About
Architecture is a record of where a city and a culture [is] at a particular time … The exceptions in the urban framework articulate the city.
Peter Clewes on the role of architecture in the city
    Studio
We are architects–Alliance, a design practice of lowercase and uppercase architecture: a–A. Home is Toronto, Canada, a city we love and have helped to shape over the past 20 years. At a–A, we are intimately engaged in the project of the city and in exploring nuanced ways of defining and redefining it; articulating and advancing its development through thoughtful responses to today and tomorrow’s urban questions, big and small. Building on a history of inventive and responsive solutions to housing and density, the project of a–A is to meaningfully contribute to, as well as continue to lead, ongoing conversations about how the contemporary city takes shape.
    Approach
Whether it is in a major metropolitan centre where our studio is based, or across the country and other geographic borders, the work of our office is oriented towards a careful consideration and rigorous interrogation of built form. We explore architecture in a unique way, asking how can we take a simple geometric form and give it a sense of material presence specific to its location. We research, we experiment, and look for inventive ways to address the relationship of the building to the street, to public space. We find character in form and materials. Attentive to context and community, use and user, our work aims to strengthen the bridge between people and place. But whether it is a school, a gallery, an office or residential tower—or sometimes an entire neighbourhood—we start from the ground up and are grounded by our commitment to practising a meaningful and sustainable urbanism.
    Recent Press
    2019 January/February: Perspective Magazine [Hong Kong] ● True North
    Awards & Recognition
    2020 Canadian Architect Magazine: Award of Excellence ● West Don Lands Block 8
    2019 Canadian Association of Heritage Professionals: Award of Merit ● Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto Canada [MOCA]
    2019 Ontario Concrete Awards: Material Development & Innovation Award ● Tower at Pier 27
    2017 Urban Land Institute: Global Award of Excellence ● West Don Lands, including Canary District, PanAm/Parapan Games Athletes' Village
    2017 City of Toronto: Urban Design Award of Excellence for Building in Context ● 383 Sorauren
    2017 City of Toronto: Urban Design Award of Excellence for Public Spaces ● ÏCE Condominiums at York Centre
    2017 City of Toronto Urban Design Award of Excellence for Building in Context Private / Mid-Rise / Residential ● 383 Sorauren
    2014 American Institute of Architects / Faith & Form Magazine Award for Religious Architecture — Renovation ● St. James Cathedral Centre
    2014 Royal Architectural Institute of Canada [RAIC] Governor General’s Medal in Urban Design ● St. James Cathedral Centre [nominee]
    2013 City of Toronto Urban Design Award of Excellence for Building in Context — Public ● St. James Cathedral Centre
    2013 Canadian Urban Institute Brownie Award for Brownfields Redevelopment Best Overall Project ● Canary District PanAm/Parapan Games Athletes' Village
    2012 Canadian Architect Magazine Award of Excellence ● Pan/Parapan American Games Athletes' Village
    2012 European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies and The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design Green Good Design Award ● Sackville Dundas Apartments, Regent Park Redevelopment
    2012 Royal Architectural Institute of Canada [RAIC] Governor General’s Medal in Urban Design ● Thompson Hotel and Residences [nominee]
    2011 City of Toronto Urban Design Award of Excellence for Building in Context ● Thompson Hotel and Residences
    2011 PCBC Premier Building Show/ Builder Magazine Award of Merit for Green/Sustainability Community ● Sackville-Dundas Apartments, Regent Park Redevelopment
    2011 City of Toronto Green Toronto Award ● Sackville-Dundas Apartments, Regent Park Redevelopment — Phase 1
    2010 Canadian Architect Magazine Award of Excellence ● Block 31 [elementary schools, market and RGI residential units, community centre and child care facility]
    2010 Ontario Association of Architects [OAA] Award of Excellence ● Sackville-Dundas Apartments, Regent Park Redevelopment — Phase 1
    2010 Design Exchange Award of Excellence ● Sackville-Dundas Apartments, Regent Park Redevelopment — Phase 1
    2009 Design Exchange Bronze Award, Commercial Architecture ● Humber College Centre for Urban Ecology Prime: Taylor Hazell Architects
    2009 City of Toronto Urban Design Award of Excellence for Building in Context — Private/Tall ● Spire
    2009 Niagara Escarpment Commission Achievement Award ● Beaver Valley House
    2008 RAIC Governor General’s Medal in Architecture ● Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research [The Donnelly Centre], University of Toronto
    2008 RAIC Governor General’s Medal in Urban Design ● Canada’s National Ballet School/RadioCity [with KPMB Architects and Goldsmith Borgals Architects]
    2008 Urban Land Institute Global Award for Excellence ● Canada’s National Ballet School/RadioCity [with KPMB Architects and Goldsmith Borgals Architects]
    2008 Urban Land Institute North American Award for Excellence ● Canada’s National Ballet School/RadioCity [with KPMB Architects and Goldsmith Borgals Architects]
    2008 Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia Award of Excellence in Architecture ● Fred Kaiser Engineering Building, University of British Columbia
Buildings must be more than places to live, study or work. A building should be a place in which to dream, to create, a place that inspires people to think.
Peter Clewes on the creative purpose of architecture
    COLOPHON
    Design and build by Chi Nguyen