AIBC’s Architectural Walking Tours Program Begins – Come Join Us on a Tour!

The AIBC’s Architectural Walking Tours program kicked off July 1, 2015 and runs to August 31, 2015. With 11 exciting tours to choose from, this summer’s program offers unique perspectives of both Vancouver and Victoria.

Come see an old growth forest reborn inside timeworn warehouses, feel like an underwater explorer in the lobby of an iconic Art Deco building, gaze across the Burrard Inlet from an elevated modernist plaza, experience a clash of East and West in the facades of old Chinatown or stroll past meticulously restored turn-of-the-century homes minutes from downtown.

There is something for everyone in the vast eclectic world of architecture. Whether you’re an architecture buff, a history connoisseur or simply curious about our city, you’ll definitely enjoy the AIBC’s Architectural Walking Tours.

Please visit the AIBC website for summer schedules.

To book your tour, please email tours@aibc.ca or call 604-683-8588 ext. 325.

ExAC Registration: Two Weeks to Register

A reminder to Intern Architects that the deadline to register for the Examination for Architects in Canada (ExAC) is July 15, 2015. This year, Intern Architects have the option to write the ExAC in Victoria as well as Vancouver.

Intern Architects are eligible to write the ExAC if they are in good standing with the institute and have had a minimum 2,800 hours of experience logged on a CERB, submitted and approved. A registration form must be completed and submitted to the AIBC in hard copy or PDF format via e-mail.

Key Dates:
June 1- July 15 – Application period for eligible ExAC candidates
June 30 – Deadline for submitting CERBs
November 2-3 – ExAC held in Vancouver and Victoria

For more information, please contact Admissions Coordinator Belinda Chao at bchao@aibc.ca or visit the ExAC website.

2015 AIBC Architectural Awards – Submissions Due Monday!

The Architectural Institute of British Columbia showcases the best in B.C. architecture through its highly-respected Architectural Awards program.

An esteemed jury with representation from both within and outside the profession will consider candidates for the Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia Awards in Architecture (both medal and merit); the AIBC Innovation Award; the AIBC Emerging Firm Award and the AIBC Special Jury Award.

While honours are given in these distinct award categories, there is one common element: Excellence.

Winners are celebrated at the Architectural Awards Reception on October 28, 2015 as part of the AIBC Annual Conference, and featured in architectureBC.

Submit An Architectural Awards Application:

For detailed information including award criteria and submission requirements, and to make your submission, please visit the AIBC Architectural Awards website.

Deadline for Awards Submissions: July 6, 2015 (4:30 p.m. PST)

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact communications@aibc.ca.

In Passing: Gordon Graham

It is with deep regret that Thinkspace announces the passing of Gordon Graham, Retired Architect AIBC, who was the founder of the firm. He was 81 years old.

Mr. Graham first registered at the AIBC as an architect in 1963 and retired in 2003.

Sincere condolences go out to the entire Graham family.

A memorial service will take place at 2 p.m. on July 18, 2015 at Henderson’s Funeral Home, 45901 Victoria Avenue, Chilliwack, BC V2P 2S9.

Please contact them directly at 604-426-0167 for more information on the memorial service arrangements.

The Hard Stuff: Why Concrete is Still Best for Stunning Architecture

By Jay Merrick 
The Independent, June 26, 2015

(Image: The Museum of Civilisations from Europe and the Mediterranean in Marseille. Courtesy of The Independent)

Water, aggregate, cement. Mix them together, and you produce concrete – usually the most banal of building materials, not even as characterful or satisfying to touch as a well-fired brick. But when concrete is used by brilliant architects and engineers, the results are riveting. Even today, the world’s first iconic concrete structure, the unreinforced 43.4m dome of the Pantheon in Rome, completed in AD128, still seems breathtaking in its daring and beauty.

In the 21st century, software-generated algorithms and geometry often make the shaping and structuring of concrete as deliberately iconic as the vastly gloopy shell of Zaha Hadid’s Heydar Aliyev Cultural Centre in Baku; or controversial, as in the sculpted ripples of Thomas Heatherwick’s contested Garden Bridge across the Thames. Read more…

Architect Turns Shopping Cart into Shelter for Homeless People

By Eleanor Goldberg
The Huffington Post, June 23, 2015

(Image: The concept pivots around the recycling of the proverbial shopping cart as core component, structure and transport. The shelter package is a foldout assembly of hinged panels that deploy to conform to varying instances of shelter. Courtesy of the American Institute of Architects)

Now here’s a wheel-y good solution.

While homelessness is on the decline in the U.S., a dearth in affordable housing and emergency shelter options often leaves those who are still without permanent shelter with no choice but to sleep on the streets. Recognizing the need to provide homeless people with some sort of protection, Buenos Aires architect Eduardo Lacroze fashioned a portable shelter built around a shopping cart and submitted his design to a competition seeking such solutions for people on the streets.

Lacroze’s innovation won the American Institute of Architect’s Small Project Award Program, which sought discreet and efficient shelters for homeless people. Read more…

Guggenheim Helsinki Unveils Design

By Robin Pogrebin and Doreen Carvajal
The New York Times, June 23, 2015

(Image: A rendering of the winning design for the new Guggenheim Helsinki. Courtesy of Moreau Kusunoki Architectes/Guggenheim)

The Guggenheim has become something of a brand over the years, with satellite locations in Venice and Bilbao, Spain, and one planned in Abu Dhabi. Now the museum’s proposed branch in Helsinki, Finland, is a step closer to reality, with the selection of a design that features charred timber and glass punctuated by a lighthouselike tower overlooking South Harbor.

It is still uncertain whether the design, by the relatively young husband-and-wife firm Moreau Kusunoki Architectes, founded four years ago in Paris, will be accepted by its surrounding city, which has been bitterly divided over the project, largely because of concerns over its price of about $147 million.

The winning design, titled “Art in the City” and announced at the Palace Hotel in Helsinki on Tuesday, was chosen from 1,715 anonymous submissions in a yearlong competition that the jury’s chairman said had actually been improved by the controversy.

“Architecture should always be incubated within debate,” said the chairman, Mark Wigley, a professor and dean emeritus of the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University. “Public money especially should never be taken for granted.” Read more…