Each month the Design Matters lecture series, hosted by the Faculty of Environmental Design (EVDS) welcomes to Calgary thought-provoking speakers to explore elements of design in our modern culture. This month the series welcomes landscape architect, Claude Cormier.
A second-generation conceptualist landscape architect, Cormier studied history and theory of design at Harvard University, landscape architecture at the University of Toronto, and agronomy at the University of Guelph.
He established Claude Cormier et Associés, an office of landscape architecture and urban design in 1995. The Montreal-based design office is comprised for a team of six diverse, well-travelled landscape architects. The team works on many projects ranging from metropolitan planning mandates to temporary installations for garden festivals and everything in between.
Recent projects include Tom I & II (Montreal), the ongoing 3C Waterfront (Toronto), Four Seasons Hotel and Residences (Toronto), Les Boules Roses (Montreal), Place de L’Horloge (Montreal), among many others.
Cormier’s work challenges ordinary perceptions of the world, opening eyes to new possibilities and generating an appetite for the extra-ordinary. Rendering visible the invisible of the everyday, his projects seek to reawaken the joy of phenomena through an apparent simplicity that is complex, but not complicated.
“Claude’s work challenges conventional notions of landscape through a playful and rigorous engagement with the physical and societal contexts in which the projects are situated. His lecture comes at an important time for landscape architecture in Alberta and will no doubt provoke discussion.” notes Mark Lindquist, EVDS assistant professor in landscape architecture.
Join EVDS for Design Matters with Claude Cormier Wednesday, Dec. 4 from 6-7:30 p.m. at the University of Calgary Downtown Campus (906 8th Ave. S.W.). Entry is free for students and $10 for nonstudents.
Landscape architecture is used to create an experience that embodies humour, subversion, and pleasure. Colour, often delivering a punch in his works, contributes to their peculiarity and seductive allure.
Yet colour is only one aspect of his conceptual approach. Above all else, Cormier’s practice demands authenticity, often invoking the mantra, “Artificial, but not fake.”
For more information visit: http://evds.ucalgary.ca/event/design-matters-claude-cormier