Adaptation
By Omar Gandhi, Jimenez Lai and John Leroux (Mexico City: Arquine, 2020)
?There is a mythology about the first ten years of young architects in North America,? writes Jimenez Lai in this publication marking the first decade of Omar Gandhi?s Halifax- and Toronto-based firm. This mythology includes a ?high-octane, full-speed pursuit of some notion of ?Project??filled with teaching, writing [?] and various forms of research and experimentation, but not necessarily building buildings.?
In contrast, for Gandhi, ?building buildings? defines his practice. John Leroux sees the resulting work as encompassing the ?complexities of an uber-Canadian cultural pluralism, where the diversity of his Toronto background dovetails with the traditions and physical vigor of Maritime coastal building traditions.? When Gandhi found himself out of a job early on in his career, he began to dream about what he wanted to become. Taking on deck and renovation jobs, he eventually arrived at his ?beginning,? that pivotal moment when an architect earns the first real client. For Gandhi, it was renovating a home for the new town doctors in Liverpool, Nova Scotia. Then came Shantih, a low-slung cottage in Hunts Point, Nova Scotia. After completing his third project, ?running entirely on intuition,? he confesses that ?I was able to clearly define what would become my way of working, my process. I called it Adaptation.?
Born in Toronto, Gandhi recounts his parents? arrival to Canada from India, ho...