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INTERNATIONAL ARCHITECTURE COMPETITION
THE COMPETITION
Grand Finalists
It is with great pleasure, PHI announces that following the public presentations of the 5 Finalists to the Jury, 2 Grand Finalists were selected to form their multidisciplinary team and advance to the final stage of the competition.
This final stage will conclude with the announcement of the Laureat on July 15, 2022.
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Kuehn Malvezzi + Pelletier de Fontenay
Berlin, Germany + Montreal, Canada
KUEHN MALVEZZI
The focus of the work of Berlin-based architects Kuehn Malvezzi are cultural venues, exhibitions and public spaces. From the design for Documenta 11 (Kassel, 2002) to the new building for the Insectarium in Montreal (opening in 2022, in collaboration with Pelletier de Fontenay and Jodoin Lamarre Pratte), Kuehn Malvezzi has realized numerous interventions in museums and exhibition venues. The practice stands for an attitude that is interested in a reflexive way of dealing with specific contexts and has a reputation for working with sensitive perseveration issues of listed buildings. The studio’s work has been featured in international exhibitions, including the 10th, 13th and 14th Architecture Biennial in Venice as well as the 1st and 2nd edition of the Chicago Architecture Biennial.
PELLETIER DE FONTENAY
Established in 2010 by Hubert Pelletier and Yves de Fontenay, Pelletier de Fontenay is an architectural practice based in Montreal. The office has quickly gained a reputation for excellence in designing contemporary public projects and is currently working on museums, schools, and public libraries projects. Pelletier de Fontenay has placed first in two international competitions: the New School LOSBATES near Prague, and the Montreal Insectarium, in partnership with the Berlin firm Kuehn Malvezzi. Locally, the firm has placed first for the Lab-École Shefford competition and the Sanaaq Center in downtown Montreal.

OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen
Brussels, Belgium
OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen was founded in 2002 by Kersten Geers and David Van Severen. OFFICE is renowned for its idiosyncratic architecture, in which realisations and theoretical projects stand side by side. The projects are direct, spatial and firmly rooted in architectural theory. The firm reduces architecture to its very essence and most original form: a limited set of basic geometric rules is used to create a framework within which life unfolds out in all its complexity. Since its establishment OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen has earned a reputation as one of Belgium’s most successful and renowned practices, and one of the world’s truly original voices in present-day architecture. OFFICE engages in all architectural and urbanist design, creating projects of all scales ranging from furniture to masterplanning in Belgium as well as internationally. This practice is combined with academic research and teaching. These two aspects of OFFICE’s work are explicitly each other’s mirror, creating unexpected parallels between academic and practical work. Since 2018, OFFICE is a partnership led by Kersten Geers, David Van Severen and Jan Lenaerts, together with associates Justine Rossillion and Alexander Smedts.
Finalists
PHI is pleased to announce that the following 5 architectural firms have been selected as Finalists by the Jury, and will proceed to Stage 2 of the Competition.
Following Stage 2, two firms will be selected as Grand Finalists to proceed to the final stage of the Competition.
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Adjaye Associates
New York City, United States
Since establishing Adjaye Associates in 2000, Sir David Adjaye OBE has crafted a global team that is multicultural and stimulated by the broadest possible cultural discourse. The practice has studios in Accra, London, and New York with work spanning the globe. Adjaye Associates’ most well-known commission to date is the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), opened in 2016 on the National Mall in Washington DC and was named “Cultural Event of the Year” by The New York Times.
Further projects range in scale from private houses, bespoke furniture collections, product design, exhibitions, and temporary pavilions to major arts centers, civic buildings, and master plans. Renowned for an eclectic material and color palette, and a capacity to offer a rich civic experience, the buildings differ in form and style, yet are unified by their ability to generate new typologies and to reference a wide cultural discourse.
The firm has received widespread recognition for its contributions to architecture. Adjaye was announced the winner of the 2021 RIBA Royal Gold Medal, considered one of the highest honors in British architecture for significant contributions to the field internationally. In his award citation, the 2021 RIBA Honours Committee explained, "Through his work as an architect Sir David Adjaye speaks confidently across cultures, disciplines, politics, and continents. His body of work is global and local, finely attuned as it reflects and responds to context and community, climate, and culture.”

BRUTHER
Paris, France
Stéphanie Bru and Alexandre Theriot founded Bruther in Paris in 2007. They belong to the generation of architects who started their careers at the beginning of the recession, a condition likely to be reflected in the way they define architecture : as a Swiss Army knife, a tool to be used in the most disparate circumstances, an aid that reconciles all fields of knowledge.Their design courage is evident in urban projects, especially those on the margins, often for a public institution with a small budget.
Elastic social infrastructures can be seen in the cultural and sports centre (2014) in Saint-Blaise, Paris, and the Nouvelle Génération research centre (2015) in Caen, Normandy. Both act as catalysts for collective urban activity; both are reminiscent of the Brazilian SESC (Social Service of Commerce) buildings.
His first built projects have been nominated for the Mies van der Rohe Award and have won the Equerre d'Argent award three times in their category, including the Swiss Architectural Award 2020.
BRUTHER's work is the subject of international conferences and several publications. In 2019, the monograph El Croquis on their career is published.
The offices Truwant+Rodet+ in Basel and TEN in Zurich, with whom BRUTHER frequently collaborates, will contribute their expertise in the fields of landscape scenography and spatial structures. Stéphanie Bru and Alexandre Theriot were visiting professors at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, in 2018.
From 2019, Alexandre Theriot is an associate professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, and from 2021, Stéphanie Bru is a professor at the Universität der Künste in Berlin.

Dorte Mandrup
Copenhagen, Denmark
Dorte Mandrup is a Danish architecture studio specialised in working with irreplaceable places. It is an exhilarating struggle - a negotiation between place, history, culture, and local identity where the architect is brought in to create new meaning. With an artistic footing and a scientific toolbox, the studio works to highlight what is there and create new relevance, both challenging the place and underlining its inherent qualities. This is innate in every project, whether a transformation, educational space, or cultural centre.
Established in 1999 by Dorte Mandrup, the studio has grown into an internationally renowned firm with a hands-on approach based on deep, contextual analysis and experimental prototyping. The studio employs 75 people from 12 different nationalities. All are driven by a devout belief in the possibilities of contemporary architecture and explorative curiosity insisting on outstanding craftmanship.
Dorte Mandrup designs with a unique sense of place and materiality that creates emotional impact. With a Scandinavian heritage, the studio considers all human scale aspects in their approach. Through significant projects such as the Whale in Norway, the Wadden Sea Centre on the west coast of Denmark, the Icefjord Centre in the Greelandic wilderness and the future Exile Museum at Anhalter Bahnhof in Berlin, the studio demonstrates a unique ability to evoke the identity of fragile places and actively involve the context.
Dorte Mandrup’s work has received wide acclaim – most recently the ICONICS Architect of the Year award, the AZ Award for Environmental Leadership, and the Meyvaert Museum Prize for Sustainability.


Kuehn Malvezzi + Pelletier de Fontenay
Berlin, Germany + Montreal, Canada
KUEHN MALVEZZI
The focus of the work of Berlin-based architects Kuehn Malvezzi are cultural venues, exhibitions and public spaces. From the design for Documenta 11 (Kassel, 2002) to the new building for the Insectarium in Montreal (opening in 2022, in collaboration with Pelletier de Fontenay and Jodoin Lamarre Pratte), Kuehn Malvezzi has realized numerous interventions in museums and exhibition venues. The practice stands for an attitude that is interested in a reflexive way of dealing with specific contexts and has a reputation for working with sensitive perseveration issues of listed buildings. The studio’s work has been featured in international exhibitions, including the 10th, 13th and 14th Architecture Biennial in Venice as well as the 1st and 2nd edition of the Chicago Architecture Biennial.
PELLETIER DE FONTENAY
Established in 2010 by Hubert Pelletier and Yves de Fontenay, Pelletier de Fontenay is an architectural practice based in Montreal. The office has quickly gained a reputation for excellence in designing contemporary public projects and is currently working on museums, schools, and public libraries projects. Pelletier de Fontenay has placed first in two international competitions: the New School LOSBATES near Prague, and the Montreal Insectarium, in partnership with the Berlin firm Kuehn Malvezzi. Locally, the firm has placed first for the Lab-École Shefford competition and the Sanaaq Center in downtown Montreal.

OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen
Brussels, Belgium
OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen was founded in 2002 by Kersten Geers and David Van Severen. OFFICE is renowned for its idiosyncratic architecture, in which realisations and theoretical projects stand side by side. The projects are direct, spatial and firmly rooted in architectural theory. The firm reduces architecture to its very essence and most original form: a limited set of basic geometric rules is used to create a framework within which life unfolds out in all its complexity. Since its establishment OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen has earned a reputation as one of Belgium’s most successful and renowned practices, and one of the world’s truly original voices in present-day architecture. OFFICE engages in all architectural and urbanist design, creating projects of all scales ranging from furniture to masterplanning in Belgium as well as internationally. This practice is combined with academic research and teaching. These two aspects of OFFICE’s work are explicitly each other’s mirror, creating unexpected parallels between academic and practical work. Since 2018, OFFICE is a partnership led by Kersten Geers, David Van Severen and Jan Lenaerts, together with associates Justine Rossillion and Alexander Smedts.
Competitors
PHI is very pleased to announce the Jury’s selection of 11 architectural firms from 8 countries to compete in Stage 1 of the PHI Contemporary International Architecture Competition.
The call for candidature elicited 65 entries (from 14 countries) of an extremely high calibre, as noted by the Jury. The overall level of design excellence, critical capacity and creative potential exhibited by the candidates prompted the Jury’s unanimous decision to select 11 candidates instead of 10, as initially planned.
PHI is very grateful for the interest shown in the project, and the thoughtful entries of all participants. PHI is also tremendously pleased with the Jury’s selection of architectural firms, as a portrait of the diverse means of approaching the project and of PHI’s ethos, ambitions and priorities as an institution.
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Adjaye Associates
New York City, United States
Since establishing Adjaye Associates in 2000, Sir David Adjaye OBE has crafted a global team that is multicultural and stimulated by the broadest possible cultural discourse. The practice has studios in Accra, London, and New York with work spanning the globe. Adjaye Associates’ most well-known commission to date is the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), opened in 2016 on the National Mall in Washington DC and was named “Cultural Event of the Year” by The New York Times.
Further projects range in scale from private houses, bespoke furniture collections, product design, exhibitions, and temporary pavilions to major arts centers, civic buildings, and master plans. Renowned for an eclectic material and color palette, and a capacity to offer a rich civic experience, the buildings differ in form and style, yet are unified by their ability to generate new typologies and to reference a wide cultural discourse.
The firm has received widespread recognition for its contributions to architecture. Adjaye was announced the winner of the 2021 RIBA Royal Gold Medal, considered one of the highest honors in British architecture for significant contributions to the field internationally. In his award citation, the 2021 RIBA Honours Committee explained, "Through his work as an architect Sir David Adjaye speaks confidently across cultures, disciplines, politics, and continents. His body of work is global and local, finely attuned as it reflects and responds to context and community, climate, and culture.”

architecten jan de vylder inge vinck
Gent, Belgium
Jan De Vylder and Inge Vinck are co-founders of jan de vylder architecten (JDV A - 2007) and architecten de vylder vinck taillieu (A DVVT - 2010) and recently of architecten jan de vylder inge vinck. / inge vinck jan de vylder architecten (A JDVIV / IVJDV A - 2019)
With A JDVIV / IVJDV A, a new horizon is explored parallel to the idea UNIVERSUM CARROUSEL JOURNEY that is also the alter ego of the chair of Jan De Vylder at the department of architecture of ETH Zürich, and the studio of Inge Vinck at Kunstacademie, Düsseldorf, Germany.
Today, A JDVIV is a multi-disciplinary practice in which the making and the thinking is deeply imbedded. Many ongoing projects – drawing table and under construction – are alternating with all kinds of reflections – drawings and writings. New horizons are explored – international and research-wise. Profound positions are taken – the interest in drawing but also in debating the essence of urge today. Parallel to the idea UNIVERSUM CARROUSEL JOURNEY.
In these different constellations Jan De Vylder and Inge Vinck have realized – history – and do realize at this very moment – recent – several projects in Belgium and abroad. The projects range from the smallest commission possible as well as large sized commissions: projects for an individual client as well as a public client or private investor. Projects with very diverse character: ranging from simply a house to a university campus; a cultural client as well as a public commission. The projects are obtained through competitions, selections or direct commission.

BRUTHER
Paris, France
Stéphanie Bru and Alexandre Theriot founded Bruther in Paris in 2007. They belong to the generation of architects who started their careers at the beginning of the recession, a condition likely to be reflected in the way they define architecture : as a Swiss Army knife, a tool to be used in the most disparate circumstances, an aid that reconciles all fields of knowledge.Their design courage is evident in urban projects, especially those on the margins, often for a public institution with a small budget.
Elastic social infrastructures can be seen in the cultural and sports centre (2014) in Saint-Blaise, Paris, and the Nouvelle Génération research centre (2015) in Caen, Normandy. Both act as catalysts for collective urban activity; both are reminiscent of the Brazilian SESC (Social Service of Commerce) buildings.
His first built projects have been nominated for the Mies van der Rohe Award and have won the Equerre d'Argent award three times in their category, including the Swiss Architectural Award 2020.
BRUTHER's work is the subject of international conferences and several publications. In 2019, the monograph El Croquis on their career is published.
The offices Truwant+Rodet+ in Basel and TEN in Zurich, with whom BRUTHER frequently collaborates, will contribute their expertise in the fields of landscape scenography and spatial structures. Stéphanie Bru and Alexandre Theriot were visiting professors at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, in 2018.
From 2019, Alexandre Theriot is an associate professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, and from 2021, Stéphanie Bru is a professor at the Universität der Künste in Berlin.

Carmody Groarke
London, UK
Carmody Groarke is a London-based architecture studio established by Kevin Carmody and Andy Groarke in 2006. The studio has gained an international reputation for work on arts, cultural and heritage projects and from the very beginning, has worked extensively with artist and collections (contemporary and historic) and has designed studios for world-renowned artists including Antony Gormley and Julian Opie, collaborated on artworks by Antony Gormley, Carsten Höller, Linder Sterling and Jeremy Deller. Carmody Groarke has designed more than 40 internationally acclaimed exhibitions with public and private museums, galleries and foundations throughout the world.
Completed projects include: the Stirling Prize nominated Windermere Jetty Museum (UK); a temporary museum for Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s residential masterpiece, The Hill House (UK); and a Special Exhibitions Gallery for the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester (UK) as part of a heritage master plan for some of the worlds most important surviving buildings from the Industrial Revolution.
Current projects include: a major refurbishment and extension to the national Design Museum in Ghent (Belgium), an international arts venue and artists studios in Sheffield (UK) and a master plan for the Heide Museum of Modern Art in Melbourne (Australia).
The work of the studio has been recognised by the world-renowned architectural monographs El Croquis, 2G and AMAG, and in several international architectural awards.
Kevin and Andy have taught and lectured extensively throughout the UK and Europe and have been Visiting Professors at Cornell University and Yale University in the United States.

Dorte Mandrup
Copenhagen, Denmark
Dorte Mandrup is a Danish architecture studio specialised in working with irreplaceable places. It is an exhilarating struggle - a negotiation between place, history, culture, and local identity where the architect is brought in to create new meaning. With an artistic footing and a scientific toolbox, the studio works to highlight what is there and create new relevance, both challenging the place and underlining its inherent qualities. This is innate in every project, whether a transformation, educational space, or cultural centre.
Established in 1999 by Dorte Mandrup, the studio has grown into an internationally renowned firm with a hands-on approach based on deep, contextual analysis and experimental prototyping. The studio employs 75 people from 12 different nationalities. All are driven by a devout belief in the possibilities of contemporary architecture and explorative curiosity insisting on outstanding craftmanship.
Dorte Mandrup designs with a unique sense of place and materiality that creates emotional impact. With a Scandinavian heritage, the studio considers all human scale aspects in their approach. Through significant projects such as the Whale in Norway, the Wadden Sea Centre on the west coast of Denmark, the Icefjord Centre in the Greelandic wilderness and the future Exile Museum at Anhalter Bahnhof in Berlin, the studio demonstrates a unique ability to evoke the identity of fragile places and actively involve the context.
Dorte Mandrup’s work has received wide acclaim – most recently the ICONICS Architect of the Year award, the AZ Award for Environmental Leadership, and the Meyvaert Museum Prize for Sustainability.

in situ atelier d’architecture
Montreal, Canada
Recipient of the Prix de Rome in Architecture (2001), the collective in situ atelier d'architecture - founded by Annie Lebel and Stéphane Pratte - has been working for more than 25 years in the definition of a practice exploring contextual potentials through its creative process, where the notion of the site is taken on as an active spatial and temporal element. in situ's capacity to produce compelling responses to complex problematics originates from detailed readings and analyses of the environments in which their projects are inscribed. The firm has developed a particular expertise in the almost surgical integration of contemporary structures within urban, historic, and heritage settings. The inherent temporality of these different conditions generates a catapult-like effect where a view on the past informs the present, in order to define the project. Working primarily within the cultural realm, in situ questions the very nature of these spaces of the imaginary, themselves in perpetual transformation, to create infrastructures resilient to the stresses of these mutations.
Accomplishments in the arena of production and cultural diffusion centres such as: the Darling Foundry (Montreal, 2002), facilities at the Reford Gardens (Grand-Métis, 2003), PHI Centre (Montréal, 2012), the Diamant (Quebec City, 2019), the renovation of the Centre du Théâtre d'Aujourd'hui (Montréal, 2021) bear witness to the firm's approach which allows for the design and creation of relevant, inclusive and innovative programs. in situ is currently working on Le Cube (Montreal), a centre for theatre creation, and the Place des Pionniers' library and administrative buildings (Gatineau).


Kuehn Malvezzi + Pelletier de Fontenay
Berlin, Germany + Montreal, Canada
KUEHN MALVEZZI
The focus of the work of Berlin-based architects Kuehn Malvezzi are cultural venues, exhibitions and public spaces. From the design for Documenta 11 (Kassel, 2002) to the new building for the Insectarium in Montreal (opening in 2022, in collaboration with Pelletier de Fontenay and Jodoin Lamarre Pratte), Kuehn Malvezzi has realized numerous interventions in museums and exhibition venues. The practice stands for an attitude that is interested in a reflexive way of dealing with specific contexts and has a reputation for working with sensitive perseveration issues of listed buildings. The studio’s work has been featured in international exhibitions, including the 10th, 13th and 14th Architecture Biennial in Venice as well as the 1st and 2nd edition of the Chicago Architecture Biennial.
PELLETIER DE FONTENAY
Established in 2010 by Hubert Pelletier and Yves de Fontenay, Pelletier de Fontenay is an architectural practice based in Montreal. The office has quickly gained a reputation for excellence in designing contemporary public projects and is currently working on museums, schools, and public libraries projects. Pelletier de Fontenay has placed first in two international competitions: the New School LOSBATES near Prague, and the Montreal Insectarium, in partnership with the Berlin firm Kuehn Malvezzi. Locally, the firm has placed first for the Lab-École Shefford competition and the Sanaaq Center in downtown Montreal.

Lina Ghotmeh — Architecture
Paris, France
Lina Ghotmeh — Architecture is research-driven and gathers a team of 25 professionals of various disciplines. Echoing Ghotmeh’s lived experience of Beirut — a palimpsest of unrest — the office’s work is orchestrated as an “Archeology of the Future”, where every project develops from thorough historical and material research learning from a vernacular past to build a new “déjà-là”. Architectures emerge as such from a close understanding of their environment resulting in a symbiotic and ecological dialogue with earth.
Lina Ghotmeh’s works include “Réalimenter Masséna”, a wooden tower dedicated to sustainable feeding and awarded by Paris’ call for innovative projects, “Stone Garden”, in Beirut, where craft is at the heart of the building’s making. Among other projects, her studio is currently designing and leading the construction of the new Hermès Manufacture, a passive building in Normandy, and the urban rehabilitation of the Maine Montparnasse grounds in Paris.
Lina Ghotmeh has lectured internationally and has taught at the Ecole Spéciale d’Architecture. She now holds teaching positions at Yale School of Architecture and University of Toronto. She is copresident of the RST ARCHES Scientific Network and the recipient of multiple awards, including: the 2020 Schelling Architecture Prize; the 2020 Tamayouz “Woman of Outstanding Achievement” Award; the French Fine Arts Academy Cardin Award 2019; the French Academy Dejean Prize 2016; the Grand Prix Afex 2016; and the French Ministry AJAP Prize 2008. Her work is exhibited at the 17th Architecture Biennale in Venice and has gotten widely published by the likes of Phaidon, RIBA, Domus and Architectural Record.

OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen
Brussels, Belgium
OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen was founded in 2002 by Kersten Geers and David Van Severen. OFFICE is renowned for its idiosyncratic architecture, in which realisations and theoretical projects stand side by side. The projects are direct, spatial and firmly rooted in architectural theory. The firm reduces architecture to its very essence and most original form: a limited set of basic geometric rules is used to create a framework within which life unfolds out in all its complexity. Since its establishment OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen has earned a reputation as one of Belgium’s most successful and renowned practices, and one of the world’s truly original voices in present-day architecture. OFFICE engages in all architectural and urbanist design, creating projects of all scales ranging from furniture to masterplanning in Belgium as well as internationally. This practice is combined with academic research and teaching. These two aspects of OFFICE’s work are explicitly each other’s mirror, creating unexpected parallels between academic and practical work. Since 2018, OFFICE is a partnership led by Kersten Geers, David Van Severen and Jan Lenaerts, together with associates Justine Rossillion and Alexander Smedts.

Smiljan Radić/Inversiones Sin Mas
Santiago, Chile
Smiljan Radić Clarke (Santiago de Chile, 1965) graduated from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile in 1989 and undertook further studies at the Istitutto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia, Italy. He travelled for three years and finally opened his own architecture studio in Santiago in 1995.
Smiljan Radić has completed the majority of his buildings in Chile, with commissions ranging from small and fragile buildings, such as the Extension to Charcoal Burner’s House in Culiprán; The Wardrobe and the Mattress in Tokyo; The Bus Stop Commission in Kumbrach, the Vatican chapels pavilion commission in Venice; the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion and the Light Bubble for the Alexander McQueen Fashion Show in London; domestic scale buildings such as the Cooper House 2, the Pite House, the House for the Right Angle, the Restaurant Mestizo, the Nave Performing Arts Centre, the Alexander McQueen flagship store in London; to medium scale buildings such as the Civic Quarters in Concepción, the Chilean Museum of Pre-Columbian Art in Santiago, the Winery VIK in Millahue and the Theatre of Bío Bio in Concepción.
The work of Smiljan Radić moves freely across boundaries, avoiding any specific categorisation within one field of architecture. His research questions different materials, their sensory and social conditions, rebuilding stories which seem to have been associated to physical reality, in close collaboration with the sculptor Marcela Correa and the architect Patricio Mardones.

SO – IL
New York city, United States
SO–IL was born in 2008. Diverse in origin, our team speaks a dozen languages and is informed by global perspectives. We are both locally-rooted and nationless, coming together as a mid-size, well-recognized company. We have completed projects in Leon, Seoul, and Lisbon, as well as our hometown, Brooklyn, New York. With our ambitious private and public clients, we explore how the creation of environments and objects inspires lasting positive intellectual and societal engagement.
In a digitized world that increasingly draws one inward, our architecture is outward-looking, engendering meaningful dialogue with what is materially and psychologically outside of ourselves. Our concept home for nomadic living in Milan encourages an active awareness of life beyond routine. At the University of California, Davis campus, we designed a museum that cultivates an intentionally open-ended relationship between the visitor and the site at the outset.
We design with time in mind. Whether working with existing structures or building from the ground, we carefully investigate physical properties and history. In Meisenthal, France, we transformed an industrial heritage site into a thriving cultural campus in this way. Our interventions are both respectful of their pasts and adaptable to a dynamic future.
Our work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum, and the Art Institute of Chicago. Our team has received numerous accolades, including the Vilcek Award, the Curbed Groundbreakers Award, and the MoMAPS1 Young Architects Program Award.
Our New York practice is led by Jing Liu and Florian Idenburg.
Project
PHI is pleased to announce the launch of an international architectural competition for the design of PHI Contemporary - a 6 900 m² / 74 000 ft² cultural institution in Old Montreal, dedicated to exploring the contemporary through public engagement with art and culture.
→ virtual site visit
→ aerial view (video)
→ more on PHI Contemporary
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As a future repository for PHI’s legacy, PHI Contemporary will be a new and permanent space to consolidate, extend and intersect PHI’s cultural offer, its communities, and the public life of the city.
Located in Old Montreal, and built upon a site rife with history - comprising an assemblage of four historical buildings and an adjacent vacant lot - PHI Contemporary will consolidate the public cultural offer currently housed within PHI Foundation and PHI Centre. The 6 900 m² / 74 000 ft² project will house exhibition spaces, a network of new media galleries, mediation, research and studio spaces, and an expansive public domain.
The projected construction budget is CAN$47,280,000, excluding taxes and inflation.
Architectural interests and challenges
- The project should be conceived as an architectural whole, wherein diversity is celebrated but the design solution is clear and unified;
- The architecture must project into the future and consider the next generation of visitors as a key user group;
- The project should respond to the site (and its heritage buildings) through both an architectural and urban lens;
- The heritage of the site should be understood through its legacies and potential, and the architectural proposal should respond in kind;
- The project should celebrate the outdoors and the urban context - through daylighting, views, spaces and access points;
- Expansive sustainability considerations should be integral to the design process (and be evident in its final form through the building’s performance, not its appearance).

Process & Schedule
The objective of the Competition is to select the lead architect for the realization of PHI Contemporary on the basis of the quality of their design concept, design approach and multidisciplinary team.
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The international architecture competition will be held in three stages, following an open call for candidature, as follows:
Call for Candidature
International call for candidature
Aug 25 - Oct 14, 2021
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Stage 1: Strategic Proposals
Development of Strategic Proposals by Competitors, selected by the Jury
Nov 22, 2021 - Jan 20, 2022
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Stage 2: Architectural Proposals
Development of Architectural Proposals by five (5) Finalists, selected by the Jury
Feb 14 - Apr 7, 2022
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Stage 3: Completed Proposals & Multidisciplinary Team Dossiers
Development of Completed Proposals and presentation of Multidisciplinary Team dossiers by two (2) Grand Finalists, selected by the Jury
May 9 - June 16, 2022
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Announcement of the Winner
July 15, 2022
Due to limitations of the COVID pandemic, all submissions will be digital, and all activities associated with the competition will be held virtually, unless otherwise noted in the Competition Documents. Should changing conditions permit any adjustment to this plan, advance notice will be provided to all architects participating at that time.
Eligibility &
Remuneration
The PHI Contemporary international architectural competition is remunerated and open to experienced architects internationally.
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Eligibility
Any Architect who meets the following criteria is eligible to enter the Competition:
- Is a member in good standing of the professional order or national association governing architectural practice in the country in which they operate;
- Has at least 10 years experience practicing architecture;
- Has completed a minimum of two (2) projects in the cultural sphere;
- Has completed at least one (1) project involving the renovation or restoration of heritage buildings.
A consortium is eligible to submit if it demonstrates that it is composed of entities that have completed at least one project together prior to submission.
Remuneration
Participants will be remunerated for stages 1, 2 and 3 of the competition, as follows:
Call for candidature: No fees or remuneration will be issued in connection with the call for candidature stage.
Stage 1: CAN$65,000
Stage 2: CAN$200,000
Stage 3: CAN$75,000 + CAN$75,000 for the multidisciplinary team’s participation in this stage
Jury


Elizabeth Diller, Architect

Miles Greenberg, Artist

Phoebe Greenberg, Founding Director and CCO, PHI

Jacques Lachapelle, Architect

Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli, Architect, Curator

Jean-Michel Othoniel, Artist

Dan Stubbergaard, Architect
→ more details
*Please note it is strictly prohibited to contact members of the Jury directly or indirectly in connection with the competition.
Contact
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To stay informed about about public events related to the Competition, please send an email to [email protected]
For press inquiries, please contact Myriam Achard at [email protected]