Toronto architectural firm Williamson Chong Architects has been awarded the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada’s (RAIC) 2014 Emerging Architectural Practice Award. The firm was recognized for their design work, community involvement, research and teaching methods.

“We are honoured to have been selected for the Emerging Architectural Practice Award, which recognizes our work to date but, more importantly, speaks to the potential of our design and research to significantly contribute to architectural discourse and the built environment in Canada,” says partner Shane Williamson. “As the second recipient of this award, we would like to thank the RAIC for providing such a unique vehicle to support the trajectories of early-career architects and offices.”

The seven-person office, established in 2011, has been responsible for several projects, many of which focus on the use of wood. One project, a retail store in Toronto called Pistachio, features reconstituted wood floors, urban tree-salvaged wood furniture, zero-VOC paints, low-formaldehyde medium density fibre-wood and other sustainable components.

The firm’s partners, Shane Williamson, Betsy Williamson and Donald Chong, plan to visit Austria, Scandinavia, Japan and South Korea to investigate advanced wood construction and emerging manufacturing technologies.