Rainville-Sangaré wins 2017 Phyllis Lambert Grant

Montreal-based industrial design studio Rainville-Sangaré was recently awarded with the 2017 Phyllis Lambert Grant for their proposal, “Complements of Architecture”. Named in honor of the one and only Phyllis Lambert, the biennial $10,000 grant is presented to a Montreal architect, designers, creative professional, or group — who has been practicing for no more than 10 years — for exhibiting exceptional quality in their work and a distinctive interest in the urban environment. The grant allows the recipient to take on a professional development project related to the urban environment.

In their winning proposal, Lambert Rainville and Nicholas Sangaré will research the design of architectural details integrated into Helsinki's urban environment.

Scroll down for more — plus a video featuring Rainville-Sangaré.

In researching Helsinki's architectural identity, Rainville-Sangaré wants to emphasize the importance of maintaining a human connection to the built environment in the design process.

Their itinerary includes visiting numerous iconic buildings in Helsinki, including several buildings by Alvar Aalto (Finlandia Hall, Aalto’s studio and home in Helsinki, Experimental House in Jyväskylä) and other destinations like the Design Museum Arabia. Rainville-Sangaré also hopes they can exhibit their project during Helsinki Design Week and at a local exhibition in their native Montreal.

The jury praised the winning proposal for its strong multidisciplinary focus, “based on an examination of many facets of [Helsinki], including its identity, heritage, architecture, production, and creativity” as well as its great potential to boost the recipients' careers.

“We believe that architectural details reveal much about local cultural identity, especially when it comes to creativity in manufacturing and to the artisan-designer relationship that is so vital to building things,” Lambert Rainville and Nicholas Sangaré said in a statement. “We feel that Helsinki, which like Montreal is part of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network in Design, will be the ideal destination to nourish our thought process and methods for designing the architectural elements found on building facades.”