Canadian Modern

Brigitte Shim and Howard Sutcliffe are both principals of Shim-Sutcliffe Architects in Toronto, an architecture and design firm interested in the integration of furniture, architecture and landscape. Their built architectural work has been honoured with eight Royal Architectural Institute of Canada Governor General’s Medals and Awards for Architecture along with AIA, American Wood Council, Canadian Wood Council, Architectural Record Interiors, I.D. Magazine Design Review award, and their un-built projects have received a P/A Award Citation and a Canadian Architect Award of Excellence. Furniture designed by their firm has won awards and represented Canadian design in international exhibitions and her architectural designs have been published widely in the U.S., Europe and Eurasia. In 2002, Brigitte Shim and her partner Howard Sutcliffe were recipients of the Toronto Arts Award for Architecture and Design.

Born in Yorkshire, England in 1958, Howard Sutcliffe was educated at the University of Waterloo, where he received degrees in Environmental Studies and Architecture. He worked with Canadian architect’s Ronald Thom, Paul Merrick, Barton Myers and KPMB Architects where he worked on their entry to the Kitchener City Hall Competition. Howard Sutcliffe was the first recipient of the Ronald J. Thom Award given by the Canada Council for early design achievement.

Brigitte Shim was born in Kingston, Jamaica, and has spent many years in Toronto, Canada and was educated at the University of Waterloo’s Faculty of Environmental Studies and School of Architecture. As a faculty member at the Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto since 1988, she has taught a broad range of studios and a lecture course in the history and theory of landscape architecture. Currently, she is the 2005 Eero Saarinen Visiting Professor of Architectural Design at Yale University’s School of Architecture. In 2002, she was an invited Visiting Professor at the Ecole Polytechnique Federal de Lausanne. In 2001, she was the Bishop Visiting Professor and Visiting Bicentennial Professor of Canadian Studies at Yale University. Brigitte Shim has been an invited visiting professor at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design in 1996 and 1993.