NOMADE_Islamabad

RM: What are you working at the moment?

NOMADE: Well, we are working on a lot, including many different projects around the world. For example, Martin is going to China this Sunday on a multi-city trip including Beijing Tianjin, Shanghai, Nanjing and Guanzhou. There is a competition we are involved with in Tianjin central square development scheme--a bit like Tiananmen Square in Beijing--for the Central Business Development scheme there. That project is particularly interesting because the current situation there compares to what was happening in Chicago in the 1930’s. It’s pretty fun because you get a chance, from scratch, to affect the lives of people… unlike projects that we worked on here in Montreal like theMontreal Quartier des Spectacles and Saint-Laurent Boulevard or the Old port of Montreal, projects that involved more complex exisisting conditions.


NOMADE_Old Port Montreal

We are also working on huge housing project in Wuhan-- the first scheme was mostly put together by ourselves but the ongoing part of it will be with local firms in China. It is important for us, if we are going try to merge with a given culture in a meaningful way with our projects…you have to also get a glimpse of how they do it, how they can provide… because architecture has become something very international - the boundaries have been erased but there are still cultural differences. So you can’t just throw something out there and expect it to fly if you have no sense specific culture.


NOMADE_Wuhan

We are also working on a scheme for a multifunctional hotel destination complex in Islamabad, Pakistan. And finally, we are working on some very funky and ambitious cross disciplinary projects with Diesel Marketing such as a lifestyle destination for Adidas. These last projects will definitely take us where we want to go and help us express our ideas about how to combine urban design, branding and architecture into a new cultural product.


Tomorrow: NOMADE's working methods...