Blue Sky Living: The Architecture of Helliwell + Smith

Vancouver-based Trevor Boddy is a critic of contemporary architecture, and commentator on recent urbanism and city-building. His writing on buildings and cities has been awarded the Alberta Book of the Year Prize (for the critical architectural monograph The Architecture of Douglas Cardinal), Jack Webster Journalism Prize, Western Magazine Award, the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada's 2010 Advocacy Award, and an Honorary Membership in the American Institute of Architects, for whom he has also served as an awards juror. Boddy's books range from the first regional study of Canadian modernism, Modern Architecture in Alberta, to Blue Sky Living: The Architecture of Helliwell and Smith, a monograph on a West Coast domestic practice. At the 2011 World Congress of Architecture in Tokyo, Boddy's essay (for Arquitectura Viva of Madrid) on contemporary design in his country entitled "MEGA + MICRO: Canada, Innovation at the Extremes" was awarded a commendation for the Union Internationale des Architectes' Pierre Vago Prize as the best piece of architectural criticism published worldwide in the preceding three years. As a consulting urban designer, he has co-devised architectural competitions including Surrey's "TownShift: Suburb Into City." His "HybridCity" essay was included in the Vancouver Art Gallery's 2011 exhibition "WE Vancouver: 12 Manifestos for the City." As architectural curator, Trevor Boddy produced a 2008 exhibition on "Vancouverism: Architecture Builds the City" a related site-specific construction for Trafalgar Square. It was named a marquee event for the 2008 London Festival of Architecture, then re-mounted it in Paris in 2009, before returning home to Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.