Daniels Faculty alumnus Drew Adams (MArch 2011) has co-authored an essay for Azure magazine in which he argues that architects have a responsibility to be more environmentally responsible in their choices of building materials.

The essay, which Adams wrote with Janna Levitt — a 1986 U of T architecture graduate and founder of LGA Architectural Partners, where Adams is an associate — discusses the ways in which adaptive reuse can reduce the carbon footprint of a construction project. The piece takes particular notice of LGA's own design for the reuse of the kiln building at Toronto's Evergreen Brick Works, a former brick manufacturing facility that the firm helped transform into an event and education space.

Adams and Levitt write:

For too long the profession has rationalized using carbon-intensive materials so long as we built to last — and built better... The change needs to happen now. In contrast to the long-term impacts of energy efficiency, embodied carbon is an upfront consideration. While it is possible, for example, to add renewable energy at a later date to offset a building’s operational impacts, the carbon costs of building materials cannot be reversed.

Read the full story at Azure.

The Daniels Faculty would like to congratulate Donald Schmitt (BArch 1977) on being appointed to the Order of Canada. The principal of Diamond Schmitt Architects and esteemed Daniels Alumnus was recognized by Governor General (and fellow U fo T Alumna) Julie Payette "for his rehabilitation of iconic heritage buildings and for his sustainable architectural designs."

One of the country's highest honours, the Order of Canada "recognizes outstanding achievement, dedication to the community and service to the nation." The award's motto Desiderantes Meliorem Patriam translates to "They desire a better country."

Writes Diamond Schmitt on its website:

Don's portfolio includes many iconic buildings across Canada. Among recent projects are the high-rise laboratories of The Peter Gilgan Centre for Research and Learning at Sickids in Toronto; the new campus of Emily Carr University of Art + Design in Vancouver; and the highly collaborative academic environment of Lazaridis Hall at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario.

He is also known for the re-imagination of landmark historical buildings, notably the National Arts Centre and The Senate of Canada Building in Ottawa, where he is currently leading the design for the Ottawa Public Library and Library and Archives Canada joint facility. A giving, civic-minded architect, Don lends his expertise to numerous cultural initiatives and design review panels.
 

For more information, visit Diamond Schmitt's website, Canadian Architect, or U of T News.

Photos, top: 1) Donald Schmitt, by Jim Ryce; 2) Emily Carr University, by Tom Arban Photography; 3) Senate of Canada Building, by Tom Arban Photography

After the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986, a Human Exclusion Zone was established around the nuclear power plant, but, as Daniels Faculty alumna Elise Hunchuck (MLA 2016) writes, the zone "is far from empty, and it does not exclude humans." In fact, "It is a highly managed landscape, requiring some 3000 workers who continue to build, maintain and monitor containment and transportation infrastructures, decommissioned reactors, radio- active contamination, and research the ongoing effects upon flora and fauna."

Now based in Berlin, Hunchuck has been studying the Human Exclusion Zone as part of her research. She writes that "in recent years, the Zone has garnered an international reputation as a site of post-nuclear re-wilding and dark and toxic tourism."

The Master of Landscape Architecture graduate recently gave two talks on Chernobyl, first at the Contour Biennale in Belgium, and later at the NONUMENT symposium in Prague.

"If landscapes function both as archives and historiographical texts, then developing an understanding of Chernobyl’s distinct political ecology may help us, together, develop an understanding of landscapes and environmental design as ongoing projects in the immediate present, not limited to the aftermath of an emergency," she says.

Her presentations shared ongoing and in-process research that traces the movement of material between landscapes and the histories of Chernobyl’s infrastructures through all of their mediations: as circulating, sedimenting, leaking, crystallizing, sinking, diffusing, melting and even petrifying. Together, with the audience, she explored how toxic landscapes, like those of Chernobyl, continue to condition life and death and power relations within and outside of their boundaries.

For more information read about Hunchuck's visit to the Chernobyl Exlusion Zone via Ground magazine.

Cities contain a lot of stuff. If only there were an easier way to share it all — and cut down on the number of infrequently used items that fill our closets and storage spaces until they are ultimately sent to the landfill.

Inspired by an ambition to cut down on wasteful consumption, Daniels alumnus Alejandro López has dreamed up Stuff Cloud: A Smart Infrastructure for Buying, Selling, Sharing, Swapping & Remaking Things in Cities. Based on his 2011 Master of Architecture thesis, Stuff Cloud mixes "techniques taken from architecture, interaction design, and physical computing."

The proposal received an honourable mention in the Ontario Association of Architecture's inagural Shift 2019 Ideas competition.

“Conceptually, the project addresses the challenges of the sharing economy and the cultural shift away from rooms and houses filled with things," said the OAA jury. "It questions the nature of how storage could work, and how scarce resources might be managed.”

From Lopez's proposal:

The building blocks of the Stuff Cloud are the interactions between humans and their things. With a unique ID for each thing, and harnessing web-based technology, it becomes possible to simply add one’s things to the Stuff Cloud. Once your things are ‘in the cloud,’ Stuff Cloud can suggest various scenarios for use or exchange—­for instance, sharing things with nearby friends or swapping things with strangers across the city. The Stuff Cloud can learn from our interactions with our things and give us insights on how to devote less mental and physical space to things we may not always want or need. This introduces new scenarios for ownership and exchange, potentially altering the way in which we exchange and dispose of things in public spaces.

As alternative modes of owning and exchanging things gain popularity, a physical infrastructure supporting these exchanges begins to take shape. This could come in the form of smart lockers, pods and large-scale pop-up shops. The cumulative result is a patchwork infrastructure that is built from the bottom-up in response to its social context and more importantly, as a result of ‘real’ versus ‘manufactured’ demand for things.
 

For more information, visit the Shift 2019 website.

On June 14, the Daniels Faculty held a reception to celebrate students graduating from our Honours Bachelor of Arts, Architectural Studies; Honours Bachelor of Arts, Visual Studies; Master of Architecture; Master of Landscape Architecture; Master of Urban Design; and Master of Visual Studies programs.

During the reception, a number of students were bestowed with awards, established through the generous support of Daniels Faculty donors and friends. Pictured at the top of this page is Camila Campos Herrera (centre)  who received the Ontario Association of Landscape Architecture  (OALA) Certificate of Merit. Pictured with her is the Director of our Landscape Architecture program Associate Professor Liat Margolis and Past President of the OALA Doris Chee.

Undergraduate Awards

Academic Merit Award
Mingzhu Cao / Eric Emerson Chen / Inge Donovan / Zina Fraser Jeffrey Hill / Xingzhi Huang / Erich Zakary Jacobi / Chun Kin Lui / Estefania Belen Mera Molina / Farwa Mumtaz / Tina Siassi / Mark Jin Chuen Soh / Daniel Vanderhorst / Evan Douglas Webber / Hanyong Xu / Jie Zhou

Daniels Faculty Undergraduate Community Leadership Award
Eric Emerson Chen
Emily Morton

Daniels Faculty Undergraduate Critical Practices Award
Nouran Abdelhamid

Daniels Faculty Undergraduate Design Award
Novak Djogo

Daniels Faculty Undergraduate History/Theory Award
Inge Donovan

Daniels Faculty Undergraduate Merit Award
Tina Siassi

Daniels Faculty Undergraduate Studio Art Award
Isabel Mink

Daniels Faculty Undergraduate Technology Award
Hao Wu

Daniels Faculty Visual Studies Undergraduate Thesis Project Prize
Chun Kin Lui
Kelcy Timmons

Governor General’s Silver Medal nominee
Jeffrey Hill

Graduate Awards

Academic Honours Certificate
Kathleen Alexander /  Brandon Bergem / Samantha Eby / Dalia Gebran / Serafima Korovina / Nicholas Reddon / Devin Tepleski

Alpha Rho Chi Medal
Jeanie Lim

AIA Henry Adams Medal and Certificate
Samantha Eby

ARCC / King Student Medal
Simon Rabyniuk

ASLA Certificate of Honor
Aaron Hernandez
Devin Tepleski

ASLA Certificate of Merit
Hadi El-Shayeb
Peggy Wong

CSLA Student Award of Merit
Kathleen Alexander

Faculty Design Prize
MArch:
Zainab Firas Adil Al-Rawi / Brandon Bergem / Barron Crawford / Katerina Gloushenkova /Jaimie Howard  
Serafima Korovina / Joseph Loreto / Nicholas Reddon / Jake Wolf

MLA:
Hadi El-Shayeb / Cynthia Chiu-Chen / Devin Tepleski

MUD:
Gabriela Luna-Vélez

Heather M. Reisman Gold Medal in Design
Katerina Gloushenkova

Irving Grossman Prize
Nicolas Mayaux

The Kuwabara-Jackman Architecture Thesis Gold Medal
Brandon Bergem

Master in Visual Studies Graduating Scholarship
Miles Rufelds

OAA Architectural Guild Medal
Serafima Korovina

OALA Certificate of Merit
Camila Campos Herrera

Royal Architectural Institute of Canada Student Medal
Serafima Korovina

Royal Architectural Institute of Canada Honour Roll
Nicolas Gordon Ager
Serafima Korovina
Ramsey Leung
Nicholas Reddon

Toronto Society of Architects Scholarship
Samantha Eby

Graduation doesn't mean goodbye! Here are 9 ways that newly minted members of our esteemed alumni community can stay in touch and involved with the Daniels Faculty. Oh, and did we mention the many perks to being a U of T alumnus? See below for some the benefits offered to our graduates.

1. Subscribe to our newsletter.

If you would like to stay informed about upcoming public events and the latest news about fellow alumni, faculty, and students, you will want to receive our monthly newsletter. Email John Cowling to update your email address and we'll add you to our subscriber list!

2. Send us your news!

Have you won an award? Do you have a recently completed project you’d like to share? Are you part of an upcoming exhibition? We want to help promote your accomplishments big and small on our website, on social media, and in our newsletter. Send your news to Dale Duncan at: communications@daniels.utoronto.ca

Read how Claude Cormier (BLA 1986), pictured above, is making cities more fun.

3. Follow us on social media.

You can find #UofTDaniels on Facebook, twitter, instagram, and YouTube. Tag your photos and posts so we can see them and share them, too!

4. Attend our public events.

As a recent graduate you already know about the Daniels Faculty's robust series of public events, which include lectures, debates, panel discussions, exhibition, and book launches. We hope you will continue to attend as alumni, and that the speakers, exhibitions, and events held here inspire and inform and provide an opportunity for you to network and build connections that will serve you well throughout your career.

5. Join us for final reviews.

Studio and thesis reviews are an exciting time at the Faculty. Sit in on some presentations without having to worry about your presentation coming up next. 

6. Volunteer as a mentor.

Current students are often interested in connecting with alumni to learn about their experiences. Receiving feedback on the development of their portfolios is a common request. If you would like to volunteer as a mentor, please contact John Cowling at john.cowling@daniels.utoronto.ca.

7. Participate in anniversary reunions

Celebrated in May each year at U of T, Spring Reunion is a great time for alumni to reconnect with peers to share common interests and achievements. Interested in participating? Contact John Cowling at John.Cowling@daniels.utoronto.ca for more details!

Pictured above: members of the class of 1988, who reunited for their 30th anniversary last year.

9. Confirm or update your address

Click here to update your address and receive a 15% discount off of convocation items at the bookstore. You will also be entered in a draw to win a $500 VISA gift card.

The perks of being a U of T Alumnus

• New alumni receive a discount of $550 to use towards any one course at the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies.
   
• Alumni Relations recently announced that LinkedIn Learning will offer new e-learning resources for alumni starting May 2019, up to September 14th, 2019. Click here to register for up to 4-months of free LinkedIn Learning (formerly Lynda.com).
   
• U of T alumni get exclusive discounts on attractions, hotels, car rentals, wellness apps, and sports. Click here to browse the full list of discounts.

On June 6, the Class of 2019 joined the Daniels Faculty's esteemed alumni community. As our graduates begin this new chapter in their lives, we asked veteran alumni to share some words of wisdom on life after school.

Congratulations to all students from our undergraduate and graduate programs who have now received their degree!

1. Don't spend too much time with Architects.

"That was the advice Arthur Erickson gave me before I started my Master's degree. I haven't fully heeded his advice but it's been healthy to spend as much time as possible outside of practice... to find the most useful stuff, the inspiring stuff, and to keep things vital.” — Drew Sinclair (MArch 2007)

(What are the keys to designing successful social housing? Azure asked the experts, including Mark Sterling and Drew Sinclair)

2. Walk in cities unknown to you.

Look at the textures, notice where people are sitting, watch how the sunlight sets on a city’s walls and streetscapes. Document these experiences in ways that feel familiar to you: sketching, filming, photography. Then, when you return home and are working on new projects, recall why certain places remain in your memory long after you have left, and strive to create similar experiences in the landscapes you create. — Jordan Duke (MLA 2016)

(Mitigating wildfires through landscape design: Jordan Duke explores the role that landscape architects can play in diminishing disasters.)

3. Don’t drown in trying to be like others.

Embrace yourself and your unique perspective. Trust it. Value it. Grow it. Find ways to share it with the rest of us. — Safoura Zahedi, (MArch 2016)

(Safoura Zahedi's installation at the Gladstone Hotel explores geometry's potential as a contemporary, universal design language.)

4. Dream about the kind of city you want to live in.

Go out there and try to build it now because it could take a lifetime to realize. — Gabriel Fain, (MArch 2010)

(Follow Gabriel Fain Architects on Instagram.)

5. With both colleagues and clients, learning how to listen is key.

In architecture school, you're judged for the individual effort you put into your work. In contrast, clients don’t know or care about what you do as an individual. They just want their project to look great and be sustainable.  
 
In order to meet the expectations of clients, architects must learn to work as an effective team in completing projects and in communicating with clients. — Thomas Tampold (BArch 1982)

(Long-time architect Thomas Tampold details why he opened Yorkville Design Centre – and the Toronto design outposts that inspired him.)

6. Be bold and take risks.

Turn things you don't like into things that you can learn from. Find the balance between work and leisure.

Travel whenever you can. When you are there, take public transit, go to local grocery stores, and buy a book from a family-run bookstore. — Henry Heng Lu (MVS 2017)

(In case you missed it: Henry Heng Lu won an Exhibition of the Year award from the Ontario Association of Art Galleries. Website: henryhenglu.org)

7. Study broadly, read widely.

Seek out people and conversations and ideas and work that challenge you. Some of the most surprising moments of learning and discovery can be found there. Wherever you find yourself, support others the way you would want to be supported; the simple act of listening or care can be best way to create and foster an inclusive space and community. — Elise Hunchuk (MLA 2016)

(Learn about Elise Hunchuck’s recent research trip to the Chernobyl Exclusion zone.)

8. Take on EVERY assignment with an inquisitive passion and soak up the wisdom from your senior colleagues.

Every day is a learning experience — Bryce Miranda (BLA 2001)

(Bryce Miranda contributes to 8 tips for Master of Landscape Architecture students about to start their career)

 
9. Better conversations equal better results.

In today’s climate of accelerated change and uncertainty about “what’s next”, the past is no longer predictive of the future. As an architect, before jumping straight into design remember to take a step back and challenge yourself and others to think beyond the immediate problem. Meaningful solutions are created by approaching the process of discovery as a conversation, informed by a collaborative fusion of perspectives rather than a singular voice. — Lisa Bate (BArch 1987)

(Learn about Lisa Bate’s role as Chair of the Board of the World Green Building Council.)

10. Don’t back down from a challenge.

Especially at the beginning of your career as an architect, perseverance and resilience are key to unlocking opportunities to grow, learn and advance. Don’t give up. Ask for help, vent to friends, learn how to work through the anger and frustration so you can keep pushing yourself forward. It will be worth it in the end. — Megan Torza (MArch 2005)

(Megan Torza gave a public lecture on low cost sustainability at the University of Toronto this year.)

11. There are many ways to be in this world.

Unimagined territory awaits you in future experiences opened by education. — Christopher Babits (BArch 1994)

(Learn more about Christopher Babits’ firm FWBA Architects.)

12. If you work for someone else, also consider doing personal projects that capture why you got into architecture in the first place.

Try to put as much energy into these personal projects as you put into your employer’s. There is a deep satisfaction in having a commitment to your own vision. — Em Cheng (MArch 2011)

(My House, a solo exhibition by Em Cheng came to the Bloor / Gladstone library in 2018.)

13. Through architecture, you are being given the privilege of using your creative gifts to improve the world, one person, one building, one neighbourhood, one city at a time. Honour that privilege.

The journey in architecture you are about to embark upon will have sunny days and storms. There will be long days and nights, and victories will feel brief. Yet, if you invest creativity and passion in each task, in each project, you will always have the immeasurable and irreplaceable joy of being able walk around and inside your project, something that was merely a dream, for the rest of your life.
 
The cultural, urban, artistic and technical challenges presented by every project can seem insurmountable, and unfortunately will not change much for your entire career. What will change, however, is the experience to know how to navigate them successfully and still create beautiful inspiring architecture. — Michael Leckman (BArch 1988)

(Michael Leckman provided advice to students at our Networking & Personal Branding Workshop held this year.)

14. Chase pursuits outside of architecture, whether it be art or sports or cooking or horticulture.

Architecture is a multi-disciplinary practice and great ideas often come from the collision between different worlds. Also, don't work for free. It not only devalues yourself, but our profession as a whole. — Yupin Li (MArch 2018)

(Read about Yupin Li’s recent TEDxUofT Talk on housing in Toronto.)

15. The day you stop learning, change your environment or try something new or better yet, pursue an idea that has been on your mind for quite some time. 

— Novka Ćosović (March 2013)

Novka Cosovic & Andres Bautista provide insight into the immigrant experience with “Museum II”

16. Make the world better.

— Alissa North (BLA 1998)

(Alissa North is an Associate Professor at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design. The photo above was taken at her graduation in 1998.)

In June 2018, nine researchers, including Elise Hunchuck (MLA 2016), gathered in Kyiv to set out on a three-day incursion into the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.

Hunchuck shares some of their experience, writing about consumption, earth, contamination, risk, and what it means to be home in the most recent issue of Ground magazine. Svitlana Matviyenko, Lindsey Freeman, Margret Grebowicz, Sanem Guvenc, Lyubzja Knorozok, Eldritch Priest, Julian Breinersdorfer, and Oleksiy Radynski joined her on the trip.

Hunchuck is a Berlin-based independent researcher, designer, and editor with degrees in both landscape architecture and philosophy. Her research develops cartographic, photographic, and text-based practices to explore landscapes and communicate the agency of disaster through the continual configuring and reconfiguring of infrastructures of risk.

She has taught at the University of Toronto and is a member of the editorial board of Scapegoat Journal: Architecture/Landscape/ Political Economy. She is also one of the 2019 Azrieli Visiting Critics at Carleton University.

This summer Hunchuck will be one of the facilitators at the Making Futures School in Berlin. The Making Futures School invites 70 participants to take part in a diverse curriculum facilitated by international practitioners in the field of spatial practices. Hunchuk will be a facilitator in the education action-research field alongside Jonathan Solomon from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, SAIC; and Dubravka Sekulić from IZK, Institute for Contemporary Art, TU Graz.

Applications to the school are due May 31. Click here to learn more about the school and how to apply.

Daniels Alumna Utako Tanebe (MArch 2013) — now an architect and designer at DLR Group | Westlake Reed Leskosky, based in Cleveland — was recently interviewed by Madame Architect, an online publication dedicated to sharing stories of women in the architectural field.   

Tanebe spoke about her experiences as an architecture student and the transition from school to professional practice. She shared some of the challenges she worked to overcome when she started her career, and what she learned while working on the Samson Pavilion (pictured above), a new health education campus designed by Foster and Partners. (DRL Group | Westlake Reed Leskosky is the Architect of Record for the project.)

"This is the largest scale international design project in Cleveland in decades and I was lucky in that I was placed in such project so early on," said Tanebe.

Born in Tokyo, Tanebe became interested in building and design as a young child. After high school, she pursued a degree in engineering, but found she was hungry for something more creative. She completed another undergraduate degree in architectural history and theory before joining the Daniels Faculty's Master of Architecture program.

"Of the three degrees I completed, the MArch degree was the most rigorous and enduring experience, but also the most rewarding and exciting," said Tanebe. "I felt most comfortable in the studio environment and knew right away that it was the path for me."

Tanebe encourages new graduates starting out in the profession to stay curious and inspired.

"You must find something that excites or motivates you within every task, however mundane it may be, and make it yours to conquer. If you do it well, you can prove to yourself that you’re ready for the next step and a new challenge," she says. "Often young designers fear that they will be pigeon-holed into a task at the office, but once other architects see that you have a fire within to take on more roles, they will be more than happy to support your growth as an architect."

Visit the Madame Architect website to read the full interview.
 

The most recent issue of U of T Magazine celebrates "The Boundless Campaign's Remarkable Achievement" and includes stories of the impact that the generous donations from our friends and alumni have had on Daniels Faculty students and research.

Bahia Marks, pictured above, is a John and Myrna Daniels Scholar who is exploring how neighbourhood residents can contribute to the design of their communities through both her work as a Master of Architecture student and as a volunteer with the Junior Youth Spiritual Empowerment Program in St. James Town.

Shaine Wong, who received the John E. (Jack) Irving Prize while working on her Master of Landscape Architecture Thesis, explored how craters from exploded landmines in Cambodia could be turned into something useful, such as rainwater reservoirs or canals to benefit farmers.

“Landscape architecture is about so much more than making things look pretty,” she says. “When you look around, you start to see hidden opportunities in every challenge.”

The Daniels Faculty's new Fabrication Laboratory also received a shout out among new spaces that will help U of T researchers make the next big discovery.

Watch out for the latest issue of U of T Magazine in your mailbox or check it out online.

Fabrication Lab photo by Nick Iwanyshyn; Bahia Marks photo by Yasin Osman; Shaine Wong photo by Harry Choi