transformation of the city, taking advantage of "a space of freedom, outside the perennial character of urban spaces that are under construction, to create new experiences" (Marmen, 2014). The projects in this competition invite us to reflect on the capacity of a construction site to reinforce the festival identity of a metropolis such as Montreal. The unfolding of the competition, however, did not go as planned.

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Community centers are places where a community can meet and exchange ideas and practice recreational, cultural or social activities. The sense of attachment of various communities is built there. But designing spaces that promote diversity and inclusion remains a complex process. In response to criticism from Makivik, a representative organism of the Inuit of Nunavik, Peter McGill's center has been renamed the SANAAQ Centre, a term inspired by an Inuit book by author Mitiarjuk Nappaaluk from 1950, which refers to something made by hand. This concept of an open hand or a making hand is certainly what brings the goals of the competition closer to the future appropriations of the community center. The mayor of the city of Montreal, however, will be accused of cultural appropriation in a controversy revealing that the valorization of indigenous cultures announced in the program of the competition has not been realized as planned.

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81 teams of students from 16 countries and 4 continents participated in this ideas competition which asked for new ways to encourage and renew the experience of public transport in the wake of a global sanitary crisis. How can we open up avenues for redefining an enhanced relationship to urbanity through the sharing of public spaces? The jury chose to reward 5 projects and gave 2 honorary mentions for exemplary ways of reimagining the experience of public transportation in a post-pandemic metropolis.

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In 2014, after a long process, in 3 competitions organized in parallel by the Montreal Botanical Garden museum institution Space for Life, 3 projects were selected in coincidence with the celebrations of the 375th anniversary of Montreal. The implementation of two of them did not begin until 2018 with the temporary closure of the Biodôme, and then with that of the insectarium in 2019. The Biodome reopened to visitors in 2020 and the insectarium is scheduled to be completed in June 2021. The third was to reinvent the rose garden set in the Glass Pavilion of the Botanical Garden. The project has already been forgotten, including by the media. It is now to be regretted, as it was designed by Lacaton and Vassal, valiant winners of the Pritzker Prize in 2021.

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One hundred proposals, presented in a particularly didactic manner, have already made this urban design idea competition a milestone in Canadian thinking on the future of cities in the "Rust Belt". A two-part competition conducted in parallel, since it is both young professionals and students who have sent in their vision of the next thirty years: three decades that no longer need to be presented as crucial for the future of the planet. The mass of documents here is coupled with video material, with each proposal delivering a summary in the form of a short montage. Our editorial offers some personal comments on the didactic value of the selected projects and makes only superficial probes into the 99 proposals. We will publish a supplement as soon as the jury's report has been made public. Given the overall quality and the large number of detailed projects, it is no exaggeration to say that Sudbury is becoming a great laboratory for urban resilience through this competition.

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Organized by the government of Quebec, the "provincial architecture competition for elementary school" was launched in the midst of the "quiet revolution", under the watchful eye of the religious authorities hitherto in charge of education. Traditional schools had to make way for new spatial organizations and a vast educational project began with the publication of the now famous "Parent Report" (1964). What is felt today as the sad memory of the so-called "prefabricated" places of education is probably not what the organizers had foreseen in terms of the renewal of school architecture. The fact remains that the analysis of the jury report shows the disproportionate importance of two criteria that converged on the same principle: identifying new standard plans and verifying that they could accommodate the industrialization of construction.

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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.

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A rare example of a competition entirely organized by a private company, the competition for the redevelopment of the premises of the Ubisoft company in 2013 offers the opportunity to observe architects and designers serving clients capable of modeling unique virtual environments themselves, which will serve as framework for games with planetary resonance.

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Having become a third place, peaceful refuge and opening on the world, the library is emblematic of these "architectures of knowledge" in Quebec commented in the beautiful book published by Jacques Plante in 2013 (1). The library, as summarized by Lise Bissonnette in the preface to the book, would be an idea, before being a piece of furniture or a building. As old as writing or reading, this idea is, according to the author, to group and put in order multiple knowledge transcribed so that they become accessible, to the specialist as to the curious, in hospitality and light : “Today's library is strong - adds the former founding director of the Grande Bibliothèque du Québec - if it contradicts the turmoil and agitation of the world (…) The architect agrees by offering it light, coming from the outside during the day, radiating from the inside at night, under heights that let the calm of reflection float ”(2).

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In addition to two recent competitions of 2019, you can discover a historical competition of 1936 and three of the 1980s :

Missing Middle (Edmonton) 2019, Entre l'école et la ville (Montréal) 2019, Market Lands Design Competition (Winnipeg) 2018, Résidences Est-Nord-Est (Saint-Jean-Port-Joli) 2016, Place Eugène-Lapierre (Montréal) 2003, Yukon Green Building Design Competition (White Horse) 2002, Cité Internationale (Montréal) 1990, Carnegie Library (Toronto) 1985, New Vancouver Special (Vancouver) 1984, Dominion Housing Act (Vancouver) 1936.

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It took ten years of patience and fundraising for the renovation of the Agora des Arts, a seven-hour drive north-west of Montreal, to finally take shape. Formerly a religious building, which has become a production area and a performing arts center, this cultural center, known for its various events, will soon change its decor. This competition demonstrated the importance of a territorial vision of cultural infrastructures.

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To note the recurrence of this expectation in competition programs for public buildings, it is time to open the debate. In 2014, the team Chevalier Morales and DMA architects won the jury over after arguing the search for a unique, iconic, and emblematic architecture, but especially the search for a "third place". Through this equivocal concept, the Drummondville library competition questions the need for a new definition of the contemporary library itself.

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In recent years, new technologies of representation have changed the way we experience the city. Instead of creating a canvas or sculpture to create the illusion of other objects, rather than painting the illusion of light when it falls on the surface of objects, the projection forces us to look at the light in itself. In contemporary art, the creation of illusion passes from traditional supports to that of an object in which light is the first vector, creating ambiguities of perception. The question posed by this idea competition is to recognize if these new modalities of projection increases or even sublimates the object of architecture or, on the contrary, if it weakens it.

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Since the year 2000, more than fifteen architectural competitions aimed at rethinking libraries have been organized in Quebec. The recent Gabrielle-Roy library competition is a perfect example of this desire to change institutions dedicated to knowledge. Architecturally, it questions the contemporary trend towards dematerialization, which has been particularly explicit here due to the formal and massive architectural expression of the old library designed by Gauthier Guité Roy decades earlier. It also questions the paradoxical desire to create spaces that are well adapted to specific uses while being very flexible and versatile.

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By treating a vacant space of 40 metres between two domes, this competition program, as rare as it is in architecture, invariably evokes this other contest, almost mythical now, for the construction of the Dome of the Cathedral Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence. Awarded to the brilliant Filippo Brunelleschi in the mid-fifteenth century, it inaugurated, no more nor less, the consecration of the architect’s role to that of the medieval master builder. More modest, both in terms of budget and function that is both spiritual and lucrative, the competition launched at the end of 2017, by Saint Joseph's Oratory of Mount Royal, chose the project by Atelier TAG / Architecture 49, which, it seems, has retained the lesson of the Florentine master: it is not enough to solve the constructive question, rather one must strive to communicate it with wonder, conviction and pedagogy.

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The jury of the initial competition for the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (MAC) in 1983, led by Gae Aulenti and Raymond Affleck, took part in postmodern debates that appeared both dated and obsolete a decade later, in 1992, at the museum’s opening. With the “postmo” revolution dwindling, in architecture at least, and with Place des Arts becoming a true Quartier des spectacles, the MACM building, which never proved its urban integration in spite of advanced principles, had long acted as a sad and cumbrous liner. Launched in 2017 by the MAC/MCC/SQI crew, the contemporary competition had to first and foremost find a new approach. If the comparison of the two procedures reveals a regression, such as a concerning closing of the competitions, the judgment of the four selected projects leaves the Saucier + Perrotte/GLCRM architects team laureate without appeal.

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In the province of Quebec, most competitions are approached as a tendering procedure for the awarding of public contracts to design professionals (understood in its broadest sense), where the main objective is the implementation of an already well-defined project on a predetermined site. They come along with documents that reiterate, from one competition to another, similar conditions for the design, presentation and review of proposals, that often include elaborate sketches and even surprisingly exhaustive preliminary project plans. On the one hand, the Functional and Technical Program (FTP) establishes in advance the detailed expectations – and sometimes solutions – of the client regarding the project, in the wake of an early validation of the needs and budgets through modelling. On the other hand, a preformatted Regulation (based on the MCC, MAMOT or City of Montreal template) covers all the information relevant to the competition process, with ever more pressing contractual requirements, a direct consequence of treating contests as an alternative to tendering procedures for the awarding of public contracts.

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Coalition between koinos bios (life in the community) and monos bios (an inner life) is the life of a monk in the heart of an abbey. The competition of the Cistercian Abbey of Val-Notre Dame exposes the issues of the Cistercian idyllic model; a tension between the historical nostalgia of an enclosed form and the contemporary manifesto of a form opening up to nature.

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Launched in 2016, the competition for the Aquatic Complex of Laval marks a new turning point in the city’s relationship to its public architecture. Considering that Laval had not seen a single competition since 1961, this project testifies of a change in the city’s politics. With the goal of hosting the 2020 Jeux du Québec finale, Laval’s call for a sporting facility clearly demonstrates its will to make quality architecture and a healthy lifestyle accessible to both professional athletes and citizens. For the first time ever, the CCC is able to publish the video recordings of the public auditions.

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The competition asked to reflect on the reinvigoration of public spaces around 4 bus stops situated on Sherbrooke Street East in Montreal. Open to students and graduates of less than 5 years in the fields of architecture, design, landscape and urban design, this ideas competition sought both designs that are environmentally engaging; and a series of principles that could be adopted for future implementation in collaboration with the City of Montreal, the STM and private landowners. The chosen slogan, “MORE THAN WAITING FOR THE BUS” invites designers to reflect on contemporary approaches that can help invigorate these spaces in interactive, poetic, critical and meaningful ways: from solely utilitarian to more multi-purposed spaces surrounding bus stops.

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The “Luminothérapie” series are some of the most important competitions with regards to ephemeral installations in Quebec, hence, we present the 2015 edition. The call for proposals was launched by the Quartier des spectacles partnership and encourages interactive and immersive projects every year. These are a result of collaborations between different disciplinary fields, such as design, entertainment and digital arts. In addition to being an opportunity for Canadians to explore and create, this initiative allows visitors to enjoy the public space even in the winter. As is implied in the title, luminothérapie the competitions seeks for a solution for the lack of sunlight and to counteract winter depression.

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The history of "Nouvelle France" describes the event when Jacques Cartier mistook the shining quartz stone on a cliff as precious stones, hereafter naming the cliff "Cape Diamond.” Another theatrical story, "Le Diamant,” is a competition to design a space for creation that started in 2007. It was launched by Robert Lepage, the theater director and founder of the Ex Machina Company who envisioned a theatre of six hundred seats, intended for the creation and diffusion at a national and international level.

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Held in Montreal in 2013, the idea competition “Nordicité” provoked a conversation on new urban facilities and public spaces adapted to winter conditions to “celebrate how winter affects our daily lives.” This international competition hosted 24 professional teams and 12 student teams, each involved in the field of development and design; the winner was offered a cash prize and broadcast media (websites, social media). The question was: How can architects and designers rethink the urban environment to improve the winter experience in our everyday life?

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Launched in 2011 by the Muni-Spec Mont-Laurier organism, this competition seeks to “offer a modern and successful place for scenography (...) as well as a building complex that evokes feelings of belonging to the community. » With only three proposals to select from, by vote, the jury chose the project by Pelland Leblanc architectes & AEdifica. The journalist Marie Gagnon would later in “Portail Constructo”, March 2014 issue, point out the controversial nature of the competition, confirming the cancellation of the competition and the subsequent agreement with the second finalists - FABG and Go Multimedia – and consequently two calls to tender.

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Contrary to the famous aphorism by architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner who did not recognise the bicycle shelter as architecture, this competition was grounded on the conviction that a bus shelter can, and should be as architectural as a cathedral or even a museum. With this open and anonymously judged competition which received 26 proposals from Canada, USA, Brazil, France and Iran, the ideas had to be feasible since this augmented bus shelter will indeed be built by the not profit organisation CoLLaboratoire from Concordia University.

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Vancouver’s Chinese Cultural Centre competition of 1978 called for the fulfillment of functional aspects while putting into question the place granted to traditions of the Chinese community. This aspect did not prevail in the jury’s comments, but despite this, the proposals were much informed by the dialogue between traditional Chinese architecture and the local Canadian context. This competition, as original as rare, puts into perspective the turn of the 1980s, nearly 20 years before the final date of the handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997, which for Vancouver, had an important demographic and cultural impact.

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Launched August 22nd 1961, the Chomedey Civic Centre Competition announced the creation of the city of Laval, four months after the fusion of the municipalities Saint-Martin, L’Abord-à-Plouffe, and Renauc de l’Île Jésus. As grounds to determine an architect versed in the “civic complex”, being of a social nature both formally and programmatically, the competition aimed to differ from the agrarian traditions of the municipal systems. This competition is the first opportunity for the government of Municipal Affairs of Quebec to materialize symbolism in both the territorial fusion and the socio-economic reconstruction, called for by the accelerated process of the industrialization and the urbanization of the Quiet Revolution.

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From the folklore of the small Canadian house to the concept of the ideal global cabin, 57 variations were designed for a rare competition in New Brunswick. Launched in early 2014 by Community Forests International (CFI), the contest Blur the lines - Cabin Design Challenge, was globally open to all architects, artists, nature enthusiasts and DIYers to discuss the subject of the ideal cabin. The site was the only constraint, situated on 235 hectares of forest site on the edge of Sussex, New Brunswick. This contest was the first step for CFI in establishing a rural innovation campus. In short, fifty-seven international entrants answered this contest in one round, submitting their ideal of a cabin of seventeen square meters in the woods.

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A design competition for the Eastern Beach, (Montréal, 2013)

The design competition of the Eastern Beach highlights a complexity that lies in the affirmation of an integrated architectural landscape gesture, whose intention is to mend ties between the river and the community of Montreal. In the context of this competition, this issue has resurfaced out of the need for an integrative approach between the work of both landscape architects and architects. The collaborative efforts between the two disciplines stood out and the observed complementarity of their approaches was the decisive element in the selection of the winners.


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In order to become the “greenest city on the planet by 2020,” the British-Columbian metropolis organized in 2011 a series of three idea competitions called “re:CONNECT”. One of them investigated an ancient industrial district, False Creek Flats, while questioning the future of its viaducts. Being an open international competition, there was a particular concern for the inclusion of a variety of people therefore accepting proposals from both professionals and amateurs candidates.


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The 2012 Warming Huts international exhibition is an art and architecture competition that aims to “push the envelope of design, craft and art”. Without any specific theme, every team of artists and architects submits a design of a shelter “[in] response to the cold, the wind, beauty, and tectonics.” Three of the proposals are then installed on a 6.1km stretch of water used for skating named the Red River Mutual Trail. This multidisciplinary effort brings artists and architects together to re-conceptualize the issues of habitability in cold climates.

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The Edmonton Park Pavilions, a series of 5 competitions organized in 2011, led to the production of 135 architecture projects from 62 studios. It was not an idea competition, since the organizers were expecting to build 5 pavilions. Did the city of Edmonton truly grasp the symbolic theme of the pavilion, or did they read these competitions as a vast request for proposal? A cross-analysis of the 5 stages of this competition reveals some of the outcomes, and initial intentions, in the optic of Edmonton Design Committee’s mandate to “raise the bar” for design in Edmonton.

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Held in 1946 by the Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), the Canadian Small House Competition urged architects across the country to design innovative and affordable single-family houses. The idea competition received a massive response of three hundred and thirty-one design submissions. Albeit, as pointed out by the jury, the elite of the architectural profession failed to show up, thirty-seven designs were recognized across the five regions. This first CMHC competition takes us back to its aspiration to address Canada's housing needs post-World War II.

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Launched in April 2013 by the City of Quebec, the one-stage ideas competition Pôle muséal du Quartier Montcalm promised to be an exceptional event in three ways. First, rather than designing a circumscribed architectural project, competitors were asked to rethink urban public space in a prospective way - an issue rarely addressed in Quebec through design competitions. Secondly, the competition was open not only to architects, but also to practitioners in the broader field of design, including urban planners, landscape architects, urban or industrial designers and even visual artists (provided these last joined a professional team). Finally, as the competition would not necessarily lead to a built project, winners were offered generous remuneration and exposure in relation to the work that was asked of them.

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Launched in 2009 - with an inauguration planned for 2016 - the competition for the National Music Centre in Calgary (NMC) marks the beginning of a new chapter for that organization, which was founded in 1987. In addition to training musicians of all styles and all levels, the National Music Centre intends to provide a space for artistic representations and to exhibit a collection of over 1,000 instruments. The chosen site for the implementation of the NMC is over two plots, which have to be connected by the building. Moreover, the smallest plot includes a heritage building that must be preserved, enhanced, and integrated into the new construction. Looking at the original program and the unusual site for the project, the competition organizers opted for an international call for submissions. Based on their portfolio, five firms were invited to reflect on this important project dedicated to music.

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Since 2000, Phyllis Lambert has accepted twice to be juror of a competition for a library in Quebec, the first one in 2000 for the Grande Bibliothèque du Québec, and the second time in 2013 for the expansion of the Pierrefonds Library, at the periphery of Montreal. The GBQ was the beginning of a rich legacy of library competitions in Quebec, as Quebec has organized close to 15 library competitions since. The Quebec population is now in an ideal position to solicit a public debate about quality and innovation in this domain.

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The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) has been, and remains, an integral player in the development of urban forms in Canada. Not only does the CMHC provide recommendations for viable domestic space planning, it also promotes the use of safe, affordable, and sustainable constructive principles, and stimulates the creativity of developers, contractors, municipal officials, planners, and architects. In the same vein, the CMHC has produced numerous publications focused on social, technical, and economic research that have contributed to the enhancement of Canada's architectural culture. The planning of domestic spaces has been further advanced by Habitat magazine. The magazine served as an enlightening guide for residential architectural projects from the 1950s until the 1980s. Additionally, La construction à ossature de bois is a book that has been regularly republished since its first publication in 1967; many consider it the authority on housing construction in Canada. One could say that it is the Canadian/US Vitruvius of the North American home.

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The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) has been, and remains, an integral player in the development of urban forms in Canada. Not only does the CMHC provide recommendations for viable domestic space planning, it also promotes the use of safe, affordable, and sustainable constructive principles, and stimulates the creativity of developers, contractors, municipal officials, planners, and architects. In the same vein, the CMHC has produced numerous publications focused on social, technical, and economic research that have contributed to the enhancement of Canada's architectural culture. The planning of domestic spaces has been further advanced by Habitat magazine. The magazine served as an enlightening guide for residential architectural projects from the 1950s until the 1980s. Additionally, La construction à ossature de bois is a book that has been regularly republished since its first publication in 1967; many consider it the authority on housing construction in Canada. One could say that it is the Canadian/US Vitruvius of the North American home.

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The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) has been, and remains, an integral player in the development of urban forms in Canada. Not only does the CMHC provide recommendations for viable domestic space planning, it also promotes the use of safe, affordable, and sustainable constructive principles, and stimulates the creativity of developers, contractors, municipal officials, planners, and architects. In the same vein, the CMHC has produced numerous publications focused on social, technical, and economic research that have contributed to the enhancement of Canada's architectural culture. The planning of domestic spaces has been further advanced by Habitat magazine. The magazine served as an enlightening guide for residential architectural projects from the 1950s until the 1980s. Additionally, La construction à ossature de bois is a book that has been regularly republished since its first publication in 1967; many consider it the authority on housing construction in Canada. One could say that it is the Canadian/US Vitruvius of the North American home.

[...] more

The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) has been, and remains, an integral player in the development of urban forms in Canada. Not only does the CMHC provide recommendations for viable domestic space planning, it also promotes the use of safe, affordable, and sustainable constructive principles, and stimulates the creativity of developers, contractors, municipal officials, planners, and architects. In the same vein, the CMHC has produced numerous publications focused on social, technical, and economic research that have contributed to the enhancement of Canada's architectural culture. The planning of domestic spaces has been further advanced by Habitat magazine. The magazine served as an enlightening guide for residential architectural projects from the 1950s until the 1980s. Additionally, La construction à ossature de bois is a book that has been regularly republished since its first publication in 1967; many consider it the authority on housing construction in Canada. One could say that it is the Canadian/US Vitruvius of the North American home.

[...] more

The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) has been, and remains, an integral player in the development of urban forms in Canada. Not only does the CMHC provide recommendations for viable domestic space planning, it also promotes the use of safe, affordable, and sustainable constructive principles, and stimulates the creativity of developers, contractors, municipal officials, planners, and architects. In the same vein, the CMHC has produced numerous publications focused on social, technical, and economic research that have contributed to the enhancement of Canada's architectural culture. The planning of domestic spaces has been further advanced by Habitat magazine. The magazine served as an enlightening guide for residential architectural projects from the 1950s until the 1980s. Additionally, La construction à ossature de bois is a book that has been regularly republished since its first publication in 1967; many consider it the authority on housing construction in Canada. One could say that it is the Canadian/US Vitruvius of the North American home.

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Organized in 2009 by a Catholic parish in the Gatineau neighborhood of Aylmer, this recent one-stage competition aimed to develop ideas for the reconstruction and re-use of a late-nineteenth church that had been gutted by fire. While it attracted only nine proposals by Canadian architects and little media exposure outside the Ottawa-Gatineau area, it is noteworthy both for the quality of the winning entries and for that of the jury, three members of which are nationally renowned heritage experts. More importantly, the competition results offer an unusual perspective on architects' current attitude towards ruined cultural heritage. Should one leave it as it is? Should one restore it to its original state? Or should one take advantage of a catastrophic event in order to rethink the monument otherwise?

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Who remembers, in Markham, Mississauga, Kitchener - or even Toronto, that the voluntarily 'symbolic' civic buildings of these towns came about through design competitions, which capture the zeitgeist of the 1980s, while still involving young firms of architects? Competitions are means rather than ends, and it is normal to forget the competition itself once we are left with the concrete outcome. Yet, the history of these competitions deserves to be revisited. Twenty five years later, the comparison is informative.

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The expansion of Saul-Bellow Library was subject to a design competition in 2011, the first of its kind to insist on an "integrated design process". Three years later, while Chevalier Morales' winning proposal is under construction, it is interesting to review the way the architects responded to the challenges presented by the use of this qualitative process that exploits vastly different means.

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We will have to wait until 2019 before the recurring problem of the Montreal Olympic Stadium could potentially be fixed. Could a new retractable flexible canvas be the solution, or a fixed, traditional roof? What if the stadium remained roofless? And what if the whole building needed to be demolished in order to solve this problem that some now consider a dead end? While engineers debate these questions-come-political-issues, architects explore the constructive problem of massive spans in sport stadiums by means of architectural design competitions.

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If it is useless to hold a competition when there are no beliefs in the virtues of emulation and collective judgment, it is, above all, futile to hold an ideas competition when one fears the surprises of imagination and experimentation. The first part of the Green Line ideas competition (Toronto, 2012), presented in the most recent update of the Canadian Competitions Catalogue, proposed an ideation exercise aiming to generate public debate. However it is harder to understand the relevance of the second part, entitled "Underpass Solutions", which required designers to stick to "realistic and feasible ideas".

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Launched in 2012 by Workshop Architecture in Toronto, the Green Line Vision competition is one in a series of rehabilitation operations organized in the last decade. In this instance, promoting the spirit of ideation, composite teams comprised of designers and citizens were freely invited to imagine the landscape of the hydro corridor spanning the city of Toronto, and to create a linear green space on the ground as a canvas for things to come.

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The competition process is sometimes blamed for delays in the construction of a project. However, the "Centre de diffusion culturel Guy-Gagnon" competition, organized in the Montreal borough of Verdun in 2011, went rather smoothly, with 4 of the better known architectural teams participating, a perfectly functioning jury, and respect of established criteria. Thus, the delays in construction, cannot be attributed to the competition process, but rather to a disregard for financial engagements at the municipal level, an accumulation of political circuses.

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À une époque où les universités se doivent d’assumer leurs responsabilités dans l’aménagement urbain, époque également marquée par une compétition féroce du marché académique orchestrée par les classements du type Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) dit de Shanghai, certaines universités ont décidé de miser sérieusement sur le potentiel du concours international dans la recherche de l’excellence. Ce fut le cas lorsque l’Université du Manitoba a décidé de lancer un concours pour l’aménagement de son nouveau campus en décembre 2012.

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With the launch of the REZ - Student Competition for the Design of a University Residence Building in downtown Toronto, Canada international ideas competition, competition organizers invited students in the fields of architecture, engineering, interior design, urban planning, and landscape architecture to reflect on the nature of today's universities, as well as the social, intellectual and urban role of a student residence in the heart of Toronto. There was a commitment to the excellence of the architectural project and a conviction that creative partnerships were essential in order to achieve a better downtown. In the end, among the 23 high-rises submitted for the competition, the playful HAVE A NICE DAY! project came out on top. It was the unanimous winner due to its clear visuals and explanation.

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Toronto's June Callwood Park Design Competition, organized in 2008, was an exercise in the redevelopment of a public community space, relaying June Callwood's philosophy as well as dedicating the new park to her. The death in 2007 of this journalist, fervent activist, and militant of social justice left the Torontonian community grieving. The decision to honour her became the central theme of the design competition. June Callwood Park is part of a series of design competitions that target revaluing the area as well as evolving the Toronto cityscape. Can a park both embody and honour the ideas of such a personality?

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Competitions are often accused of generating controversies, yet what if the projects themselves, at the urban scale, unveil vulnerability and controversies. The Lower Don Lands competition, launched in February of 2007 by the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation (TWRC), in cooperation with the Toronto and Region Conservation (TRCA) and the City of Toronto, was an international competition looking for ideas to bring the river back to the city, after many years of seeking to reframe the industrially focused site. This competition of a public space project, with the unique opportunity of harmonizing the riverbanks to the urban space, was exemplary not only for designers, but for the citizens too, as this was the realization of a longstanding community ambition.

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A competition open to all, with notoriety at stake more than a construction mandate, the ideas competition has become increasingly rare over the last twenty years. Laval University's architecture school must be congratulated in having marked the 50th anniversary of its founding by holding an international ideas competition in 2010. With the school of architecture itself as an experimental field, the competition offered students and teachers alike a rare occasion to imagine alternative pedagogy, and professionals to return to the basis of practice.

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Organized in 2011 as a student led response to honour the late Professor Margery Winkler, resTOre is a design competition that addressed the problem of under-utilized green spaces in the greater Toronto area. More than a simple student competition, it was a triple act of generosity, creativity and pedagogy. The site chosen for the occasion, at the Bay Street/York Street exit of the Gardiner expressway, has resulted in three winning projects and two honorable mentions. These various lessons in landscape architecture offered by the students are anything but ordinary.

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Literature houses, be they European or anywhere else in the world, have received writers-in-residence since the 19th century. In order to confirm that Québec City as a showplace for literary creation, the Canadian Institute of Québec oriented itself towards a new programmatic type, the first in Canada, inspired by similar institutions that have recently opened their doors (Oslo in 2007, Geneva in 2012). The concept of the digital age is explained using an obscure but enlightening analogy: “a place that is to literature what a library is to reading”. The literature house of the 21st century is oriented towards both memory and creation, and combines the writers' residences with public spaces that can accommodate events and expositions around literature that is written and read on digital mediums. As detailed in the program, the literature house is a “ unique and always surprising” place that should provoke a feeling of “jamais vu” within the user.

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As a metropolis, Montréal offers very little undeveloped land. The planning of a new public park represents a unique opportunity for landscape architecture firms to address issues such as counteracting heat islands, meeting places, or even circulation strategies, as well as redefine the notion of contemporary green space. For future designers and students alike, every competition becomes a learning experience, one that should be educational and transparent.

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Are innovative projects, which venture onto new aesthetics, riskier than more conventional projects? The Griffintown neighborhood of Montreal has seen major changes over the last decade, and was recently the object of a design competition for a new boardwalk and a public space. Through the competition, the South-West borough of Montréal wishes to consolidate the repurposing of the old industrial sector as well as use this example for future reference. The competition therefore highlights the usual tension between winning strategies and innovative strategies.

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One year before the 2016 Olympic games in Rio de Janeiro, athletes from over forty countries in the Americas will gather in Toronto for the Pan American Games. The area of the city chosen for these games lies to the east of the downtown core, thus extending the urban renewal that had begun several decades prior in the St. Lawrence Market area and Distillery District. The chosen area lies immediately north of the waterfront, where a need for redevelopment resulted in several major design competitions dealing with questions of urban landscape.

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The controversy and disagreements often surrounding design competitions almost make us forget that competitions are an opportunity to examine a particular problematic that affects environment, innovation and heritage issues in equal measure: the architectural judgment. While the competition process is surely the most democratic way to grant contracts, the judgment process and evaluation of the projects remain to this day puzzling and downright incomprehensible. In 2010, the Notre-Dame-de-Grâce Cultural Centre (Montréal) competition organizers made the bold choice to open one phase of the judgment to the general public.

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With the current lack of faith in municipal administrations, it is perhaps time to advise town representatives and citizens to discover how design competitions can help build and improve the quality of our cities. Competitions may not be the perfect procedure but are far more transparent than brown envelopes and socks stuffed with cash which are so often in the news of 2012. The borough of Saint-Laurent in Montreal has organized a second design competition in two years, with their first being the renewal of the public library in 2009. This second design competition, launched in 2010, dealt with sports centers and revealed the city's desire to mobilize architecture's vital forces by challenging talents in the spirit of fairness and competition as it is done in sports.

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Launched in 2007, POTO:TYPE Design Competition set the stage for a critical reflection and an exploratory study of the high-rise, high-density residential typology of downtown Vancouver. The name “POTO:TYPE” is the union of the podium and tower type, and as such it is composed of a tall narrow tower atop of a roughly four-story high podium. The result is enhanced views as well as a closer relation to the street's scale. As can be found in Manhattan and Hong Kong, this skyscraper typology, developed in the 1990s, has become part of the metropolitan identity of Vancouver.

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The Saint-Laurent Library competition, launched in September of 2009 for the borough of Saint-Laurent in Montreal presented a great opportunity to invent a new cultural center, north of Montreal. It finally selected a project through a process displaying a disproportionate concern for environmental norms.

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The competition for the Marc Favreau library in Rosemont arrived just in time to take an important step in the regeneration of the site's former municipal workshops. The site, located along a railway, was occupied by labour facilities disconnected from residential zoning, interrupting the regular fabric of the city. In the late 80\'s, a public consultation offered a shared vision suggesting a redevelopment strategy for the site. The bus terminal, subway station and the existing Art Deco building, dating back to 1932, defined a civil space offering great potential. The rest of the site would be dedicated to residential occupation.

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Two competitions, amassing a total of 78 submissions, were stepping stones toward a great collection of innovative ideas. Rethinking the development and planning around the Champ-de-Mars metro station was the goal of this “two in one” competition in which the first component addressed professionals and the second, students. This event has not only provided a great variety of contemporary ideas, but has also allowed both students and professionals to participate side by side.

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Launched in November 2009, the Townshift ideas competition was the largest international ideas competition of its time. Five challenges were planned by this competition; all at different scales within the city of Surrey. With 138 competitors for the combined 5 competitions: (Fleetwood, Semiahmoo, Guildford, Newton, and Cloverdale) the city centers were infused with fresh and innovative ideas, from all over the world. The proposals came from 31 different countries and therefore represented a true international ideas competition.

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Launched in May 2011, the urban design competition “Namur Jean-Talon Ouest” innovates in the two phase organisation process, in the development of unprecedented judgment criteria and also shows boldness and openness to criticism, allowing the “Laboratoire d'étude de l'architecture potentielle” (L.E.A.P.) to post the projects online at the same time as the results are unveiled.

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For the past few years, the city of Toronto, in its quest towards greater globalization, has made a great leap forward with architectural icons, related to the signature of their designers. However widely publicized, this type of architecture has its limits. There is, nevertheless, another side to the city of Toronto, fulfilling the need to constantly counter the adverse effects of urban renewal and to give meaning to citizens' living spaces. By its nature and architectural program, the St. Lawrence Market competition is in this line of thought: its goal being to reflect upon the civil sense of architecture.

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We know Western Canada to be dynamic, but with the Formshift competition, organised in 2009, Vancouver has shown that we can rely on architectural exploration to reflect upon the city's future. As opposed to a standard theme, the competition's organisers offered three questions to participants...

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The elected of the Queen City have not hesitated in recent years to use the competition process to transform large public spaces including the Nathan Phillips Square and the shores of Lake Ontario. Toronto seems today to be the top ranking city of urban design competitions...

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When an opportunity to design a new planetarium arises, where does one start, and where can one end? The five finalist projects, all Quebec teams, selected by a jury of 10, ranged from dynamic to ephemeral, from constellation maps to super ecological designs to black holes, from angular structures to skin-like envelopes, each one projecting their own vision of an immersive experience that is at once educational, entertaining, cultural and emotional...

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The 2010 universal Shanghai exposition reminds us that such major events always make us dream, in the present as in the past, but a return on the 1970 Osaka Expo, a great Canadian competition, leaves us contemplating on some aberrations of the use of architects' talents in the arts of.... circus.

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It is an immense sign of cultural maturity, by choosing to open the design of one of the most prestigious buildings in Quebec to international competitors, by allowing Quebec architects to measure themselves, at home, against the best teams in the world, based on a three phase process that was as balanced as it was rigorous, the Musée National des Beaux-Arts, in addition to the unanimous selection of a response to a difficult problematic, has finally assured that Quebec made it into the major league of international competitions.

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The proposed school of architecture that has been emerging for some years at Laurentian University is guided by the intuition of the possible impacts that such a school would have in Sudbury, more conveniently referred to as North of Ontario. The expected impact for Sudbury would certainly be the cultural contribution of the school by its activities as well as the possible links with local industries.

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For the organizers of the open international competition for the design of the Jardins de Métis 2010 (Reford Gardens), the 276 teams from 34 countries responded with talent and generosity: one thing is certain, they did not ask anyone for the keys to paradise, they designed the outlines, by imagining the forms, by sensing the fragrances.

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The format of competitions in Quebec has gradually evolved into a model that finds part of its coherence in the long list of projects funded by the ministère de la Culture, des Communications et de la Condition Féminine (MCCCF) within the last twenty years. On this empirical basis,...

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The kickoff of the Saint-Hubert library, long expected by the Hubertins and their city officials, was finally realized in September 2007 following the announcement of 4.4 million dollars of financial aid by the Ministry of Culture, Communications and Status of Women. With close to 4000 m2...

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Initiated by the Creativity Center of Gesù in partnership with the entertainment district and Design Montreal, this competition of ideas held in 2008 provided a central challenge for both competitors as well as for the jury: lighting in architecture. Specifically, the artifice of light. It is true that initially...

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During the last two decades, the renewal of cultural amenities has been one of the principal strategies political decision-makers have used in order to bring out and amend the territories and landscapes of the Quebec regions. This movement has benefited from the collective creativity and reflection encouraged by the recurrent launching of public architecture competitions…

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To commemorate the 20 years of Canadian Centre for Architecture, LEAP will join the celebration by collecting documents, mostly unpublished, of the fine competition organized in 1994 and 1995, through the initiative of Phyllis Lambert. The CCA was then seeking young architects, artists, philosophers or scientists by inviting them to collectively explore new disciplinary expanses...

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In this new 2008-2009 academic year update, L.E.A.P. proposes the rediscovery of two complementary competitions organised by the Toronto based firm Urban Strategies. Two events that have not benefited of the attention they were entitled to expect concerning a problematic as delicate as mental health.

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In this July 2008 update, the L.E.A.P. celebrates, in its own way, the 400th anniversary of the foundation of the city of Quebec by presenting ALL the propositions conceived for the Ephemeral Gardens competition. 6 were awarded by the jury presided by Pierre Thibault, 6 were directly invited, but non-the less 92 are still to be discovered.

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The wrap up of the Ilôt des Palais competition in Québec has resulted in a verbal upheaval rather than a return to the drawing board for the architects involved. After the unexpected resurgence of the chosen project amongst the recipients of the 2007 Canadian Architect awards of excellence, and despite of the recent decision of the Quebec mayor to suspend the project, the subject of the Ilôt des Palais competition remains a hot topic.

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In his famous 1995 manifesto (City of Bits), William J. Mitchell announced the end of paper and brick libraries in favour of digital ones available online. The new addition to the Félix-Leclerc library in Quebec, modest in size yet dynamic but very much in demand, demonstrates yet again the elemental fault with this cyber-evangelist prediction

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The CCC presents this month the projects and the winners of the second LEAP competition “Rethinking and Redefining Social Housing in the Montreal City Center”. This contest is inscribed in the framework of a research/creation project entitled Social housing as a creative and innovative space and critical agent of the Canadian city centers, subsidized by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada

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Patkau's winning submission for the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery (1986) is one of those architectures that sounded the end of the 60s monolithic modernity, as well as the 80s dissonant postmodernism. Kenneth Frampton recognized early on that the Patkau's architecture was the sign of a new tectonic culture…

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Destined to accommodate veterans, Benny farm has recently avoided demolition in order to become, for one, a sustainable development project internationally recognised thanks to the Holcim Foundation award presented to l'OEUF

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With circumspection and little nostalgia, the CCC presents the laureate projects for the 1954 competition entitled: "International Calvert House Competition for the Canadian Home of Tomorrow." 1600 registrants and an astounding 661 submission from 17 countries made this a major event in Canadian architecture circles in the 1950s. Where are we now in terms of these interesting predictions of house and home? (...)


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The winning project of Quadrangle and Peter Pran for the competition on the Tip Top Tailors site proposed a deformed curvilinear tower that followed Deconstructivist trends. If this competition was reduced to the simple design of an iconic tower to stand out in the urban landscape, it would be of little interest. This however is not the case.


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Montreal «City of Design», Quebec «Land of Architecture»? The touring exhibition produced for the L.E.A.P. by Denis Bilodeau and for the UQAM Design Centre by Marc Choko and Georges Labrecque does not dispense such simple expressions. It is an extensive project that seeks to grasp nearly 15 years of cultural architecture in Quebec from 1991 to 2005. (...)


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From Vancouver to Halifax, 118 master students from the 10 Canadian schools of architecture, and forming 35 teams, took part in the first phase of the first LEAP architectural competition. Of the 35, 15 selected and remunerated teams developed proposals to rethink and redefine social housing in the city center. These projects are now presented exclusively in the CCC and the winners are announced on the LEAP website.


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We often say that Canadians, proud of their great spaces, are particularly sensitive to the quality of the landscape. Beyond clichés, occurrences are few and far between. Out of a total of nearly 180 inventoried competitions since 1945, there are less than ten devoted to landscape. However, there is not a lack of talented landscape architects. Why do we defer the invention of tomorrow's landscape?


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Consciously engaging ourselves in a meaningful debate, we present two competitions organized by private investors eager to raise the stakes when it comes to architecture, all the while, being mindful of their responsibility to create public space: 91 residential high-rises from near and far, for the 2005 Absolute Ideas Architectural Competition in Mississauga and four projects for the Caisses populaires Dejardins of Drumondville from 1991.

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Since its launch in April of 2006, the CCC has been visited by more than 2500 people, in numerous different countries and more than 25000 pages have been consulted. These statistics are encouraging for our team and we eagerly anticipate the active participation of architects and students in assisting us with updates of this valuable publication.


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Devoted to the archiving, analysis and history of contemporary architecture, the Canadian Competitions Catalogue is an interactive publication under permanent construction, in regards to both its contents and its consultation. Developed with the initiative of the Laboratoire d'étude de l'architecture potentielle, in order to render public an essential portion of its documentary database, it currently provides access to more that 4000 reproductions of documents of architecture, landscape architecture and urbanism. The CCC is one of the few data bases and research engines entirely devoted to competitions. (See "competition worldwide" to get access to websites in over 25 countries).

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