Manon Asselin

Biography

Manon Asselin is an architect and co-founder of Atelier TAG (technique + architecture + graphics), which she has directed since 1997. As an expert member for, among others, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ministry of Culture and Communications from Quebec and various Provincial Architects' Orders, she has participated in numerous juries of prizes and competitions in the field of culture, including the awarding of the Moriyama International Prize, the 2012 Governor General's Medals in Architecture, the AANB Lieutenant Governor's Award 2011, the 2010 MSAAA Prairie Design Award, and peer evaluation committees of the Prix de Rome, the JBC Watkins Scholarship and the 2009 Practitioners, Critics and Curators Program. At the educational level, Manon Asselin taught architectural design at the bachelor's and master's level as an assistant professor at the School of Architecture at McGill University (1993-2007) and as a visiting professor at the Master's level. School of Architecture of the University of Montreal (2005 and 2007) before joining the faculty of the latter in 2008 in the areas of project and construction pedagogy.

Research Interest

As part of her research-creation projects, awarded through an architectural competition, Manon Asselin explores issues related to constructive thinking, both in theoretical and practical aspects, through a technical experimentation approach. This experiment, which focuses on the materialization of the architectural project, is generated and produced in the design process and highlights the fact that spatial design and hardware are not necessarily linear, but rather by retroactive loops. The interrelatedness of design and manufacturing (construction) forms an ecosystem rich in creative possibilities through which the architect remains the main actor of materiality. In 2008, she received the prestigious Prix de Rome Professional in Architecture from the Canada Council for the Arts. The research grant allowed Manon Asselin to study the emergence of material practices similar to his on 3 continents.