The Deborah J. Norden Fund 2009

“The stereotomy of complex surfaces in French Baroque architecture”

In 2009, the Architectural League awarded one grant to Hubert Pelletier, who traveled to France to study the projection system of stereotomic drawings involved in Renaissance and Baroque architectural masterpieces. Studying works by Philibert de L’Orme, François Derand, and Jules Hardouin-Mansart, Pelletier analyzed the relationship between geometry, formal invention, and construction. Seeking to understand how changes in today’s geometric description tools might impact the discipline of architecture, he grappled with the question of whether these historic geometric constructions could be more usefully understood considered as a driving creative force or a descriptive tool.

Currently based in Quebec City, Canada, Pelletier studied industrial design at the Université de Montréal and Les Ateliers in Paris. He worked for several designers, in addition to independently, before continuing his studies in architecture at the Université de Montréal. After graduating, he worked at Daoust Lestage in Montreal from 2006 to 2008 and nARCHITECTS in New York from 2008 to 2009. In 2010 he cofounded Pelletier de Fontenay.