2022 RAIC Foundation Scholarship Recipients

Submissions for the 2022 scholarship season was at an all-time high with quality submissions and innovative proposals.

See samples of the scholarship recipients’ work by checking out the slideshow from the RAIC Foundation event at the RAIC Conference on Architecture (click on image below).

Learn more about the scholarship recipients:

RAIC Foundation Bursary
College of Fellows Centennial Fund for Intern/Intern Architect
The Arts and Letters Club of Toronto Foundation’s Award for Architectural Conservation
Canada Green Building Council Scholarship for Sustainable Design and Research
Vince Catalli Scholarship for Sustainable Architectural Innovation

RAIC Foundation Bursary

2022 Recipient –
Dr. Henry Tsang, “The Politics of Placemaking in Chinatown”

Jury comment:
This submission addresses topics of gentrification, demographic changes and anti-Asian racism. It highlights a well-known cultural identity that could become a crisis for traditional cultural identity in North America. The clearly outlined comprehensive plan will lead to widespread dissemination of the ideas including the publication of papers and a pilot design, furthering the influence of the findings. It also features great collaborations with multiple Universities and the involvement of students.

College of Fellows Centennial Fund for Intern/Intern Architect

2022 Recipient –
Kanika Kaushal, “Society of South Asian Architects”

Jury comment:
This submission offers aid to interns and students entering the profession from SE Asia. A terrific tool that seems to be well received by the community.

The jury felt this was an initiative that filled a need in the development of architects in Canada. The assistance on the road to employment, internship and registration as an architect for new arrivals has not, in the past, been well provided. This is a well thought-out and thorough program, entirely run by volunteers. Well done.

The Arts and Letters Club of Toronto Foundation’s Award for Architectural Conservation

2022 Recipient –
Fiona Hamilton, “Obsolescence as Opportunity”
Dalhousie University

Jury Comment:
Fiona Hamilton’s involvement in conservation efforts in Canada, her expansive education in architecture, environmental design, urban planning, and visual arts and her commitment to pursue a career in architectural conservation were compelling reasons for the bestowing of this award. The jury noted the public awareness of her research – Obsolescence as Opportunity: a case for adaptive reuse of century-old industrial architecture in Saint John, New Brunswick which involves offering a tool kit for the conservation and adaptation of a vacant warehouse and approaching design in smaller, historically significant urban spaces.

Through her work and studies, Fiona, a graduate student at Dalhousie University, has demonstrated her tangible contribution to the field of architectural conservation within Canada. She has had experiences as both a municipal development planner and an Intern Architect and has volunteered as a student representative and mentor with national and provincial organizations. She is currently completing her Master of Architecture design thesis which focuses on identifying and tailoring adaptive reuse methods to small-scale industrial architecture in small urban centers.

Canada Green Building Council Scholarship for Sustainable Design and Research

2022 Joint Recipients –

Rashmi Sirkar, “Why Waste Wood: Resourcify Toronto’s Building Stock”
University of Toronto

Jury Comment:
Rashmi thesis research presents an important scope of work that is clear, thoughtful and relevant. The circular economy issues raised by this timely research is required to advance the lowering of embodied carbon issues while reflecting on an architecture that considers circular design from the start. Through the assessment of demolition permits and quantification of potential wood waste, the industry can begin to understand the volume of wood material that can be recovered, reused, and repurposed, alongside the benefit of voiding the release of CO2 and methane into the atmosphere. Rashmi’s research is vital and relevant to advancing the Canadian Green Building industry.

Florence Lacroix, “Ta maison Rétrécit” (Your House is Shrinking)
Université de Montréal

Jury Comment:
Florence’s research project addresses a real-world challenge facing many ecologically sensitive coastal areas that serve as economic generators from tourism. Coastal issues, due to climate change, leave dunes at risk as they are extremely sensitive to global waterway changes taking place. This project is vital as it combines the role that architecture and planning can have in mitigating damage to these very sensitive ecological areas. Florence’s proposal to uncover a design intervention that balances economic and ecological needs has the potential to be replicable in other parts of Canada or elsewhere. This project balances community, tourism and economic realities beautifully.

2022 Honourable Mentions –

Tristan O’Gorman, “The Regenerative Urban Ecology Hubs”
Laurentian University

Jury Comment:
Tristan’s thesis project is thoughtful in re-envisioning the role of schools, specifically how schools within the Toronto School District can become urban ecology hubs. This project looks at architects and architecture as change agents by integrating a meaningful ecological curriculum alongside places and spaces that students can explore and learn. Tristan’s work can be embraced and replicated by other urban school districts. The act of engagement by the student body is excellent and serves as a reminder how we can all play a role in needed change. 

Maria Ottoni, “WaterWoven”
University of Waterloo

Jury Comment:
Maria presents a compelling and integrated approach to providing affordable housing while also restoring the river’s ecosystems and planning for flood management. The proposed flexible and adaptable “kit of parts” approach to housing is sensitive to the needs of the community. Waterwoven is a rich, well-detailed proposal that addresses both ecological and socially responsible design principles, and it is beautifully presented and communicated.

Rosemonde Gaboury-Salvail / Francis Lavoie, “Nuuttuq”
Université de Laval

Jury Comment:
Rosemonde and Francis presented a compelling, thoughtful, sustainable design response for the cultural and sports centre in Ilkalutktutiak. The proposed design embodies many key principles of sustainable and regenerative design by carefully considering the local climatic conditions, the sensitivity of the permafrost landscape, and cultural ways of life. Ambitious and wonderfully executed, this project is a good example of the ideal design process as it balances many complex elements successfully.

Vince Catalli Scholarship for Sustainable Architectural Innovation

2022 Recipients –

First Prize –
Raechel Hamilton, “Low Carbon Living: An Alternative (Sub)urban Housing Framework for a Rapidly Growing City”
Laurentian University

Jury Comment:
Raechel Hamilton was one of the few candidates who tackled the contribution of car-dependent low-density suburban development to high carbon emissions. Her solution, to provide a compact community model of medium-rise mixed-use blocks set tightly against the streets sheltering courtyards within, inserts a village within the existing suburban fabric that is inviting to its neighbours as well as its residents with its public spaces, shops and services at street level.

Her project Low Carbon Living: An Alternative (Sub)urban Housing Framework for a Rapidly Growing City offers a vision for resiliency, community-scale adaptive reuse and decarbonization through realizable housing solutions. This is a thoughtful, elegant and practical composition that takes a step back from the conventional focus on a single building or structure, in order to examine the role of urban design in promoting walkability, mixed-use and vibrant public space that is essential for our social environment as well as reducing private car dependency and our carbon footprint. It is an eminently practical and scalable solution that could be easily transferable from its Barrie, Ontario site to any suburb in Canada.

Second Prize –
Kevin Jihoon Jo, “Symbiosis City: Rail to Resiliency in Winnipeg
University of Manitoba

Jury Comment:
Symbiosis City is an adaptive reuse project that repurposes a vacant railyard warehouse into an urban food production and community facility and the rail lines into a multi-modal corridor connecting downtown Winnipeg with the suburban community to farms along its route and beyond. While it proposes a master plan for the rail lines and food centres, its focus is a single building which would become a cultural hub for food: growing, distributing (grocery), cooking and dining. The model is well thought out and detailed, presenting a single project that could impact this particular community on a social and environmental level and be transferred to a few select sites in Canada. It is a comprehensive project and a holistic model of adaptive reuse and community building.

Honourable mention –
Jeth Owen Guerrero, “The Cooking Commons”
McGill University

Jury Comment:
Jeth Owen Guerro proposes a solution of adaptive re-use that has less to do with a building and more with urban communal spaces set in free-standing garages, storage units or low-rise apartments. It rallies around the concept that the gathering, preparing and consumption of food – from backyard gardens and markets to kitchens and the dining table – that involve small -scale collective practices nurture social as well as ecological and financial resilience. It involves a bottom-up approach to community place-making.

With a ‘how-to’ manual in the form of ‘recipes’, Cooking Commons presents plans, network diagrams and illustrations in an innovative approach that engages landlords, tenants and working organizations/small businesses to collectively arrive at the creation of these spaces. It underscores how the disproportionate effects of climate change will be felt in bringing forward ideas of community access, equity and empowerment. It is an eminently practical and scalable solution that could be easily transferable from its Montreal, Quebec site to any urban location in Canada.

2022 Jury composition:

RAIC Foundation Bursary – Dave Edwards, Diarmuid Nash, Susan Ruptash
College of Fellows Centennial Fund for Intern/Intern Architect – Brian Hall, Stuart Howard, Diarmuid Nash
The Arts and Letters Club of Toronto Foundation’s Award for Architectural Conservation – Tamara Anson – Cartwright, Julia Gersovitz, Stuart Howard
Canada Green Building Council Scholarship for Sustainable Design and Research – Vince Catalli, Robert Thibodeau, Kathy Wardle, Jim Taggart (Professional Advisor)
Vince Catalli Scholarship for Sustainable Architectural Innovation – Drew Adams, Isabelle Bradbury, Jody Patterson, Susan Ruptash, Vince Catalli (Professional Advisor)

For a full list of RAIC Foundation bursaries, please visit raicf.ca.

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