Editorial: Emerging at Midlife

Every few years, we dedicate an issue to showcasing emerging talent. The following pages put the spotlight on 20 firms that our curatorial team chose for the contributions they’re making to the culture of Canadian architecture. It’s a small sampling of the many firms we feel are worth watching in the years to come.

As someone in my mid-40s, I was interested to see that at least a half-dozen of the firms featured this year were founded by architects who had just turned 40. It’s an emergence story that’s familiar: an architect is employed at established firms for a dozen years, then opens up their own practice. Sometimes, there’s a precipitating incident: they’ve started a family, and can find better flexibility by being their own boss. Their peers in other fields have become established enough to now be clients, and are willing to entrust a renovation or small business design commission to their long-time friend. Or, it’s just a mid-life crisis thing. As one of our selected architects put it, there’s something about hitting 40 that makes you question: if not now, then when?

Frankly, it’s also challenging to start your own firm any sooner than 40. While decades ago, an architect’s scope of work was simpler— the design drawings for a large building were sometimes only a dozen sheets, and many more details were worked out on-site with the aid of builders—now, the work is much more complex. The technical requirements for buildings have become more rigorous, coordinating a wider array of specialized subconsultants is more challenging, and architects’ responsibility (and liability) has grown. Contractual obligations and relationships have also changed, creating the not-infrequent situation that architects and contractors are working in opposition rather than in concert, each aiming to avert responsibility for changes and errors. The complicated documents, details, and processes involved with architecture can’t easily be taught in architecture school, but require many years of on-the-job learning to manage effectively.

This may all sound somewhat discouraging, especially in comparison to other industries, where businesses have much younger founders. (I recently attended a tech conference where the entire convention centre seemed to be filled with would-be start-up entrepreneurs in their 20s, with laptops and world-changing ideas, hoping to attract venture capital funding.) But there are upsides to starting a firm at mid-life.

Psychoanalyst Carl Jung saw mid-life as a critical transition between a first half of life focused on acquiring things (knowledge, material goods, success) and a second half that is more about finding meaning. We ask questions such as: “What makes me feel I am useful in this world?”

What does it mean to start a firm from this place of searching? It can often mean less focus on becoming a starchitect and more on finding ways to best contribute one’s abilities to the world, and to others.

This is palpable in many of the firms featured in Twenty + Change: New Perspectives. Most of the selected architects are less concerned with creating a signature style, and more interested in how their buildings serve particular people and needs. They want to create places that fit in with their context— be it a wooded rural setting or a tight site in an urban downtown. They are interested in better understanding and working with the cultural nuance of a place. Many have deeply integrated environmental sustainability into their practices.

They’re also conscious of what their workplace is like: several of the firms spoke to our writers about how they’re working to create equitable businesses, and places that give their staff the opportunity to do their best work. Some have purposefully chosen to stay small, dedicating their attention to working with clients through all stages of projects.

The resulting work is highly accomplished, and in many cases even spectacular. We hope you enjoy the work of these firms who have much to be proud of, and a bright future ahead.

As appeared in the October 2024 issue of Canadian Architect magazine

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