Montreal: The Latest Architecture and News

Coinciding with the exhibition Alturas de Macchu Picchu: Martín Chambi – Álvaro Siza at work on view at the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) for an extended run until 29 April 2012, Pritzker prize-winning architect Álvaro Siza will give a not-to-be-missed lecture on Thursday 26 April 2012 at 7 pm at the CCA. The event is a rare opportunity to hear the preeminent architect speak in person. Siza’s lecture discusses his design development of the Iberê Camargo Museum in Porto Alegre, Brazil, completed in 2008 and noted for its sculptural volumes and tight integration with a coastal escarpment. As with all of Siza’s projects, hand sketches play a key role in the design process, from massing studies to fine-tuning details. For more information, please visit here.

The Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) is launching the 2012 program to stimulate curatorial opportunities for students and young professionals: the Young Curator Program and the Power Corporation of Canada Curatorial Internships Program. The Young Curator Program offers the opportunity to propose and curate a project on the contemporary debate in architecture, urbanism, and landscape design, from exhibition in the octagonal gallery or online, publications, seminar, series of events and more, during a residency of 3 months at the CCA. The Power Corporation of Canada Curatorial Internships Program encourages students and recent graduates in design disciplines, arts and humanities to become acquainted with the CCA’s collection, exhibition, and research programs through an internship of 6 to 9 months in Montréal.

In 1995, Portuguese architect Álvaro Siza packed a few changes of clothes, some poetry books and a single sketchbook as he set forth to Peru. These few items were all he needed to record and interpret his voyage, allowing him to integrate his investigations into his architecture. More than a half a century earlier, Peruvian photographer Martín Chambi ventured into the peaks of Macchu Picchu were he captured a famous series of portraits of the ancient Inca ruins. His project was more political, it acted as a re-appropriation of the site by its locals, but the tools of Chambi and Siza are the same: the production of images to define a reality.

The Canadian Center for Architecture (CCA) presents Alturas de Macchu Picchu: Martín Chambi – Álvaro Siza at work – an exhibit featuring thirty-five original sketches by Álvaro Siza alongside the historic 1920s photographs by Martín Chambi, now on view at in the CCA’s Octagonal Gallery until April 22, 2012. Continue reading for more information.

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The mayor of Montréal, Gérald Tremblay, recently announced the winning project in the architecture competition for the new indoor soccer center at the Saint-Michel Environmental Complex (SMEC). The jury has chosen the concept developed by Saucier + Perrotte & Hughes Condon Marler Architects from among the four submitted by the finalist firms. The daring and creative project is one more step toward the completion of this long-awaited project, which will provide Montrealers with access to a sports center that is not only functional but boasts a modern design meeting the highest standards of quality. This public building, a testament to the talent of our local architects, will be incorporated into the SMEC, one of the largest parks in Montréal. More images and project description after the break.

The Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA), Montréal presents Imperfect Health: the Medicalization of Architecture, on view in the main galleries which started on October 15th and is up until April 1, 2012. Photographs, publications, art and design projects and architectural models and drawings reveal some of the uncertainties and contradictions surrounding health issues and considers how architecture acknowledges, incorporates and affects them. The exhibition questions common understandings of “positive” and “negative” outcomes within the flux of research on and cultural conceptions of health. It continues the CCA’s ongoing investigations into how the design and use of urban spaces shapes human well being. More information on the exhibition after the break.

The Chair in Landscape and Environmental Design at University of Montreal (CPEUM) is pleased to officially launch an international ideas competition in urban design YUL-MTL : Moving Landscapes. The international ideas competition aims to reinvent the landscapes that highlight Montreal’s international gateway corridor linking Montreal-Trudeau International Airport (YUL) to its downtown area (MTL) along Autoroute 20.

The International Ideas Competition is anonymous, free and open to all planning and design professionals. It is held as a single-stage. A total of $100,000 CAN will be awarded to and shared between 3 laureates.

More information and a link to the competition can be found after the jump.

NIPpaysage has shared this small-scale project for the Place de L’Acadie Park in Quebec, Montreal. It functions on a neighborhood scale and reinforces the various public spaces in within the context of the site.

Read on for more information.