Florence Primeau-Marcoux, a student at the University of Montréal, is the recipient of the 2024 ALCTF Architectural Conservation Award.
Primeau-Marcoux’s winning project, ‘Repatriation/Reconciliation’, explores more sensitive ways to repatriate and appreciate cultural objects taken from Indigenous communities by colonial institutions and individuals. Rather than monumental museums, the project proposes a smaller scale, more culturally sensitive and environmentally responsive approach.
Based on the traditional archetype of the prospector’s tent, the project offers a range of envelopes that allow for interfaces adapted to the practices of their heritage, as well as to the needs surrounding the conservation of museum objects, by varying its permeability to the elements and the surrounding territory.
“Conscious of her outsider status in an Indigenous community in Saguenay, Quebec; her consultation with Ilnuatsh women produced compelling research on an alternative to ‘immutable and monumental’ architecture.”
The award jury was comprised of Julia Gersovitz, Allan Teramura and Dave LeBlanc. The jury was impressed by the sensitivity of the approach, saying:
“Conscious of her outsider status in an Indigenous community in Saguenay, Quebec; her consultation with Ilnuatsh women produced compelling research on an alternative to ‘immutable and monumental’ architecture. Instead, she shows that authenticity can lie in knowledge of traditional ways of building rather than in the imposing structures typical in heritage conservation.”
Primeau-Marcoux receives $1000 and a complimentary one-year membership to The Arts and Letters Club. The Foundation partners with the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada Foundation. This award was set up to honour founding ALCT Foundation president Richard Moorhouse’s professional and volunteer contributions to architectural conservation.
