Patkau Architects

Patkau Architects is based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. There are currently two principals: John and Patricia Patkau, and three associates: David Shone, Peter Suter and Greg Boothroyd.

In over 30 years of practice, both in Canada and in the United States, Patkau Architects has been responsible for the design of a wide variety of building types for a diverse range of clients. Projects vary in scale from gallery installations to master planning, from modest houses to major urban libraries. Many projects have involved functional programming, management of detailed public processes, and design of complex buildings and sites.

Current work includes a Visitors’ Centre at Fort York National Historic Site in Toronto, the Marcel A Desautel Faculty of Music and the School of Art at the University of Manitoba, the Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport at the University of Toronto, a series of Cottages at Fallingwater, Mill Run, Pennsylvania, as well as a variety of residential projects in diverse locations ranging from a northern island off the coast of British Columbia to a farm in Ad’Diriyyah, Saudi Arabia.

As the circumstances of the work change, our interests expand. We seek to explore the full richness and diversity of architectural practice, understanding it as a critical cultural act that engages our most fundamental desires and aspirations. We refuse singular definitions of architecture: as art, as technology, as social service, as environmental agent, as political statement. We embrace all these definitions, together, as part of the rich, complex and vital discipline that we believe architecture to be.

Patkau Architects
Monograph Available from The Monacelli Press
foreword by Kenneth Frampton
May 2006

2010
Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport - Winning Entry, International Design Competition
Cottages at Fallingwater - Winning Entry, International Design Competition
Grande Bibliotheque du Quebec - Governor General's Medal in Architecture

2009
Fort York National Historic Site Visitors Centre - Winning Entry, International Design Competition

2008
Hadaway House - Canadian Architect Award of Excellence
Gleneagles Community Centre - Governor General's Medal in Architecture
Winnipeg Centenial Library - Governor General's Medal in Architecture

2007
Peterson / Munck House - Canadian Architect Award of Excellence
Grande Bibliotheque du Quebec - American Institute of Architects / American Library Association Honor Award
Winnipeg Centenial Library - Lieutenant Governor's Medal in Architecture

2006
Grande Bibliotheque du Quebec - Lieutenant Governor’s Medal in Architecture
Gleneagles Community Center - Lieutenant Governor’s Certificate of Merit
Winnipeg Centennial Library - Prairie Design Award

2005
Little House - Canadian Architect Award of Excellence
University of Manitoba Centre for Music, Art and Design - Canadian Architect Award of Excellence
Shaw House - American Institute of Architects National Honor Award
Agosta House - American Institute of Architects National Honor Award

January 2011 - Spring Ice Melt
Invited Participant, The Warming Hut: An Art + Architecture Exposition on Ice
Assiniboine River, Winnipeg, Manitoba
Project: Jellyfish

June 12 - August 22, 2010
Design Competition: New Cottages at Fallingwater
The Heinz Architectural Center at Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

April 19 - June 30, 2010
Archtypes: from Greek Huts and Sheepfolds to Contemporary Art and Architecture
Byzantine and Christian Museum, Athens, Greece
Works included: La Petite Maison du Weekend