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2008 Governor General’s Medals
in Architecture
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New Canadian War Museum |
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 Regeneration embodies the sequences of devastation, rebirth and adaptation. War destroys nature and yet it regenerates as the power of life prevails: a process that rekindles faith and courage. Regeneration as a design concept was inspired by the deeds and stories of Canadian veterans.
The New Canadian War Museum emerges from the bank of the Ottawa River, rising eastward to engage the cityscape
and pay homage to the Parliamentary Precinct. The building expresses the ambiguities of war and sacrifice, the profound attachment we have to land and site, and that intangible quality that is integral to our identity as Canadians.
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Jury Comment:
This is a building for war that conveys a sense of peace. Light and water offer a sense of tranquility to the darkness and solitude of the “trenches” while the mass of the building has a discrete rather than triumphant presence in the landscape. As a form of land art, unusual geometries are articulated with a trueness of material, inside and out, that lend themselves to a brutal yet sculptural honesty. The result is an evocative and introspective architecture. |
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Anne Cormier |
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