KANVA Architecture is a multidisciplinary collective specializing in architectural, construction and management needs with the ability to design at various scales and typologies. The Montreal based firm was founded in 2003 by Tudor Radulescu and Rami Bebawi. Both Radulescu and Bebawi graduated from McGill University’s School of Architecturein 2001 and shared an interest in balancing design with artistic expression and education. Radulescu and Bebawi are respective mentors in the local architecture community, through regular participation as an invited guest critic for studio reviews and assisting graduate student in developing their thesis at McGill University and the University of Montreal. Both principals prioritize the ideology of reciprocal teaching, through allowing the students to influence their practice as much as they influence the development of student’s architectural education. The design firm makes a priority of bringing architecture into greater visibility for the general public. KANVA has initiated outreach programs to bring a wider audience to provide feedback for public projects, allowing users to become active participants within the design process. KANVA Architecture frames each design project as an experiment, allowing the practice to operate as an architectural incubator for innovative use of material experimentation and construction technology. This works well with their holistic design process which includes the development of custom one to one mock-ups before construction to lower the tolerance of error when assembling complex custom building components.
Awards and Honors
KANVA’s design proposals have been featured in Canadian Architects, Azure, Architecture Movement Continuite, Dezeen, ArchDaily, Designboom, Phaidon Atlas and The New York Times. KANVA incorporates sustainable strategies in their work referring to adaptive reuse, material recycling, and healthy living through their experimental design process. KANVA in collaboration with NEUF architects won Canadian Institute of Steel Construction’s Design Award for Excellence in Steel Construction in three out of the twelve categories in 2018. KANVA’s proposal for the Saint-Hyacinthe Convention Centre won in the Commercial, Young Architects/Engineers and Jury Favorite categories. The innovative design firm are also recipients of the 2013 RAIC Award for Excellence, 2015 RAIC Emerging Practice Award, multiple Grands Prixdu Design Awards and the Illuminating Engineering Society Award. In 2018, KANVA’s Imago proposal for Montreal, Canada won the Experimental – Future Projects’ Awards at the World Architecture Festival. The proposal makes use of portable inflatable biomorphic structures to ignite a behavioral change within the circulation in Montreal’s urban densities.
