Professor Brigitte Shim has been recognized with one of the country’s highest honours in the fields of arts and science: election to the Royal Society of Canada (RSC) as a 2024 Fellow.

Every year, a select group of artists, academics and scientists are inducted into one of the RSC’s three Academies—the Academy of Arts and Humanities, the Academy of Social Sciences and the Academy of Science—on the basis of their impact, both nationally and  internationally, on their respective disciplines. 

Professor Shim, who has been teaching at the Daniels Faculty since 1988, will be elected to the RSC’s Academy of Arts and Humanities. 

There are currently 2,524 Fellows in the Society, which has been recognizing creative excellence in Canada since 1882.

Professor Shim was selected, according to the RSC, for “an exceptional body of design work that is committed to craft, tectonics, site and ecology.” Also cited was her “ongoing commitment to advocacy, mentorship and teaching.”

“She is one half of a collaborative partnership,” the Society says, referencing her longtime personal and creative alliance with husband and fellow architect A. Howard Sutcliffe, “addressing built work that tackles multiple scales [in] architecture, landscape, interiors, furniture and hardware—all developed to a high standard, with craft, rigour, sense of place, mastery of proportions and placemaking.” 

Professor Shim co-founded her practice, Shim-Sutcliffe Architects, in 1994. She and Sutcliffe have since been recognized with 16 Governor General’s Medals and Awards for Architecture, the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada’s Gold Medal in 2021 and an American Institute of Architects National Honor Award. 

Her induction into the RSC, which was announced last month, will formally take place at a ceremony in Vancouver on November 8. A total of 104 new Fellows are being inducted this year.

The John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto is excited to announce Isabel Okoro as its inaugural Filmmaker-in-Residence.  
 
This new initiative, generously supported through private donor support and the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives Fund at the Faculty, provides a platform for emerging and mid-career filmmakers whose work reflects a commitment to historically underrepresented communities within the Faculty’s diverse disciplines. 

“I am thrilled that this new residency has begun this fall,” says Robert Levit, Acting Dean of the Daniels Faculty. “It’s an important demonstration of our desire at the Faculty to include as wide a range of voices and experiences as possible in the work we do and to encourage the kind of cross-fertilization of ideas that comes with such exchanges. I want to congratulate and thank everyone who worked toward bringing the residency about and very much look forward to Isabel’s time with us.” 

Running from early October to late November 2024, Okoro’s residency will engage a wide array of Daniels Faculty members, including undergraduate and graduate students, faculty and staff through a series of workshops and a public lecture. The goal of the residency is to explore how cultural representations in film and video can build community, foster belonging and enhance engagement across the Faculty. 

Born and raised in Lagos, Nigeria and now based in Toronto, Okoro produces multidisciplinary work inspired by her identity and the diverse community of creators from the global diaspora of which she is a part. Recent projects include the video installation it’s real, i watched it happen, exhibited during Nuit Blanche in Toronto, and the exhibition Constructing Eternity at FÁBRICA in Mexico City. 

As an artist whose work sits comfortably on the line of reality and imagination, world-building is Okoro’s preferred method of storytelling. She has spent the last three years developing the visual universe Eternity.  

“I think a lot about what is and how that informs what could be,” Okoro explains. “In moments of uncertainty and distress, I tend to find myself looking back at my dreams and imagining the stories I’d like to see. Dwelling in the present leaves very little to the imagination, so I find solace in my own visual universe, Eternity, where hope and trust in Black imagination is the sole foundation.” 

Her work is characterized by “Normatopia,” a concept she coined to describe a world where lived experiences—both good and bad—are central. “A Normatopia describes what is normal, not perfect,” Okoro notes. “So the question becomes, what is normal to me? I believe that normal is simply the right to be.” 

During a series of workshops over the Faculty’s Reading Week (October 28-November 1) and a public lecture on Wednesday, November 13 at 4:00 p.m., Okoro intends to expand on the factors she considers when world-building and developing her cinematic language—including discussions on research, screenwriting, directing, music and post-production.  

“My hope is that my time on campus will promote a transparent and inclusive space where students, faculty, and the surrounding community can hold space for one another while we experience the power of communal discussion and creation.” 

Details on how to participate in the workshops and registration for the public lecture will be published soon.  

Photo Credit: Bidemi Oloyede

In the final days before the fall of Saigon in 1975, 125,000 Vietnamese resettled in the United States. Finding themselves in unfamiliar places yet still connected in exile, these refugees began building their own communities as memorials to a lost homeland. Known both officially and unofficially as “Little Saigons,” these built landscapes are the foundation for Assistant Professor Erica Allen-Kim’s latest book.  

Building Little Saigon: Refugee Urbanism in American Cities and Suburbs (University of Texas Press) provides an in-depth look at how Vietnamese American communities have shaped urban landscapes across the U.S. Allen-Kim’s research focuses on the architectural and planning approaches adopted by Vietnamese Americans over the past 50 years, showing how these efforts have influenced mainstream urban practices.  

For Allen-Kim, the connection to this research is close to home. “Growing up in Southern California, I spent my childhood in Orange County's Koreatown, just next door to Little Saigon,” she says. “I saw how ethnic entrepreneurship was changing in response to generational shifts as well as broader transnational movements. I wanted to document the buildings, memorials and storefronts of these communities.”  

Through visits to 10 Little Saigons and interviews with developers, community planners, artists, business owners and Vietnam veterans, Allen-Kim examines the challenges and successes in building and maintaining these communities. Building Little Saigon highlights the role of everyday buildings—from family-owned businesses to cultural centres—in reflecting and preserving cultural heritage. 

Allen-Kim’s work contributes to the understanding of how immigrant communities shape urban environments. By exploring the design and function of various spaces within Little Saigons, Building Little Saigon offers insights into the broader impacts of migration on city planning and architecture. 

The book will be featured in the Fall 2024 Community for Belonging Reading Group at the Daniels Faculty. This initiative, open to all Daniels students, alumni, faculty and staff, will focus on the theme “Reclaiming Place and Identity in Urban Diasporas.” Participants will read Building Little Saigon alongside Denison Avenue, by Daniel Innes (illustrations) and Christina Wong (text). 

Building Little Saigon is available for checkout at the Eberhard Zeidler Library in the Daniels Building and for purchase online. 

The Daniels Faculty will mark Orange Shirt Day and the National Day for Truth & Reconciliation (September 30) with a commemoration on Friday, September 27, between 12:00 p.m. and 2:30 p.m., in the Main Hall of the Daniels Building at 1 Spadina Crescent. 

Please register in advance.

Daniels students, faculty and staff are invited to a community lunch at noon, catered by chef Charles Catchpole, owner of Charger Foods and a member of Couchiching First Nation. An opening address and smudging will be provided by two members of the Faculty’s First Peoples Leadership Advisory Group: Elder Dorothy Peters (a member of Jiima’aaganing [Seine River] First Nation, Traditional Teacher and Community Nookmis) and Amos Key Jr. (Mohawk Nation member and Traditional Faith Keeper of the Longhouse at Six Nations of the Grand River Territory). 

Their address will be followed by remarks and stories from fellow Advisor Trina Moyan (nehiyaw iskwew [Plains Cree] from Frog Lake First Nation in Alberta) and James Bird (a PhD student at the Faculty and member of the Nehiyawak and Dene Nations). A Faculty-produced video highlighting student participants in the exhibition Reconciliation Reflections, currently on view in the Stairwell Gallery at 1 Spadina, will also be shown.  

In the spirit of reconciliation and healing, the Faculty encourages all attendees to wear orange shirts, now-iconic symbols inspired by the story of residential school survivor Phyllis (Jack) Webstad of Stswecem’c Xgat’tem First Nation.  

In addition to our September 27 commemoration, the Faculty and U of T will also be hosting a number of related events this month and beyond. 

The University of Toronto’s commemoration, including remarks by Chancellor Wesley J. Hall, President Meric Gertler, Canadian Cree filmmaker and artist Shirley Cheechoo, students and others, will take place in the Great Hall at Hart House from 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on Monday, September 30. Light refreshments will be served. Click here for more details and to register to attend in-person or online. 

From 3:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, October 2, the Faculty will host a screening of the 2024 film Sugarcane, directed by Julian Brave Noisecat and Emily Kassie, who will join us for a question-and-answer session via Zoom right after the showing (1 Spadina, Main Hall C, register to attend here).  

And at 12:30 p.m. on November 20 in Room DA240 at 1 Spadina, we will host a book launch for ᐊᖏᕐᕋᒧᑦ/Ruovttu Guvlui/Towards Home: Inuit and Sámi Placemaking. This is the companion publication to the exhibition hosted last fall by the Daniels Faculty.  More details will be provided in the weeks ahead. 

The John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto is excited to present its Fall 2024 Public Program. 

Through a curated series of lectures, exhibitions, book talks, discussions, and symposia, this semester’s program raises questions and delves into contemporary issues facing the built and natural environment. From housing typologies and modern legacies to Indigenous storytelling and the intersection of climate science, geopolitics, and artistic perspectives, we explore a diverse range of topics aimed at fostering dialogue and exchange across our disciplines. 

All events are free and open to the public. Register on Eventbrite in advance and consult the events calendar for up-to-date details. Many events will be live-streamed and available on the Daniels Faculty’s YouTube channel. 

Register

September 12, 6:30 p.m. 
Gehry Chair Lecture: Urban Domesticity 
Featuring Jing Liu and Florian Idenburg (SO–IL) 

September 12-October 25 
Exhibition: Urban Domesticity 
Larry Wayne Richards Gallery 

September 26, 6:30 p.m.
Future Ancestor 
Featuring Chris T Cornelius (Oneida) (University of New Mexico; studio:indigenous) 

October 17, 6:30 p.m. 
Architecture of Health: The Annual Zeidler-Evans Lecture
Designing for Older Persons in a Transforming World 
Featuring Dr. Diana Anderson, Molly Chan (NSDA Architects) and Stephen Verderber (Daniels Faculty, University of Toronto) 

October 18, 12:30 p.m.
Radio-Activities: Architecture and Broadcasting 
Featuring Alfredo Thiermann (EPFL) 

October 24, 6:30 p.m.
George Baird Lecture
Housing_Medium Please! 
Featuring Elizabeth Whittaker (Graduate School of Design, Harvard University; MERGE Architects)  

November 4, 6:30 p.m.
MVS Proseminar Artist Talk 
Featuring Pio Abad 

November 7-8 
Shaping Atmospheres  
Symposium organized by Ala Roushan (OCAD University) and Charles Stankievech (Daniels Faculty, University of Toronto) with support from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) 

November 7, 6:30 p.m.
Symposium Keynote: Shaping Atmospheres
Featuring Holly Jean Buck (University at Buffalo) and David Keith (University of Chicago) 

October 2-December 21 
Exhibition: Shaping Atmospheres 
Architecture + Design Gallery 

November 21, 6:30 p.m.
Where the Wild Things Are 
Featuring Omar Gandhi (Omar Gandhi Architects) 

November 22-23 
Preservation? Modernist Heritage and Modern Toronto 
Symposium organized by Aziza Chaouni and Robert Levit (Daniels Faculty, University of Toronto) 

November 22, 6:30 p.m. 
Preservation? Modernist Heritage and Modern Toronto 
Keynote Presentations and Discussion

The annual Master of Visual Studies Proseminar at the University of Toronto’s John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design offers graduate students in curatorial studies and studio art the opportunity to connect and exchange with field-leading international and local artists, curators, writers, theorists and other scholarly practitioners and researchers.   

The 2024/2025 MVS Proseminar Series examines how contemporary art intersects with societal contexts, from exploring identity and cultural memory to challenging conventional narratives. Through studio visits, masterclasses and workshops with our students, alongside public evening lectures, our invited practitioners spark interdisciplinary dialogue and prompt inquiry among our community.  

This group of speakers was brought together to reflect the diverse practices and research interests of our graduate students. The guests will speak from their experiences and research in various subject areas, such as repressed historical events and the creation of counter-narratives; counter-publics and the imagining of new social futures; weather and Indigenous cultural practices; food and extractivism; various forms of visual and social transformation; artists-moving image and bad animation; and curatorial politics and representation. 

The 2024/2025 MVS Proseminar is curated by Assistant Professor Gareth Long, Director of the Faculty's Visual Studies Programs. All events take place in Main Hall at the Daniels Building at 1 Spadina Crescent. Registration is not required.  

Fall 2024 

September 10, 5:30pm ET  
Erika Balsom 
Scholar and critic 

October 3, 6:30pm ET 
Prem Krishnamurthy 
Designer and curator 

October 8, 6:30pm ET  
Tanya Lukin Linklater 
Artist and choreographer 

November 4, 6:30pm ET  
Pio Abad 
Artist 

November 19, 6:30pm ET 
James McAnally 
Curator, critic, and editor 

The Winter Series features Shanay Jhaveri (Head of Visual Arts at the Barbican, London), Cooking Sections (the multidisciplinary practice of Daniel Fernández Pascual and Alon Schwabe) and Jamillah James (Manilow Senior Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago), and others. Dates will be announced on the Daniels Faculty website in the fall.  

About the Master of Visual Studies (MVS) Program

The Master of Visual Studies (MVS) is an intimate, two-year program in either Studio Art or Curatorial Studies. These two streams of study operate at a field-leading intersection of liberal-arts academic research, studio and curatorial professional practices and methodologies, and a unique program identity grounded in a critical approach to discursive practices in exhibition. 

The artistic research and scholarship that emerges from both program pathways reflects increasingly complex modes of art and exhibition-making, filtered through philosophy, cultural theory, criticism and diverse material practices. Situated within one of the world’s leading research institutions, the MVS programs focus on art and its presentation as research, fostering interdisciplinary exchange within the greater Daniels Faculty and across the University of Toronto. 

Image credits: 

1) Pio Abad, To Those Sitting in Darkness. Exhibition view, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 2024. Image courtesy Pio Abad.

2) Tanya Lukin Linklater with Tiffany Shaw, Indigenous geometries, 2019, cold rolled steel, laminate ash, paint, matte polyurethane, hardware, 84 x 107 x 107 in. (213 x 272 x 272 cm). Installation view, Inner blades of grass (soft) / inner blades of grass (cured) / inner blades of grass (bruised by the weather), Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, USA, 2024. Photo: Luke Stettner. Courtesy Catriona Jeffries, Vancouver.

3) Black Quantum Futurism, SLOWER-THAN-LIGHT SHRINE: IN REMEMBRANCE OF THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD commissioned by James McAnally for Counterpublic 2023. Image courtesy of Chris Bauer. 

4) Image courtesy Prem Krishnamurthy.

Over three days in late 2022, the Daniels Faculty’s  Centre for Landscape Research, led by Associate Professor Fadi Masoud, hosted the first post-pandemic gathering of the Great Lakes Higher Education Consortium, an academic action group dedicated to fostering a more resilient, climate-ready Great Lakes Basin through the study and promotion of “integrative blue-green infrastructure.”

The Consortium had been co-founded in 2020 by the Council of the Great Lakes Region (CGLR), the University of Toronto and the University of Illinois System. A year later, four other major universities joined the group, which aims to address the region’s most pressing environmental challenges by encouraging regular and impactful collaborations among academics, industry and governments.

On the heels of the 2022 conference, the Consortium released a summary report entitled REIMAGINING WATER II: The Future of Blue-Green Infrastructure in the Great Lakes Basin. The group has also launched a website featuring an interactive map of Great Lakes cities and case studies associated with them.

Together the two resources offer practitioners and policy makers “a clear path” toward developing the kind of region-specific planning and design initiatives that will become increasingly essential as jurisdictions across the Great Lakes grapple with climate-related issues such as the flooding (pictured above and below) that caused an estimated $1 billion in damage this month in Toronto.

“Landscape architects have been at the forefront of designing integrated blue-green systems,” says Masoud. “We work with terrain, water (blue) and vegetation (green) to shape the public realm and urban infrastructure as a foundational disciplinary premise. 

“Climate shocks and stresses, such as urban flooding and extreme heat, remind cities worldwide of the need to integrate dynamic blue-green systems as critical landscape infrastructures. These infrastructures will increase cities' capacity to adapt to climate change. The Great Lakes warrant their unique set of landscape-based urban design standards, as each region’s physiographical conditions and pressures vary.”

The question of the Great Lakes Basin as a unique environment is at the core of the Reimagining Water project and of the RWII report, which cites “the mismatch between policy and technical guidelines for green/blue infrastructure developed on the East and West Coast [of North America] and the specific conditions of the Great Lakes.”

“This disconnect in technical terms,” it continues, “is complemented by a cultural disconnection. Progressive practices in green/blue infrastructure design are suspect here if they haven’t been developed or proven here.”

The 2022 conference, which Masoud co-organized with James Wasley of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, brought 45 participants from academia, professional disciplines, NGOs and government to the Daniels Faculty.

Among the topics they discussed were a vision for the Great Lakes Basin as an ecological unit, the promise of common project types in terms of fostering resilience and the connection between social and climate justice.

All of its findings and more are presented in the report. The work of the Consortium is ongoing and further conferences are planned.

Images of Don River flooding in Toronto by Paul Faggion

The Daniels Faculty is pleased to announce that Florian Idenburg and Jing Liu of the New York City-based practice SO-IL are the 2024-2025 Frank Gehry International Visiting Chairs in Architectural Design. 

Established in 2008, SO-IL explores “how the creation of environments and objects inspires lasting positive intellectual and societal engagement,” whether that involves working with existing structures or building from the ground up.

“Our interventions are both respectful of their pasts and adaptable to a dynamic future,” says the pair, whose awards have ranged from the MoMA PS1 Young Architects Prize in 2010 to this year’s ArchDaily Building of the Year Award in the housing category.

The ArchDaily award was given for 450 Warren, a multi-unit housing project in the formerly industrial Gowanus neighbourhood of Brooklyn (pictured below). 

Other residential projects by SO-IL include the Las Americas Social Housing prototype in Leon, Mexico (developed in 2016 and realized in 2021) and in-progress 9 Chapel Street (a multi-unit Brooklyn complex that “conceives of outdoor spaces as extensions of living areas”). 

A rendering of 9 Chapel, which is located at the corner of Chapel and Jay Streets in downtown Brooklyn, is pictured below.

“We feel extremely fortunate to have these visionary designers with us and look forward to the fresh perspectives they will bring to our program,” says Associate Professor Wei-Han Vivian Lee, director of the Faculty’s Master of Architecture (MARC) program.

“Their forward-thinking approach to housing design—reimagining domestic habits, community interactions and creative solutions in building materials and massing strategies—promises to offer our students exceptional insights.”

During their time at the Faculty, Idenburg and Liu will be teaching a studio, called Big Little Village, on the mixing of old and new in the context of domestic architecture.

In addition, the pair will deliver, on September 12, the first lecture of the Faculty’s 2024-2025 Public Programming series. The talk is called Urban Domesticity, an allusion to the title of their upcoming book, In Depth: Urban Domesticities Today. 

A corresponding exhibition, also opening September 12, will be held in the Faculty’s Larry Wayne Richards Gallery at 1 Spadina Crescent.

Named in honour of Frank O. Gehry, the Toronto-born designer of such iconic buildings as the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, the Gehry Chair brings an international architect to the Faculty every year to deliver a public lecture and enrich the student learning experience. 

The endowed role was established in November 2000 by Indigo Books and Music founder Heather Reisman and 45 other donors; they contributed $1 million, which was matched by U of T.  

In recent years, previous Gehry Chairs have included Aljoša Dekleva and Tina Gregorič (2019-2020), Douglas Cardinal (2020-2021), Lina Ghotmeh (2021-2022) and Marina Tabassum (2022-2023).

For more information on SO-IL, click here.

A design team headed by JA Architecture Studio, the practice co-led by Assistant Professor Behnaz Assadi and alumnus and former lecturer Nima Javidi, has been selected by the Ontario Association of Architects (OAA) to transform the grounds of its Toronto headquarters into “a more sustainable, accessible, artful and welcoming space.”

Called The Grounding Meadow, the winning design (pictured in slideshow above) was chosen anonymously by a five-person jury.

The design team, which also includes landscape architect and sessional lecturer Todd Douglas of Janet Rosenberg & Studio and civil engineer Kayam Ramsewak of MTE Consultants, receives a $20,000 prize and the job of refashioning the OAA property, which is located at 111 Moatfield Drive near the Don River. 

Praised for its “embrace of natural systems that allow the landscape to evolve as a biodiverse ecosystem with minimal intervention, as well as its thoughtful integration of public art and innovative stormwater-management strategies,” the winning proposal addresses the site both ecologically and culturally.

“It allows water to freely run underneath the wild meadow, bringing a more natural ecology to the site and welcoming stormwater to support and sustain the habitat,” says the OAA. “The project also pays homage to Indigenous communities by including plants of cultural significance, including a diversity of perennials and grasses that will also attract pollinators, wildlife and birds.”

“Our project,” explains Javidi, “tries to address the two core themes of the competition—climate change and Reconciliation—through one legible protagonist: the ground. We aimed to translate our awareness of the importance of land, its history and ecology into a spatial and experiential one.”

Assistant Professor Assadi adds: “By recalibrating the contours of the site, we converged the flow of water, people and plants into an ecological threshold where the overlay between the act of entering, the collection of water and the changing landscape will make the visitors physically aware of the interrelationship between architecture, access and ecology—an awareness long embedded into the Indigenous way of coexistence with nature.”

Launched in March, the OAA’s Landscape Design Competition challenged competitors to reimagine the terrain of the OAA headquarters as a symbol of design innovation, environmental sustainability and active community involvement, “creating an inviting space that respected environmental principles and celebrated the natural beauty of the Don River ravine.”

Among the eligibility requirements was that each team include a full member of the Ontario Association of Landscape Architects (OALA) and a civil engineer. Membership in the OAA was not a requirement, although Javidi is an OAA architect.

In addition to the jury, a technical advisory team comprising a landscape architect, a civil engineer and a cost consultant, as well as senior OAA staff and members of its Building Committee, offered feedback on all submissions. The 19 interdisciplinary teams that submitted proposals were kept confidential from the jury and OAA.

For a full list of participating teams, visit the OAA website. Construction on the exterior overhaul is anticipated to begin in the spring of 2025. 

In addition to securing the OAA redesign, JA Architecture has also received an Honourable Mention in the international competition to design the Museum of History and the Future in Finland's oldest city, Turku.

Called Dot, Dot, Dot, Dot, JA’s design for the facility, on the tip of the Turku Peninsula, comprised a linear cluster of two-and-a-half-storey architectural volumes (one of which is shown below) that would maximize water views but be open at ground level to the city.

More than 400 proposals from around the world were accepted for evaluation.

The winning design, announced at Turku Castle on June 17, was submitted by Finnish firm Sigge Architects Ltd.

Jason Nguyen, Assistant Professor in the history and theory of architecture, is the 2024 beneficiary of the Mayflower Research Fund, the research endowment established by a generous donor in 2018 to encourage and stimulate study in the fields of architecture, landscape architecture and urban design, allowing for collaboration with other areas of the University where appropriate.

Nguyen’s awarded research project, “Crafting Contracts: Law and the Architecture of Commemoration in Old Regime France,” looks at building practice and the regulatory bodies that structured it during the 17th and early 18th centuries in France. The project considers how reforms in contract and cost management contributed to a reframing of the architect as a civil and commercial figure at the dawn of the modern age.

Beyond its scholarly impact, the research is significant because it provides an historical instance in which debates on labour and project financing helped establish the scientific and institutional grounds on which the profession of architecture first came and continues to be practiced.

“The award means quite a lot, and is a testament to the work that I have been undertaking since my doctoral dissertation,” says Nguyen. “[The award] will help advance the project through one of the last stages of research, which considers how the streamlining of contract documentation abetted the professionalization of the architectural trade during a period of momentous social and intellectual change.”

In particular, this facet of the project examines how the architect and theorist Pierre Bullet (1639-1716) streamlined the drafting, notarizing and filing of legal contracts into professional architectural practice, taking a lawsuit that he and sculptor Philippe Magnier filed in November 1698 against the estate of Jean Coiffier de Ruzé, the Abbot of Effiat, as a starting point.

In that injunction, Bullet and Magnier sought compensation for drawings and models they had completed for the abbot, who had hired the pair to design and build a sumptuously decorated family mausoleum in Paris. When the abbot died unexpectedly in October 1698, he left a mountain of unpaid bills and, ultimately, insufficient direction and funding to see the mausoleum finished. The French court’s eventual decision, which privileged the architect’s contract, stands as a legal precedent in the professionalization of architectural practice.

Remarkably, Bullet had warned of labour and fee disputes in his treatise Architecture pratique (1691). The book included sample contracts as guides for architects to measure decoration and draft expedient legal documents. This move helped to formalize the architect’s civil function as a coordinator of labour and arbiter of taste in an increasingly commercial society. That Bullet’s study unfolded alongside contemporaneous theorizations of the social contract by the philosopher John Locke and habits and customs by the jurist Montesquieu testifies to the period’s broader concerns for legal order and the structures of modern governance.

“Contemporary conversations in Canada about labour rights and the politics of project financing and development have parallels in this formative moment in architectural history,” says Nguyen, who plans to apply his Mayflower funding to research-related travel, publishing, and student training.

“The training will include primary and secondary source documentation, mapping and digital reconstruction of since-lost buildings,” he says.

Nguyen’s broader project, of which this research is a part, is titled Bodies of Expertise: Architecture, Labour, and Law in Old Regime France. 

“Ultimately,” he says, “Bodies of Expertise will argue that the effort to establish a legal category of expertise, rooted in the labour and law of building practice, directly contributed to the professionalization of architectural practice as well as the crystallization of public and commercial culture at the dawn of the modern age.”

Aspects of this research have to date been published in a variety of journals, including Grey Room, Livraisons d’histoire de l’architecture and Oxford Art Journal.

Drawing image: An anonymous drawing, likely after Pierre Bullet, depicts the Mausoleum for Antoine Coiffier de Ruzé, marquis d’Effiat, at the convent of the Filles de la Croix in Paris (c. 1698). The drawing is housed in the Nationalmuseum Stockholm in Sweden.