RAIC awards 2018 Gold Medal to Saucier + Perrotte Architectes
22/02/2018.
[Ottawa] Canada
metalocus, INÉS LALUETA
metalocus, INÉS LALUETA
The founders of Saucier + Perrotte Architectes, a Montreal firm, are the recipients of the 2018 RAIC Gold Medal.
Stade de Soccer de Montréal by Saucier + Perrotte Architectes. Photograph © Olivier Blouin
UBC Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences / CDRD by Saucier + Perrotte Architectes. Photograph © Marc Cramer
Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics by Saucier + Perrotte Architectes. Photograph © Marc Cramer
Communication, Culture, Information and Technology Building, University of Toronto at Mississauga by Saucier + Perrotte Architectes. Photograph © Marc Cramer
Complexe sportif Saint-Laurent by Saucier + Perrotte Architectes/HCMA. Photograph © Olivier Blouin
Complexe sportif Saint-Laurent by Saucier + Perrotte Architectes/HCMA. Photograph © Olivier Blouin
First Nation Garden Pavilion by Saucier + Perrotte Architectes. Photograph © Marc Cramer
First Nation Garden Pavilion by Saucier + Perrotte Architectes. Photograph © Marc Cramer
Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics by Saucier + Perrotte Architectes. Photograph © Marc Cramer
Gérald-Godin College by Saucier + Perrotte Architectes. Photograph © Marc Cramer
Anne-Marie Edward Science Building at John Abbott College by Saucier + Perrotte Architectes. Photograph © Marc Cramer
Portrait of Gilles Saucier. Photograph © Justine Latour
Portrait of André Perrotte. Photograph © Justine Latour
Gilles Saucier, FIRAC, and André Perrotte, FIRAC, founded Saucier + Perrotte Architectes in 1988. The firm represented Canada at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2004 and has received more than 100 awards, including eight Governor General’s Medals in Architecture and the Government of Quebec’s Prix Ernest Cormier for lifetime achievement. Their work has been published widely.
“They have built and maintained a high quality of work for decades,” said the five-member selection jury. “They are one of the few firms that are recognized both nationally and internationally. The work is always innovative and interesting. It’s timeless, consistently elegant, beautifully detailed. They integrate nature beautifully.”
The Gold Medal is the highest honour the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) can bestow. It recognizes a significant and lasting contribution to Canadian architecture.
The Gold Medal will be presented at the RAIC/AANB Festival of Architecture, taking place in Saint John from May 30 to June 2.
“They are ambassadors for Canadian architecture,” said the jury. “They don’t compromise. Their work inspires and delights. Their projects are functional, sculptural and beautiful in the landscape. They are spaces that one enjoys being in.”
Saucier+Perrotte have designed theatres (Usine C and Cinémathèque Québécoise in Montreal); commercial spaces, (the Michel Brisson boutiques and Scandinave Les Bains Vieux Montreal); garden pavilions (First Nations Pavilion at the Botanical Garden in Montreal), and the Canadian embassy in Abu Dhabi.
The firm’s university projects include the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo and the UBC Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences (with Hughes Condon Marler Architects) in Vancouver. They have also completed sports facilities such as the new Stade de Soccer de Montréal (with HCMA Architecture + Design), as well as private residences, exhibitions and art centres. Ongoing major projects include River City, a 1,000-unit LEED Gold master plan in Toronto.
Mr. Saucier is the firm’s design partner while Mr. Perrotte is the project architect in charge of coordinating the design and construction process. Both are graduates of the Laval University school of architecture in Quebec City, and have lectured and taught across Canada and abroad.
One of their nominators, Martin Bressani, MRAIC, director of the school of architecture at McGill University, noted that Saucier + Perrotte “marked a watershed in Canadian architecture, initiating a second modernist wave, one that risked new experimentation, and displayed a much greater sensibility to atmosphere.
“From the start, theirs was a public architecture, at the service of culture and a collective identity,” wrote Bressani.
“It is with great honour that we accept this award recognizing 30 years of passionate and dedicated work,” they said in a joint statement. “We are grateful for the numerous fruitful collaborations that have helped us shape and realize our vision. We proudly receive this medal as a reward for our unyielding commitment to architectural excellence.”
The jury members were:
• Peter Busby, FRAIC, partner, Perkins + Will, Vancouver, BC;
• Andrew Batay-Csorba, MRAIC, partner, Batay-Csorba Architects, Toronto, ON;
• Johanna Hurme, FRAIC, partner, 5468796 architecture Winnipeg, MB;
• Renée Mailhot, MIRAC, founder, la SHED architecture, Montreal, QC;
• Diogo Burnay, director, Dalhousie University School of Architecture, Halifax, NS.
Previous Gold Medalists include Peter Busby, FRAIC, His Highness the Aga Khan, Bing Thom, FRAIC, George Baird, FRAIC, John and Patricia Patkau, FRAIC, Dan Hanganu, FIRAC, Bruce Kuwabara, FRAIC, Arthur Erickson, FRAIC, Phyllis Lambert, Moshe Safdie, FRAIC, Raymond Moriyama, FRAIC, and others.
ABOUT THE RAIC
The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada is the leading voice for excellence in the built environment in Canada. Representing about 5,000 members the RAIC advocates for excellence, works to demonstrate how design enhances the quality of life and promotes responsible architecture in addressing important issues of society.
More information
Gilles Saucier and André Perrotte Saucier + Perrotte Architectes
Saucier + Perrotte Architectes. Founded in 1988 by Gilles Saucier and André Perrotte, Saucier + Perrotte architectes is a multidisciplinary practice internationally renowned for its institutional, cultural, and residential projects. The firm represented Canada at the Architecture Biennale of Venice in 2004, and has been honoured with numerous awards, including 8 Governor General’s Medals and Awards in architecture from the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, three P/A Progressive Architecture honours, and two International Architecture Awards (presented by the Chicago Athenaeum and the European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies).
The office continues to add to its significant body of built work in Canada, to expand its international portfolio of work abroad, and in 2009, Saucier + Perrotte received the RAIC Award of Excellence for Best Architectural Firm in Canada. More recently, in the fall of 2014, Gilles Saucier and André Perrotte were the first recipients of the new Prix du Québec, the Prix Ernest-Cormier, presented by Quebec’s Minister of Culture and Communications. This prize is Quebec’s highest distinction awarded to a person for his body of work and his career in the field of architecture and design.
Gilles Saucier received his diploma in architecture from Université Laval in Quebec City. In 1988, he founded Saucier + Perrotte architects, a multidisciplinary practice internationally renowned for its institutional, cultural, and residential projects.
As Design Partner, he is responsible for the overall design of each project, ensuring that the work of the firm responds to all design criteria, with specific attention to architecture’s connection to geology and the landscape. His commitment to design excellence is well recognized by the architectural press worldwide. The firm has been honoured with numerous awards, including 8 Governor General’s Medals and Awards in Architecture and two International Architecture Awards. In 2009, Saucier + Perrotte received the RAIC Award of Excellence for Best Architectural Firm in Canada. Furthermore, in 2014, Mr. Saucier, along with his partner Mr. Perrotte, were the first recipients of the new Prix du Québec, the Prix Ernest-Cormier.
Since 1989, he has been a visiting professor and an invited critic at several Canadian and American universities, including MIT, University of Montreal, McGill University, University of Toronto, University of British Columbia, and University of Seattle. Mr. Saucier also frequently gives lectures on the firm’s work in North American universities.
In 2004, the firm represented Canada at the prestigious Architecture Biennale of Venice. In addition, Saucier + Perrotte has previously been part of three important exhibitions: “Les lieux de la couleur,” presented at the CCA in 2000, “Childhood Landscapes / Topographical Unfoldings” presented in Montréal, Toronto, Ottawa, and Buffalo (USA) between 2002 and 2004, and more recently “Substance Over Spectacle” in Vancouver (2005). In 2002, the Canadian Centre for Architecture began archiving architectural drawings and models by Saucier + Perrotte, and in 2007, the CCA selected the firm to design its exhibition on the Oil
Crisis of the 1970’s, entitled “1973: Sorry, Out of Gas.”
Gilles Saucier is also a photographer and his work in that field has fine-tuned his approach to architecture and helped evolve his perspective on the world.
André Perrotte studied architecture at Laval University in Quebec City where he received his degree in 1982 (B.Arch).
As Project Architect, André Perrotte is in charge of the coordination for each step of the design and construction process and is in charge of the administrative management of each dossier with the client. He is involved in the design in conjunction with Gilles Saucier and directs the flow of information between all parties involved in the design process.
André Perrotte possesses a vast field of expertise, mainly in managing multidisciplinary teams from control to production, costs to schedules, and techniques to construction systems. He is widely recognized for the rigor and creativity of his approach towards construction as an expression of contemporary culture. The firm has been honoured with numerous awards, including 8 Governor General’s Medals and Awards in Architecture and two International Architecture Awards. In 2009, Saucier + Perrotte received the RAIC Award of Excellence for Best Architectural Firm in Canada. Furthermore, in 2014, Mr. Perrotte, along with
his partner Mr. Saucier, were the first recipients of the new Prix du Québec, the Prix Ernest-Cormier
Since 1989 André Perrotte has taught architecture and been a visiting critic at several Canadian universities, including University of Montreal, University of Waterloo, University of Toronto, McGill
University, and UQAM (University of Quebec at Montreal).
Categories
Our selection
