Following over a year in development, RAIC Connects launched on October 5, 2020 –in honour of World Architecture Day– to further connect members and foster meaningful conversations within the profession. Since then, discussion posts have already explored topics including procurement trends, design responses to COVID restrictions, the licensing process in Canada, working from home during the pandemic for architects, and questions on mass timber, among others.

Don’t miss out on these and other exciting conversations. Be sure to set up your profile, adjust your daily digest notification settings, and introduce yourself to your fellow members – join over 300 of your colleagues who have already started to explore the platform.

With general communities, such as the RAIC Member community, topic-specific communities for Emerging Practitioners and Climate Action, and with more communities coming, we hope you will engage in your preferred communities soon.

Visit the RAIC Connects information page or email: connects@raic.org for more information.

Taking Action: A Conversation on Climate Action and Architecture in Canada was held on October 5, in celebration of World Architecture Day. The presentations and discussions shared during the event encouraged attendees to look at strategies the profession of architecture can use to take action against climate change, looking at the facts, challenges, opportunities, and solutions. A recording of the event is now available on-demand, and an event report will be shared in the coming months. We encourage you to continue the conversation in the new RAIC Connects Climate Action Community.

Taking Action was the first in a series of events and activities leading up to the 2021 Congress on Architecture, to be held on October 4, 2021.

The RAIC is pleased to share that Patrick Stewart, MRAIC, and Alfred Waugh, MRAIC, have been appointed as Co-Chairs of the new RAIC Truth and Reconciliation (TRC) Task Force. Stay tuned for updates on the work of the TRC task force in these monthly messages.

The RAIC invites members who identify as Indigenous to participate in the new RAIC Indigenous Member Directory. 

This one-year pilot project, created in response to requests for the RAIC to share information about Indigenous members, will run from January 1, 2021, to December 31, 2021, to better respond to these requests. This directory has been developed in consultation with the RAIC Indigenous Task Force.  

Inclusion in the directory is voluntary and requires express consent for your name and contact information to be included. The directory will not be published and only shared in direct response to incoming requests. The directory is currently only open to RAIC members. 

If you would like to be included in the RAIC Indigenous Member Directory, please complete the form by November 30, 2020.  

For questions, access to the directory, or to change information shared, contact ITF@raic.org 

December 4, 2020, 6:00 p.m. MT
Arthur Erickson’s Dyde House and Garden, 1962, Edmonton
Presented by Barry Johns, FRAIC, and Trevor Boddy, FRAIC

Never published by its designer and long thought to be destroyed, the Dyde House is Erickson’s first design in masonry and only residential project in Alberta. In its huge architect-designed garden and use of cantilevered ‘Flying Beams,’ this hinge design in his early practice anticipates the Graham and Smith II houses that immediately followed it and the siteworks for the UBC MOA and Robson Square.

With a complex relationship to the garden and exterior siteworks he designed, the Dyde House and Garden in Parkland County west of Edmonton is a spectacularly crafted unified conception. Used as a summer retreat and art gallery for clients with high profiles in academia and the arts, it illustrates Erickson’s early preoccupation with site, light, and cadence. With cues to his later career that would make him the only Canadian ever to win the AIA Gold Medal, this is a rediscovered missing minor masterpiece in the rich catalogue of Canada’s most famous architect.

This 40-minute video and subsequent dialogue with co-producers/writers Barry Johns FRAIC and Trevor Boddy FRAIC will tell the story of its design detailing, curious construction, abandonment, and then rediscovery. House and garden are now important parts of the University of Alberta Botanic Garden. The presenters will discuss how Erickson responded to Alberta’s harsh climate and how it might be readily-restored to become the first Erickson-designed house on public display in Canada. The video was produced with Max Amerongen of Sticks and Stones Productions, and both Johns and Boddy are directors of the Arthur Erickson Foundation.

Registration is open to all.

Continuing education certificates are available for those who join the live event!

December 15, 2020, 1:00 p.m. ET 
Presented by the Black Architects and Interior Designers Association (BAIDA) 

The RAIC, in partnership with the Black Architects and Interior Designers Association (BAIDA), is pleased to present Lived Experiences in Architecture – a virtual panel discussion and live Q+A showcasing members of the BAIDA Executive Committee and their respective journeys in architecture. Join Samuel Oboh, FRAIC, Anne-Marie Armstrong, Shane Laptiste, MRAIC, and Farida Abu-Bakare as they explore their lived experiences of navigating academic and professional careers in architecture in Canada and internationally.

The Black Architects and Interior Designers Association (BAIDA) is a non-profit organization made up of over 100 students, planners, interior designers, and architects. BAIDA aims to support diversity, equity and inclusion in the profession of architecture and interior design. By encouraging our communities to engage in initiatives focused on advocacy, mentorship, networking, and outreach, we can begin to address the issues of inequitable outcomes and a lack of diversity within the architecture and design industry. 

Learn more about the RAIC Industry Knowledge Hub with a special message from our President John Brown, FRAIC: This is a free event. 

The Department of Canadian Heritage, on behalf of the Government of Canada and the LGBT Purge Fund, is inviting teams of professional artists, landscape architects, architects, and other urban design professionals to submit their credentials and examples of prior work for the first part of a two-phase design competition to create the LGBTQ2+ National Monument. Prominently located in downtown Ottawa, with views of key federal institutions, this monument will be a place where visitors can learn about the historical and present-day discrimination faced by LGBTQ2+ people in Canada, with particular reference to the LGBT Purge, and celebrate their achievements in their fight for equality. The Department of Canadian Heritage is therefore seeking design teams to create a moving, bold and thought-provoking monument that will provide a space for remembrance, education, celebration and inspiration.

The deadline for receipt of submissions is Tuesday, January 5, 2021, 3:00 p.m. ET.

• RAIC partnered with the Canadian Urban Institute for the October 8, 2020, CityTalk: What is the Role of Architecture in Supporting the Urban Recovery? Thank you to former RAIC President Sam Oboh for representing the RAIC in this engaging discussion. You can watch the recorded CityTalks here.
  
• A letter was sent to the Honourable Catherine McKenna, Minister of Infrastructure and Communities, on October 8, 2020, in follow-up to Prime Minister Trudeau’s October 1, 2020, announcement that $10 billion will be invested in new major infrastructure initiatives to create jobs and economic growth. $2 billion of the Growth Plan is targeted for energy-efficient retrofits. The RAIC congratulated the government on taking this major step towards a low-carbon future and offered its support to assist the Federal Government on the road to 2030.
• #RAICBCVOTES – The RAIC BC Chapter sent letters to major party leaders on the topics of sustainability and resilience, First Nations, and an Architecture Policy for Canada—and provided templates for members to use in their own advocacy. As of this publication date, the RAIC received two responses from the BC Liberals and the BC NDP. You can read the responses and access #RAICBCVOTES resources in the RAIC Connects British Columbia Chapter community.
• The Director of Practice participated in Parks Canada's Minister's Roundtable 2020 ’Protecting Cultural Heritage’ session. There were suggestions for broadening the definition of cultural heritage assets, beyond the physical remnants of our past to include less-tangible assets; and embracing different perspectives on protection without preservation when appropriate to align with Indigenous ways. Many believed the vantage point from which our stories are told needs to be adjusted to be more inclusive and to better reflect the diversity of cultural stories that comprise the Canadian fabric past and present. Active protection of assets was also encouraged in addition to simple recognition.
• RAIC collaborated with Global Affairs Canada to showcase Canadian architecture excellence by sharing seven RAIC award-winning projects on World Architecture Day with Canadian missions abroad. Missions that shared the projects include Australia, Chile, Trinidad and Tobago, and Egypt, among others.