The John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design is excited to present its public programming for fall 2021.  

Through a series of book talks, panel discussions and lectures, our aim is to foster a meaningful dialogue on the important social, political and environmental challenges that confront our world today. How might we create new knowledge and leverage it as a tool for critical reflection and, ultimately, collective change? Our programs, and the difficult questions that motivate them, address a range of topics that are central to what we do: the relationship between the built and natural environment, land and sovereignty, the city and social justice, technology and building practice and resiliency and climate change, among others.  

Fall 2021 marks a period of new beginnings for the Daniels Faculty. As we embark on this academic year, we also reflect on our role as an institution for learning and knowledge creation. To this, we are supplementing our events with exhibitions that similarly probe at the boundaries of our various disciplines. Whether in the Architecture and Design Gallery, our corridors, or the north façade of the Daniels Building, the work on view this year asks: how do we engage with the world as it is at this moment?  

All events are free and open to the public. Register in advance and check the calendar for up-to-date details on hybrid events that offer a virtual and in-person experience: daniels.utoronto.ca/events.  

Fall 2021  

October 7, 6:30 p.m. 
How...?: Ten Questions on the Future of Education and Engagement
Dean’s Opening Dialogue  

Juan Du (Daniels Faculty Dean and Professor, University of Toronto), in conversation with: 
Shashi Kant (Forestry 1996; Professor of Forest Economics and Sustainability, University of Toronto)   
Kaari Kitawi (Landscape Architecture 2015; Urban Designer, City of Toronto)  
Bruce Kuwabara (Architecture 1972; Architect and Founder, KPMB Architects)  
Yan Wu (Visual Studies 2015; Public Art Curator, City of Markham) 
 
How...? Ten Questions on the Future of Advocacy and Change 
Exhibition – Thesis Projects in Architecture, Forestry, Landscape Architecture, Urbanism and Visual Studies 

Oct. 14, 12 p.m.  
Natural Architecture — An Archeology of the Future 
Lina Ghotmeh, 2021-2022 Frank O. Gehry International Visiting Chair in Architectural Design 

Oct. 21, 6:30 p.m. 
Robots as Companions 
Sougwen Chung (Artist, New York) 
Madeline Gannon (Artist, Researcher, Pittsburgh)  
Moderated by Maria Yablonina (University of Toronto, Daniels Faculty) 

Oct. 25, 1 p.m.  
Shared Space, Shared Vision, Shared Power: Advancing Racial Justice in American Cities 
Stephen Gray (Harvard University, Graduate School of Design) 
Co-moderated by Fadi Masoud and Michael Piper (University of Toronto, Daniels Faculty) 

Oct. 26, 6:30 p.m. 
Book Talk: Barry Sampson: Teaching + Practice  
Editors:  
Annette LeCuyer (University of Buffalo, School of Architecture and Planning) 
Brian Carter (University of Buffalo, School of Architecture and Planning) 
 
Contributors: 
George Baird (University of Toronto, Daniels Faculty)
Bruce Kuwabara (KPMB Architects) 
Jon Neuert (Baird Sampson Neuert Architects) 
Pina Petricone (University of Toronto, Daniels Faculty) 
Brigitte Shim (University of Toronto, Daniels Faculty)   
Nader Tehrani (The Cooper Union, The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture) 
 
Speakers: 
Stephen Bauer (Reigo & Bauer)   
Geoffrey Turnbull (KPMB Architects)   
Novka Cosovic (Bau & Cos Studio) 

Nov. 2, 6:30 p.m.  
Artist Talk with Que Rock 
Que Rock (Artist) 

Nov. 15, 12 p.m.  
Revisiting the Commons 
Kofi Boone (North Carolina State University, College of Design) 
Co-moderated by Liat Margolis and Fadi Masoud (University of Toronto, Daniels Faculty) 

Nov. 18, 6:30 p.m.  
Book Talk: Terra-Sorta-Firma  
Editor: Fadi Masoud (University of Toronto, Daniels Faculty) 
Contributors:
Luna Khirfan (University of Waterloo, School of Planning)  
Xiaoxuan Lu (The University of Hong Kong, Division of Landscape Architecture)  
Ben Mendelsohn (Portland State University, Film and Digital Culture)  
Michael T. Wilson (RAND Corporation) 
Moderated by Brent D. Ryan (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)  

Nov. 30, 12 p.m.  
Book Talk: Landscape Citizenships  
Editors: 
Dr. Tim Waterman (The Bartlett School of Architecture, Faculty of the Built Environment) 
Jane Wolff (University of Toronto, Daniels Faculty) 
Dr. Ed Wall (University of Greenwich, Landscape Architecture and Urbanism) 

Learn more about News and Events and Exhibitions, follow along with the Faculty on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and sign-up for This Week @ Daniels to receive current information on upcoming events. 

Three Daniels Faculty student projects have won Toronto Urban Design Awards (TUDA), the biennial program announced.  

Each winner was revealed in a virtual ceremony earlier this week: Power and Place was the recipient of an Award of Excellence. Elsewhere, Embodied Energy: Living Lab and XS Spaces: A New Laneway Urbanism earned Awards of Merit. All won awards in the student category. 

Held by the City of Toronto, the TUDA program recognizes architects, landscape architects, artists, city builders and students who help improve the livability of their cities. This year, the TUDA received 170 submissions across nine categories, with the student category inviting theoretical or studio projects.  

Here’s a closer look at the three ambitious student projects that won TUDA recognition. 

Power and Place 

Developed by third-year M. Arch students Erik Roberson, Yoyo Tang and Zak Jacobi, the Award of Excellence-winning Power and Place proposes a design intervention for Princess Gardens — located in Toronto’s west end — that includes affordable housing, energy infrastructure and new community spaces.  

Initially completed as part of the Integrated Urbanism Studio — which, for fall 2020, challenged students to reimagine Toronto’s postwar neighbourhoods through the lens of the Green New Deal — the plan challenges the inequities built into an area populated with detached, single-family homes. Daniels professor Mason White was the team's studio instructor, along with fellow studio coordinators Fadi Masoud and Michael Piper. 

Developed around the site of a future Eglinton Crosstown Light Rail Transit (LRT) station, the project proposes the addition of mixed-use, mid-rise development the reimagination of a present hydro corridor. Along Eglinton Avenue, where the LRT station will reside, Power and Place proposes the replacement of parking lots of car- and bike-sharing facilities, with buildings that will provide space for housing, offices and local retailers. Along Kipling Avenue — another major thoroughfare — mixed-use developments will step back the Princess Gardens’ interior, integrating with the existing low-rise subdivisions. 

The reimagined hydro corridor, along the Princess Gardens’ western edge, will add solar panels, wind turbines and kites that harness high-altitude wind energy to the Etobicoke Spine. With renewable energy, community space and mixed-use development, the project aims to make the suburbs more equitable — and explores the possibility hidden in Toronto’s residential neighbourhoods. 

Embodied Energy: Living Lab 

Agata Mrozowski and Madison Appleby’s Embodied Energy: Living Lab earned a TUDA Award of Merit for its reimagination of Willcocks Street on U of T’s St. George campus. Along with proposing a pedestrian-centred redesign, Embodied Energy aims to increase the area’s permeability — which will take pressure off existing city infrastructure — while adding learning spaces focused on urban ecology. The project was completed as part of Landscape Design Studio 2, led by Associate Professor Liat Margolis and Assistant Professor Elise Shelley. 

First, the project considered Willcocks’ current state. While walking the stretch, Mrozowski and Appleby noticed three things: first, boulders line the street in an attempt to direct pedestrian and car flow. Secondly, they noticed vegetation pushing its way through paving patterns. And finally, the influence of Modernist architecture was notable in the area’s usage of concrete laid along vertical plains. 

Reconstituting the site’s existing materials — ashpalt, concrete and clay, after all, all have natural origins, histories and life cycles — Embodied Energy imagines the site with five programmatic zones. Grass seams, with species common in alvar prairies, are proposed; canopy and understory layers expand from existing tree locations; rock gardens include excavated deposits of piled concrete; boulders are employed as landmarks and gathering spaces; and finally, experimental drifts are the site’s living lab, where students and passersby can note how species change over time. 

The reconstitution of existing materials was key to Embodied Energy. It’s an approach that, in the project’s description, aims to honour objects as keepers of memory — a perspective understood by many Indigenous worldviews. “By honouring the spirit and life-cycle of these materials, and centering land-based learning pedagogies, our project also responds to the Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action for more Indigenous spaces on campus,” write Appleby and Mrozowski. 

XS Spaces: A New Laneway Urbanism for Toronto 

The city’s laneways are often hidden in plain sight, but they needn’t be. As part of an undergraduate thesis project — with Jeannie Kim, an associate professor, as its instructor — Declan Roberts developed XS Spaces: A New Laneway Urbanism for Toronto, a project that aims to reclaims these spaces for city-dwellers. And, as the project’s title suggests, it imagines laneways not as excess spaces, but as untapped urban resources. 

In their current state, laneways are “functionally obsolete, devoid of ownership and surrendered to the car,” per the project’s description. The thesis project activates these spaces by turning them into decentralized, hyper-local and DIY spaces — and by framing them not simply as interstitial areas, but as connective tissue for the city. Roberts imagines a new street typology for the laneway, and one that is geared towards the pedestrian — not the vehicle. 

In examining the renderings produced for XS Spaces, the transformation is vivid. First, housing lines the newly pedestrianized laneways, and with them, come rooftop patios, colourful clotheslines and gathering spaces carved from cantilevered buildings. Between the houses, recreational and gathering spaces abound, with benches, planters, greenhouses, community gardens and even a volleyball net. In renderings, the project’s DIY proclivities are especially evident: note, for instance, a film screening projected against the side of a home. 

XS Spaces imagines that these redesigned laneways can address the housing crisis, sustainability, urban circulation and public-space access. Hidden no more. 

Welcome and acknowledgment

Welcome to the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design at the University of Toronto! I wish to acknowledge this land on which the University of Toronto operates. For thousands of years it has been the traditional land of the Huron-Wendat, the Seneca, and the Mississaugas of the Credit. Today, this meeting place is still the home to many Indigenous people from across Turtle Island and we are grateful to have the opportunity to work on this land.

The vision for our Faculty

The Daniels Faculty is diverse and dynamic, hosting nearly 20 academic programs, and home to 2,000 students, staff and faculty members from around the world. With the recent joining of U of T’s forestry programs, we continue to advance innovations in teaching and learning by bridging the studies of the built and natural environment. We ask, what happens when we position our design and research by approaching the world as it is, as one environment? More importantly, how could we generate new knowledge and leverage it as a tool for critical reflection, and ultimately, societal change?

I look forward to fostering thoughtful dialogues both on and off campus, as we seek the common ground that is fundamental to addressing urgent social, political and environmental challenges. There is exciting potential for further interdisciplinary and cross-sector collaborations across the University — as well as with communities in Toronto and around the world. As we embark on a new academic year, there is no better time to reflect on our role as an institution for learning, discovery and knowledge creation.

The evolution of our school

The University began as a royal chartered King's College in 1827. Seeking secularization and independence, it became the nondenominational University of Toronto in 1850. The study of the built and natural environments are well-established fields of academic inquiries within the University. In fact, the Daniels Faculty hosts both Canada’s first architecture program, established in 1890, and the country’s first forestry faculty in 1907 — both early programs across North America as well.

Today, the University of Toronto has evolved into one of the world’s top research-intensive universities. And the Daniels Faculty is now an unparalleled centre for learning and research, with graduate programs in architecture, forestry, landscape architecture, urban design and visual studies — as well as unique undergraduate programs that use architectural studies and visual studies as a lens through which students may pursue a broad, liberal arts-based education.

The purpose of our institution

The University and our Faculty have evolved, but it is worth remembering that they have always aspired to both intellectual and societal pursuits. I would like to share a statement of purpose published by the University’s Governing Council in 1992, for I found it to be deeply inspirational and acutely relevant as we move forward within a world with ever-increasing complexity. It reinforces the fundamental principles of our teaching, learning, research and services.

Within the unique university context, the most crucial of all human rights are the rights of freedom of speech, academic freedom and freedom of research. And we affirm that these rights are meaningless unless they entail the right to raise deeply disturbing questions and provocative challenges to the cherished beliefs of society at large and of the university itself. It is this human right to radical, critical teaching and research with which the University has a duty above all to be concerned; for there is no one else, no other institution and no other office, in our modern liberal democracy, which is the custodian of this most precious and vulnerable right of the liberated human spirit.

An invitation to participate

This statement is a reminder to our community of the responsibilities we share. Today, critical teaching and research must confront pressing social and environmental problems — issues that, in our globalizing world, impact everyone. Those problems, and the necessary solutions, transcend disciplinary and national borders. We are also reminded to cherish our individual uniqueness — cultural, political, social, racial, gender — and to recognize our common pursuit of human purpose in a shared global environment.

We invite you to join us in this humanist pursuit, through learning in classrooms, researching in labs, participating in our online and in-person public programs and working together in our communities at home and abroad.

Juan Du (she/her)
Dean and Professor
John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design

Excerpt from the “Statement of Institutional Purpose,” University of Toronto Governing Council, Oct. 15, 1992. 

The Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design is pleased to announce the 2021-2022 Frank Gehry International Visiting Chair in Architectural Design is Paris-based, Lebanese architect Lina Ghotmeh.

Drawing inspiration from her lived experience growing up in Beirut, Ghotmeh approaches architecture as an “archaeology of the future” through her multidisciplinary, research-driven practice Lina Ghotmeh –– Architecture.

“We are extremely honoured and excited that Lina Ghotmeh will be joining us as our 2021-2022 Gehry Chair,” says Vivian Lee, director of the Daniels Faculty’s Master of Architecture program. “Her studio is a leading voice in the field, merging research of sustainable practices, typological play, local craft, and archeological inspirations into reality. Whether it’s in a rural or urban setting, the work of her studio is tactile,  scenographic, and engaged with its context. Lina’s projects are somehow old and new all at once, timeless but also essential to the current moment.”

During her appointment as Gehry Chair, Ghotmeh will lead a yearlong research studio for third-year Master of Architecture students. Additional public events will be announced in the fall. 

"It is with enthusiasm and excitement that I join the Faculty as a Gehry Chair, bridging between continents as a French architect of a Lebanese upbringing working with you in Toronto," says Lina Ghotmeh. "In our rapidly changing times, architecture as a space of diversity and cross-cultural hybrid thought is an essential platform for rethinking the way we relate and inhabit our world. I am eager to both share my experience and embody your lens to the world."

Over the course of two semesters, Ghotmeh’s studio, entitled “Potent Voids,” will examine the August 4, 2020, explosion and subsequent devastation at the port of Beirut as a post-traumatic landscape.

Ghotmeh writes: “While invoking a potent void, such landscapes solicit notions of time, memory and material. They hold a potential for change. They also bring with them new questions and invite us to think of other substantial ways of making and inhabiting our environment.”

Image credits: Estonian National Museum, photo by Takuji Shimmura; Hermès Workshops; Réalimenter Masséna.

Born in Beirut in 1980, Ghotmeh received the first prize for the Estonian National Museum Competition in 2006, just three years after graduating with distinction from the American University of Beirut. Her works are known for their symbiotic relationship to their environment – including “Réalimenter Masséna,” a wooden tower in Paris dedicated to sustainable feeding, and “Stone Garden Housing” in Beirut, where craft is at the heart of the building’s making.

Among other projects, her studio is currently designing and leading the construction of the new Hermès Manufacture, a passive building in Normandy, and the urban rehabilitation of the iconic Maine Montparnasse grounds in Paris.

Ghotmeh has lectured internationally: she previously taught at the Ecole Spéciale d’Architecture and currently teaches at Yale School of Architecture. She is copresident of the RST ARCHES Scientific Network and the recipient of multiple awards, including the 2020 Tamayouz “Woman of Outstanding Achievement” Award; the French Fine Arts Academy Cardin Award 2019; the French Academy Dejean Prize 2016; the Grand Prix Afex 2016; and the French Ministry AJAP Prize 2008.

Image credit: Stone Garden, Lina Ghotmeh — Architecture, photo by Iwan Baan. Banner image: Headshot of Lina Ghotmeh courtesy Gilbert Hage.

About the Frank Gehry International Visiting Chair in Architectural Design

Named in honour of Frank O. Gehry, this endowed chair brings a highly recognized international architect to the Daniels Faculty to deliver a public lecture and enrich the student learning experience each year. Heather Reisman, founder of Indigo Books and Music, and 45 other donors contributed $1 million, matched by U of T, to establish the chair in November 2000. It's named for the Toronto-born designer of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain; the Experience Music Project in Seattle; and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. 

Past Gehry Chairs include: Daniel Libeskind, New York (2002-03); Preston Scott Cohen, Cambridge, Massachusetts (2003-04); Merrill Elam, Atlanta (2004-05); Diane Lewis, New York  (2005-06); Will Bruder, Phoenix (2006-07); Jürgen Mayer H, Berlin (2007-08); Wes Jones, Los Angeles (2008-09); Mitchell Joachim, New York (2009-10); Nader Tehrani, Boston (2010-11); Hrvoje Njiric, Zagreb, Croatia (2011-12); Josemaría de Churtichaga, Madrid (2013-14); Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee, Los Angeles (2016-17); Amale Andraos and Dan Wood, New York (2017-18); Aljoša Dekleva and Tina Gregorič, Ljubljana, Slovenia (2019-20); and Douglas Cardinal, Ottawa (2020-21).

The Daniels Faculty is pleased to announce that assistant professor Petros Babasikas has been appointed to the position of director of the Bachelor of Arts, Architectural Studies program (BAAS) effective July 1, 2021. 

As director, Babasikas assumes leadership of the unique undergraduate program that uses architectural studies as a lens for students to pursue a broad, liberal arts-based education.  “I am honoured to take on the role at a time when our students are translating their studies into tangible impact more than ever before” said Babasikas. 

Following two years of core courses in the design, history, and technology of architecture, landscape, and urbanism, BAAS students focus on a stream with a particular emphasis: Design, History & Theory, or Technology. Students may also elect to keep their course of study broad and pursue the Comprehensive Specialist steam. 

"Design thinking is a constant thread throughout the program and various streams,” said Babasikas. “Our students learn the process of iteration and research through making. They observe and reshape problems, form critical positions, and design in response to contemporary issues like the climate crisis, global housing, physical computing, social justice, the decline of the Commons.” 

Looking ahead to the start of the 2021-22 academic year, Babasikas emphasized rebuilding a sense of community after a singularly virtual environment.  

“It will be a time to celebrate that we’re coming back together – our students can find common ground and experience what it means to learn and experiment in the Daniels Building, with the city of Toronto as their laboratory. We also look forward to rethinking our global initiatives and experiential learning opportunities as part of our rigorous and rewarding four-year curriculum.” 

Babasikas joined the Daniels Faculty in 2017 teaching in both the undergraduate and graduate architecture programs. When the university moved to virtual learning in 2020, Babasikas adapted the model-making activities within Architecture Studio III (ARC361) to incorporate student-produced short films. Students proved so adept at creating architectural drama in their short films that Babasikas is planning to make video a permanent part of ARC361's syllabus. 

"We usually represent architectural design as finished, vacant drawings and images. But architecture is never finished and always occupied: it's a time-based process, creating atmosphere and stories," Babasikas says. "Filmmaking is just a natural next part of this process.” 

Images: 1) The Aegean Marine Life Sanctuary, an adaptive reuse, land- and sea-scape remediation project in collaboration with the Archipelagos Institute for Marine Conservation in Leipsoi (2021);  2) ATHENS2030, an urban rejuvenation design/infrastructure research project for the Historic Center of Athens (2020);  3) 6PLACE TORONTO, a public space project documenting infrastructural monuments (2018); 4) DRIP, a vertical garden pavilion combining salt, steel, and halophyte plants in London (2012).

In addition to his roles as an educator, Babasikas is an architect and writer whose work explores connections between architecture, storytelling, media, and public space.  

Recent research and teaching investigate public space under climate crisis and the design of buildings and cities against the decline of the Commons – examples include the Archipelago Thesis Studio at Daniels, the public space investigation 6 Place Toronto, “ATHENS2030,” a blue/green infrastructural rejuvenation and DIY urbanism project in Mediterranean Cities, and the establishment of the “Aegean Marine Life Sanctuary,” an innovative marine conservation, rehabilitation facility, and island community in Leipsoi, Greece.  

He is principal of Babasikas Office (Toronto and Athens) and a licensed architect in Greece and the EU. Babasikas has edited exhibition catalogues and published essays on public space, urban renewal, housing, crisis landscapes, lens-based art, and walking as a cultural and political practice. He holds a BA in Architecture and Comparative Literature from Columbia University and a Master of Architecture from Princeton University. 

Babasikas succeeds former director Jeannie Kim, associate professor. During her eight years in the role, Kim oversaw the development and realization of the new undergraduate curriculum – and the introduction of undergraduate thesis, an opportunity for students from the specialist streams to work together, as well as interdisciplinary collaboration for students who participate in the School of Cities or Engineering capstones. 

“Places of Production: Forest and Factory” is a new publication from the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, in collaboration with the Canadian Wood Council and the woodSMART Program.

The title comes from the research studio of the same name, led by Professor Robert Wright and Professor Brigitte Shim, that explored the intersection between the disciplines of forestry, architecture, landscape architecture, and urbanism.

The studio was an opportunity for Daniels students to explore the critical and relatively untapped relationship between forestry and design. Working with Element5, and using their factory expansion plans as impetus, students reimagined the traditionally insular factory building and explored how it could be combined with new and innovative programs to ensure a vital future for places of production in the life of local communities.

“The forest and the factory are both examples of the continuum from nature to constructed landscapes that speak to our contemporary attitudes towards environmental conservation and production," share Wright and Shim in their introduction. "Each studio group provided an integrated design response to the studio brief, considering the role of the landscape and built form to develop a bold design solution that explored the role of forestry and design simultaneously.” 

Now the publication — available for free through the Canadian Wood Council’s woodSMART Program — provides a platform for further knowledge with accompanying essays from academic and industry experts, as well as the output of the student’s collaborative semester-long research.

Image caption: BC Passive House Factory by Hemsworth Architecture; Forwarder and crane cutting and harvesting logs in Haliburton Forest.

“’Places of Production: Forest to Factory’ presented a valuable opportunity to engage the future architects of our built environment,” said Kevin McKinley, president and CEO of the Canada Wood Council, in his introduction to the publication. “The studio challenged students to harness the strength and sustainability of wood to reimagine what a factory could be in a low-carbon future."

"The five schemes developed in it exemplify CWC’s vision to be a passionate champion of wood construction for an advanced and sustainable wood culture. We applaud the incredible efforts of the studio and encourage these emerging and innovative designers to be our future voices and advocates of wood construction across Canada, and around the world.”

Visit the woodSMART website to download "Places of Production: Forest and Factory."

Image caption: Model of adaptive wetland and ecosystem and services structural model by a student team including Dylan Johnston, Caroline Kasiuk, Michael MacNeill, and Niko McGlashan.

Header image by Craig Heinrich: White River Forest Products is a community-operated sawmill in White River, Ontario. The local forest pictured is processed into lumber, some of which is transported to Element5's CLT factory in St. Thomas, Ontario.
 

The design for the revitalized University College Library on U of T’s St. George Campus has been recognized with the Ontario Library Association’s 2021 Library Architectural and Design Transformation Award. The 24,000 square foot renovation project was completed by Kohn Shnier + ERA Architects in association. One of the project’s leaders was John Shnier, a principal with Kohn Shnier Architects, as well as an Associate Professor in the Master of Architecture program at Daniels.

The revitalization project is deeply important for University College – returning the Library space to its original location within the existing building, modernizing the library’s function with the ability to support new programming, updating building infrastructure while renewing other areas for students and faculty, and providing new measures for barrier-free accessibility.

Even before the award, the refreshed library spaces were notable within the context of the campus for their integration within University College, a beloved neo-gothic campus building. Linear black and white contemporary structures and detailing within the refreshed spaces stand in contrast against the building’s existing stained-glass windows and wood panelling, creating a memorable juxtaposition. The overall project also includes a new elevator tower, clad in scaled copper to reflect the aesthetic of the surrounding campus.

“Our approach to this project was driven from the outset by a significant respect for the historic building and a reverence for the spaces within. University College is a significant building within the legacy of U of T, but also an exceptional piece of Ontario’s history and the history of higher education in Canada,” said Kohn Shnier architects in a written statement.

“Every effort was made to touch the existing fabric lightly, yet aspects of the programme, the mandate to create barrier-free accessibility and improve technology and infrastructure, required a deft hand to ensure these requirements did not overwhelm or compromise the qualities of the building that we and the stakeholders held dear. Every new element was carefully considered in its relationship to the historic fabric, but also in how it could service the technical requirements of the project both now and mindful of future requirements.”

The Library Architectural and Design Transformation Award is given in recognition of exemplary renovation, restoration, or conversion projects. In a comment from the jury for the award, the University College revitalization project was described as “a beautiful and skilled renovation of a significant heritage building. The new elements of the library are considerately designed to draw on and respect their context in the fabric of the carefully restored existing building.”

The University College revitalization is one of three projects being recognized with the award, given at a digital ceremony earlier in July. The project is the second OLA-awarded library that Kohn Shnier Architects has designed for the University of Toronto. In 2004, their design of the beloved EJ Pratt Library at Victoria College was recognized with an Award of Excellence by the OLA (that project was designed in association with Shore Tilbe Irwin Partners).

Images courtesy of Kohn Shnier (University of Toronto – University College, Kohn Shnier + ERA Architects in Association).

Three recent Daniels Faculty graduates from the Class of 2021 sat down with us to remember their time at university and share advice for new and current students. From memorable courses and favourite spots on campus, to critical first-year skills and advice for maintaining balance – read on for their responses.

Sheetza McGarry – Bachelor of Arts, Architectural Studies

What is your favourite memory at U of T and the Daniels Faculty?   

I don't think I can pick just one. However, I would say the community in general. The friendships made at this faculty become your teammates, support network, and family away from home. The relationships formed with faculty members are so supportive and really opened my eyes to the possibilities of architecture and design beyond this academic stage.  

What do you know now that you wish you’d known when starting your program?   

Self-care and socializing are just as important as school. You need to find a balance. It's 10x harder to do your best work alone and when you're not taking care of yourself.  

What skills do you think first-year students should focus on developing?   

Getting used to synthesizing large readings will definitely help with the first-year reading requirements. It also never hurts to get a leg up on the Adobe Suite (specifically Illustrator and Photoshop), Rhino, and AutoCAD. However, most importantly I'd just say keep creating, find what gets you excited and explore it.  

What was your favourite course that you took at Daniels?  

Any of the design studios of course. I also loved Artist's Writings. It was a great way to read pieces from creatives that we learn about in theory classes. From reading their works and having critical discussions about them in class, I discovered a lot about my own practice and places I grappled with my identity within the art and architecture field. The projects that came out of this class are some that I hold closest to my heart, and have gone on to inform the way I approach my artistic practice whether that be visual arts, writing, or architecture and design.  

How do you maintain a good work/life balance?   

It's a constant process of reminding myself to take breaks and step back. Without it, it can get a bit too easy to lose perspective on your work and academics in general. Don't forget to be excited about things outside of school: a meal you're really interested in trying to cook, a park you want to read in, or a new cycling route. Also, surrounding yourself with people you mesh well with will make work/life balance seamless as you'll support one another and remind each other to have fun!  

What is your favourite spot on campus?  

​The Bamboo Garden in the Terrence Donnelly Centre! Brightens any rainy or snowy day.  

What tips for success do you have for first-year students at Daniels? 

Find people you work well with and have fun with and hold on to them. With so much change going on at this stage in life, you'll grow more than you can ever expect. Having a community to do that with is the best feeling as you enter adulthood! Your community will become your collaborators, critics, and of course friends. Finally, remember to take care of yourself and have fun - it'll go by quick so make the most of it!  

Juliette Cook – Master of Architecture

What is your favourite memory at U of T and the Daniels Faculty?   

There are a few, but one of my favourite memory at Daniels comes from first year, when two of the people in my studio and I agreed we would never stay past 10pm. Fast forward to the weekend before the first deadline, we were in studio figuring out how to unroll surfaces and glue our models together, and stayed until about 2am. While we were tired and disappointed we didn’t abide by our ‘rule’, we sort of chuckled about it, and since we all lived in the East end, Ubered home together when we were done. Those two people have remained two of my closest friends throughout the program. You definitely bond during those late nights in studio! 

What do you know now that you wish you’d known when starting your program?   

It is never worth skipping a meal – always take that time away from your computer to nourish yourself and give your brain a break. 

  What skills do you think first-year students should focus on developing?   

I think it is important to ask for support in developing skills to design with climate change in mind; in other words, thinking about embodied and operational carbon. This may take the form of learning software skills (daylighting, energy intensity, carbon accounting, etc.) to learning about societal and environmental strategies for environmental management. One course that I think should be incorporated into first-year learning is Doug Anderson’s ‘Indigenous Perspectives on Landscapes.’

I also think it would be beneficial to have some small group exercises in studio, for example for doing precedent analysis, or even site analysis. Group work is an integral part of being in the field and practicing those skills in school will translate well to any workplace where you would work alongside a team (i.e. most workplaces!) Finally, students should be open-minded to experimenting with different techniques to find what helps to make their work legible and accessible to others. 

  What was your favourite course that you took at Daniels?  

Barring studio courses, my favourite is a toss up between Peter Sealy’s Berlin in Film summer course, and Tei Carpenter’s By Other Means seminar. From the content to the format of the class, I felt very inspired and motivated by these two. 

  How do you maintain a good work/life balance?   

I worked throughout my degree, outside of school as well as a TA in 2nd and 3rd year. While shuffling around the city commuting and also having to work made my schedule quite tight, both of these activities were a welcome break from thinking about schoolwork. It allowed me to take some space from studio and come back refreshed. I also would not compromise on working out / stretching, and even kept a lacrosse ball in my desk drawer to roll out my tired feet. Reserving time for a partner, friends, and family was key – though I wasn’t physically seeing many of these people over the course of the 3-year degree, regular calls during studio breaks or commutes home were good reminders that life goes on after school. 

 What is your favourite spot on campus?  

The PIT! Great spot to have lunch / take a break with a group of friends. I am not sure if everyone calls it the pit, but it is the auditorium space leading up to the grad studio. With COVID, Daniels Gathertown Edition was also a great place to be!   

  What tips for success do you have for first-year students at Daniels?   

My main tip would be figuring out a workflow that allows you to be efficient, while staying excited about what you are working on. If I felt like working on a perspective collage in Photoshop, even without having more technical drawings completed yet, I rolled with that feeling so that I had a rendered vision of my project that would keep me inspired. Starting tests on representation techniques early helped to confirm whether or not what I imagined in my brain would work out on paper! 

Rida Khan – Master of Urban Design

What is your favourite memory at U of T and the Daniels Faculty?   

It has to be during my online thesis presentation when so many of my past and current teachers all took time out to see my final work. I couldn’t stop smiling. I owe my growth as a designer to their guidance and patience and I am grateful to have created those relationships at Daniels. 

What do you know now that you wish you’d known when starting your program?   

Speak up and ask for help, you are not supposed to know everything.  

What skills do you think first-year students should focus on developing?  

Build your communication skills, understand your strengths, and acknowledge weaknesses you can build on. There are students and faculty who can help you inside and outside the classroom to build you up if you learn how to communicate well. 

What was your favourite course that you took at Daniels?  

Superstudio (the joint course between graduate students in Urban Design, Architecture, and Landscape Architecture). It was memorable. Good memories, bad memories. I felt hopeful and powerless at the same time – it was something!  

How do you maintain a good work/life balance?   

During my time at Daniels I had to constantly remind myself that I am in school to learn and not to prove something at the cost of my physical and mental health- we are intending to become designers not participate in Fear Factor. I made a rule for myself to not do all-nighters (I ended up doing a couple) and focus on the quality not quantity of the ideas I brought forward.  

What is your favourite spot on campus?  

The Daniels building is majestic, and I love to point out to friends that I am associated with it. The Graduate Studio where all the Urban Design, Architecture and Landscape Architecture students worked together is a space of student solidarity and potential. I also love that the Multifaith Centre is just steps away for those moments when you just needed to get away, reflect, or pray.  

What tips for success do you have for first-year students at Daniels?   

Soak in where you are: a top design school in one of North America’s fastest-growing cities surrounded by the best teachers. I encourage students to learn from their instructors and proactively engage in opportunities to uplift your colleagues and communities outside of coursework. 

James Bird holds many titles: he is a knowledge keeper from the Nehiyawak nation and Dene Nation, a Master of Architecture student at the Daniels Faculty, a member of U of T’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission steering committee, as well as other national honours and awards, and a residential school survivor.

As we reflect on Indigenous History Month, Bird kindly shared snapshots from events with the Lieutenant Governor's Office, as well as film and exhibition recommendations to inspire further learning — not just during one month of the year, but for continued commitment moving forward.

Sunrise Ceremony with the Lieutenant Governor’s Office 

Tune in to TVO on July 1 to see Bird give the Opening Prayer during a Sunrise Ceremony with the Honourable Elizabeth Dowdeswell, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario.  

“[A Sunrise Ceremony] is a time to welcome goodness into the world and move our collective intentions to kindness,” said Bird. “In the light of each new day brings a new beginning for the time in the sky for that day, and beyond.” Considering the TRC, and as a residential school survivor, Bird said: “As we move into these difficult times, let us all remember our collective humanity and move gently on Mother Earth.”

Chapel Royal Tobacco Gardens on National Indigenous Peoples Day 

In recognition of National Indigenous Peoples Day on June 21, Bird co-hosted a luncheon and tour with the Lieutenant Governor’s Office at The Chapel Royal Tobacco Gardens. The Chapel Royal Tobacco Gardens are part of U of T Massey College where Bird is a junior fellow.  

“We [Indigenous Peoples of Canada] have a direct connection to the Crown through Treaty — it is with the use of sacred tobacco that this relationship is reinforced,” said Bird, who is also the Keeper of the Chapel Royal Gardens as approved by Chief and Council.

In Anishinaabek, The Chapel Royal at Massey College is called Gi-Chi-Twaa Gimaa Kwe Mississauga Anishinaabek AName Amik (The Queen’s Anishinaabek Sacred Place). Three of the Chapels Royal located outside the United Kingdom are located in Ontario. Notably, each of these Canadian chapels is distinguished by an Indigenous affiliation, which demonstrates the direct connection between Indigenous nations and the Crown. Learn more about The Chapel Royal at Massey College here.

Watch From Earth to Sky, a documentary film that profiles the lives of Indigenous architects 

From Earth to Sky, a new TVO Original documentary from director Ron Chapman, profiles the lives and work of accomplished Indigenous architects from across Turtle Island.  Each architect defines their individuality through artistry, and bond in their philosophy of how to protect the planet — including Douglas Cardinal, the 2020-2021 Gehry Chair, and Alfred Waugh, a featured speaker in the Daniels 2021 lecture series, as well as architects Brian Porter, Patrick Stewart, Tammy Eagle Bull, Wanda Dalla Costa, and Daniel Glenn.  

The film culminates as they travel to the Venice Biennale of Architecture to present, for the first time, Indigenous Architecture from North America in a spectacular installation (in which Bird participated).  From Earth to Sky is available to stream for free on TVO.org and the TVO YouTube channel. 

Learn about the history of treaty-making in the “Canada By Treaty” exhibition 

In 2017, Bird partnered with Heidi Bohaker and Laurie Bertram, a pair of U of T history professors, to create "Canada by Treaty: Negotiating Histories," a travelling exhibition that explains Canada's history of treaty-making with Indigenous peoples. The exhibition explains some of the ways Canada has historically failed to live up to the spirit of its treaty obligations — particularly through its residential school policy. 

"On the one hand, the government was signing treaties, but at the same time it was apprehending children and putting them into residential schools," James says. "We have this history of two stories being told: one of agreeing to land settlements, and the other of taking away Indigenous language and culture. It's a story of giving with one hand and taking with the other." 

When pandemic restrictions closed the exhibition early, the Daniels Faculty helped transform the display panels into a website. View the exhibition here: canadabytreaty.cargo.site. 

Photography for the Sunrise Ceremony and Tobacco Gardens events courtesy the Office of the Lieutenant Governor (Joe Segal).

On the occasion of winning the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada’s Gold Medal with her partner, Howard Sutcliffe, Professor Brigitte Shim took the time for a virtual interview to reflect on her 33 years of teaching at the Daniels Faculty.

You have been teaching at the Daniels Faculty at the University of Toronto since 1988. Why is teaching so important to you?

Educating the next generation of architects is essential to fostering design excellence in Canada and to helping to guide the future of our world. I see teaching as a form of design advocacy: part of permeating, contributing and being deeply invested in what really matters.

The Daniels Faculty fosters an environment of tremendous reciprocity: The Faculty is comprised of esteemed colleagues who feel equally serious about this commitment to the future of the profession and students who draw on diverse backgrounds, cultures and perspectives. Together we all invest a tremendous amount of our time, energy and optimism into our undergraduate and graduate students sharing our knowledge and experiences with them.

How do you determine the topics of your studios?

My studios always addressed pressing themes, and are often taught in collaboration with other architects, landscape architects, urban planners, artists, and academics to cultivate rich, cross-disciplinary perspectives. With each new studio, I try to seek out themes that are not just exercises, but rather opportunities to explore and test issues that are fundamentally shaping the future of cities and the broader environment.

We aim to empower our students to not only discover these themes, but to develop a different reading of the city and to think about how they can shape better futures. Take for example: advancing the intensification of Toronto laneways, building for northern climates, rethinking community-based healthcare, interrogating the challenge of contested and sacred sites, and more recently, the role of places of production linking our forests to factories – to name just a few.

How would you encourage new students to approach experimentation and invention in the design process?

The work that my students undertake while in architecture school must push the boundaries and rethink the possibilities of design to reshape the built environment. Through collaboration, exploration, and experimentation there will be invention and discovery.

Are there particular lessons from your time in university that have proven resonant as you have moved through your career?

As a young architecture student, seeing built work in person enabled me to experience different kinds of spaces and to understand the importance of landscape and context. The many field trips to visit buildings while in architecture school at the University of Waterloo had a huge impact on my understanding of architecture’s potential.

Subsequently, as a faculty member at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, I led many field trips to give Daniels students the same opportunities to see buildings and their landscapes. These travels have helped my students to develop a deep respect for, and understanding of, the physicality of architecture, landscape, and to understand the importance of site and context.

Brigitte Shim and a group of students visit Robert Smithson's earthwork "Spiral Jetty" (1970) during a reading week trip to Utah in 2017. 

Your studio, Shim-Sutcliffe Architects Inc. is recognized for uniting architecture and landscape; and for its experimentations — of materiality, craft and light. What do you think a student should understand about these themes?

Howard and I regard our practice as a part of a broader conversation about making, feeling, learning, expressing, and cultivating responsible stewardship. Each project, regardless of its scale or budget, is part of this continuum. The process is as important as the outcome. Clients and craftspeople are also friends and teachers, helping us to find great pleasure in making things. We see through drawing and model-making. There’s irrational intent behind the movement of the pencil. Drawing allows us to see and explore possibilities – it literally enables us to see.

Building buildings is a physical act. To realize architecture, we are reliant on materiality, craft, and light. Our designs develop from ideas that are rooted in materials and the landscape. We assemble materials such as brick, steel, glass, wood, and concrete and ask them to speak eloquently about who we are and what we value. This notion of connecting ideas, craft, production, materials, architecture, landscape, and the participation of clients and craftspeople is important for creating meaningful places.

And finally, do you have any other advice for current students before they enter their professional life?

I believe that the perceived boundaries between the disciplines of architecture, landscape and urban design, visual art and forestry are false. The best thing about being a student at the Daniels Faculty is that you are under one big roof with engaged students in all these disciplines. Each student must take advantage of this opportunity to discover the disciplines and the very interesting territories in-between.