Archives: Chercheurs (chercheur)

Sinisha Brdar est architecte, designer urbain et professeur à l’École de design de l’UQAM à Montréal.  Il a précédemment enseigné à l’Université de Montréal, à McGill et à Harvard GSD.  Diplômé de l’Université de Montréal et de Harvard GSD, il a travaillé au sein de nombreuses agences d’architecture au Canada et à l’international, dont Office for Metropolitan Architecture, Maccreanor Lavington, Daoust Lestage, Corriveau Girard, NIP paysage et EKIP.  Explorant les intersections entre la politique et l’urbanisme, ses recherches portent sur la notion de catalyseur urbain et le paradigme émergent de l’urbanisme léger. Ses projets actuels de recherche-création portent également sur divers aspects de l’habiter.

Dr. Carly Ziter is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biology at Concordia University, where she holds a University Research Chair in Urban Ecology and Sustainability. As a landscape and urban ecologist, her research asks how landscape structure, land-use history, and biodiversity impact multiple ecosystem services – the benefits we receive from nature – and their relationships in urban areas. Carly and her students combine field-based studies, sensor and satellite data, community science, and synthesis approaches to understand the ways urban nature can contribute to safer, healthier, more livable cities. Her research is highly interdisciplinary, including active collaborations with colleagues from urban studies, engineering, communications, design, and political science, and benefits from non-academic partnerships spanning grassroots organizations to federal government. She is increasingly interested in how we can better integrate methodologies from the social and natural sciences for more impactful urban research. Carly is also committed to integrating public engagement and science communication into her scientific work, and has received Concordia University’s “Research Communicator of the Year” award for local, National, and International media coverage of her work.

Olivier Vallerand is an architect, historian, associate professor and head of the interior design program at the École de design de l’Université de Montréal, which he joined after a post-doctorate at the University of California, Berkeley and an early professorial career at Arizona State University. His research focuses on the relationships between personal and collective identifications and the use and design of the built environment, on heritage and the memorialization processes of marginalized populations, and on feminist and queer approaches to design pedagogy.

Olivier is currently completing research on the HIV/AIDS epidemic and its impact on design (subsidized by the Fonds de recherche du Québec), which will be the subject of an exhibition in three public spaces in Montreal in 2025-2026. He has begun a research-creation project entitled “Materializing the built history of LGBTQ communities in Quebec, projecting their future” (Fonds de recherche du Québec), and is co-researcher on “The social experience of public toilets in Ville-Marie: enjeux, affects et stratégies d’inclusion des personnes marginalisées“ (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, principal investigator: Maria Nengeh Mensah, UQÀM) and ”Des-ancrage – Des-encrage: De l’écran à la carte, queeriser l’espace par les marges” (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, principal investigator: Joëlle Rouleau). For several years, he has been developing a research-teaching collaboration with Architecture sans frontières Québec, Professor Carolyne Grimard and various Montreal community organizations working with people experiencing homelessness. With the Queer Educators in Architecture Network, Olivier is also currently preparing a special issue of Charrette magazine on queer pedagogies in architecture and design.

His book Unplanned Visitors: Queering the Ethics and Aesthetics of Domestic Space, winner of the IDEC Book Award 2021 and ASID’s Joel Polsky Prize 2022, presents the first history of the emergence of queer theory in architectural discourse. His research has also been published in the Journal of Architectural Education, Interiors: Design | Architecture | Culture, Somatechnics, Inter art actuel, The Educational Forum, The Plan, Captures: figures, theories and practices of the imaginary, RACAR, la Revue du CREMIS, Nouvelles pratiques sociales, Jeunes et société, Les politiques sociales, Genre Éducation Formation, Reflets: revue d’intervention sociale et communataire, among others, as well as in the collective works Interior Urbanism Theory Reader (Routledge), Whitechapel Documents of Contemporary Art: Sexuality (MIT Press), Contentious Cities: Design and the Gendered Production of Space (Routledge), Global Encyclopaedia of Women in Architecture (Bloomsbury), Queering Architecture: Methods, Practices, Spaces, Pedagogies (Bloomsbury), Dynamiques de genre : la place des femmes en architecture, urbanisme et paysage (Parenthèses), Santé LGBTI: les minorités de genre et de sexualité face aux soins (Bord de l’eau), Making Men, Making History: Canadian Masculinities across Time and Place (UBC Press) and the German Architectur Annual 2023 (Deutsches Architekturmuseum/DOM). He is a regular contributor to Canadian Architect and Dwell.

Finally, Olivier’s research in architecture and design is strongly influenced by his volunteer involvement as research coordinator at GRIS-Montréal since 2009. In this capacity, he coordinates and mentors a team of volunteers and employees who have developed recognized expertise in community-based research on the use of testimonials to demystify sexual and gender diversity, and on young people’s attitudes towards sexual and gender diversity. As principal researcher, Olivier is currently coordinating GRIS projects funded by Women and Gender Equality Canada and the Quebec government’s Fight Against Homophobia and Transphobia program.

Director of the School of Architecture since June 1, 2021, Izabel Amaral was a professor at Laurentian University’s McEwen School of Architecture in Sudbury from 2016 to 2021. Trained as an architect in Brazil, she practiced architecture there for several years before embarking on doctoral studies at the Faculty of Environmental Design and settling in Canada in 2005.

During her professional practice in Brazil, Izabel Amaral developed a remarkable aptitude for architectural design, with a great facility for applying and teaching organizational, spatial, structural and aesthetic principles. In addition to a large number of residential and institutional projects, her practice has led her to develop expertise in architectural acoustics, particularly for auditoriums and amphitheaters.

Izabel Amaral’s doctoral research is a contribution to contemporary theories of the architectural project, demonstrating the topicality of the notion of tectonics and constructive thought as an essential part of the architectural design process. Working in the interdisciplinary field of material culture, his work links architectural history and theory, technical knowledge and cultural transfer. Her research interests focus on the cultural meanings of architectural construction, exploring the expressive potential of materials and their various assemblages. She is interested in the notions of narrative, detail and structure, as well as the binomial of tradition and innovation, because of their implications for project design and teaching.

Izabel Amaral takes a keen interest in architectural prizes and competitions, not least because of their potential for experimentation and imagination, and as a process leading to innovations in architecture. Her recent research has focused on a critical reflection of Canadian architectural projects recognized by innovations linked to the use of new wood technologies (SSHRC-funded project entitled An Ecology of Wood Cultures in Canada (2003-2020): comparing constructive cultures through awarded architectural designs). At the same time, Izabel Amaral is interested in the relationship between language, culture and society as part of a research project on architectural pedagogy. Drawing on her professional practice and expertise in architectural acoustics, in 2019 she took a first step into research-creation, exploring the link between music, politics, drawing and body movements.

On the pedagogical front, she is responsible for the Master of Architecture program and coordinates optional workshops in the third year of the Bachelor of Architecture program.

Virginie LaSalle is on the faculty of the School of Design since 2016 and she is teaching in the Bachelor of Interior Design program since 2007. Trained as an interior designer, she practiced in specialized and multidisciplinary firms before embarking on a specialized master’s degree in history and theory at the M.Sc.A. aménagement, followed by doctoral studies.

Thomas-Bernard Kenniff is a professor of environmental design at the École de design de l’Université du Québec à Montréal since 2015.

His research and design work focuses on the formalization of social arrangements and their spaces, municipal architectural devices, the theory and design of urban public spaces, and related issues of identity and politics. He is also interested in design processes, including inter- and transdisciplinary methods, collaborative practices, the process of subjectivation, and the application of the concepts of dialogue, ambivalence and indeterminacy to the processes and pedagogy of the design project. His research has been funded by SSHRC, FRQSC, Canada Council for the Arts, UCL and UQAM.

His doctoral thesis on dialogue, ambivalence and the design of public space, defended in 2013, is nominated by University College London (UCL) for a research award from the Royal Institute of British Architects.

He is co-founder, with Professor Carole Lévesque (École de design, UQAM), of the Bureau d’étude de pratiques indisciplinées (www.be-pi.ca), a researcher member of the Villes-Régions-Monde (VRM) inter-university network, and an associate researcher at the Canada Chair on Small and Medium-sized Cities (Hiên Pham, ESG, UQAM).

Ipek Türeli is Assistant Professor in the Peter Guo-hua Fu School of Architecture at McGill, where she holds the Canada Research Chair in Architectures of Spatial Justice. Her research explores the role of architecture in the articulation, mediation, and negotiation of political selves, and recognizes not only the agency of the built environment but also of architects. She is interested in how architects can use their professional knowledge to advocate for justice, a topic that has received relatively little attention. Professor Türeli’s current research spans the full range of social engagement in the profession, from the longer history of humanitarian architecture, such as that of religious missionaries, to more recent efforts by contemporary designers to contribute to social movements. Her work supports a new generation of architects interested in social justice by building on the profession’s history in this realm, as well as the discipline’s record of urban advocacy. Her publications include Istanbul Open City (Routledge, 2017), and her teaching at McGill has explored challenges faced in refugee communities.

Bechara Helal is a Doctor of Architecture from the University of Montreal. His research, under the direction of Jean-Pierre Chupin, focuses on the model of the scientific research laboratory in contemporary architectural practices. He holds a degree in structural engineering from the École Polytechnique de Montréal and a professional master’s degree in Architectural Design from the Université de Montréal. He has had the opportunity to participate in the practice setting in the design of several projects in competition situations, in particular with the Saucier + Perrotte Architectes agency.

Ph.D. Architecture – Princeton University, Princeton, USA

Louis Martin teaches the history of architecture in the programmes of the Art History Department at UQAM, where he is Professor since 2004.

After graduating in architecture at the Université de Montréal (B.Arch., 1983), he pursued his studies in the history, theory and criticism programmes at MIT (S.M.Arch.S. 1988) and Princeton University (Ph.D. 2002). Using a comparative method, he studies the points of the intersection linking architectural theory and other disciplines.

He is currently working on a critical edition of the writings of Melvin Charney entitled On Architecture. Melvin Charney: A Critical Anthology which will be published by McGill-Queen’s University Press in 2013. His most recent publications includes “Fredric Jameson and Critical Architecture“, The Political Unconscious of Architecture: Re-opening Jameson’s Narrative. Nadir Lahiji, ed. Ashgate Studies in Architecture, London: Ashgate Publishing Ltd, 2011; “History, Theory, Criticism: The Evolution of an Intellectual Discourse“, Architecture School: 250 Years of Architectural Education in North America. Joan Ockman and Rebecca Williamson, eds. Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, 2012; “Paul Rudolph and the Anglo-American Axis“, Cynthia Davidson, ed. Yale University Press, (to be published).

He has published essays in Log,  Assemblage, Casabella, JSAH, Les cahiers de la recherche architecturale et urbaine, Critique d’art, and ARQ, among others.

Fields of specialization:

Histoire, théorie et critique de l’architecture

Mouvement moderne en architecture

Architecture nord-américaine et québécoise

Research groups:

Laboratoire d’étude de l’architecture potentielle (LEAP), Université de Montréal

Institut de recherche en histoire de l’architecture

Research grants:

« Une anthologie critique des écrits de Melvin Charney, architecte et artiste » – En collaboration avec Réjean Legault, professeur, École de Design, UQAM

(FQRSC-LEAP), Université de Montréal, 2008-2009

« Paroles d’architectes : enquête sur la culture architecturale au Québec de 1960 à nos jours. » – Recherche individuelle

Subvention du Programme d’aide financière à la recherche et à la création

(PAFARC), UQAM, 2005-2007

Academic background:

2002 : Ph.D. in  Architecture (Princeton University)

1991 : Master of Arts (Princeton University)

1988 : Master of Science in Architecture Studies (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

1983 : Baccalauréat en architecture (Université de Montréal)

Professional background:

2004- : Professeur d’histoire de l’architecture à l’Université du Québec à Montréal

2003-2004 : Chargé de formation pratique, École d’architecture, Université de Montréal

1997-2002 : Conservateur adjoint, Centre Canadien d’Architecture

1994-1996: Chargé de cours : University of Toronto, McGill University

1988-1989 : Professeur invité, École d’architecture, Université de Montréal

Doctorate thesis

MARTIN, Louis. The Search for a Theory in Architecture : Anglo-American Debates, 1957-1976, Princeton University, novembre 2002.

Masters thesis

Architectural Theory after 1968: A Comparative Study of the Theory and Work of Rem Koolhaas and Bernard Tschumi, M.I.T., août 1988.

Carmela Cucuzzella is the Dean of the Faculté de l’aménagement of Université de Montréal. She completed her doctorate at the Université de Montréal in April 2011. Her research interests lie within the domain of design for sustainability, eco-design, evaluation and judgement of design projects in a context of sustainability, theory of artistic judgement, theory of risk assessment, the precautionary principle, life cycle analysis (for social and environmental), and LEED.  Her directors of research for her doctorate work were Pr. Pierre De Coninck, an expert in design theory and complex systems and Pr. Daniel Pearl, an expert in environmental design and construction in architecture.

She obtained her first degree, a bachelor in Computer Science, focusing on Computer Architecture, in 1989.  She was immediately employed by Bell Northern Research (which later became a division of Nortel Networks), and worked there for 11 years designing and developing software for the telecommunications industry.  She has had various positions there, starting from software programming and development, to software analysis and design, to the architectural development of software platforms. Her last position held at Nortel was a technical team lead on an application for a 411 service using voice recognition technology for the wire-line network.

After her employment at Nortel Networks, she completed a second undergraduate degree at Concordia University, in the Faculty of Fine Arts (Design Art), where she graduated as outstanding student in 2005.  Her interest in understanding sustainability and design’s complex implications on the environment, society and culture developed during her education there. This degree, coupled with her previous background has given Carmela a broad cross-disciplinary perspective of the design discipline – from the design of virtual tools for communication systems (at Nortel) to the design of functional and exploratory artefacts on various dimensions – 2D, 3D and multi-media projects (at Concordia). 

In 2005, Carmela entered the Faculté de l’aménagement at the Université de Montréal, where she would complete (in 2007 with a mention of excellence), a Master of Applied Science degree, in the School of Industrial Design, in the program called Design et Complexité. Her masters thesis focused on the issues related to sustainability assessment for product design, specifically on the limits of current assessment tools for understanding the complex repercussions of social, cultural and environmental impacts and the need to introduce the precautionary principle into the design process as a way to address the uncertainty and ambiguity of these consequences.  Her masters research was conducted within the framework of Centre de Recherche en Éthique de l’Université de Montréal  (CREUM), a multi-disciplinary research centre focusing on fundamental and applied ethics research,  and the Centre Interuniversitaire de Recherche sur l’Analyse, l’Interprétation et la Gestion du cycle de vie des produits, procédés et services (CIRAIG), a research group focusing on life cycle thinking and assessment methods. Entering the Ph.D. program at the Université de Montréal in the Faculté de l’aménagment program in September 2007, she will complete the doctoral thesis by December 2010. The research focuses on repercussions to design projects when the rating system LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is adopted, and in turn, how these same projects are ultimately judged within the context of an architectural competition. The theoretical foundation of the precautionary principle continues to be the basis of reflections regarding the tensions between the strict adherence to environmental rating systems or assessment diagnostic tools and the creative exploration during conceptualization. This research was done within the framework of a large architectural research lab, Laboratoire d’études de l’architecture potentielle (L.E.A.P); a lab of 9 professors and 12 assistants that focuses on the theory and practices of contemporary architecture within an interdisciplinary perspective.  At L.E.A.P she was actively involved in a collective research project since 2008, called Greening the Architecture Curriculum in Canada, a project co-founded by her research director, Pr. Daniel Pearl. This is a project that involves 11 architecture schools across Canada and is essentially a forum for sharing ideas, resources and expertise for integrating sustainability into the curriculum. Since, 2009, she has collaborated with Pr. Jean-Pierre Chupin, Pr. Georges Adamczyk and Pr. Pierre Boudon, all L.E.A.P researchers, in their project that focuses on the conflicts of analogical interpretation and architectural judgments in competitions, where her focus has been on the conflicts of interpretation and judgment for the issues related to sustainability.

This interdisciplinary background has allowed her to be invited to many lectures in various pedagogical contexts. She has taught in a studio course at the Université de Montréal, has tutored several students in their final year projects in the Industrial Design Department of the Université de Montréal, has presented many seminars to undergraduate and graduate students at a number of universities: Concordia University, Université de Québec à Montréal, Université Laval, McGill, École Polytechnique, and Université de Montréal. She has and continues to work in collaboration with Université de Québec à Montréal, in the department of École des sciences de la gestion, planning a seminar course at the graduate level focusing in environmental management with specific focus on Lide Cycle Methods.

Carmela Cucuzzella now is a confirmed scholar who has obtained the maximum funding possible for a doctorate student from a federal, provincial, university and faculty level. She received bursaries from both the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and from the Fonds de recherche sur la société et de la culture (FQRSC) for her doctorate research. Since 2007, Carmela has presented over 20 communications across the world (in 3 continents). Counting all accepted communications, that would total over 30 communications across 5 continents, but budget constraints have limited her attendance. She has published in books and in international journals on various topics related to her research, particularly on environmental, social and cultural issues related to assessment and judgment for design projects in a context of sustainability. A contributing author to the UNEP-SETAC Life Cycle Initiative (LCI) project, she was one of 21 international experts in life cycle approaches. In 2009 the Guidelines for Social Life Cycle Assessment of Products was published, a first addressing the integration of social aspects into the life cycle assessment framework.