A $100,000 donation from Lalande + Doyle has allowed the Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism at Carleton University to create new hybrid architectural studios that will serve as key learning hubs for architecture students.

The gift enabled renovation of Carleton’s undergraduate architecture studio and will also be used to refurbish and update an existing classroom into an additional studio for graduate students.

The undergrad studio, unveiled in November 2013, reflects L+D’s ongoing support of the Carleton architecture program, of which founders Louise Lalande and Philippe Doyle are both graduates.

“Louise and I are grateful for, and proud of, the architectural education we received at Carleton,” says Doyle. “We’ve been contributors to the school’s Forum Lecture Series for many years, and were pleased to be able to give in this very tangible way.”

 Studios have traditionally played a central role in architectural education, providing spaces for creative exchange and collegial competition. In recent years, Internet connectivity, laptops and simulation labs have displaced some of the person-to-person dialogue the studio environment offers.

“Technology has been slowly rewriting the purpose of the studio,” says Doyle. “But the human interface that comes from the studio experience is essential: after all, architecture is a civic act. As architects we should be building real buildings, for real people with real needs. That requires human interaction.”

 The new studio space is ‘hybrid’ in that it provides facilities for students to combine use of the latest technologies with traditional methods of idea exchange.

 “The two together are what produce truly innovative results,” says Lalande. “We look forward to seeing the designs students will produce out of this studio.”