Williamson Chong Architects — the firm of Daniels Associate Professor Shane Williamson, and Sessional Lecturers Betsy Williamson and Donald Chong — has been awarded the Professional Prix de Rome in Architecture.

The Rome Prize is awarded to a young architecture firm that has completed its first buildings and demonstrated an exceptional artistic potential. The prize encourages the development of artistic excellence in contemporary architectural practice by supporting the winner to travel around the world to develop their skills, their creative practice and to strengthen their position in an international architectural milieu.

Williamson Chong's proposal, titled Living Wood, focuses upon innovative wood products and manufacturing technologies in a broad cultural context with the intent of establishing a critical relationship between sustainable building practices and emerging architectural design methodologies. 

The award will allow the firm to explore innovative wood technology within a broader cultural and ecological context while focusing on a new product called cross-laminated timber (CLT). CLT is created by stacking small wooden boards (taken from trees in sustainably managed forests) and gluing them together to create an exceptionally strong and versatile product. Digital fabrication tools (called Computer Numerically Controlled milling machines) allow manufacturers to sculpt this wood in a variety of shapes — which are used to create wonderfully distinctive buildings. The prize will enable the firm’s partners to travel to Europe and Asia to visit buildings and production facilities and meet with manufacturers, researchers, designers and writers. They will give lectures about their work as they travel and share lessons learned upon their return.

"New growth timber is the only major building material that grows naturally and is renewable," writes Williamson Chong Architects on it's website. "It is sustainable, acts as a carbon sink, and has a low energy of production. Where steel and concrete were the focus of 20th-century development in the building industry, we believe that technologically-advanced wood products will drive the next wave of innovation. Canadian architecture should be at the forefront of this work."

For more information, visit the Canada Council for the Arts website.