Vancouver's Architectural debates are rubbish. We've all been there: a panel of similar designers with similar views taking it in turns to talk at length about their similar work - too polite, too deferential, too dull. At best they are lukewarm love-ins, critically impotent, elitist and stuffy. Turncoats is a shot in the arm. Framed by theatrically provocative opening gambits, a series of free debates will rugby tackle six fundamental issues facing contemporary practice with a playful and combative format designed to ferment open and critical discussion, turning conventional consensus on its head.

Original Sin

We deride the derivative, we mock mimics, we fear facsimiles. Why? Hollywood reboots movies, theatre directors restage plays, musicians make covers. The best cultural production comes from the clear consensus that iterating is inventive yet in architecture we despise copying above all things. Our elitist and egotistical obsession with cosmetic novelty necessitates the endless, pointless, reinvention of form, reducing architecture to a spectacle of super-size billboard branding. Is bad originality preferable to a brilliant copy? Bullshit!

The Panel

Clinton Cuddington is an architect and the founding principal of Measured Architecture Inc., an award-winning full-service architectural firm specializing in high quality, high performance modern buildings.

Fernanda Hannah teaches design and is the co-owner of Monzu and Hannah Design, a local firm focusing on residential and reclaimed wood designs. She has lived and worked in Barcelona, New York and Mexico City.

Javier Campos is an architect and founder of Campos Studio. His work includes several highly-awarded buildings, public art pieces, and competition entries.

Alicia Medina is a cofounder and director at the Laboratory for Housing Alternatives (LOHA), as well as an intern architect at Marianne Amodio Architecture Studio. Her work has crossed boundaries between architecture, interior design, graphic design, public space installation and craft brewing.