@mcgill_architecture

As a participant of this year’s virtual Fogo Island course, Evan Eichenbaum (@evaneichenbaum) proposes the Nomadic Studio as an alternative experience for artists to interact with the townspeople of Fogo Island (and vice versa). Until now, many of the seasonal artist studios built on the island have been secluded from Fogo Island’s towns. Inspired by Newfoundland’s resettlement program, fishing industry and coastal landscape, the Nomadic Studio rests on a barge that can be towed from town to town around the island each seasonal year and can be constructed on-site from local materials.| studio instructor: Prof. Robert Mellin

As part of a precedent analysis exercise for ARCH 405: Design + Construction III, students conduct a series of analytical operations that result in a set of original drawings and a greater understanding of the design intentions for the selected project. For this creative exercise, teams are required to not only document the chosen precedents dimensional facts through the drawing of original plans + sections but also understand its conceptual ideas, its innovations, its critique(s), overall historical significance and its programmatic breakdown in sq-meters. In the weeks leading to the design of a primary school, students are invited to reflect on iconic works of architecture, socially engaged and in almost all cases questioning the status quo in educational buildings for their time. Image credits: 1,2- Day Nursery School by Hermine Demaël & Morgan Vorsteher-Styrczula; 3,4- School in Laterns by Jonah Rappaport & Maria Teleman; 5,6- Suresnes Open-Air School by Guillaume Croteau and Olivier Fillion; 7,8- Marl School by Michelle Wang & Thomas King; 9- Corona Avenue School by Michael Kurt Mayer & Kaitlyn Podwalski; 10- Escuela Primaria Emiliano Zapata by Gabrielle Goldman & Frédéric Verrier-Paquette. Studio Instructors: Lia Ruccolo, Mariel Collard, Morgan Carter, and Howard Davies.

The McGill Architecture Students’ Association invites you to attend the first virtual lecture of the semester: “Disagreeable Objects and Trojan Horses”, as part of the student-run Brown Bag Lecture Series on Thursday, September 24th. This talk will highlight the need for alternative platforms in architecture and design, followed by a short Q&A that will allow students and professionals to discuss issues rooted in systemic racism in our school and community. The lecture features Esther Choi, a New York-based artist and architectural historian who published an artist’s book entitled Le Corbuffet (Prestel 2019), which subversively adopts the protocols of cookbook publishing to question the cultural narratives that we choose to consume and reproduce. Upon its release, her art experiment instantly entered the cultural water supply, appearing in T: The New York Times Style Magazine, Dezeen, Vogue, and more, while earning a James Beard nomination this past spring. This talk by Choi will address how 'Le Corbuffet’ aspired to operate as a shapeshifting object that offers an alternative platform for architectural history and cultural criticism. Please register on the facebook event page: https://facebook.com/events/s/brown-bag-disagreeable-objects/2772744112961758/?ti=icl

During the Sketching School, Undergraduate and Master students document their interpretation of townscapes and landscapes through a series of drawings, sketches, and watercolours. This year, the course took place simultaneously in Canada, the USA, Italy, Greece, Iran, Lebanon, and France. The sketches produced by the students record not only what they saw but also what they were thinking and what they know; they are evidence of their curiosity and attempts to understand the ideas that shape our world. Glimpses of the course can be seen at @Sketching.Inspiration. Instructors: Prof. David M. Covo, Prof. Ricardo L. Castro, with Teaching Collaborators Gonzalo Muñoz-Vera and Juan Fernández González.

This year’s first-day-of-studio is unlike any other. Warm greetings to new and returning students through the School’s new, online presence! We hope that you will all find inspiration in this digital learning environment, as did @Vedantanator and students in the summer’s intensive studio. Images from ARCH 410 in the recent edition of @canadianarchitect hint at the rich potential for online learning. We are thrilled to discover new design perspectives together and wish you the best for the upcoming semester. image credits: Vedanta Balbahadur | . . . Link to the full digital article: https://www.canadianarchitect.com/going-virtual/

The highly anticipated Fogo Island Design Workshop is a unique opportunity to learn about the vernacular architecture, material culture, modern architecture, and cultural landscape of Tilting and Fogo Island. Although this year’s edition restricts the usual hands-on construction component, students explore the design possibilities of a variety of small projects that could be built by local carpenters or by students in future workshops. As the virtual workshop is coming to an end this week, we reflect on last’s year project of a large viewing platform and built-in seating at the top of Sandy Cove Hill. image credits: Odile Lamy (@odile.la .la) Studio instructor: Prof. Robert Mellin

As part of the one-month-long 2020 Summer Studio devoted to the design of a medium-scale library and creative hub in Montreal’s Mile End, Jonah Rappaport (@jonahrapp) & Zineb Hameda (@zinebbenchekroun) design a system of sloped study spaces around the extension of the neighbourhood green alley. Taking into consideration local residents, workers, designers, and makers — many of whom operate in traditional arts/crafts/manufacturing or digital arts/AI – the project pushes the notion of the neighbourhood library from a place of collections and quiet study toward one that also encompassed innovation, active learning, and fabrication. Distinctive considerations for noise split the building in two, with “loud” section occupied by a Fab Lab in the basement and with a “quiet” section for reading and individual study spaces located above. Studio instructor: Vedanta Balbahadur

For the undergraduate analytical research studio, Florence Primeau Marcoux (@fpmx) examines the role architecture plays in the propagation of viruses and pathogens within student housing typologies. The project replaces central corridors with antechambers for a more flexible plan and to regulate the accessibility between rooms. New preventive structures reconfigure passageways and dead ends for activities to take place, which offers inhabitants a balance between communal living and privacy in times of crisis. These architectural devices also divide spaces according to physical isolation requirements, as well as create more space for telecommuting and studying. Studio instructor: François Sabourin

Congratulations to former studio instructor Scott Francisco (Pilot Projects Design Collective) and our graduates Alexandre Rossignol (@alexandrelouisrossignol), Arianne Pizem (@arianne_pizem), and Mack Phillips (@phillips_mack). Their project, a collaboration with Cities4Forests, Wildlife Conservation Society, Grimshaw, and Silman,  “The Brooklyn Bridge Forest @brooklynbridgeforest,” is a finalist in the international design competition.  In their words: "With the Brooklyn Bridge Forest, we hope to transform the bridge into a symbol of climate action and social equity, improving and diversifying mobility while respecting the landmark structure. The historic wooden promenade is enhanced with new pedestrian lookouts where people can pause to enjoy the view, and a new dedicated bike path creating more space for both cyclists and pedestrians. Wooden planks for the promenade are sustainably sourced from a "partner forest" community in Guatemala to protect a 200,000-acre rainforest. Biodiverse “microforests” made up of native species will be planted at either end of the bridge, bringing nature to NYC and serving as places for dialogue, activism, and creativity." See all the design proposals @van_alen website. Voting is open until 30 July. . https://www.vanalen.org/projects/reimagining-brooklyn-bridge/

In the seminar ARCH 543:The City After Walking, students examine the discrepancies among city, subject and image during isolation. The course centres on the reconstructed experience of the city after walking; meaning the impression and image of the city that remains after seeing, after being in, after walking. The seminar, in turn, critically studies the techniques of architecture in order to re-imagine its future. Through case studies in Montreal, each site is re-presented and redrawn to propose a new framework for viewing our contexts. The course culminates in a Re-imaging Drawing, a drawing that re-reads the city and critically examines the disciplinary biases between drawing and subject through each site. Images: (1) Westmount Square by Alyssa Liu, (2) Guy-Favreau Complex, East and West Towers by Hermine Demael, (3) 5255 Avenue Louis Colin by Dana Mastrangelo, (4) Gare Centrale CN Station by Siméon Vassilev, and (5) Habitat 67 by Francis Di Pietro. Instructor: Daniela Leon

With “L’envers du décor” Simone Mauro (@simone.mauro_), Camyl Vigneault (@vcamyl), Mikael Hammond Benoit (@mikael_hammond_benoit), and Reda Berrada (@redaber) rethink the relationship between the commercial street and the back alley as that of stage and backstage. In response to new social distancing guidelines, their proposal duplicates the interface of exchange with the public by activating the rear facade of commercial outlets. This allows businesses to share the same interior space according to complementary opening hours or season of activity while preserving their brand image. The project also embraces exterior spaces as the new locus of consumption and imagines a streetscape dotted with playful furniture for leisurely, commercial, and sanitary purposes. This proposal earned a special mention for the 2020 Inter-university competition “Repenser la rue commericale/Rethink the commercial street”.

Congratulations to recent graduates Nathalie Marj (@nathaliemarj), Alice Lemay (@alicelemay), Hervé Laurendeau (@herve.laurendeau), and Olivier Therrien (@olitherrien) on winning the second prize of the 2020 Inter-University competition, “Repenser la rue commerciale/Rethink the Commercial Street.” Their project “De-Hierarchize the commercial street: Nothing extraordinary, really” reflects on the status of the commercial street by restructuring its elements along the new circulation flows of sanitary measures. As interior functions are crawling onto exterior landscapes, the proposal revitalizes valuable underused spaces, mainly the back alleys typical of Montreal, and links them to the main street. Pockets of public spaces are created adjacent to existing architecture, where temporary installations and sanitary initiatives are integrated. The linear relationship of commerce to the street is de-hierarchized to expand on flexible and dynamic engagements with the back alley.