Architect Manon Asselin has been named the 2018 recipient of the Prix Ernest-Cormier for architecture & design, a major Quebec award that forms part of the annual ‘Prix du Quebec’ program, recognizing the province’s top achievements in the fields of science and culture Asselin is a principal at the Montreal based design firm Atelier TAG and a professor at University of Montreal School of Architecture.
Asselin, along with her partner Katsuhiro Yamazaki, formed the architectural design practice Atelier TAG in 1997. Since its inception, the studio has sought to create meaningful spaces by reinterpreting the civic function of architecture through the careful study of the sociocultural contexts within which a given program operates. TAG’s growing body of work has allowed it to develop a design methodology focused on advanced building technology and materiality. The work of the studio is a quest for simplicity, where the built space, through the calculated play of light and materiality, embodies the physical, the cultural and the poetics of architecture.
The young office’s output is consistently rewarded for its design excellence, including four Governor General’s medals, the prestigious Prix de Rome in architecture by the Canada Council for the Arts and the 2012 Emerging Voices from the Architectural League of New York.
A professor at University of Montreal since 2008, Asselin oversees core design studios and lectures on materiality, culture and constructive imaginaries. She was the 2012 Gerald Sheff visiting professor at McGill University. Asselin has lectured on Atelier TAG’s built work and participated in numerous national symposia. She has also served on numerous international, national, and local design juries as an advocate for design excellence, including at the Canada Council for the Arts.
Manon Asselin is a member of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (MRAIC), and a registered architect and a member of the Quebec Association of Architects (MOAQ).
This year’s jury members were Gérard Beaudet, Avi Friedman, Jonathan Bisson, Éric Gauthier, and Simon Brochu.