Janine Debanné
Associate Professor
Janine Debanné (BArch 1988, MArch 1995) is an Associate Professor at the Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism at Carleton University, Ottawa. She received a BArch from Carleton and an MArch in History and Theory of Architecture from McGill University. Her thesis explored links between the writings and buildings of the Late Baroque architect Guarino Guarini and set the stage for her pursuit of an understanding of architecture as built vision. She taught at the University of Detroit Mercy and researched Mies van der Rohe’s Lafayette Park as a participant observer over the course of six years. Joining Carleton in 2001, she turned her attention to regional modernist houses of the 1960s in Ottawa, investigating them as the informal architectural byproduct of the building of the official Canadian Capital. She teaches architectural design, and history and theory of architecture, including History of Canadian Architecture. Born in Ottawa and committed to the public understanding of architecture, she writes articles on current topics for the local popular press. Her mixed English-Canadian and Lebanese-Francophone heritage provides a personal basis for an interest in transculturality and informs her pursuit of an inclusive Canadian identity and language of architecture.
Education
MArch – McGill University, 1996
BArch – Carleton University, 1988
Courses
ARCS 2105
ARCS 2106
ARCS 3105
ARCS 4105 – Design Studios
ARCH 2300 – Introduction to Modern Architecture
ARCH 4301 – Architecture of the Postwar Period
ARTH 3002|ARCH 4002 – Canadian Architecture
ACN 3902 – Rhetorics of Architectural Representation
ARCH 5200 – Graduate Seminar
Research
Reception of architect-designed environments by dwellers including extended participant-observer research on Mies van der Rohe’s Lafayette Park, Detroit; Ottawa modernist architecture focusing on architect-designed domestic environments in the period 1950-75, including photographic documentation of the houses; site plan and dwelling layouts as manifestations of visions about life; the Canadian suburb. Article topics include perfect dimensions, the extraordinary embedded in the ordinary, ephemeral and seasonal rooms. Design pedagogy, including development of meditations on a block of clay and bundle of sticks studio exercise for early design teaching at Carleton University. Hand drawing and the field sketch. Guarino Guarini and Baroque architecture.
Practice
Before joining Carleton University, Janine practised in architectural firms in Ottawa, Gatineau, Toronto and Detroit.
She has worked independently on small-scale commissions since that time.