Trevor Boddy

Vancouver-based Trevor Boddy is a critic and curator of contemporary architecture and urbanism.

At the 2011 World Congress of Architects, Boddy’s essay (for AV in Madrid) on contemporary design in his country entitled “MEGA + MICRO: Canada, Innovation at the Extremes” was awarded second prize as the best piece of architectural criticism published worldwide in the past three years. Earlier in the year, his “HybridCity” was installed in the Vancouver Art Gallery and throughout the city as part of the exhibition “WE Vancouver: 12 Manifestos for the City,” further details here: http://projects.vanartgallery.bc.ca/publications/We_Vancouver/ .

Trevor Boddy’s independent critical monograph The Architecture of Douglas Cardinal was named “Alberta Book of the Year” and short-listed for the International Union of Architects prize for best book of architectural criticism, and his essay “Underground and Overhead: Building the Analogous City” was included in the collection Variations on a Theme Park: The New American City and the End of Public Space, named “One of the most important books of 1992″ by the Voice Literary Supplement, and a contributor to Sorkin’s 2007 follow-up collection from Routledge entitled Indefensible Space. His 1986 Modern Architecture in Alberta was Canada’s first regional history of 20th century architecture, followed up by his introduction to Capital Modern, for the 2007 exhibition of the same name at the Art Gallery of Alberta. He has served on the boards of directors of the Vancouver Centre for Dance, Vancouver’s Contemporary Art Gallery, the Centretown Ottawa Citizen’s Corporation and NeWest Publishers.

As architectural curator, Trevor Boddy assembled and produced the 2008 exhibition “Vancouverism” and related Trafalgar Square site-specific construction, named a marquee event for the 2008 London Festival of Architecture, and re-mounted in 2009 at Place d’Invalides, Paris. An expanded version entitled “Vancouverism: Architecture Builds the City” was mounted in the Woodwards downtown development during Vancouver’s 2010 Winter Olympic Games. Previously, Trevor Boddy produced the 2005 exhibition-as-event for UBC’s Museum of Anthropology entitled “A Dialogue of Cities,” a global gathering of architecture critics. His career retrospective exhibition entitled “Telling Details: The Architecture of Clifford Wiens” toured nationally to five galleries across Canada. For the City of Surrey he was co-organizer of “TownShift: Suburb Into City” the largest ideas design competition ever mounted by a Canadian municipality (www.townshift.ca)

Vancouver-based critic and commentator Trevor Boddy has written on architecture and cities for Globe and Mail, The Vancouver Sun, Edmonton Journal, Ottawa Citizen, Seattle Times, Georgia Straight, Architectural Review, Architectural Record and global design magazines published in German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese and Arabic. His art criticism has appeared in Canadian Art and Vanguard magazines plus numerous exhibition catalogues. He holds a professional Master’s degree in architecture from the University of Calgary, and has taught design studio, history and urbanism on four continents, and lectures globally on contemporary design and city-building.