This year, Emergency and Development Architects (Architectes de l’urgence et de la coopération) will become Architecture without Borders Quebec. The news was announced in December, during the organization annual fundraiser, were over 150 people from architecture, design, construction and factory world gathered at La soirée des grands A (The Evening of Every Great A), raising some $20,000 to mark the humanitarian organization’s 10th anniversary.
By joining the Without Borders banner, the revitalized organization hopes to bring Quebec’s humanitarian architecture to another level. “For the last 10 years, we helped people in need, especially in Haiti, Nepal, Madagascar, and even in Quebec’s Aboriginal communities, where the housing crisis is rife. By becoming Architecture Without Borders Quebec, we will improve our capacity to clearly communicate our action and to reinforce our partnership with the Ordre des Architectes du Québec (OAQ). We also hope to inspire our colleagues from other Canadian provinces into the humanitarian architecture movement,” explained the president, Christian Samman.
Nathalie Dion, president of OAQ was invited to give a special address and declared “Architecture Without Borders Quebec has an important part to play. It is both the conscience and the humanitarian arm of our profession. It is a lever for actions to equality in architecture. It is also a demonstration that architects are not indifferent to equity issuesm”
2018 marks the organization’s 10th anniversary ,and its new name will be communicated on all its official platforms starting early this year. The mission of Architecture Without Borders Quebec (hitherto called Emergency and Development architects) is to develop mobilizing projects which contribute to improving the built environment, the capacity to respond to emergency situations, the well-being, the dignity and the empowerment of vulnerable populations, locally and internationally. The organization was created 10 years ago by the Ordre des architects du Québec and is supported by all Quebec’s architects.