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Team: Stefan Davidovici, Irina Suteu, Simona Valentin
Consultants: Prof. Janos Baracs, Justin Dubé-Fahmy

The Coptic Canadian Village project confronted us with two difficult challenges; how to combine distinctive age-old Coptic and contemporary Canadian features into the same whole, and how to resolve in a clear and efficient way the problems created by the overlapping of various functions on the site.

From the very beginning our main purpose was to express the interweaving- peculiar to the Coptic communities -between Faith, Culture and secular activities.

A second aim has been to create a Coptic Canadian Village with a definite identity, characterized by both a strong personality and a generous openness to the urban environment. Those issues determined a response which brings together elements of architectural language and town planning. Its expression is a clear site organization which links all the buildings through a Cross-shaped circulation system, while emphasizing the core role of the Cathedral. Besides its theological signification, the Cross shape presents the most natural and efficient way to connect the different buildings in a whole.

The presentation of the project in Markham, ON in October 2003 was made possible by a Canada Council For Arts Travel Grant.