Archives: Doctorants (doctorant)

Cheryl Gladu, MBA, BIB, works on Collaborative Housing (cohousing), a form of intentional community that is co-developed, -designed, and –managed by its occupants. The finished communities have been described as “high-functioning neighbourhoods,” with a great deal of planned and spontaneous sharing of resources. The sustainable design innovations of these communities rarely rely on technology, but rather on design that facilitates human interdependence and collaboration. Using mix-methods, Cheryl’s research aims to document and better understand the processes used to successfully developed and managed cohousing projects in Canada, with a particular interest in the processes used to build a sense of community among participants.  She is a student in Concordia’s INDI progam under the supervision of Drs. Raymond Paquin, Paul Strivastava, Carmela Cucuzella, and Martin Racine.

Title: The Architecture of trust: Collaborative design and the establishment of trust in Canadian cohousing communities.

Sherif Goubran is a Ph.D. student in the Individualized Program (INDI) at Concordia University and a Vanier Scholar. He is conducting interdisciplinary research on building sustainability assessment within the fields of design, building engineering and finance. His PhD research investigates the alignment between local sustainable practice and global sustainability goals. His research focus includes building sustainability and sustainability assessment, behavioral approaches in design, building-occupant interaction in buildings as well as topics relating to sustainability in urban and architectural design. Sherif was awarded many scholarships and awards for his research work including the Vanier Canada Scholarship, the INDI Entrance Fellowship and the LEAP PhD Entrance Scholarship. Sherif presented his doctorate research in more than 3 international conferences, in professional journals, and books. He is also actively engaged in co-editing books and organizing research events. He completed a M.A.Sc. in building engineering at Concordia in 2016 with a focus on energy efficiency in commercial buildings. His masters research was published in more than 5 journals and 4 conference articles. During his masters, he received the Concordia University Retired Faculty and Staff Graduate Award. Before that, Sherif completed a B.S. in Architecture at the American University in Cairo (AUC-Egypt) where he graduated top of his class in 2014 and received the academic achievement award for the 5 consecutive years of undergraduate studies. Sherif also presented some of his undergraduate work in student conferences. Today, Sherif is actively engaged in several research laboratories, centers and groups where he teaches and conducts research in design, engineering, architecture and finance. He is also involved in several sustainability initiatives and projects at Concordia on the student as well as the administrative levels.

Title: Our buildings have credentials…Now what? “Green” Buildings and Sustainable Development Goals in Canada

Supervisor: Prof. Carmela Cucuzzella

Research Summary: Today, our understanding of sustainability in our cities and buildings is at crisis. The standards that we depend on are disconnected from the social, cultural and economic realities of both users and localities. In the last 10 years in Canada, 26% of the new awards in architecture are environmentally focused. Yet, we observe a clear gap between our technical definition of sustainability in buildings and the holistic Sustainable Development Goals. New frameworks and approaches are urgently needed to shape our future cities and urban environments. This interdisciplinary research tackles this problem on both the theoretical and practical levels. The research roots Sustainable Development Goals in local contexts and defines quality of sustainable design through critical design approaches. The research presents a theoretical model which is adaptable to different locations and goals, and confronts it with 13 award-winning architecture projects from across Canada. Both quantitative and qualitative methods will be used to analyze the design, its description, and the users’ perspective for each project. This will enable us to understand the limitations and potentials of our current methods and the possible future directions. The research contributes to the theory and practice of environmental design within a number of academic fields. The outcomes will provide important insights for governments, scholars, practitioners and institutions to align building practices with local realities and holistic sustainability goals. The research supports Canada’s leadership in sustainable and clean-growth development in the built environment.

Keywords: Sustainable built environment, Environmental design, Sustainability assessment, Building sustainability, Sustainable development goals, Sustainability assessment tools, Local and global tensions, Contextual design, Theory of environmental design, Design assessment

Alessandra Mariani is a Ph.D. candidate in art history at Université du Québec à Montréal. Her research focuses on the nature and aims of the interdisciplinarity of New York architectural firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R). Her thesis explores the means developed by DS+R over forty years to widen their field of architectural interventions and alter their role as architects. The dissertation exposes DS+R’s undertakings in developing a cultural agency based on an assessment of the internal dynamics of the architectural discipline, their probing of the cultural conditioning produced by visual culture and mediated experience, and their maieutic centered on the creation of spaces promoting collective and individual subjectivization. Alessandra was awarded scholarships by the Fonds de recherche Société et Culture du Québec, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Centre for Architecture, the Faculty of Arts of UQAM and the Laboratoire d’Études pour l’Architecture Potentielle to conduct her research. In 2006, she founded the journal Museologies (www.museologies.org), which mandate is to disseminate and promote interdisciplinary research focused on the plurality of functions and stakes of the contemporary museum’s environment. She has been the editor ever since. The double-blind reviewed articles by a recognized committee have attracted an international distribution of the journal to over two hundred museums and academic institutions and a Force Avenir Award (2009). Alessandra has published articles related to previously mentionned issues and architectural related themes, and gave papers on the progress of her doctoral research. Since 2011, she teaches the theory and history of modern architecture at the UQAM School of Design.

Adrienne Costa is a Ph.D. student of Montreal University (UdeM), with, as tutors, Jean-Pierre Chupin, Ph.D., and Rémi Papillault, HDR, within the framework of a cotutelle convention with the National Toulouse Architecture School (ENSAT).

After accomplishing her architecture studies at Paris Belleville (ENSAPB) and Toulouse (ENSAT) in 2006, she created her firm in 2010 in the Pyrénées-Orientales, constructed mainly academic and social buildings (CROUS of Perpignan) and took part to competitions (Cathedral Space in Perpignan). Since 2012, she teaches with the National Toulouse Architecture School.

Her doctoral research establishes section through the history of architectural representation, considering its links with resistance doctrines which may occur during crises of the discipline and the profession.

The section, a manifestation of doctrinal resistances to architectural crisis

The section, abstractive figuration, allows showing a sight of the invisible: the inside, the outside, the ground, the sky, what divides them, links them or includes one into the other. It shows the shades of proportions and the relationships between man and nature. This results it to be a visualization device as well as a theoretical device; a geometric construction as well as an analytical drawing.

Whereas architects have numeric technologies which offer the possibility of showing volumes as they are wanted to be seen, the section shows them as they will not be seen, but as they are designed, built and as a tangible experience. Looking to the section today, is to take account of the context in which software and 3D models are conceived, in such a way it is nearly impossible to start drawing – and so thinking- a project from the point of view of the section.

By analyzing sections acting as manifests, collected from treaties and publications, it is wished to identify the disciplinary and professional inputs of the architectural section as a theoretical retroactive and reflexive tool for designing and teaching.

How does the section, as a theoretical and practical instrument for a doctrinal body, positions in the field of architectural representation studies in front of professional crises and disciplinary mutations?

Title: The Skyscraper’s Summit, as a Beacon and a Viewing Platform: New York, Paris, Montreal, Shanghai

Supervisor: Prof. Jean-Pierre Chupin

Thesis Summary: The dissertation considers skyscrapers as a transitional object within the architectural and the urban fields, focuses specifically on their summits, which are interpreted as dialogic constructs that transgress the opposition between seeing and being seen.

Since their appearance in Chicago and New York, skyscrapers expressing competitive business powers have shaped the skyline of the metropolis. Early skyscrapers were conceived to be seen looking up from the ground, but since the 1920s, architects have had the temptation of looking at the city from atop, creating observation areas.

The research will measure the expanded field in which the design process meets the perception of the observer, the viewing platform allowing for a re-conception of urban space and the shaping of new patterns. In another terms, these objects cannot be reduced to a semiotic system or a model of representation but rather represent a bequest of presence, allowing for the aesthetic experience of a mutual recognition from the observer and the designing architect.

Methodologically, the dissertation will develop at three distinct scales, corresponding to different historical, architectural and urban perspectives. The macro scale will respond to the evolution of the summit both as an interior and as an exterior skin. At the micro scale, a synchronic analysis will focus on three case studies: The Rockefeller Center in New York (1930-39), the Place Ville Marie in Montréal (1958-62) and the Tour Montparnasse in Paris (1969-73, and since 2017). Finally, at a meso scale, an analytic narrative will deal with the spatio-temporal experience of this ambiguous building.