Architecture competition Rome Concrete Poetry Hall 3rd prize winners - University of Waterloo

We’d like to take this opportunity to introduce the 3rd prize winners of our Rome Concrete Poetry Hall competition - Eveline Lam and Dave Holborn from Canada!

3rd prize winners from Canada - Eveline Lam and Dave Holborn

Eveline and Dave are both graduate students at the University of Waterloo School of Architecture in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada, currently engaged in research and design towards the completion of their Masters of Architecture theses.

Having both completed their Bachelor's degree in Architecture at the University of Waterloo, Eveline and Dave come from a similar background of both academic and professional work ranging from small-scale installation work for festivals and conferences to large-scale urban designs in the studio setting, with a diversity of realized and built work from their professional experiences through Waterloo’s Co-operative education program. Most notably, both Eveline and Dave were separately involved in a studio in Rome, Italy during their fourth year. Living and working in Trastevere for four months, the studio focuses on a public building and urban space design within the historic city, respecting and highlighting its vast cultural history and understanding a place for contemporary architecture and design within the ancient city.

Dave’s current thesis research examines the flow of materials from their ‘natural’ sources to their agglomeration in anthropogenic constructs. His focus on quarries and pits along Ontario’s Niagara Escarpment questions our ability to acknowledge the sites of extraction within our so-called natural areas and our subsequent actions on the carved earth. By researching the issues of temporal, material, and social processes, he is addressing the idiosyncratic nature of local material in Ontario’s urban centers.

Eveline’s thesis research proposes a theory of architectural process that focuses on the idea of redistribution of matter and space. She is using the crafting of hollow ceramic vessels as an analogy to suggest that architectural space is a plastic medium that can be shaped through force of will and design. Through material experiments in clay, the reciprocal relationship between void and mass can be expressed not only theoretically, but also experientially.

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

The manipulation of space, material and time defines architectural design. Through representation or physical construction, architecture permits the imagination of spatial and social relations to affect people and their relationship to objects. Architecture is at once ubiquitous and singular, relying both on the vision of the architect and the involvement of society. The architect, however, is above all a communicator. The concepts that are proposed by the architect must in some way affect the ideas of others.

WHY DO YOU PARTICIPATE IN ARCHITECTURE VISION COMPETITIONS?

Architecture vision competitions provide a platform that allows the greatest flow of creativity and imagination. It allows architects to dream big and to spread their ideas to a global audience. The social sphere of the competitions encourages the intermingling of ideas across the world.

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

The true merit of undertaking an architectural competition comes not from the end product or even the results of the competition, but from the process of analyzing and responding to the conditions and problems proposed in the brief. The platform becomes a testing ground for your skills as a designer, allowing you to freely explore new ideas and methodologies in your work in a setting with only positive outcomes.