RAIC 2025 Gold Medal winners Shirley Blumberg and Marianne McKenna, centre, with Thomas Payne and Bruce Kuwabara. In the foreground is a model of the group’s competition-winning design for Kitchener City Hall in 1988. Photo KPMB Archives What is Canadian architecture? It’s a question that has real urgency in the face of threats from our southern neighbour. There isn’t a single aesthetic answer. But when you look to process and values, clearer themes emerge. Canadian earnestness and honesty come forward in how we make architecture. Canada’s architects work hard to understand the context of projects—the geography and site, the economic parameters, the relevant codes and zoning, the communities that will inhabit a building—and to provide the best possible solution. These may seem like universal goals, but they’re not to be taken for granted as we reflect on the recent starchitect era that privileged flash and ostentation. This year’s RAIC award winners showcase these values at work. The Gold Medal winners, Shirley Blumberg and Marianne McKenna, are founding partners of KPMB, a firm that has built its sterling reputation on high-quality, context-driven work. Marianne has an exceptional talent for transforming institutions with landmark projects that are tightly woven into the urban fabric—think Concordia’s business school in downtown Montreal, or Toronto’s Koerner Hall. Shirley’s advocacy mindset has played out in projects ranging from affordable housing to pro bono work with Indigenous communities. KPMB founding partner Bruce Kuwabara speaks to the genius of collaboration that both enable, partner Paulo Rocha reflects on their impact for the next generation of leaders in the office,  and colleagues testify to McKenna and Blumberg’s profound impact on Canadian architecture—and beyond. The Architectural Practice Award winner, 5468796 Architecture, celebrates working in constrained situations. Their recent Pumphouse succeeded in redeveloping a heritage site where more than a dozen before had failed, by crafting a novel architectural approach—and financial case—for its adaptive reuse. Sometimes rules and regulations can pose considerable barriers to building affordably and sustainably, but the Canadian approach isn’t to break those rules—it’s to change them. That’s what LGA Architectural Partners is doing with their research on single stair building code reform, an effort that garnered them an RAIC Research and Innovation in Architecture Award. Another Research and Innovation Award went to MJMA for their work on designing Western North York Community Centre as a net-zero energy building. Aquatic centres typically consume high amounts of energy, so reaching this goal—on a tight site to boot—involved patiently and persistently searching for ways to reduce and offset the operational and embodied carbon of the building, including pioneering a first-in-Toronto approach to geothermal exchange. The three Prix du XXe siècle winners remind us how deeply rooted a Canadian approach to architecture has been. The early-20th-century town of Grand Falls, Newfoundland was possibly the first garden city built outside of the U.K., and aimed to provide healthy, progressive living and working conditions for factory labourers. In 1958, architects Jean Emberley Wallbridge and Mary Louise Imrie, partners in life and work, created a modernist home and studio attuned to its natural setting in Edmonton—exemplifying the possibilities of both building with modest means, and of career success for a same-sex couple even in a more conservative period of Canadian history. And in another diversity success story, the RAIC’s prizes recognize Canada’s first known architect of Japanese descent, Kiyoshi Izumi, who crafted a psychiatric hospital profoundly attuned to the needs of patients—going so far as to take LSD himself to better understand the experiences of the mentally ill. The RAIC’s Advocate for Architecture Award celebrates a largely unsung hero: Dr. Yosef Wosk, a philanthropist with a longstanding commitment to improving Canadian buildings and landscapes. Wosk’s committed patronage underscores the notion—shared by many Canadian architects—that architecture can have a profound impact on the everyday lives of people and communities. This year’s RAIC Architectural Media and Journalism award goes to Diamond Schmitt Architects’ book Set Pieces: Architecture for the Performing Arts in Fifteen Fragments. The documentation of this body of work demonstrates the international presence and impact of Canadian architectural expertise. This issue also highlights the work of two global figures whose work resonates deeply with Canadian values. RAIC International Prize winner Turenscape, led by Kongjian Yu, is a Chinese landscape practice that has pioneered the idea of “sponge cities” that naturally regulate and absorb stormwater. His late Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan IV, who won the RAIC’s Gold Medal in 2013, sponsored a series of major architectural projects in Canada because he recognized the power of Canada’s pluralistic society. Canadian architects experience first-hand that diverse viewpoints, multifaceted user groups, and complex sites can make projects challenging—but that these conditions can also give rise to the best projects. And through the painstaking process of dealing honestly with complexity, Canadian architects aim to shape a better world, one building at a time. As appeared in the May 2025 issue of Canadian Architect magazine The post 2025 RAIC Award Winners: A showcase for Canadian architecture appeared first on Canadian Architect.