DIALOG and the Michael Evamy Board of Trustees are pleased to announce that Kateryna Nebesna has been awarded the 2012 Michael Evamy Scholarship. Kateryna Nebesna, a Masters of Architecture student at the University of Toronto's John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design, is receiving the award based on her impressive and thought provoking submission entitled “A Monument to Terrible Beauty.”

In her submission, Kateryna states that "… in experiencing the world through tourism, we have been able to indulge in exotic landscapes, historical cities and architecture, celebrating our proximity to renowned, beautiful icons without sometimes a deeper understanding or regard to the events or tragedies that have shaped the iconic site." She goes on to explain that without a comprehensive understanding of the significant events "we have a superficial experience of the site rooted only in the visual and we are unable to emotionally relate or draw conclusions of lessons learned."

She goes on to question the role that architecture plays in the context of a memorial site, in that, while she believes they are intrinsically created to commemorate the loss of lives, they often help us tap into the historical event itself and associated emotional context. She states that perhaps "the most successful expressions of commemoration are the ones that resonate within a culture allowing for the dialogue between history, memory and emotion."

Kateryna proposes to visit several well-known memorial sites in order to detail their function in relation to the site design and architecture used to commemorate the historical event. Her research will be conducted in the form of photography, sketches and personal interviews of site visitors. As part of her research, she plans to visit several memorials in Washington D.C. and New York City, as well as the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum in Hiroshima City, the Holocaust Memorial and Jewish Museum in Berlin, the Auschwitz Memorial Site in Oswiecim and the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone in northern Ukraine.

Awarded annually since 1998, the DIALOG Scholarship programme in Honour of Michael Evamy is in its fourteenth successful year. Established in memory of Michael Evamy, a founding partner instrumental in building DIALOG’s (previously Cohos Evamy) practice from 1966 to 1993, the award provides financial assistance to a Canadian student attending a Canadian School of Architecture in the year prior to his/her final year of study. The scholarship allows the recipient to undertake a research project based on a field of study of personal interest. The intent of the research is to enrich and advance the recipient’s personal and professional experience and knowledge on a topic relevant to the practice of Architecture. The value of the award in 2012 is $5000.00 plus a secondary amount of $3000.00 for project related expenses during the course of the research.

DIALOG has a track record of award winning collaborative design excellence. We are committed to the practice of sustainable design with a focus on the success of clients and communities. Working from studios in Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver, DIALOG credits its strength to its outstanding multidisciplinary team who deliver excellence and a collaborative approach to the provision of architectural, engineering, interior design, planning and urban design services.

For more information visit www.designdialog.ca