Architecture Competition Portable Reading Rooms / Edition #2 1st prize winners – Marianne Charbonneau, Mélanie Hamel-Auger, Charles-Antoine Lauzon and Sandrine Arguin

We’d like to take the opportunity to introduce you to the 1st prize winners of our "Portable Reading Rooms / Edition #2" competition – Marianne Charbonneau, Mélanie Hamel-Auger, Charles-Antoine Lauzon and Sandrine Arguin from Canada!

1st prize winners from Canada

Agence Spatiale is a design firm that brings together the space-related disciplines of architecture, art, interior design, product design, branding, and urban planning.

A bold team of diverse talents, daring to dream the impossible by deliberately choosing a process focused on enjoyment. Étienne Bernier founded the agency in 2011. Since then, he has been joined by several collaborators, and in 2022, two new partners came on board: Marianne Charbonneau and Yannick Badeau. Together with them, a team of around thirty talented individuals with various backgrounds approach projects from a holistic perspective, including architects, interior designers, technologists, 3D artists, brand strategists, graphic designers, and industrial designers. The team collaborates with a network of diverse professionals and creatives, working together as needed for each project.

The pleasure of working together sets the rhythm of our daily lives.

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?

We focus on the human experience and space exploration. We alter the perception of time. What notably emanates from our practice is our desire to push our architectural vision and extend it to a comprehensive artistic approach. Our playground is vast.

We question traditional practices by expanding the architect's scope of action and emphasizing user experience. We create evident connections between design and spaces. Our goal is to reinterpret the cultural heritage of places to generate new sensory experiences. Our mission here is to invite people to look at their environment with fresh eyes and to introduce art into their daily lives for questioning... or simply for pleasure! From the scale of the object to that of large-scale development projects, we use various mediums to express concepts within their environment: physical models, 3D printing, photorealistic renderings, storytelling, sketches, etc.

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

We shape space and distort time. We embrace conviviality to create memorable moments. We ride the wave between creativity and pragmatism. The concept of collaboration is a driving force of creativity for us, enabling democratization of architecture. Far from elitist approaches, we generate accessible and exceptional concepts that leave a lasting impression on the imagination. We advocate open-mindedness, knowledge sharing, and a strong determination to break new ground in order to better meet our clients' needs. Our projects have often been recognized as 'big ideas on small budgets.' We know how to do a lot with little, turning the ordinary into the extraordinary, and we continuously strive to exceed expectations.

Why do you participate in architecture competitions?

We participate in architectural competitions to challenge our ideas, push our thinking further, reconsider our universe, reject the status quo, and take certain concepts to even greater heights.

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

Why wouldn't it be?