INTERVIEW WITH Darryl Condon and Lisa Landrum
Since 2016, a task force of Canadian architects and educators has been mobilizing conversations on the future of architecture and developing a framework for an architecture policy for Canada. The group shared their preliminary work in a 2019 Canadian Architect interview. Editor Elsa Lam reconnected with this group?now called Rise for Architecture?to check in on their progress and plans.
Ini Adedapo, a University of Calgary M.Arch student, reports on architecture and potential at the CAFÉ West event in March 2020. Photo by Lisa Landrum
Elsa Lam: When we last spoke in 2019, your group was planning an ambitious series of consultations with architectural professionals as well as student groups, aimed at informing a national policy that would highlight the value of architecture, helping to feed public debate and influence legislation. How did those consultations go" Darryl Condon: Just before the pandemic, we talked to over 2,000 architects from across Canada?roughly 20% of the profession. These face-to-face workshops took place at the 2019 RAIC conference in Toronto and at regional meetings from St. John?s to Victoria to Yellowknife. When COVID canceled our planned coast-to-coast consultations with Canadian communities, we reinvented our public outreach strategy with an online platform. Rise for Architecture launched in 2021, and results from an Angus Reid poll were published in April 2022. Overall, we?ve heard from nearly 5,...