Founded in 2003, Lateral Office (also known as Lateral Architecture) is primarily an experimental studio that doesn’t fit easily into a mold. Partners Lola Sheppard and Mason White describe their practice as being at “the intersection of landscape, architecture and urbanism,” and they are inclined to write, exhibit and lecture rather than to build.

Sheppard and White plan to use their prize money traveling to the Arctic to pursue their research project Emergent North, an ongoing investigation into cold-climate architectural forms and possible solutions for overcoming the obstacles that come with living in sub-zero environments. The duo will travel through Nunavut, Yukon, Alaska and Greenland. Afterwards, they hope to use the information gathered to develop designs that respond to the far north’s particular political and ecological issues.

Lateral Office's explorations have lead to some radical ideas over the years. While the Prix de Rome will allow Sheppard and White to build on their Emergent North project in greater depth, the duo have already conceived of a number of strategies for improving northern life, for both humans and animals. Caribou Pivot Station, for instance, is aimed at preserving, if not increasing, the caribou population that is currently starving to death in some areas, due to increased layers of ice – an environmental change that has made it impossible for herds to unbury the moss and lichen they require. The station would provide a “micro-climate” that would melt the ice, expose the moss and provide, essentially, a grazing field for the herds.

Another proposal is for a recreational ice park at Bering Strait near the polar circle that would bridge Russia with the United States, while a plan called Liquid Commons addresses the north’s high illiteracy rate. The firm proposes building a fleet of floating vessels that could be harboured at rural outposts to provide the necessary educational facilities.

Lola Sheppard, who was born in Montreal, is an architect and educator as well as a member of the Ordre des architectes du Quebec. She is a professor at the University of Waterloo School of Architecture. Mason White, an architect and educator born in Washington, D.C., is a professor at the University of Toronto's Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design. He is an occasional contributor to Azure.