2024 RAIC Foundation Scholarship Recipients

ARTS & LETTERS CLUB OF TORONTO FOUNDATION AWARD FOR ARCHITECTURAL CONSERVATION 

The Arts and Letters Club of Toronto Foundation Award for Architectural Conservation honours the memory of Richard Moorhouse, Founding President of the ALCTF and former Chair of the National Trust for Canada. The $1000 award is open to students or recent graduates working on applied research, or projects making a tangible contribution to architectural conservation in Canada. 

Jury:
Julia Gersovitz, Allan Teramura, Dave LeBlanc 

Winner:
 Florence Primeau-Marcoux, University of Montreal 

The Winning Project:
Called Repatriation/Reconciliation, Florence’s project explores more sensitive ways to repatriate and appreciate cultural objects taken from Indigenous communities by colonial institutions and individuals. 

Jury Comment: 
Conscious of her outsider status in an Indigenous community in Saguenay, Quebec; her consultation with Ilnuatsh women produced compelling research on an alternative to “immutable and monumental” architecture. Instead, she shows that authenticity can lie in knowledge of traditional ways of building rather than in the imposing structures typical in heritage conservation.  

CAGBC SCHOLARSHIP FOR SUSTAINABLE DESIGN & RESEARCH   

Established in 2006, the main purpose of this award is to nurture the next generation of “green” designers and accelerate the mainstreaming of green building principles. The $5000 award is open to thesis proposals from students at all architectural schools and the RAIC Syllabus Program. 

Jury:
Craig Duffield, Allan Teramura, Michelle Xuereb 

Winner:
Frangiscos (Frank) Hinoporos, Carleton University 

The Winning Project:
Disrupting the Global Supply chain in Architecture: A hyper-local Approach to the Built Environment. 

In this case ‘Disruption’ centres on our reliance on the global supply chain, using construction materials manufactured all over the world. Focusing on Ottawa, but transferable to different localities, Frank sets out a long-term strategy to address this situation. 

Jury Comment: 
This thesis recognizes that the challenge we face is enormous and it will take decades to turn things around.  The strategies proposed are well reasoned; researching and documenting the materials in existing buildings; mapping the potential for producing bio-based and other materials locally; and implementing design for disassembly in new buildings to develop a materials bank over time. 

The transferability of this idea is aptly based on a toolkit of strategies, rather than prescriptive solutions. This flexibility enables locally sourced materials and products to be fit within a modular framework. The timeline is realistic; predicting what our supply chains might look like in 25, 50 and 100 years.  

This was a creative, thoughtful and well-presented proposal; an incredibly timely application of systems thinking to a very real problem.  

KIYOSHI MATSUZAKI RAIC ENDOWMENT FUND AND SCHOLARSHIP 

Established in honour of Kiyoshi Matsuzaki PP/FRAIC, 1943- 2012, this $3000 scholarship is awarded to a student enrolled in the RAIC Syllabus Program, reflecting RAIC’s dedication to promoting excellence, and providing financial support to those who demonstrate their commitment to completing the RAIC Syllabus Program and achieving professional registration. 

Jury:
Jason Robbins, Lawrence Bird, Stuart Howard, Paule Boutin 

Winner: 
Marco Cheung 

Jury Comment: 
Marco Cheung's application stood out, demonstrating that he is deliberately pursuing his path to the profession with the clear intention of completing it. He is involved in his own and other communities, and it is clear that architecture is a key element of this commitment. 

Aware of the challenges facing the profession, he sees part of the solution as reconciling study and practice, which he does effectively. He has an excellent academic record with high marks in all architecture studios. His portfolio includes dynamic, imaginative academic projects and a good range of collaborative projects with architectural firms. The images testify to his creativity and high productivity. The letters of support express their support in an exceptionally positive manner.  

RAIC FOUNDATION BURSARY 

This award supports the Foundation’s mission to promote architecture in its broadest sense. The award of $2500 is to encourage public education or enables significant scholarly research that results in publications, exhibitions or other presentations.   

Jury:
Stuart Howard, Paule Boutin, Michael Cox 

Winner: 
Ross Beardsley Wood 



The Winning Project:
‘Historical Tall Wood Toronto’, undertaken in collaboration with the Mass Timber Institute at the University of Toronto.   

Jury Comment: 
The jury found this project to be of significant interest, with its analysis of buildings from the late 19th and the 20th centuries in Toronto that are examples of the vernacular timber mill construction common in urban environments from that era across Canada. Considering that this type of building is recognized as a precursor to the current technology of mass timber construction, the examination of the characteristics of the heritage examples is timely: the analysis of some of these characteristics such as the durability and resiliency of these buildings could lead to practical applications and inform contemporary methods of construction and development. 

The bursary from the RAIC Foundation will provide the additional funding required to complete the digital publication of the bank of information gathered during the research, thus allowing this data to be easily accessible. This will be useful to professionals of the design and construction industries by providing them detailed information about 42 heritage heavy timber buildings highlighting their resilience strategies. It will also be available to public audiences interested in resilient city building and mass timber construction, thus contributing to public education about architecture. 

VINCE CATALLI SCHOLARSHIP FOR SUSTAINABLE ARCHITECTURAL INNOVATION 

Endowed by Vince Catalli; this $5000 award is open to students from all architecture schools as well as the RAIC Syllabus Program. The intent of this scholarship is to promote and encourage innovative, practical, scalable and transferable approaches to sustainable design. 

Jury: 
Anna Batebe, Michael Cox, Mona Lemoine, Ralph Weisbrock  

Winner:  
Owen Gains, Laurentian University 

Winning project:
Owen’s project ‘Re-Metablise’ explores the potential of mycelium, the vegetative part of fungi, as a synthetic foam replacement in panelized building systems. The proposed technology seeks to create circularity in the supply chain commencing with the use of wood waste products. 

Jury Comment: 
The project impressed us with the comprehensive nature of the investigation including bioreactor prototyping and panel testing, concluding with a proposal for a production research centre and preliminary panel catalogue. 

It represents the kind of thinking and research that are essential to reimagining our building materials supply chain as we seek to reduce the carbon impacts of the building industry. 

David Thom Leadership Award 

This award was established in 2024 to recognize interns or young architects who have shown leadership and made significant contributions to the profession early in their career.  

Funded by a gift from IBI Group, the award honours the memory of former president David Thom, whose contributions to city-shaping and architectural design were far reaching, as was his commitment to supporting and developing the next generation of talent in the architectural profession. 

Jury:  
Stuart Howard, Paule Boutin, Michael Cox 

Winner:
Seanna Thomas, of 1080 Architecture in Regina, SK 

Jury Comment:  

It seems like Seanna Thomas was born to be a leader. 

During her internship in architecture, when she identified a lack of resources to guide interns through the process, she created in 2019 the Emerging Architects Group (EAG) in Saskatchewan, a peer support mentoring program. She is now also the Saskatchewan director of the BAC-DAC (Becoming Architects Canada), a national mentorship organization that collaborates with the RAIC, the ROAC and the licensing authorities to provide resources for interns across the country. 

She is passionate about creating spaces that are accessible and serve all people universally. At her workplace, where she is the Accessibility Lead, she organizes “Awareness Hour” sessions designed to help her colleagues better understand the diverse needs of the users of the built environment.   

Sincerely dedicated to helping people through design, mentorship and advocacy, she embodies what true leadership is really about. The jury feels she is definitely on track to being a strong voice in the profession.