Marc Joseph Boutin

Associate Professor

Marc's interest in architecture resides in the fertile ground located at the intersection of teaching and research as practice. This is a place where practice engages the public with its full potential and educational experiences are conditioned by the complexities and beauty of the everyday.

Marc's design firm, The Marc Boutin Architectural Collaborative Inc., is a research-based critical practice, informed by the application of intense design methodologies to diverse conceptual and physical contexts. The work in the studio is characterised by an interdisciplinary approach to design, seeking value that can only be achieved through the synthesis of art, architecture, urban design, and landscape architecture. The Calgary-based studio explores an architecture of direct experience, pursuing the active participation of the user, the engagement of the social landscape, and appealing to all five senses through the orchestration of those elements that are central to architecture’s presence: light, structure, material and technique.

Selected Work
Recent peer-reviewed design research includes the Varscona Theatre, Edmonton, winner of a 2003 Canadian Architect Award, Eau Claire Plaza, Calgary, winner of a 2004 RAIC Mayor’s Urban Design Award, The Calgary Public Building, a LEED Platinum project for the City of Calgary and winner of a Lions Heritage Award and a Canadian Federation of Municipalities Environmental Award, Poppy Plaza, Calgary, winner of a 2009 Canadian Architect Award and a 2010 Canadian Society of Landscape Architects Award, and the Calgary Centre for Global Community, winner of a 2007 international Progressive Architecture Award and Canadian Architect Award. The work of the firm has also been recognised by national and international competition wins, awards, exhibitions, such as biennales in Venice, Sao Paulo, and Buenos Aires, and publications. In 2002, I was the Canada Council for the Arts recipient of the Prix de Rome, resulting in the research Texture City, while in 2009, the Canada Council for the Arts sponsored the design and initiative of The Architectural Roadshow, a cross country tour, exhibition and lecture series that explored contemporary architectural production in Canada.

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