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Popular Architecture Criticism: A definition, a delineation and a débâcleKristen GagnonAzrieli School of Architecture &#38; Urbanism, Carleton University, OttawaThis paper will work to help define and delineate the boundaries of ‘popular architecture criticism’, through an etymological analysis and exploration of the dividing lines between public and academic criticism in architecture. Stemming from the discussion that took place at the recent symposium POP CAN CRIT: Current Conditions in Popular Architecture Criticism, held in Ottawa, Canada, in October 2016, the dividing lines and divided audiences of popular and academic architecture criticism will be analyzed and situated within the seminal contexts set out by Peter Collins in Architectural Judgement (1971) and Wayne Attoe in Architecture and Critical Imagination (1978). For as Ronan McDonald notes in The Death of the Critic: “So the public critic has been dismembered by two opposing forces: the tendency of academic criticism to become increasingly inward-looking and non-evaluative, and the moment for journalistic and popular criticism to become a much more democratic, dispersive affair, no longer left in the hands of the experts.” (McDonald, ix). In this way, three overlapping territories will begin to emerge: that of the academic critic, the professional critic, and the lay or public critic. It is the hope of the research that this will lead to a better understanding of the contemporary and vital role of the popular (professional-public) critic, as well as work to reassert their authority within their specific territory.&#160;Kristen Gagnon is a PhD student in architecture at the Azrieli School of Architecture &#38; Urbanism, at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. Her research focuses on the current state of popular architecture criticism, with an emphasis on the Canadian context, and led to the organization of the national symposium POP CAN CRIT: Current Conditions in Popular Architecture Criticism, held in Ottawa in October 2016. In addition to her research, Kristen has taught various courses and studios at the School of Architecture, and is the architecture editor for Spacing Magazine, as well as a member of the Doors Open Ottawa Advisory Council. She has presented her research in the U.S., Greece, Northern Ireland, and Turkey.