Omar Gandhi Architects (OG) is an architectural practice founded in 2010 with small teams in both Halifax and Toronto. The work of its two studios – OG Halifax and OGTO– has garnered much National and International attention in the young practice’s 12 year history. In its early years, the studio was awarded the Canada Council for the Arts Professional Prix de Rome, was included in Wallpaper* Magazine’s Architects Directory, and Omar himself was named as one of Monocle Magazine’s ‘Most Influential Canadians’. Omar was chosen as one of the Architectural League of New York’s ‘Emerging Voices’ of 2016 and was appointed as the Louis I. Kahn visiting Assistant Professor in Architectural Design at the Yale School of Architecture for the 2018-19 academic year. Most recently, Omar Gandhi Architect was the recipient of a 2018 Governor General’s Medal in Architecture for its work on Rabbit Snare Gorge and honored as the only Canadian practice in Architectural Record Magazine’s 2018 Design Vanguard. In 2020, the studio was part of the team awarded the new Art Gallery of Nova Scotia and in 2021, completed the revitalization of one of Canada’s most Iconic landmarks, Peggy’s Cove.
As a burgeoning studio building an identity, we continually reflect on the clarity and continuity of our designed responses. In the search for meaning through the medium of architecture, we strive to implant our structures deeply into the soil of context. The phenomenological qualities of the climate – the sun, rain, sleet, hail, snow and fog – provides depth to our architectural narrative. The elements that shape the landscape, shape our architecture in kind.
Over the last 12 years our office has cultivated a dedicated approach to thoughtful, and sound expressions of architecture. Our built work spans from urban in-fill and renovations to rural homes, coastal cottages, medium and large scale public works and projects which rethink entire landscapes. We design furniture, atmospheres and communities. Early on we developed a clear design process which we carry through all of our work. Beginning with a simple local typology, the forms are then extruded, bent or flattened. Roof planes folded and pleated. Details are sculpted by conditions and use, and then the reconstituted adaptation is receptive and responsive in keeping with a modest, formal lineage. This approach is based firmly in a formal methodology, the materials and forms of which both express and respond to the specific qualities of the site. Through our pursuit to unify people and context, and our mindfulness towards precedents and our client relationships, we have seen the successful completion of a growing body of built work.
In 2020, marking the end of a decades work the studio released its first monograph, published by Arquine (Mexico City) entitled Adaptation.
Our studio pursues the development of the discourse though our values and experience in building, collaborations, and teaching. Formed by the character of our clients, context, and a vigilant employment of materials and construction methods, we seek to create spaces that enhance the lives of those who engage with them.
