Architecture Competition Legendary Bird Home / Edition 2 Honorable mention - Mark Pylypczak, Hamid Mohammadi and Tim MacKay

We’d like to take the opportunity to introduce you to one of our Honorable mention winners for our "Legendary Bird Home / Edition 2"competition – Mark Pylypczak, Hamid Mohammadi and Tim MacKay from Canada!

Honorable mention winners from Canada

The three of us met almost twenty years ago while attending the school of industrial design at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. While our specific paths have diverged since graduating, our passion for the design process is core to each of us individually and is a strength of our group collectively. We often act as consultants on each other's individual projects, occasionally coming together to work on similar ventures and ideas.

Brief information about the projects that you/your company have been involved with. For instance, what scale have you focused on/preferred, any significant projects where the company/ individuals have been involved?

Since graduating Mark has specialized in furniture design and modular interior architecture for the office environment, working with some of the leading manufacturers in the industry. He is constantly trying to balance his knowledge of materials, traditional craft, engineering, manufacturing processes, business practices and overall market needs to help inform his approach to real world solutions. Mark is currently working for a company out of New York but calls Toronto home.

Hamid is a designer with an interest in finding relationships between art, objects and the built environment. After graduating as an industrial designer, Hamid went back to school in order to pursue his true passion and is now a practicing architect for a prestigious Toronto based firm. In addition to all of this, Hamid furthers his creative endeavours through expressive visual art and is an active participant in the Toronto art scene.

Tim’s career, spanning several agencies and continents, has afforded him the opportunity to work on products and experiences with Fortune 500 companies and startups alike. Versed in the entire product development cycle, Tim brought this expertise to the project.

What does architecture mean to you and what is the role of an architect in your society?

Architecture is a means of manifesting our individual and collective desires in a built form. The role of the architect is to consolidate the skills, knowledge, labour and expertise of many people in order to encapsulate that in appropriate buildings. The architect must understand the needs and capabilities of the society of their time, the policy framework they have to work within, economics, and the construction industry which will execute and build their proposed vision. Today’s world issues call on architects and designers to be sensitive to the life cycle of their designs, work with natural elements, use appropriate materials and understand their role in shaping the stages where life plays out for people of all walks of life for many years to come. Humans share the world with other life forms and we have started to understand the effects of our cities on larger natural systems. The endeavour of excellence in architecture is an ongoing pursuit as our world is continuously changing. It is a truly collective effort that requires dedication, ongoing learning and calls on one to always dream about what is possible.

Why do you participate in architecture competitions?

It is a great avenue for exploring new conceptual territory that our everyday design and architecture projects may not always afford us. It isn't so much about the accolades or monetary gains, as it is the ability to participate in the design process, the purity of creation and the idea of connecting with like minded individuals in this socially distanced world.

What advice would you give to individuals who struggle to decide whether it would be beneficial for them to participate in architecture competitions?

Take it as an opportunity to gain insight into a topic or area that you didn't have knowledge on before. If you can divorce yourself from winning and just focus on the challenge or the problem, that hesitation or fear of failure is greatly reduced. In our case, as a group, it became more about the collective energy and less about the execution.