Les travaux de recherche-création d’Anne Cormier, effectués au sein du Laboratoire d’Étude de l’Architecture Potentielle, portent principalement sur le logement social comme espace de création, d'innovation et de critiques dans les centres-villes canadiens et sur le projet contemporain.

À titre d’architecte, elle contribue aux travaux de l’Atelier Big City depuis sa création en 1987. Ces travaux, projets construits, concours, installations et mises en espace, combinent la recherche de thèmes pertinents et percutants à l’usage inventif de matériaux et d’assemblages. Le slogan dont s’est doté l’atelier «Make architecture a public policy» souligne l’importance de la dimension publique de l’architecture pour le groupe.

À titre de chercheur à l’Observatoire Ivanhoé Cambridge du développement urbain et immobilier, Daniel Gill se penche sur l’évolution des centralités urbaines et l’instrumentalisation de la culture comme outil de développement en centre urbain. Ses champs d’intérêt comprennent plus largement la promotion immobilière résidentielle publique et privée et les politiques d’habitation.

Financées par la Société canadienne d’hypothèques et de logement (SCHL), ses plus récentes recherches s’intéressent au rapport entre les modes de vie et les modes d’habiter et l’impact des changements démographiques sur le marché de l’habitation.

Depuis 2012 il est chercheur principal pour une étude sur la réhabilitation des sites urbains contaminés et les outils à mettre en place pour la favoriser, menée pour le compte du Ministère du Développement économique, de l’Innovation et de l’Exportation du Québec.

Michel Guenet s’intéresse à la géographie structurale, la morphologie urbaine, la planification stratégique et l’aménagement du territoire. Il est également spécialiste en géomatique et système d’information géographique ainsi qu’en analyse et modélisation spatiale.

Ses plus récentes recherches touchent aux questions de ségrégation socio-spatiale et aux gated communities, notamment dans le cadre d’un projet de recherche avec l’Université de Puebla au Mexique (Facultad de Arquitectura, Universidad Autonoma de Puebla).

The research topics which have caught much interest form me are not limited to-

• Measuring and assessing Social Value in architecture.
• Evaluating inclusiveness in the Urban Architecture and Public Realm.
• Investigating Autonomous Building Processes in coastal settlements.
• Autonomy in the built environment, housing, and informal settlements.
• Exploring indigenous building techniques and vernacular architecture.
• Climate change impacts and adaptation.

Current ongoing doctoral research-

Re-evaluating the Social Value of Architecture in the Public Realms through Inclusiveness and Environmental Justice.

The city, precisely the urban area, can be interpreted as “The city in its growth is defined by its artifacts, leaving open many possibilities and containing unexplored potential.” akin to Aldo Rossi in his “architecture of the city”. Alongside, the city can be seen as the product of the generative-functional systems of its architecture, and thus of urban space, where the architecture of the public realms is the treatise of necessity, workability, and quality of the public spaces that connect and engage buildings and other activities, while some may occur on private property, at all scales. However, unfortunately, from “the first city”, "Magical city" to “garden city” all the models have intended for the smooth functioning of the city, as a machine, and mere beautification. After shifting the focus on efficient transportation systems public realms and open areas have lost their qualities and values due to the dominant role of transport. Consequently, they have lost their primary functions of meeting and relationship places. Eventually, architecture is divorced from its function; it is collective memory, a pure, sophisticated formal game. Lately, in the 20th century, a major emphasis has been put on smart cities and environmental sustainability, which has transformed the city of the 21^st century into a city of paradox, more conservation-minded. While busy with all these, professionals have ignored one of the most critical elements of the ‘triple bottom line’ of sustainability, social value. Alongside, people’s social aspects have been neglected during the creation of public realms. Therefore, they have become artificial and isolated. And it has become a burning question "what are the qualities of an inclusive public realm and how to consider it?" An easy answer can be the inclusion of ‘social value’. But the reality is, it is not so easy. Henri Lefebvre first debated people’s rights to the city, where “The right to the city” is a motto. It is not undeniable it is the base of the notion of ‘social value’. However, in the modern era, lately, there has been a shift, and “The city is the people” has led to the issue of the inclusion of common people. Participation of different stakeholders is needed for inclusive urban architecture.

Design value in the built environment is currently understood to be the sum of environmental, economic, and social value. But we can question, argue, and debate with this definition in stating that "A whole is greater than the sum of its parts." While environmental value is generally measured in embodied and operational carbon (sometimes with the addition of biodiversity), there are several recognized methods for measuring economic value. Although architects often do not like to see themselves as an increment of economic gain, they create a huge amount of social value that they very often fail to record or capture. It is noteworthy that, though there are existing practices for measuring economic and environmental value, there are no agreed measures of social value. Until this value is expressed in a format that can be fed into policy and procurement, it will remain invisible, leaving economic and environmental value as the sole dominant currency of built environment transactions.

The major aim of this research is to ensure a collaborative approach through the participation of individuals and different stakeholders for creating social value and a unique identity for the public realm. The specific objectives are:

1. To explore different stakeholders and their roles in designing inclusive public realms.
2. To investigate public realms of diverse urban contexts, for design parameters, from inclusiveness and environmental justice approach both at the neighborhood level and city level.
3. To evaluate these design parameters, collaborating inclusiveness and environmental justice, in different public realms.
4. To develop a ‘social value index’ for inclusive architecture based on the performance of these design parameters.

Gonzalo Lizarralde étudie les processus impliqués par les projets de construction, incluant :

• Le rôle et les caractéristiques de l’architecture dans la construction,
• La gestion de projets d'aménagement et la gestion de l’information,
• La maîtrise d’ouvrage et le design organisationnel,
• La reconstruction après les catastrophes naturelles.

Faisant partie d’un programme de recherche à long terme, son travail porte spécifiquement sur les conséquences des décisions stratégiques des donneurs d’ouvrage sur l’organisation et la gestion du processus de construction lui-même, en fonction des rôles des participants et de leurs relations.

Sébastien Lord s’intéresse aux pratiques résidentielles à travers les questions de vieillissement des populations, du lien entre mobilités (quotidienne et résidentielle), et des espaces de vie et métropolisation. Il étudie en particulier les aspirations, préférences et choix résidentiels, les expériences et significations du « chez-soi », et le lien entre immigration, intégration et habitat. Ses travaux de recherche adoptent des approches mixtes (qualitative et quantitative) et longitudinales.