Opposites Attract: ACDF au fil des contrastes - A vivid dive into the DNA of a Quebec Studio with international reach

21 Aug 2025

Originating from Montreal but with a global perspective, ACDF Architecture, the subject of this monograph, perfectly embodies the dynamic interplay of dichotomies.

Cover Photo credit: FRAME

Published by FRAME, Opposites Attract: ACDF au fil des contrastes is not your typical architectural monograph. Blending essay, documentary, and journalistic investigation, the book takes the form of a series of candid, personal conversations between Maxime Frappier, co-founder of ACDF, and Quebec editor François-Luc Giraldeau. This conversational format gives the book a lively and accessible tone while offering an in-depth exploration of what defines one of the most distinctive firms on the contemporary Canadian architectural scene.

The narrative traces pivotal moments, turning points, stances, hesitations, strokes of luck, mentorships, and landmark projects that have emerged from the fertile chaos of ACDF's deeply collective creative process. While the narrative is anchored in a singular voice, it never seeks to dominate. Instead, it acts as a guiding thread that reveals the inner workings of a studio rooted in teamwork, cross-disciplinarity, and deep contextual awareness.

Page by page, the reader discovers a studio firmly rooted in Montreal, yet with a practice that extends far beyond its borders—an office that balances professional rigour with creative flexibility, and structure with spontaneity. The book highlights an architectural stance grounded in reality, where constraints—whether financial, technical, or contextual—serve as catalysts for creativity and innovation. As the title suggests, it is within contrast that the firm finds its energy, and where its architecture achieves its most authentic expression: black and white, rough and polished, intuition and method, local grounding and global outlook.

Amid today’s environmental, economic, and social challenges, ACDF offers a thoughtful and purposeful architectural response—one that enriches collective life through responsible resource use and innovative building methods, while ensuring that meaning, efficiency, and beauty remain inseparable.

Each project becomes an opportunity to do more with less—to turn constraints into creative leverage and offer solutions that are restrained, yet powerful. This intentional frugality—often born of tight budgets, but driven by a cultural sensitivity rooted in local history—has become a defining hallmark of the studio.

In a testimonial included in the book, partners Étienne Laplante Courchesne, Maxime Frappier, and Joan Renaud reaffirm the studio’s deep commitment:

“We are profoundly driven by a mission: to showcase the creative talent of Quebec architects beyond our borders. In a province where means are often limited, ideas are not. We are part of a tradition of resilience and inventiveness shaped by our relatively recent history. Our ancestors built this society with their own hands—clearing land, raising villages, cities, schools, and hospitals. This living memory inspires us every day to design enduring architecture—an architecture that listens to the land, to the community, and to the energy and resources it requires to come into being.”

This dual perspective—anchored in both past and future—nourishes a practice that is sensitive, historically aware, and forward-looking in its pursuit of innovation and sustainability.

Ultimately, Opposites Attract: ACDF au fil des contrastes is not simply a book about ACDF. It’s an invitation to see architecture differently—not as a succession of finished objects, but as a living process shaped by fertile contradictions. It is a process in which the architect is never alone. Every project is born of collective effort, a weave of expertise, dialogue, and iteration. Every journey is shaped by encounters, mentors, collaborations—but also by missteps, detours, and missed opportunities. This book is also a meditation on the urgent need to build with clarity and conscience in a world of limited resources, where architecture must, more than ever, be defined by relevance, purpose… and humanity.