PREVIOUS WORKS :
Place de Montréalaise
Beloeil
Quartier des Lumières
Saint Joseph’s Oratory of Montréal
York University New Student Centre for Cannon Design
+ more
PRINCIPAL AK A/FLDWRK
PROFESSOR OF PRACTICE MCGILL UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE
PROFESSOR OF PRACTICE UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE
PROGRESSIVE ARCHITECTURE AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE (2 x 2012)
CANADIAN ARCHITECT AWARD OF EXCELLENCE 2000 2010 2017 2020
Andrew King is recognized nationally and internationally as a leader in design excellence, applied design research, teaching and cultural discourse. King’s work has been consistently published in international art and architecture journals and recognized with international design awards. He was selected one of Canada’s “design leaders” by the Globe and Mail in 2003 and has received four Canadian Architect Awards of Excellence. In 2012 he had the unprecedented honour of being awarded two American Institute of Architecture Progressive Architecture (P/A) Awards of Excellence in the same year for projects of very divergent scales and briefs. In 2017 he was elected to the College of Fellows of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, and in 2003, the Canada Council for the Arts Prix de Rome Laureate.
King currently leads AKA/FLDWRK. AKA/FLDWRK is transdisciplinary, design research practice with partners and collaborators across Canada and abroad, as well as academic and institutional partnerships in design, architecture, business and health care. In 2018, his trans-disciplinary team, including artist Angela Silver, was award first place in the international design competition for Place de Montrealaises (PDM), to be completed in 2024. PDM has subsequently received 2020 Awards of Excellence from Canadian architect as well as a WAN award, world architecture prize and the grand prix du design. His Oratoire St. Joseph Carillon was awarded a 2017 Canadian Architect Award of Excellence and a 2018 AZ Award.
King currently holds a three year appointment as Professor in Practice at the Peter Guo-hua Fu School of Architecture at McGill University and a Professor of Practice appointment at the University of Calgary’s School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape. He has been continuously involved in teaching design studio at various levels since 1988, and has contributed to studios in Ottawa, Montreal, Calgary, Banff, London (UK), Berlin, Copenhagen and Rome. This includes all levels of architectural studio development and delivery from first year undergraduate to senior graduate studios, including interdisciplinary, integrated, comprehensive and speculative initiatives, and thesis supervision. King has held two of Canada’s most prestigious academic design chairs. As the Gerald Sheff Visiting Professor in 2012 at McGill University’s School of Architecture King developed contingent architectures delivering a senior undergraduate studio on exploring critical art and cinema methodologies, and a senior graduate studios that dealt with the body and health in a context of physical and ideological crisis. The studios were heavily informed by his speculative and large practice research. His critical practice lecture series Gerald Sheff Lecture and exhibition focused on the interdisciplinary nature of his work, curating drawings, models and film through a constructed installation that re-aligned the gallery space. At McGill, he participated in the schools 2012 accreditation review. As the Azrieli Visiting Critic (2009-10) at Carleton University’s Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism, King focused graduate studio delivery around one tectonic based studio, looking at material culture and a speculative studio exploring methodologies. His Azrieli Visiting critics Symposium invited critics, curators, practice leaders and academics to discuss the tensions between practice and research.
In 2008, King was appointed firm wide design leader and Design Principal for Canada at Cannon Design. He was a member of the firms Board of Directors and Design Practice Committee, and led the firms re-branding initiative. He led teams in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal on projects across Canada and in Asia, including the two billion dollar CHUM super-hospital in Montreal. His Capilano University Film School was awarded a 2010 Canadian Architect Magazine Award of Excellence and his Wilfred Laurier University Sports Centre received a 2012 AIA P/A Award of Excellence. His York University Student Centre was awarded a 2018 Best in Canada Prize.
Since 1990, King has led his own interdisciplinary design and research initiative, AK A, making architecture, industrial design, graphic design, installation, publications and urban policy consulting, often using critical design methodologies to create strategies for communities and cities. AK A operates simultaneously as an interdisciplinary design practice and as an experimental research platform that implicates design studio teaching directly in its work. By blurring boundaries between studio practice and studio teaching, student experience is often implicitly engaged in issues of design practice. AK A regularly collaborates with multidisciplinary teams in academia, urban policy-making, art production institutions and industry creating an informed approach to integrated design. This work been recognized through awards and publications, including a Canadian Architect Award of Excellence and a 2012 AIA P/A Award of Excellence for the Hawk House. AK A has been supported by various schools, funding bodies, galleries, curators and research initiatives. For the last five years AK A has been a research laboratory focused on small, critically resonant architecture, interdisciplinary design and dissemination projects across Canada, and in 2019 it converged with the lemayLAB to form FLDWRK.
Andrew King studied engineering and theatre (Acadia University), and worked as a professional actor before studying architecture (Dalhousie University). King’s first decade of practice was spent primarily in Europe, working in London, Seville, Budapest and Berlin, where he lived for eight years. He spent a formative mentorship in the office of Zaha Hadid in London.
In 2003, King was the Canada Council for the Arts Prix de Rome Laureate, spending a year using the historic and contemporary gates of Rome to examine the relationship between exile and identity. The resulting project, ROMALUX, is a speculation on architectural, curatorial and cinematic space, which has subsequently been exhibited across Canada and abroad. This is a stream of research that began with his thesis project in 1990, was supported by a Canada Council for the Arts Production Grant in 1993 and has informed speculative projects, exhibitions, lectures, essays and studio delivery. Through this work, King has a nuanced understanding of architectures role in post-war Rome and Berlin, particularly through the lens of industrial design, contemporary art and neo-realist cinema. The Rome research has evolved into a recognized critical art practice (with partner Angela Silver), commissioned to make in-situ and gallery-based installations across Canada and abroad. Commissions include lens for the Banff Centre for the Arts for inclusion in the 2005 Alberta Biennial of Contemporary Art and ex-urbus for Black Dog Press’ Informal Architecture by Anthony Keindl.
From 1997 to 2007 he was continuously involved with the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Architecture and Faculty of Fine Arts, with appointments as Professional Associate Professor and an interdisciplinary appointments between Fine Art, Theatre and Architecture. This has included active participation in two accreditation reviews.
From 2005 to 2010 King developed an interdisciplinary research initiative with the Banff Centre for the Arts, forming and delivering several residencies as participant, instructor and peer review. This work brought together architects, artists, filmmakers, musicians and others in a context for production of work through the exploration of critical methodologies.
In 2012 at the University of British Columbia King co-delivered a practice-based studio with Prof. Chris Macdonald, where UBC students worked in tandem with his Vancouver design studio on a parallel project, sharing research and development. Reviews occurred in the school and practice studio environment, across digital communication platforms and on site.
King has contributed at Dalhousie University (FreeLab 2005), the American Academy in London, the Architectural Association in London, and the Hochschule der Kunst in Berlin and in January 2004 he was appointed Visiting Professor at the Royal Academy of Art, School of Architecture in Copenhagen, creating and implementing a ten day charrette at Institute 3, Architecture and Speed.
In 2003-04 King contributed to the various Rome programs held during the 2003-2004 academic year: participating in mid-term and final reviews at several programs as invited critic, including Cornell, Pratt Institute, Temple University, RISD and Waterloo.
As a consultant, writer and critic King has contributed to cultural development through several critical journals, writing about contemporary art, projects and architectural curation. He visited the Sao Paolo Biennialle in 2005 for DFAIT and the Canada Council, creating a report on Canada’s potential involvement with the exhibition. He has written critical essays for projects such as 20+, artcity and informal architectures and has reviewed significant international exhibitions for journals, including the Venice Biennalle and the Sao Paolo Biennalle He is a co-editor of and contributor to the University of Calgary Press’ building/art (2004), and his work was featured in and on the cover of Coach House Books The Prix de Rome: A Critical Perspective by Marco Polo.
King has lectured widely on his work, various research streams and on contemporary practice. Venues include the Tate Gallery in London, the Iceland School of Art and Design, the Spertus Institute in Chicago, Ohio State University, Maison de Architecture in Montreal, the University of Lethbridge, Carleton University, La Sapienza University in Rome, New York University in Florence, the Royal Academy in Copenhagen, the Design Exchange in Toronto, the Confederation Arts Centre in Charlottetown, the Stride Gallery in Calgary and the Walter Philips Gallery in Banff. He speak continually at RAIC, OAA and Banff Centre conferences, WRLDCTY and DEZEEN talks, and recently gave the keynote lectures for ATMOSPHERE 15 at the University of Manitoba and the Doctor of Design Symposium at the University of Calgary