Award

JUNE 2012 / VOLUME 26 / NUMBER 3 EDITOR ART DIRECTOR CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Shannon Miller Laurel MacLean Angela Altass Bill Armstrong John Atkinson Luigi Benetton Robin Brunet Godfrey Budd Stacey Carefoot Stefan Dubowski Jerry Eberts Laurie Jones Jessica Kirby Lauren Kramer Yvan Marston Stacey McLachlan Dan O'Reilly Don Procter Sonu Purhar Irwin Rapoport Tiffany Sloan Leslie C. Smith Kim Wooder CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Philip Castleton Robert Stefanowicz PRODUCTION MANAGER STUDIO MANAGER ASSISTANT STUDIO MANAGER PRODUCTION COORDINATOR PRODUCTION SYSTEMS MANAGER ADVERTISING PRODUCTION Suzy Williamson Kristina Borys Mandy Lau Julie Reynolds Kim McLane Allison Griffioen, Mandy Lau, Chris Sherwood Ina Bowerbank Debbie Lynn Craig Bernhard Holzmann, Laura Michaels ELECTRONIC PRODUCTION SENIOR IMAGING TECHNICIAN ELECTRONIC IMAGING PUBLISHER ACCOUNT MANAGER ADVERTISING COORDINATOR PERSPECTIVE By Steve Boulton, MRAIC Director Representing Intern & Intern Architects Architecture Canada | RAIC Architecture – what is it good for? Dan Chapman Alexander Sugden Cody Campbell AWARD MAGAZINE – HEAD OFFICE Phone 604.299.7311 Fax 604.299.9188 CHAIRMAN, CEO PRESIDENT VICE PRESIDENT/PRODUCTION VICE PRESIDENT VICE PRESIDENT/EDITORIAL VICE PRESIDENT/FINANCE VICE PRESIDENT DIRECTOR/CIRCULATION DIRECTOR/MARKETING DIRECTOR/SALES OPERATIONS DIRECTOR/BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT EDITORIAL OPERATIONS MANAGER DIGITAL MEDIA SENIOR MARKETING & SPECIAL EVENTS MANAGER MARKETING MANAGER MARKETING COORDINATOR MARKETING & MEDIA STRATEGIST INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY APPLICATION SUPPORT ANALYST ACCOUNTING CIRCULATION MANAGER CIRCULATION EXECUTIVE ASSISTANTS RECEPTION Peter Legge, O.B.C., ll.d (hon) Karen Foss Corinne Smith Samantha Legge, mba Kathleen Freimond Farnaz Riahi Rebecca Legge (on leave) Scott Wheatley Holly Pateman Rhea Attar Shannon Emmerson Mike Roberts Piushi Ariyawansa, Yau Bing Chong, Kristen Hilderman, Elaine Linsao, Lisa Manfield, James Marshall, Huong Nguyen, Michael Small, Candice Ui, Alonso Ysa Tamara Johnston (on leave) Joanne DaSilva Natasha Gowda Casey Crawford Brian Fakhraie Eileen Gajowski Rita French, Eileen Gajowski, Joy Ginete-Cockle, Terri Mason, Sonia Roxburgh, Jocelyn Snelling Tracy McRitchie Ashley Cleggett, Millie Coskun, Ginger Jessamine, Kelly Kalirai, Ruth Pisko, Isabelle Ringham, Anny Yu Heidi Christie, Jackie Lee Maria Vlasenko Award magazine is published six times a year by Canada Wide Media Limited. Head office: 4th Floor - 4180 Lougheed Highway, Burnaby, B.C. V5C 6A7. Phone 604.299.7311, Fax 604.299.9188. Send covers of undeliverable copies to address above. Publications Mail Agreement No. 40065475. © 2012. No part of this magazine may be reproduced without written permission of the publisher. Award is distributed to architects, interior designers, landscape architects, consulting engineers, specification writers, development companies and major construction companies throughout Western Canada and Ontario. For subscription information call 604.299.1023 or email: awardsubscriptions@ canadawide.com National Library No. ISSN 1202-5925. Printed in Canada by Transcontinental LGM Graphics. Award magazine welcomes your letters, corporate announcements or company information. The statements, opinions and points of view expressed in articles published in this magazine are those of the authors and publication shall not be deemed to mean that they are necessarily those of the publisher, editor or Canada Wide Media Limited. The acceptance and publication of advertisement of products and services does not indicate endorsement of such products or services. The publishers cannot be held responsible for unsolicited manuscripts and photographs. T he de inition of what an architect is and the work an architect does seems to be a strong unifying question across the industry. A common goal should be to elevate the dialogue in pursuit of creating clarity around the culturally engraved misunderstandings and provide a more digestible and accurate de inition. The irst of such misconceptions is what my mother understands we do and that has been propagated by the likes of Seinfeld character George Costanza. The second is what our peers believe our roles are – including our consultants, engineers, contractors and the clients we work with. What architects really do and have the potential to do is something altogether different. I think this reality is where the fulcrum of our change needs to take place. It is true that we have a very broad skill set, taught to us early in our careers and seeded in our education. However, there currently ex ist s a conf lic t between our edification and the realities of practice; a misalignment exists between the profession's expectations and the process that prepares students for the realities of the working world. I believe that without clarity of this foundation, we will never succeed in de ining our role in society. We need to start early. There are some educators that have been advocating on our behalf and should be applauded. One educator in particular argues convincingly that we have the tools to be great leaders. Roger Martin of the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management writes that, "highly successful managerial leaders think differently than the great mass of their counterparts." He is describing his concept of Integrative Thinking, and the ability to apply creativity to problem solving. He goes on to say, "Integrative thinkers reason about what might be – about models that don't yet exist – to generate a creative resolution."1 I believe that his position rings true, and I would extend this to say that architects are uniquely trained to achieve the future needs of business and the advancement of society. We have the experience and ability to both specialize in an area of practice as well as maintain a broad understanding, hence the ability to grasp the minutiae and the connection to the whole. With this skill set we should be able to bring together an appropriate description of our role and clearly prove the value good design practitioners can bring. At the national level, RAIC developed a campaign to enable just that. It was designed to ensure that anytime an article speaks of a project or uses its image, directly or indirectly, that credit be given to the architect and the design team. The 'Every Building has an Architect' campaign was well received and was subsequently picked up by other North American jurisdictions. Successful marketing of the architect's role and the contribution that is made can only bene it everyone in the industry. As many young people I have spoken with, I too believe that a major shift needs to be made. Less emphasis should be placed on the glitz and glamour of single projects and more effort needs to be spent de ining the realistic value architects add. We need to unify and address the various de initions that exist; after all, buildings don't care about architecture . . . people do. ■ 1 Martin, Roger. The Opposable Mind: How Successful Leaders Win Through Integrative Thinking (Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2007), 145-146. JUNE 2012 p.06-07RAIC - Restored.indd 7 /7 5/25/12 11:36:19 AM

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