About the Firm
The firm of Angelo M. Spadola Architect has been established in Ottawa, Canada since 1989. Over the past 15 years, we have provided master planning, feasibility studies, and architectural design services for a variety of clients including multi-million dollar commisions of international stature. A number of these projects have received awards and have been included in acclaimed professional publications.
We design our projects with special emphasis on overall planning principles, such as site specificity combined with knowledge of all the support services necessary to the success of the development. We co-ordinate with specialized consultants, due to the increasing complexity and demands of today's buildings. The consultants provide valuable input on a variety of subjects, including structural, mechanical and electrial engineering, as well as landscape design, security, lighting, acoustics, communication, accessible building design, record management and retrieval, environmental control, fire protection, vertical transportation, cost consulting, scheduling, etc.
Design Philosophy
Beauty is the absorptive capacity to normalize marginality, to heighten emotion, to lose ones in the ubiquitous landscape while never neglecting historicist’s sensibilities; it triumphs over ugliness not by vanquishing it but by co-opting and reworking its destructive capacity according to innovative, but never neutral, values.
Our design philosophy is founded on identifying our clients’ requirements, through a well-developed program. Each project is unique and requires special understanding, which comes from a close working relationship between the client and architect. This enables us to design buildings, which are architecturally significant and functional, of high technical quality, on time and on budget. Moreover, the process from beginning to end is conducted with welcoming conviviality, which contributes to the success and enjoyment of all our projects.
Franco Ricci, Professor of Modern Languages and Literatures, University of Ottawa
"I have known Angelo for over 20 years. For the past 7 years we have been neighbors with adjoining backyards. When we are not comparing our latest batch of wine or comparing notes on preparing moscardini or seppie, our conversation usually turns to architecture, a pet source of inspiration for me. My friendship with Angelo is thus marked by a landscape that boasts proximity, conviviality, and the pursuit of intellectual creativity. After all, architecture, like words, is the stuff we are made on.
"Through our discussions I have come to understand that architecture and its practice, like literature, presents itself to our consciousness in an evolving and vital temporality. Doors lead to hallways that lead to rooms that lead to pleasure. Windows open to nooks that emanate odors that inspire thought. Roofs and walls enclose a space that promote family, encourage friendship, facilitates work and guarantees stability.
"As an academic in the Humanities I was always impressed by Angelo’s ability not only to cite classic authors and philosophers but to use their words as touchstones for his design concepts. As well as being a means of specific intellectual research this need to express himself through architecture is also an attempt to carry on from his illustrious predecessors and mentors. The names of Giambattista Alberti, Andrea Palladio, Aldo Rossi, Frank Gehry, Mario Botta, Michael Graves, to cite only a few, were constant reminders of the breadth of his interests. Indeed, a primary concern of Angelo’s was how to transfer the Renaissance ideals of grace, balance, and beauty into contemporary structures of glass, granite, and steel. Yet, during our many informal conversations regarding architectural projects, my attention was always drawn to his overarching meditation on the quality of light that would both penetrate and shape a future construction.
"Light, for Angelo, is a living thing; an essence that determines the contours of space just as it delineates the sparkle of a fine wine. Angelo would often speak of the use of light as it creates shadow in an enclosed space. His attention to these details reveals a sensitivity that is translated into the Geometry, Composition, Chromatism, and Rhythm of his buildings. Architecture for Angelo is thus not just the enclosure of space but the realization of an experience, a life experience, that both satisfies the client by respecting his needs, but, more importantly, contributes to the aesthetic pleasure of the space provided. This, I feel, is the hallmark of his work. I am happy to endorse his work and look forward to our next informal conversation about the endless expanse of architecture."
Contact Angelo Spadola for more information.