CADBallet was a three-year Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Research Creation project (c. 2006-2009) exploring the potentials of the poetic use of digital tools. It sought to contest the supposed neutrality of traditional and contemporary technological tools for representation and design through a series of multidisciplinary projects including the creation of surreal video game environments, immersive installations as well as the fabrication of unique artifacts.

P.I.: Alberto Perez Gomez

Contemplay Pavilion is a one-of-a-kind combined steel and wood structure created in 2011 - 2012 by the McGill School of Architecture DRS (Directed Research Studio, M.Arch) students as a capstone project for their final year. It is a piece of socially sustainable public infrastructure that plays with the visual field through structural form and cladding. Its presence outside the MacDonald-Harrington building questions the current trend in public space furniture and encroaches on the realm of the abstract sculpture or artifact.

Lead Researchers: Maria Mingallon, Jason Crow

ITST (Image Text Sound & Technology) ITST (Image Text Sound & Technology) was a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council grant (2010) aimed at the production of a trans-disciplinary collaborative work environment. The digital shared space that was created under this grant explored the function and potential of spoken and written words, images, and models as developed across diverse fields of expertise. Individuals worked in teams to produce documented narratives and a proposal for a non-terrestrial community capable of thriving under found conditions.

P.I.: Michael Jemtrud, Torben Berns

MMOT: (Modeling the Methodologies of Our Time) is an ongoing investigation of the productive and demonstrative characteristics at play in architectural design methodologies. This three-year project (2011 – 2014) supported by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Research-Creation grant aims to investigate the function of ‘models’ that act as modes of inquiry in order to investigate, through productive means, the qualities, biases, shortcomings and benefits inherent in specific contemporary modes of creation. Contemporary modes of creation such as Parametricism, Biomorphism, and Biomimicry are critically engaged as a means of interrogating the status of conventional technologies and techniques.

P.I.: Michael Jemtrud

The New Architecture of Phase Change is a three-year Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Research Creation project (2006 – 2009) focusing on computer-controlled techniques for constructing objects at varying scales out of ice.

P.I.: Pieter Sijpkes

POD Integrated Dissemination Forums for Architecture and Urban Design (IDF) was a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Public Outreach and Dissemination (POD) project (2010 – 2012) that engaged with local communities in an effort to understand technology’s role in the complex processes that shape the development of the built environment. The interdisciplinary project team worked with members of the Pointe St. Charles neighborhood of Montreal on the complex issues surrounding the contested building site, Bâtiment 7. Through the hosting of a series of interactive community forums, the project allowed local citizens to be involved in the process of information dissemination and decision-making.

P.I.: Michael Jemtrud, Nik Luka

VoV: The Virtue of the Virtual (VOV) was an interdisciplinary conference addressing the changing meaning of the “model” in technology and society. Hosted by FARMM and the School of Architecture in May 2011, the conference was based on the premise that it has become increasingly important to engage members from disparate disciplines to critically assess the challenges to culture and design that is necessitated by the emergence of advanced computation. Critical and enlightening discussions among 23 researchers, academics and artists presented diverse stances on the status of the “model” and virtual model-making over the course of three days.

P.I.: Michael Jemtrud, Torben Berns