Since the 1990s, technology has been evolving at an exponential rate, leaving behind the vestiges of its not-so-distant past. Cell phone antennas, digital television dishes, surveillance cameras, and electrical conduits are everywhere, like parasites contaminating the architecture.

With the advent of the 5G generation of cellular telephony, there are approximately 33,000 large 4G antennas in Canada that have been replaced by 273,000 smaller 5G antennas. In their practice, Dupont Blouin is careful to integrate structural, mechanical and electrical systems into the interior architecture, but on the exterior of the building, architects are faced with systems that are often unsightly and archaic. Whereas in the days of Gothic architecture gargoyles were as much functional as decorative architectural elements, today gutters cling to the roofs of houses as a final detail at the end of the project. The same fate befalls dryer outlets, air vents and air conditioners, whose design has changed very little over the past few decades, appearing as foreign objects that detract from the building.

Although laws, regulations and codes require technical recommendations for the integration of these systems, and municipalities or boroughs establish aesthetic criteria for their location, these protrusions continue to grow, appearing larger or smaller depending on the size of the building, disfiguring the facades when they do not damage the envelope.

PARASITES highlights the drifts of a technology and an industry responsible for a considerable visual and material pollution in order to initiate a reflection for a better integration of these architectural excrescences.