Underbridge competition 2nd prize winners - Stephanie Julie Maignan, Qianhui Wang, Ogulnabat Jumayeva and Brian Tien

We’d like to take the opportunity to introduce you to the 2nd prize winners of our "Underbridge" competition – Stephanie Julie Maignan, Qianhui Wang, Ogulnabat Jumayeva and Brian Tien from Canada!

B+H Architects & the Surbana Jurong Architecture & Design Council of Excellence

Please tell us about your company (when it was founded, where it is based, how many employees, etc) Alternatively, if you do not have a company, please give us some insights on your own professional/academia background.

The core design team for The Hiveway consisted of 6 emerging architectural designers from B+H Architects in Toronto: Annie Wang, Kurin-Qianhui Wang, Lyric Barnik, Sparsh Ghandi, Brian Tien, and Ogulnabat Jumayeva, with Design Principal Stephanie Maignan as mentor and advisor.

B+H Architects’ Toronto studio is a medium-large sized architecture firm of 150 individuals, and is a member company of Surbana Jurong (SJ). SJ is a global group that includes 16,000 professionals across numerous member companies providing services related to the built environment – including architects, engineers, urbanists, landscape architects, and interior designers.

Our team participated in the competition thanks to an initiative launched by the SJ Architecture & Design Council of Excellence, a group of 10 team members representing different SJ companies. The “Under the Bridge” competition was selected by the Design Council as a platform to foster collaboration among transdisciplinary team members, and support the development of bold ideas. The competition was an opportunity to build design culture and support emerging talent.

The B+H core design team volunteered to work on the competition outside of full time project obligations, over pizza lunches, working dinners, and weekends. The design team was given the freedom to choose the site and develop a design approach they believed in, to be debated and refined as a team. This was in support of building our design culture; we believe a collaborative studio approach generates robust, innovative design, rather than a more conventional top down design process.

During the 4 week design process, 3 virtual pinups took with the core design team presenting their ideas to the SJ Design Council. The critics included individuals from member companies who provided a transdisciplinary perspective, with valuable insight on structural design, sustainability, biomimicry, interior design, and public realm / urban planning.

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?

B+H Architects and Surbana Jurong’s portfolio includes mostly larger scaled work across different sectors, with a focus on design excellence. We aim to balance functional performance while maximizing the design opportunity to find human centered design solutions that invigorate urban spaces. This forms the cornerstone of our architectural projects and represents our shared values with other member companies of the SJ group.

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

Architecture is about problem solving. Good architecture involves taking inspiration from existing constraints to innovate and create new experiences. Architects are innovators and strategists at heart. We believe that strategic design starts with careful listening and insight. As architects, we view every challenge as an opportunity for learning.

The Hiveway competition provided an opportunity to apply innovative thinking to the formidable (global) problem of affordable housing, free from the typical project constraints. This was an opportunity for us to grapple with a “wicked problem”– a complex issue that is best approached through a transdisciplinary lens. Affordable Housing is Toronto’s wicked problem, and we took it to heart. The competition provided the opportunity to research and explore out of the box solutions, supported by a multidisciplinary team of critics.

Why do you participate in architecture competitions?

Competitions provide us with the freedom to explore and test ideas without the confines of particular project constraints. As a team, our focus is to participate in competitions with potential for community impact, such as the Under the Bridge challenge.

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

The investment of time and effort in participating in competitions helps build a body of ideas that can be leveraged towards future project work. Our advice to individuals would be to invest time on competitions that represent issues that resonate with team members. Competitions are also an opportunity to hone design skills and build design culture.