Workshops
Design-Build
Lighting
DSA Courses
Theatre
Chair
Techniques
Workshops offer a unique opportunity for architecture students to discover other design-related fields.
Faculty research and specialized interests are presented as the central theme of the elective workshop courses. These topics range from Design-Build fabrications and installations, Material and Structural studies, Lighting Design, and Theatre Production to name a few.
Design-Build Workshops
Design-build exercises were integral to the curriculum of the Architecture programme from its inception. The architecture building lends itself to robust material experimentation and the resulting constructed projects benefit from the excellent support labs, shops, and fabrication facilities.
The format of Design-build courses vary in their duration and enrolment, ranging from entire studios to smaller workshops dedicated to a topic-based projects.
W
- Design-Build – RAIC Millennial Pubs – 2000
Y-p. Cazabon & D. Di Sano
Sponsored by the RAIC (Royal Architectural Institute of Canada) and managed by Robert Merkeley (Merkeley Supplies), Alex Rankin (GRC Architects) and Yvan Cazabon & Dino DiSano (Carleton University), this project was delivered as a one-term design-build workshop.
Donations were received from all aspects of Ottawa’s construction community to supplement the recycled and repurposed materials that the students gathered.
The 3 pavilions, designed to function as Pubs and Bars (with electricity, water, and ice), were transported from the Carleton Campus to the Aberdeen Pavilion (Cattle Castle) at Landsdowne Park for the Architecture 2000 Millennium celebrations.
W
- DSA Zambia Material Studies – 2001
Y-p. Cazabon
W
- Materials Workshop – 2001
Accreditation Exhibition
Design-build Workshop with an enrollment of 15 students charged with the design and construction of elements for the Accreditation exhibition. Personal projects included the Visiting Team Table, magnetic display panels, computer stations, model tables, and pin-up boards.
W
- Chair Workshop
M. MacGuigan & R. Wood
Supported by top-quality facilities and proficient supervisor-instructors the chair workshop has been a popular elective workshop for many years. Old photographs show early chair designs constructed from cardboard in a classroom of the MacKenzie building, while more current images show the wide-ranging styles and diverse material palette of recent students’ designs.
W
- Lighting Workshop
L. Fontein
Lighting design, fixture design –
Traditional, contemporary and experimental electrical light sources.
Lighting Portfolio
W
- Techniques – Drawing Workshop – 2007 and 2009
Janine Debanné
Drawing Workshop Description
W
- Theatre Production Workshop – 2010-21
Y-p. Cazabon
The Theatre Production workshop was created by Professors Don Westwood and Phil Sharp who, with their architecture students, created numerous theatrical productions in the 1970s and 80s both in-house and in concert with Ottawa’s GCTC (Great Canadian Theatre Company) for which they were consultants and collaborators. The design-build workshop returned to the School of Architecture in 2002 under the direction of Prof. Yvan Cazabon.
Early collaborations include in-house and off-site co-productions with Algonquin College’s Drama Studies program staged at the Bronson Centre, the NAC’s 4th Stage, and the Pit in the school of architecture. Other projects include set designs for Carleton’s South Asian Alliance dance competitions and a fund raising production sponsored by the GCTC.
2021 marked the 10th year of working in collaboration with Carleton’s English Department. Early productions, directed by Sarah McVie, introduced contemporary interpretations of plays by Shakespeare (As You Like It – 2012, A Midsummer Night’s Dream 2013) and collaged Shakespearean passages in five parts (You Will be Mine – 2014). Acting and Directing provided by students in the English department are enhanced by sets, lighting and multi-media stage-craft created by architecture students within the labs of CIMS (Carleton Immersive Media Studio) and more recently the School of Architecture Pit. Recent co-productions have introduced experimental theatre whereby English Department students with faculty member Rebecca Benson, collaborate with students from Architecture to write and construct their own scenes. Productions include Soliloquies, Sonnets & Selfies (Part 1: Water into Wine 2016, Part 2: Letters Home 2017) and Dialogues Duets & Diatribes (2019).
In response to COVID, the 2020 production collaborated with the Music department and created an audio-visual experiment entitled “Life’s Spatial Interludes”. The collaborators focused on an immersive visual presentation delivered through a live YouTube channel. The ‘sets’, ‘lighting’ and spatial modelling were conceived and created through digital means and were structured around a musical score prepared by the Music students.
The 2021 production of “Soliloquies, Sonnets and Selfies pt3 – Objects are Closer than they Appear” introduced themes of communication & miscommunication. Texts, including passages from Shakespeare, are quoted, borrowed, collaged, edited and reconciled in a collaborative experiment where students from architecture contribute to the scripting, design and presentation of a unique piece within the School of Architecture. Acting, by off-campus English students, were captured utilizing digital media and presented in a live YouTube event.