Calgary firm MODA snags national architecture prize

CALGARY, ALTA. – Calgary-based architecture firm Modern Office of Design + Architecture (MODA) has been awarded the Emerging Architectural Practice Award by the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC).

The Emerging Architectural Practice is awarded each year to a Canadian architectural practice that shows exceptional promise for contributing significantly to the future of the country’s architecture.

MODA — Modern Office of Design + Architecture’s design for Attabotics’ office in Calgary is one of many projects that impressed judges for the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada’s Emerging Architectural Practice Award.

The award recognizes the early career achievements of the practice, considering six core areas: quality of architecture, quality of professional services, innovations in practice, contributions to the profession, exemplary approaches to sustainability, and the support and advancement of social justice.

MODA was started in 2013 by architects Ben Klumper and Dustin Couzens. The firm works across the fields of architecture, urbanism, landscape and design.

According to the RAIC, MODA is committed to advancing an architectural agenda through their built and conceptual work, dedicated research and teaching appointments at Calgary’s SAPL1.

“They practice along a diverse spectrum of project types and scales, approaching every project with a calculated mix of wonder and seasoned experience,” said officials at RAIC. “They seek out contemporary issues through which a desire to catalyze the ambiguous gaps between the discipline of architecture and its professional practice figures prominently. MODA demonstrates this through their dedication towards design advocacy, volunteering, committee duties, lecturing, teaching, and the projects undertaken by the studio.”

The institute added while small in scale and approach, the firm feels passionately that design should be accessible to all and packaged in a way that isn’t intimidating or elitist.

Jurors for the award noted MODA’s broad and inclusive approach to practicing architecture has resulted in a number of important and carefully considered works. MODA responds to social and environmental crises with thoughtful studies, meticulous material choices and attentive projects that delighted them with dynamic forms and enticing spaces.