Francois Emond

Background

About Francois Emond

François P. Emond, architect, b.arch, m.sc.a ( landscape ) Born and raised in the U.S, François studied literature and physics before completing his professional degree in architecture at McGill University in 1988. He pursued his studies at the post graduate level in sculpture, regional planning and urban design before completing a masters of landscape at Université de Montréal in 2004. He participated in numerous international conferences and design charrettes, most notably the workshop on the information city held in Yokohama Japan by the M.I.T. media lab and the Entretiens Jacques Cartier in Lyon, France. In parallel to professional practice, François pursued a fruitful teaching career initially at the School of landscape of University of Montreal and later at the school of architecture McGill where he acted as adjunct professor for fifteen years. He taught both undergraduate and post graduate design studios, the urban design studio, while teaching the core landscape course. He continues to participate in the wider design culture of Montréal and in the Eastern townships, as a guest critic at McGill, Université de Montréal, Université du Québec à Montréal, and Concordia University. François has realized numerous projects in the public, private and not for profit sectors that fuse landscape research with architectural rigour. With two McGill graduates, he founded the multi-disciplinary firm ékm architecture and environmental design, bringing landscape and ecological thinking to an architectural firm focused on doing innovative, functional and high quality design. Working closely with their clients, ékm has realized a wide variety of projects, from libraries to laboratories, from housing to schools, from restaurants to roof terraces that derive their quality from the narrative of site and program, the richness of material and form, the tension between design and construction, and, ultimately, the dialogue between nature and culture.