This year for Architecture Week ORSA is pleased to present several events which relate to an urban theme. Bringing back some favorites from previous years, there are four Lunchbox Lectures at the NCC InfoCentre, the annual Kid's Clinic at the NCC InfoCentre, Supporters' Night at the Heart & Crown (on Preston) and a Wine Tasting/Lecture at DiVino Wine Studio.
New events this year are two competitions. There is the Living in the CIty Photography Competition and the T-shirt Design Competition. The Living in the City competition is being held at the arts&architecture gallery and is open to public judging from now until Friday, October 9th. Len Ward has generously donated his gallery space for the exhibit/competition and has spent much time coordinating this event with Sarah Reitschlin (ORSA past-Secretary). ORSA hopes that members will take some time to check out the exhibit and vote for their favourite image!
The T-shirt Design Competition [now closed] asked architects & designers to design a t-shirt for Architecture Week 2009, incorporating this year's theme. A winner and two runners-up were selected from entries submitted by designers, Interns, Technologists & students.
The winning entry, was submitted by Jan Veer (below), an Intern at Edward J. Cuhaci & Associates. To purchase a t-shirt with this winning design , ORSA will have them on sale at events during the week for $15. All proceeds from the sales will be donated to the Art in Architecture education program.
The two runners-up were Gerry Dessureau (see above), Architectural Technologist at LaLande + Doyle Architects and a firm submission from [in]tempo design (Marianne Dupont & Marcus Laver's 2-part entry is below).
ORSA has partnered with the School of Photographic Arts (SPAO) and the Exposure Gallery this year to present 2 photography exhibits which relate to this year's theme. We hope to continue partnering with other galleries & museums around town to bring the public more diversified interpretations of architecture.
For a listing of all these events, please visit www.orsa.ca/events
ORSA has donated funds towards the publishing of Building 22, which had its launch October 1st.
Building 22 is an annual student-initiated publication highlighting the work from the Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism at Carleton University. It showcases a select number of projects from all levels of the program which prove to be critical and captivating explorations into the realm of architecture. It is meant to inspire the new students, challenge the more experienced, and excite prospective students and the public. It is distributed internationally to architectural schools, offices, bookstores, and galleries. To purchase a copy of Building 22, please go to www.building22.ca.
ORSA will be be printing excerpts from Building 22 in the coming months. Please read on for introductory notes by Cedric Boulet & Kelly Crossman:
Building is a Building is a Book
by Cédric Boulet
“Building 22” was the name assigned to the Architecture Building by Carleton University in order to systematize the campus. If you look closely, you can find this label fixed to our mechanical rooms, imprinted on steel railings, fastened to the plumbing, painted on the smooth concrete walls, and discreetly applied to our signage.
And now, Building 22 is printed on paper. Not as a practical label, but as its own entity embodying the architectural student life at Carleton. Ideologically, Building 22 - the school and the book - performs in a certain way. It represents our learning, our discussions, our struggles. It is a platform for personal and intellectual growth; a laboratory for careful experimentation, where theories are put to the test diligently and scientifically. Yet it is a playground that allows us to explore, to exaggerate ideas and manage a myriad of mistakes. It operates like a factory producing practical knowledge cleverly fused with critical thinking. It deals with materiality, with space, form, rhythm, aesthetics, theory, with social issues, and with political agendas.
Building 22 evolves as it adapts to the work being produced by students. It serves as a record of the school's pedagogical direction, where trends and shifts can be captured. Though the changes we will witness throughout the years are precious, it is Building 22's consistency that proves most enriching. It will continue to give prominence to a select number of fresh, creative projects that favour the speculative over the conventional, and those that dare to be brave rather than conservative.
In Building 22's case, there is no virtue in cataloguing every project coming out of the school, nor in thoroughly explaining each individual project, but the intention is to give tastes of the work so as to provide a digestible, and enjoyable, amount of information about the contribution of each student. Like most systems, it is hierarchical in order, but this time the margins have been blurred and slippages are allowed to occur. Out of necessity, it is defined by a framework, but breaking from this grid at times allows the projects to breath and to flourish.
Ultimately, Building 22 should exist as a vehicle of reciprocity, where the book not only captures the image of the school, but where, eventually, the book might generate its own energy to which the school will have to adapt. Building 22 symbolizes our opportunity to give rise to our own shifts, our own beliefs, our own futures...
Inaugurating Building 22
by Professor Kelly Crossman
“Building 22” is a generic designation for the widely admired, purpose-built architecture school which opened its doors on the campus of Carleton University in 1972. Although teaching and research at what is now the Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism takes place at various sites across the campus, that building, Building 22, carefully designed by Carmen Corneil and Jeff Stinson to accommodate the ever-changing needs of the students who would inhabit it, remains today at the heart of the University's architectural life.
In the fall of 2008, that School, that “building”, played host to a celebration of the forty years which have passed since the day in 1968 when the Carleton University School of Architecture, accepted its first student. The students who took part in those celebrations will no doubt remember them happily in years to come, but I expect that in the future, as they look back at that year of celebration, they will also remember something else: they will recall that in that same year, while the achievements of the past were being celebrated, plans were afoot for the creation of something new, an annual review of student work to be called Building 22.
This publication is the result and product of those plans. Because of its timing, and its particular character, this project seems to me an eminently suitable contribution by the students of the School to the year of celebrations. But while the “forty-year” event was organised and supported by the entire School community, including faculty, staff, students, alumni and the University Administration, Building 22 is entirely the product of the student body. It is also, in a way, a kind of gift; a gift from one group of students to all those who will come after, to those, who, like themselves, will study at Carleton, graduate, and go out into the world. Because of this initiative they will now be able to leave behind a record of their work. To all those who helped make this project come to life, the School offers its collective congratulations and thanks.
A short editorial note about the project might be helpful. Beginning with an abundance of submissions from studios and workshops, drawing classes and individual projects, editors Cedric Boulet and Chris Bretecher have assembled a collection which is representative rather than comprehensive. Work at all levels of the school has been included – from first year drawing classes to selections drawn from M.Arch theses – all are seen here more or less in that sequence. Thanks are due all those who were generous enough to contribute to the project, and especially to those who, for reasons of space, could not be included herein.
There are several opportunities in Ottawa for completing Core hours for ConEd in the next few months. We encourage you to check the ORSA website ( www.orsa.ca/events) for these courses. Aside from the OAA course on Universal Design held October 2nd, there is another OAA course at the end of Octiber, and one at the end of November.