Tuesday, April 8 – Wednesday, April 30
Daniels Building
1 Spadina Crescent

Whether you're a future student, an alum or a member of the public with an interest in architecture, landscape architecture or urban design—you're invited to join the Daniels Faculty for Winter 2025 Reviews taking place April 9-30.  

Throughout the month, students from across our graduate and undergraduate programs will present final projects to their instructors and guest critics from academia and the professional community. 

All reviews will take place in the Daniels Building at 1 Spadina Crescent from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. (unless otherwise stated). Follow @uoftdaniels on social media for updates and join the conversation using the hashtags #danielsreviews and #danielsreviews25. 

Please note that times and dates are subject to change. 

Tuesday, April 8 | Undergraduate 

Design + Engineering I (ARC112) 
Instructors: Jennifer Davis (Coordinator), Natalia Semenova, Mohammed Soroor 
Room: 200 

Wednesday, April 9 | Undergraduate 

9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. 
Drawing and Representation II (ARC200) 
Instructors: Michael Piper (Coordinator), Samantha Eby, Aziza Chaouni 
Room: Main Hall (170A, 170B) 

Design Studio I (JAV101) 
Instructors: Jeffrey Garcia (Coordinator), Phat Le, Francesco Valente-Gorjup, Mahsa Malek, Marcin Kedzior, Youssef el Helou, Scott Sorli, Mariano Martellacci, Harry Wei, Onah Jung, Danielle Whitley, Kara Verbeek 
Rooms: 215, 230, 240, 330, 340, PM: Main Hall (170A, 170B) 

Thursday, April 10 | Graduate 

Landscape Design Studio 2 (LAN1012) 
Instructors: Liat Margolis (Coordinator), Terence Radford, Agata Mrozowski 
Rooms: 230, 330 

Urban Design Studio 2 (URD1012) 
Instructors: Carol Moukheiber, Kanwal Aftab 
Room: Main Hall (170B) 

Friday, April 11 | Undergraduate and Graduate 

9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. 
Design Studio II (ARC201) 
Instructors: Fiona Lim Tung (Coordinator), Anne Ma, Katy Chey, Maria Denegri, David Verbeek, Daniel Briker, Jennifer Kudlats, Lara Hassani, Kara Verbeek, Francesco Martire 
Room: Main Hall (170A, 170B, 170C), 215, 230, 240, 242, 315, 340 

Landscape Design Studio 4 (LAN2014) 
Instructors: Robert Wright (Coordinator), Todd Douglas 
Room: 330 

Monday, April 14 | Graduate 

Design Studio 2 (ARC1012) 
Instructors: Behnaz Assadi (Coordinator), Fiona Lim Tung, John Shnier, Mauricio Quiros Pacheco, Vivian Lee, Francesco Martire
Room: Main Hall (170A, 170B, 170C), 230, 330 

Tuesday, April 15 | Graduate 

MLA Design Studio Thesis (LAN3017) 
Advisors: Elise Shelley (Coordinator), Fadi Masoud, Alissa North, Peter North, Liat Margolis, Francesco Martire, Robert Wright 
Room: 209, 215, 230, 240, 242, 330 

Wednesday, April 16 | Graduate 

MLA Design Studio Thesis (LAN3017) 
Advisors: Elise Shelley (Coordinator), Fadi Masoud, Alissa North, Peter North, Liat Margolis, Francesco Martire, Robert Wright 
Room: 209, 215, 230, 240, 242, 330 

MUD Urban Design Studio Thesis (URD2015) 
Advisors: Mason White (Coordinator), Michael Piper, Zahra Ebrahim 
Room: Main Hall (170A, 170B) 

Thursday, April 17 | Undergraduate and Graduate 

9:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. 
Post-Professional Thesis (ALA4022) 
Advisors: Mason White (Coordinator), Christos Marcopolous, Carol Moukheiber, Miles Gertler, Noheir Elgendy 
Room: 209, 242, Second-Floor Hallway 

10:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. 
Comprehensive Studio III (ARC369) 
Instructors: Daniel Briker (Coordinator), Mauricio Quiros-Pachecho, Fiona Lim Tung 
Room: 230, 330 

9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. 
Landscape Architecture Studio IV (ARC364) 
Instructor: Peter North 
Room: 240 

Monday, April 21 | Graduate 

Architectural Design Studio 4 (ARC2014) 
Instructors: Sam Dufaux (Coordinator), Brigitte Shim, Jon Cummings, Daniel Chung 
Room: Main Hall (170A, 170B), 230, 330 

Tuesday, April 22 | Graduate 

Architectural Design Studio 4 (ARC2014) 
Instructors: Sam Dufaux (Coordinator), James Macgillivray, Maria Denegri, Christopher Cornecelli 
Room: Main Hall (170A, 170B), 230 

Wednesday, April 23 | Undergraduate 

Architecture Studio IV (ARC362) 
Instructors: Shane Williamson (Coordinator), Chloe Town, Mariana Leguia Alegria  
Room: Main Hall (170B), 230, 330 

Thursday, April 24 | Undergraduate 

9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. 
Design and Community-Engagement Capstone Project (ARC490) 
Instructor: Michael Piper 
Room: Main Hall (170C)  

Architecture Studio IV (ARC381) 
Instructors: Paul Howard Harrison, Suzan Ibrahim 
Room: 230 

Undergraduate Thesis 

• Senior Seminar in History and Theory (Thesis) (ARC457) 
  Instructor: Simon Rabyniuk 
  Room: Main Hall (170A) 
   

• Senior Seminar in Design (Thesis) (ARC462) 
  Instructor: Jeannie Kim  
  Room: Main Hall (170B/C) 
   

• Senior Seminar in Technology (Thesis) (ARC487) 
  Instructor: Nicholas Hoban  
  Room: 330 

Friday, April 25 | Undergraduate 

Undergraduate Thesis 

• Senior Seminar in History and Theory (Thesis) (ARC457) 
  Instructor: Simon Rabyniuk 
  Room: Main Hall (170A) 
   

• Senior Seminar in Design (Thesis) (ARC462) 
  Instructor: Jeannie Kim  
  Room: AM: 230, Main Hall (170B/170C)
   

• Senior Seminar in Technology (Thesis) (ARC487) 
  Instructor: Nicholas Hoban  
  Room: 330 

Monday, April 28 | Graduate 

MARC Thesis – Architectural Design Studio (ARC3021) 

• Making with Machines 
  Advisor: Maria Yablonina 
  Room: Main Hall (170A)  
   

• LUNAR HABITAT: Design for Extreme Environments as a Driver of Architectural Innovation 
  Advisor: Brady Peters 
  Room: Main Hall (170B)  
   

• Architecture and the Right to Housing: The Practical Case for Radicalism  
  Advisor: Karen Kubey 
  Room: Main Hall (170C), 209 
   

• Architecture and Health Equity in an Imperiled World 
  Advisor: Stephen Verderber 
  Room: 230 
   

• String Figures 
  Advisor: Jeannie Kim 
  Room: 330, Library, AM: First-Floor Hallway, Commons near East Entrance 

Tuesday, April 29 | Graduate 

MARC Thesis – Architectural Design Studio (ARC3021) 

• LOBSTER TALES and Other Architectures Between Land and Sea 
  Advisor: Richard Sommer 
  Room: Main Hall (170A), 242 (PM) 
   

• Rehearsing the Parade: Ephemeral Architectures and Persuasion on the Move  
  Advisor: Miles Gertler 
  Rooms: AM: Main Hall (170B), 209, 230, PM: 209, 240, 315 
   

• Politics Policy and Architecture 
  Advisor: Michael Piper 
  Room: Main Hall (170C) 
   

• The Certainty of Uncertain Forms, or in search of anexact typologies / The Stone Edition Advisor: Carol Moukheiber 
  Room: 242 (AM), 330 

Wednesday, April 30 | Undergraduate 

10:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. 
Advanced Topics in Architecture: Tools for Close Observation (ARC465)
Instructor: Zac Mollica 
Room: 230 

2:00-6:00 p.m. 
Advanced Topics in the Technology of Architecture: Attributes of Aliveness: Human-Computer Interaction in Design (ARC480)
Instructor: Humbi Song 
Room: 209, 230, 242

In the summer of 2021, when pandemic restrictions had most people working and studying remotely, Professor Pina Petricone began experimenting with a new model of experiential learning, putting together an intensive internship for 12 undergraduate students that departed from the traditional internship model.

Taking full advantage of the multidisciplinary nature of the Faculty’s BAAS program, her format replaced the usual pursuit of “practical experience” in a design office with one that encouraged students to contribute to and advance design research initiatives in everyday practice. 

One year later, this pilot course led to the official launch of the Design Research Internship Program (DRIP) in May of 2022, when Petricone invited 13 partnering practitioners to select one or two interns to undertake a defined design-research project over six weeks. 

Last summer, the program saw its biggest cohort to date, with some 30 internships offered by a host of top Canadian design firms. 

As DRIP 2025, which was available to all undergraduate Architectural Studies and Visual Studies students who had completed one credit of ARC courses at the 300 level, prepares to kick off, Petricone reflected on the first three years of the unique initiative, including the recipe for DRIP’s rapid success and also what comes next.

You have often talked about how the unique shape of DRIP is only possible within the rigorous context of Daniels’ BA in Architectural Studies program. What sets the Faculty’s DRIP program apart from other internships?

Unique across Canada, the pedagogical positioning of our BAAS program, which is firmly rooted in the liberal arts milieu, is what allows DRIP to define models of design research that advance lessons from design studios and course work into multivalent and sometimes interdisciplinary design research problems. 

Combined with the opportunity afforded by the concentration of some of the country’s most recognized design practitioners at the University of Toronto’s doorstep, DRIP finds itself in a new category within the long history of design internships. 

As an academic internship, DRIP moves freely beyond the mandate of “practical experience” or “readiness for the profession” of most architecture internships. At once unburdened by pre-professional obligations, DRIP exposes Daniels undergraduate students to architectural design as a form of research and in turn exposes the rich community of professional design practitioners to the unique talents of our students.

Left: ERA Architects DRIP intern Thea Freer analyzed and documented the historical, present-day and future attributes of Allan Gardens in Toronto. Middle: WZMH DRIP intern Alyssa Tao created a resource for the firm’s approach to building with timber. Right: Denegri Bessai DRIP intern Kaede Sato developed model-making techniques that tested spatial arrangements in ongoing residential projects.

DRIP understands that design research is an integral part of professional practice. Student interns tap into this activity and contribute to advancing applied research projects defined by their host firms. What range of research and findings have emerged in these first years of DRIP delivery?

It has been super-interesting to trace the patterns of research projects undertaken by DRIP interns in these first three years. Each internship relies on a practitioner-defined design-research project, born from exigencies of firm-specific past, present and/or future professional projects. The list of partnering firms is curated for diversity of practice models and value-driven enterprise, and no two projects are alike.

Both prospective interns and partnering practitioners declare their DRIP areas of practice, such as Urbanism, Landscape, Building Tectonics, Building Details, Public Space, Infrastructure, Digital Fabrication, Heritage, Energy Performance, Interdisciplinary, Housing, Public Policy, Community Engagement, Exhibition, Publication, etc., as well as their DRIP research methods, such as Conceptual Drawing, Mapping, Model Making, Technical Drawing, Archival Research, Historical Research, Photo Documentation, Rendering, Computation, Diagramming, Fieldwork or Spatial Analysis.

Common areas of focus, however, still lead to a wide range of research questions and outcomes.

Using various research methods in a number of practice areas, some of the prevalent design research that has emerged in DRIP’s first three years includes Typological Diagramming, Archival Documentation, Envelope Performance, Site Analysis, Critical Cataloguing, Proof of Concept by Modeling, Historical Tracing, Iterative Tracing by Rendering and Testing Tools such as comparing AI Platforms to advance digital practices in the design and documentation phases.

Left: Hariri Pontarini Architects DRIP intern Luca Patrick created a comparative archive that explores the unifying function of the exploded axonometric across several building types. Middle: ERA Architects DRIP intern Camilla Hoang traced lost heritage of seven 19th-century Black churches in Toronto via an interactive site model. Right: ZAS Architects DRIP intern John Wu created a catalogue of effective learning spaces for the firm’s innovative educational projects.  

Your ambitions to evolve and refine DRIP as a far-reaching experiential learning model are already underway. Now that it’s entering its fourth year, what do you imagine for DRIP’s future?

I believe one of the greatest assets of DRIP is how the program embraces the opportunity to educate senior BAAS students not only with academic and technical skills but also with an understanding of the broader societal impact of their work. Our students and partnering practitioners are passionate about doing meaningful work and we are making strides to build-in a diversity of practice best matched with a diversity of students in all streams of our undergraduate program.

A big part of this is slowly but surely increase engagement of interdisciplinary design practitioners and active agencies to partner with us and expand our roster to in turn invite their own collaborators to inform not only the DRIP experience but also the research project. Critical to this growth is directed feedback each year from both students and partnering practitioners, which has proved invaluable to the development of DRIP as a more far-reaching program and we’re working on two specific fronts. 

We are now exploring DRIP grouped initiatives where the strengths and interests of graduating students are assembled to work with a partnering practitioner that invites a collaborator(s) to amplify the six-week project. This is a great opportunity for out-of-province or out-of-country practitioners to engage in DRIP without the impairing logistics of students having to travel. 

At the same time, we are investigating how we might engage international partnering practitioners via our international (and national) students that might be already relocating for the summer. I’m excited by the possibilities!

This year’s DRIP begins on May 5 and runs until June 16.

Banner image: Collage of work produced by DRIP students during each of the program’s first three years. 

Homepage image: Collage of DRIP pilot work led by Pina Petricone at her design practice, Giannone Petricone Architects, with 12 BAAS students in 2021.

The second iteration of the Solar Biennale, a roving biannual that focuses on design’s engagement with the sun, kicked off last month in Switzerland. Among the projects on view in its central exhibition, called Soleil-s, are two by members of the Daniels Faculty.

Have a Nice Day, a synthetic solar canopy that’s animated by motion sensors (pictured above), was designed by Common Accounts, the Toronto- and Madrid-based studio co-led by Assistant Professor Miles Gertler with Igor Bragado. 

“The installation considers the sun as a cosmic battery whose rays can increasingly be replicated and directed toward myriad purposes,” explains Gertler, citing cellular rehabilitation, anti-aging and enhanced fertility among them.

Adds Bragado: “The project troubles the psycho-social associations with the sun in the age of climate change and channels them into sensible, energetic encounters in the space of the gallery.” 

The museum staging Soleil-s, Lausanne’s Musée de Design et d’Arts Appliqués (mudac), has acquired Have a Nice Day (the assembly of which is pictured below) for its permanent collection. The piece was fabricated in Portugal by ArtWorks.

The creation of the installation was supported by research assistants Marie-Ellen Houde-Hostland, Emilie Tamtik and Elizaveta Grishina. Houde-Hostland is currently a student in the Faculty’s Master of Architecture (MARC) program, while Tamtik graduated from the program in 2024.

According to Gertler, “the piece is part of a larger body of research from my studio that focuses on self-design’s capacity to manage the body’s relation to the planetary.” In addition, it “furthers research presented in the film program of Shaping Atmospheres,” an exhibition staged last fall in the Faculty’s Architecture + Design Gallery. 

Shaping Atmospheres was curated by Ala Roushan and Associate Professor Charles Stankievech, who also have work on view at mudac.

A Shroud Woven of Solar Threads, their film invoking ancient Persian history for an alternative way of engaging with the sun (a still is pictured below), asks probing questions about mankind’s apparent desire to control the environment, reflecting “our hubris or, worse, our inab­il­ity to conceive of a harmo­ni­ous coex­ist­ence with other living beings.”

“In seek­ing to master the sun,” the artists posit, “are we jeop­ard­izing subtle ecolo­gical balances that we barely under­stand?”

Through the ancient figure of Mithra, they suggest, the Persians “viewed celes­tial phenom­ena as forces to engage in dialogue, rather than manip­u­late. Thus, the film poses an essen­tial ques­tion: In the face of current climate crises, could human­ity not recon­nect with former, more sens­it­ive ways of under­stand­ing?”

Soleil-s, the show in which both Have a Nice Day and A Shroud Woven of Solar Threads appear, was curated by Scott Longfellow and Rafael Santianez. It runs at mudac until September 21. 

The Solar Bien­nale, which was launched in the Netherlands in 2022, will also take place on the EPFL campus in Lausanne, “with events, parties and activ­it­ies to explore the many facets of the sun, a univer­sal symbol and source of life.”

Project installation image: ©Bruno Lança—ArtWorks

The annual Thesis Booklets showcasing the final projects of graduate and undergraduate students at the Daniels Faculty are now available online. 

The Graduate Booklet features the work of Master of Architecture (MARC), Master of Landscape Architecture (MLA), Master of Urban Design (MUD), Master of Visual Studies (MVS) and Post-Professional Master of Architecture students at the Faculty, while the Undergraduate Booklet showcases the final thesis and capstone projects of students in the Bachelor of Arts in Architectural Studies (BAAS) and Bachelor of Arts in Visual Studies (BAVS) programs.

Thesis Booklets are a Daniels Faculty tradition, printed for and distributed to students, as well as thesis advisors, external reviewers and guests during the final reviews period.

Flip through the latest booklets below or download PDF versions (Graduate, Undergraduate).

Graduate Thesis Booklet:

Undergraduate Thesis Booklet:

Three exhibitions coming up this spring at the Daniels Faculty will highlight the diverse academic and artistic research that students across our graduate and undergraduate programs have undertaken this year. 

Sixty-four students from the undergraduate thesis cohorts in Visual Studies (BAVS) and Architectural Studies (BAAS) will present their work in Studio, Critical Practices, Design, History and Theory, and Technology in two exhibitions: As the Archive Dreams on view at Foy House (92 Isabella St.) from April 17 to April 19, and Scales of Inquiry on view in the Daniels Building from May 22 to June 27.

The BAVS exhibition, As the Archive Dreams, posits the archive as a living network—an assemblage of memories and stories and objects that transcends time. It tends to the roots of the archive not as a static repository, but as a dynamic apparatus of preservation and transformation. The works within the exhibition draw upon personal histories, cultural narratives, communal knowledges, and proverbial legacies to reinterpret processes of remembrance and renewal. Visitors are invited to engage in the archival process, witnessing and contributing to ever-evolving temporal narratives that situate the archive as both a keeper of the past and an active participant in the present and the future. Here, as the archive dreams, it stands as testimonial to action, transformation, and the enduring power of memory; it is imbued with life. Mark your calendar for the exhibition opening on Thursday, April 17, 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. 

The BAAS exhibition, Scales of Inquiry, meditates on the foundational concept of scale within design disciplines. It questions why, despite this foundation, the idea of scale itself seems to fall to the background, often reemerging only in discussions of representation and scope. Drawn to the immediate legibility afforded by a scalar logic, this exhibition organizes itself around a diverse range of design and research projects, sidestepping the simplicity of unilateral sorting by considering diverging conceptualizations of scale and scalability. Working between ideas from Charles and Ray Eames’s iconic Powers of Ten and Anna Tsing’s meditations on nonscalability and real world frictions, Scales of Inquiry moves beyond normative notions of scale, aiming to reflect the confluence of existing rational systems while challenging those same systems through subtle deviation and strategic disruption. 

In tandem, these exhibitions ponder memory, mutability, and friction as they manifest in time and space. The presented works themselves embody these concepts, not only through their conceptual and technical focuses, but in their prescription as thesis projects that simultaneously cumulate the past and hold future potential. Collectively, the 2025 undergraduate thesis cohort presents an assortment of works that survey what exists and speculates on what could be, inviting and intuiting worlds beyond the one we inhabit. 

The End of Year Show 2024/2025 (May 23–June 27, 2025) showcases a broad spectrum of student work from across the degree programs at the Daniels Faculty throughout the past academic year. Organized by Office In Search Of (OISO), an interdisciplinary design practice founded by Daniels Faculty lecturers Brandon Bergem and Jeffrey Garcia, this exhibition celebrates the creative accomplishments of our students and their commitment to reshaping the future. Current students interested in submitting their work from the Fall 2024 and Winter 2025 terms can do so via the online form by May 4. 

The Daniels Faculty will be well represented at this year’s Venice Architecture Biennale, running in the Italian city from May 10 to November 23.

In addition to lecturer and Applied Technologies Director Nicholas Hoban, who is on the creative team representing Canada at the 19th iteration of the event, a number of Faculty students and alumni are among the nearly two dozen recipients of Biennale Fellowships supported by Canada’s Council for the Arts.

The fellows, says the Council, which bestows the fellowships on architecture students and emerging arts practitioners from across the country, “will conduct independent research in Venice and serve as exhibition ambassadors at the Canada Pavilion, engaging with a global audience including architects, artists, designers, scholars and cultural leaders.”

“The Canada Council is delighted to support this year’s fellows as part of Canada’s long-standing engagement with the Venice Architecture Biennale,” Michelle Chawla, Director and CEO of the Canada Council for the Arts, said in a statement announcing 2025’s recipients.

“This is a diverse group of passionate, creative thinkers who will expand their independent research in an international context and enrich the Canada Pavilion. The fellows’ participation will deepen the conversation on how art and architecture meaningfully impact and strengthen society, in Canada and all over the world.”

Among the recipients associated with Daniels and U of T are:

Renée Powell-Hines
Master of Architecture student Powell-Hines is an artist and aspiring practitioner who views the field of architecture and design through the lens of equity, ethnography and sustainability. Her passion for technology focuses her master’s degree coursework on digital fabrication and robotics, with the goal of making contemporary fabrication methods more sustainable and accessible in the hopes of integrating this optimized making method into affordable housing.

Tanis Worme
Worme is a non-binary/gender fluid Plains Cree (nēhiyaw) student pursuing their MVS in Curatorial Studies degree at Daniels. While their education in architecture is rooted in Ontario, their design sensibilities are grounded in their lived experiences as an urban Indigenous person from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Their growing body of studio work considers notions of memory through blood and storytelling. Their design ethos builds on these themes, drawing from intellectual traditions to deconstruct inaccessible architecture and offer alternative narratives of compassionate spatial interventions.

Lane Johnson
MARC graduate Johnson is an architectural designer who works at the intersection of design, research and practice. His thesis at Daniels focused on bio-climatic architecture in the Caribbean. Johnson has worked on projects in the Caribbean, Canada and the United States.

Darian Razdar
Razdar is a writer, artist and independent scholar who acquired his Master of Science in Urban Planning at U of T. Razdar’s practice is embodied, ecological, collaborative and research-intensive, often working with the mediums of poetry, image, textile and print. His publications include Edge Theory (Silverfish, 2025), Morning Poems (San Press, 2023) and COUNTER-MAP: A Poetics of Place (Reflex Urbanism, 2022). His practice is currently based in Toronto and Mexico City.

Adrian Yu
Yu received his Bachelor of Arts in Architectural Studies degree at Daniels. He is currently an architectural designer and photographer at Toronto-based Office In Search Of. Yu is also a visual artist interested in designing composite images as a way to generate critical narratives on architecture and the built environment. Memory, culture and emotion have become areas of interest in his work and motivate the use of interdisciplinary techniques spanning photography, illustration, photogrammetry and digital rendering to study their implications on our experience of space.

This year, a total of 21 fellows will be travelling to Venice from Canada. For the full list of fellowship recipients, click here.

Powell-Hines portrait by Kodi Ume-Onyido. Worme portrait by Carmelle Martinez. Johnson portrait by Yugo Takahashi. Razdar portrait by Chellise Michael. Yu portrait by María Chen Liang.

Students, donors, faculty and staff came together at the Faculty Club recently for the yearly breakfast gathering celebrating student award recipients and those who support them.

This year’s Student Awards Breakfast took place in the main room of the Club on the morning of February 26. 

A total of 216 students from across the Faculty’s disciplines were supported through 41 awards in 2024/25. Many were in attendance at the breakfast last month.

“In hosting this event today, we are very pleased to be bringing together our faculty, our many generous donors and our talented award recipients, the latter having distinguished themselves academically and as student leaders,” said Acting Dean Robert Levit, who introduced the proceedings.

“At the University of Toronto,” he continued, “awards have been a part of academic life for nearly 200 years, contributing immeasurably to U of T’s achievements and to its global reach. Today, as the funding of post-secondary institutions by government continues to decline, the support by donors of endowed scholarships, awards, prizes and bursaries at universities is crucial.”

Among the new awards singled out by Dean Levit (pictured below) was the Nelda Rodger Indigenous Student Award in Architecture and Design, a renewable award that provides financial support to full-time Canadian students of First Nations, Inuit and Métis heritage in the Faculty’s Architectural Studies program.

This award, he noted, is the first of its kind devoted to the study of architecture at U of T. 

Matthew Arnott, a third-year Master of Landscape Architecture student, was one of two award winners to address the breakfast gathering. The recipient of this year’s Claude Cormier Award in Landscape Architecture, he expressed how much the award, which was established by the acclaimed landscape architect and alumnus before he passed away in 2023, meant to him personally.

“Claude, being queer, Canadian and unapologetic in his design approach, has long served as a source of personal inspiration, blazing a trail for so many young designers like myself that previously did not exist,” Arnott said.

“To Claude and the folks at CCxA [Cormier’s Montreal-based practice], I’d like to express great thanks for establishing an award that makes graduate education so much more accessible and, more broadly, for their celebration of creativity, whimsy and humour in their approach to design.”

Olivia Carson, a student in the Bachelor of Arts in Architectural Studies program, also addressed the breakfast. She is a recipient of a John and Myrna Daniels Foundation Opportunity Award.

“I have been fortunate to have my family, peers and professors as my greatest supporters and inspirations,” Carson said. “But even with that support, there are moments when external recognition is needed—a reminder that what we are doing [as students] matters.”

“These awards,” she continued, “do just that; they nurture curiosity, fuel ambition and enable students to embrace learning as more than just an academic pursuit, but as a lifelong endeavour. Their support reminds us that education is not just about meeting requirements but [also] about exploration, creativity and growth. I would like to express my gratitude to the John and Myrna Daniels Foundation for the award I have been granted and for their generous contributions to the Daniels Faculty.”

In concluding the event, Dean Levit thanked both Carson and Arnott for sharing their experiences.

“You have painted a touching picture of the importance of recognition by others,” he said, “and of the impact of the kind of financial support shared by all of the award recipients who have joined us this morning.”

As of this year, the Daniels Faculty administers more than 125 donor-supported funds, a large proportion of which are devoted to student aid and recognition.

All photos by Richard Ashman

At the start of the 2023-24 school year, Onu Okoli boarded a flight from her home in South Africa, her life packed into several suitcases, ready to begin her studies in Toronto. We get a firsthand view of Okoli’s journey in the 22-minute documentary International Students: First 48 Hours in Canada. Now in her second year of the Bachelor of Arts in Architectural Studies (BAAS) program at the Daniels Faculty, Okoli reflects on her experiences as an international student at the University of Toronto, offering valuable insights for others considering a similar path. 

From grappling with the decision to pursue architecture to settling into residence and immersing herself in the vibrant culture of Toronto, Okoli shares her perspective on life as a student in one of the world’s most diverse and exciting cities.

To go back to the beginning: What influenced your decision to study at the University of Toronto? Was architecture always the subject that you wanted to pursue?

I honestly was not certain about what I wanted to study, and struggled a lot to make the decision as I was finishing high school. It always seemed like a far away idea that I had played around with in thought, but then suddenly I was confronted with the need to make a decision when university applications started opening up. I think I always knew deep down inside I wanted to pursue architecture, I just kept ignoring and avoiding it because I didn't know much about architecture at all. I had never even met an architect in person and thought it was an unrealistic desire. Eventually, after many hours spent on aptitude tests, and long, hard conversations with those close to me, I dove head first into my pursuit of becoming an architect.

I grew up in South Africa but was always very interested in studying abroad and experiencing life in another country while completing my studies. Eventually, along my long and wide search through hundreds of universities, I came across University of Toronto's Architectural Studies program at Daniels and really liked the idea of studying in the center of a city as bustling as Toronto and a school as notable as the University of Toronto. I did not expect to get in whatsoever but still submitted my portfolio by compiling my best works and was lucky enough to be afforded this opportunity. 

In the documentary International Students: First 48 Hours in Canada, you shared your journey to Canada from South Africa (including the airline losing your luggage!) After filming stopped, how did you find settling into your new home on campus? 

Settling into residence was surprisingly one of the most exciting parts of my journey. Living in residence, surrounded by other first-year students who were often new to the city or even the country, gave me the chance to explore the city with others and slowly learn our way around. The first few weeks in residence were filled with excitement, and I had the opportunity to make new friends and try new things. 

Being so close to campus made life much more convenient, especially as an architecture student, traveling back and forth with huge rolls of paper and models. Residence life has definitely been a big part of my journey here—so much so that I’m now working as a Don, which is pretty funny considering where I started.

What are your top tips for future international students thinking of attending U of T or the Daniels Faculty in the fall? Was there one thing in particular that prepared you the most before you left home?

I think you just have to dive into the process head first. No matter how many “days in my life as a U of T” student videos I watched or how many notebooks and drawing materials I packed, nothing can really prepare you for an experience as new as university life. 

I think it takes some adjusting, especially coming from a different country, but it's important to remind yourself that you were admitted into the school for a reason. The University of Toronto receives over 150,000 applications each year, meaning that someone clearly thought you were capable of and highly deserving of the chance to be here. Trust in yourself and try your best! Everything will eventually end up just fine. 

Now that you’ve made it through your first year in the BAAS program here at Daniels (and first semester of second year), what has been your favourite course so far? 

ARC200 Drawing and Representation II was definitely one of my favourite courses so far. We had the opportunity to choose a study street anywhere in Toronto and complete a set of studies on it, culminating in us providing a proposal for the site. Me and my partner chose a portion of Danforth under the Greektown BIA. I've now visited that area a dozen times and could probably map it from memory but the experience of being there, talking to locals and even eating amazing Greek food on the street patio will stay with me forever.

This project gave me the opportunity to explore a new side of the city in extreme depth. Lectures were very enjoyable because it taught me a lot about Toronto as a city and how it developed along with its main streets. My instructor, Reza Nik, was extremely encouraging, making the course enjoyable every step of the way,  and I am proud of the work we produced in the end.

Project drawings by Okoli for ARC200 Drawing and Representation II.

What's the most surprising thing you’ve learned? 

I think the most surprising thing I’ve learned is just how diverse Toronto is. Coming from South Africa, I didn’t expect such a mix of cultures, and it’s been pretty cool to see how much I can learn from meeting people from all over.

What are you excited about as you look ahead to summer and your third year on campus? 

I look forward most to the weather warming up again! It's definitely still going to take a long while for me to get used to the cold and the snow. I'm really excited for the summer to recharge and explore more of Toronto. As for third year, I’m looking forward to having a more tailored academic experience with streams being introduced. It will be interesting to see how things develop. I’m also excited to continue meeting new people and simply gaining more life experiences.

It feels like every year brings something new and challenging, and I can’t wait to see what this next one holds!

An eco-chic brand of modular hi-fi speakers designed by a student in the Faculty’s undergraduate architecture program has been making a splash on the international design circuit, including at the prestigious Maison&objet show in Paris in January.

Hashem Hashem, currently in his fourth year of the Bachelor of Arts in Architectural Studies (BAAS) program, is the design lead at Dubai-based Banou Studio, a design firm he co-founded with Zaid Seddiqi, also an alumnus of the program.

Their black-toned speakers, which are crafted from upcycled palm fronds, are monumental in scale, consisting of six chest-high panels configured in a gentle zigzag about four metres in length. 

They were inspired by Arab astronomy and architecture, say the duo (pictured with the speakers below).

“Triangular perforations scatter across the blackened surface, stylized as abstract stars,” their concept statement explains. “Beneath this starry map, delicate black strings catch the light, shimmering like stars in quiet motion. Together, the perforations and threads control the acoustics, guiding sound with unparalleled clarity.”

Called Byōbu, a reference to Japanese folding screens, the speakers were unveiled during Dubai Design Week in November, when they were put on display at the UAE Design Pavilion. They have since travelled widely.

After Dubai, they were showcased at the Louvre Abu Dhabi’s Aptitude Café, an outdoor café at the striking waterfront museum designed by French starchitect Jean Nouvel.

In January, they appeared at Maison&objet, chosen by Dubai Culture, the emirate’s arts and culture authority, for inclusion in the UAE’s Design Oasis pavilion.  

Design Oasis, the Emirates News Agency reported at the conclusion of the show, “provided a unique platform to showcase the creations of 15 young Emirati designers.”

Their “innovative works,” the agency added, “combined authentic Emirati heritage with a contemporary touch, reflecting the UAE’s vision of highlighting its cultural identity in innovative ways.”

Banou Studio, which specializes in the design and construction of pavilions for Emirati businesses, released Byōbu through PalmPulse, an offshoot brand. PalmPulse, says Hashem, is dedicated exclusively to high-fidelity speakers.

Portrait: Daniels Faculty student Hashem Hashem (right) and alumnus Zaid Seddiqi pose with Byōbu, their large-scale speaker system four metres in length.

The Integrated Urbanism Studio (ARC2013/LAN2013/URD1011) serves as a core component of the architecture, landscape architecture and urban design programs at the Daniels Faculty, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration to address the complex challenges of 21st-century urbanism. 

During the Fall 2024 term, the graduate studio focused on the decommissioned Downsview Airfield in Toronto—a transformative project with the potential to house over 80,000 residents. This ambitious undertaking positions Downsview as one of North America's most significant urban redevelopments, offering a unique platform for students to explore and address critical urban planning and design issues.  

Students developed transformative schemes from creating a new agricultural food hub and an integrated water management system, to reevaluating systems of home ownership and reconsidering the site as a regenerative landscape. Read on to learn more about the diverse array of group projects.

Block-by-Block 

Students: Jason Chen, Riling Chen, Shixun (Peter) Wang, Zixuan (Kathy) Zhou 
Program: MARC 
Instructor: Chloe Town 
Website: rescaling-downsview.cargo.site

"Downsview Airport, located in the northern part of Toronto, is a site shaped by its aviation history. Following its decommissioning, the linear runway remains vacant, resembling a gash in the landscape and surrounded by isolated neighborhoods that function like archipelagos. The unused land has become the subject of intense speculation, particularly for condominium developments. However, these large-scale, top-down plans often result in homogeneous ownership models and architectural typologies, which deter social diversity. 

Our scheme, Block-by-Block, explores the question: How can we build incrementally? At the urban scale, we re-evaluate the rectilinear property lines that define much of Toronto’s fabric and systems of ownership. These alternative ownership models facilitate smaller scale building typologies, fostering more intimate and interconnected communities. At the individual scale, each unit is designed to be flexible, equipped with essential plumbing and electrical infrastructure but left unfinished, allowing residents to customize their spaces according to their needs and preferences." 

Terrain Bound 

Students: Kiana Rezvani Baghae, Benjamin Dunn, Patrick Minardi, Orly Sacke 
Program: MLA 
Instructor: Fadi Masoud 
Website: terrainbound.cargo.site

"Terrain Bound challenges the convention of boundary-making in city-building processes, arguing that large scale developments should be planned holistically, in connection with adjacent communities and with respect to existing ecologies. Downsview’s history as an airport has been defined by the assertion of rigid boundaries. While the airport’s function has ceased, its legacy persists in the surrounding neighbourhood. Our project identifies key boundary conditions and reimagines them as opportunities to bridge, buffer, and rebalance Downsview’s insular condition."

Reimagining Urbanism Through Integrated Agriculture 

Students: Abby MacEwen, Amanda Nightingale, Denise Akman, Noel Sampson 
Program: MARC 
Instructor: Mauricio Quirós Pacheco  
Website: nadasuperstufinal.cargo.site

"Toronto has lost 62.5% of its agricultural land, and with a growing population and the climate crisis, this project puts food security at the forefront of its development. This project transforms an industrial site into a new urban food hub, integrating agriculture across community, public, industrial, and institutional scales (S-M-L-XL). Through vertical farming retrofits to hangar buildings, banded field/greenhouse conditions, a new food terminal, and strategic connectivity, the site evolves as population and food needs grow. It envisions a self-sustaining urbanism, where housing and food production coexist, creating resilient systems that redefine city living—balancing density, sustainability, and food security as an essential urban infrastructure." 

Diverse and Connected 

Students: Zahra (Asal) Cheraghi, Neha Haider, Pablo Vasquez Segura 
Program: MUD 
Instructor: Roberto Damiani 

"The project restores connectivity by integrating the site into the city fabric through three public connectors linked to the ecological network. An east-west green connector and extended street networks strengthen ties to the urban context, while the former runway becomes a vibrant pedestrian strip. Four distinct districts emerge, featuring diverse building typologies that balance density, porosity, and privacy. Green fingers activate Downsview Park, and existing structures are adaptively reused as amenities, unifying the overall vision." 

Embracing Afterlife 

Students: Angela Jang, Claire Leverton, Georgia Posno, Lauren Tran 
Program: MLA 
Instructor: Fadi Masoud
Website: embracingafterlife.cargo.site

"Embracing Afterlife explores the evolving narrative of Downsview Park, where the past, present, and future coexist. The park’s ecological memory, shaped by history, climate, and industrialization, leaves traces in its soil and plant communities. Our guiding quote, 'every environment bears a palimpsest of its past. Every woodland is a memoir made of leaves and microbes that catalog its 'ecological memory,' helped encourage us to think beyond the site as it presently exists. 

Our project honors this afterlife by integrating the site’s history, particularly the runway’s past into its future design. By repurposing materials like old concrete, fallen trees and stone, we created an integrated circulation plan that reflect the potentiality of the site as a highly regenerative landscape. Interwoven through these repurposed materials is a robust planting plan that aims to remediate the site’s soil from chemicals and create a multi-seasonal space that entirely leads with landscape."

Everything, Everywhere, All At Once 

Students: Ardy Chang, Nathan Shakura, Sharon Lam, Siena Buzzelli 
Program: MARC 
Instructor: Christos Marcopoulos 
Website: integrated-urbanism.cargo.site

"Key terms that we examine throughout our project are: ultimate mixed use, fine grain, weaving, democratic planning, community life.  The overarching concept for our proposed plan of Downsview Park involves the homogenous redistribution of the Framework Plan to weave together land use patterns of Toronto.  We are critiquing the Framework plan which proposes an urban 'island', neglecting its surrounding neighbourhoods.  Our project considers what mixed use means at the scale of the community and the city.  We approach mixed use design by splitting up and rearranging the Framework’s land use plan evenly throughout Downsview Park. The Framework Plan is developer driven and we are challenging it with a radically democratic, fine grain, community-driven project." 

Runways to Waterways 

Students: Andy Lee, Ryan Grover, Olivier Beaudoin, Ram Espino 
Program: MLA 
Instructor: Fadi Masoud 
Website: runwaystowaterways.cargo.site 

"Runways to Waterways transforms Downsview’s former airfield into an integrated water management and urban ecology system. Positioned at the ridge of Toronto’s watersheds, it captures, stores, and filters water, mitigating lowland flooding while creating biodiverse public spaces. Repurposed runways form basins that direct stormwater through cloudburst roads, detention streets, and green corridors back into the Humber and Don Rivers. These interventions not only slow water, but establish dynamic spaces for recreation, education, and ecological restoration." 

GREEN THREADS: Weaving Nature Through Urban Hyperdensity 

Students: Jack Ahn, Casper Li, Suet Wing (Sylvia) Lo  
Program: MLA 
Instructor: Fadi Masoud 
Website: highdens.cargo.site

"GREEN THREADS: Weaving Nature Through Urban Hyperdensity is a visionary response to Toronto’s rapid growth and escalating urban sprawl. This high-density experiment challenges conventional development by seamlessly integrating nature and city life, creating a compact, efficient, and vibrant urban fabric. Drawing from global precedents, it weaves together a transit-oriented nucleus, mixed-use towers, and dynamic public spaces—maximizing vertical and horizontal potential to cultivate a resilient, livable, and ecologically adaptive future." 

The Strip

Students: Nour Fahmy, Timothy Soribello, Ming Yin 
Program: MARC 
Instructor: Samantha Eby 
Website: downsviewthestrip.cargo.site   

"The Strip explores the role of open spaces in urban settings, questioning what draws people to gather and how design can foster connectivity, inclusivity, and a sense of community. Through a carefully designed framework of the strips, each with distinct functions and typologies, we have created a dynamic and adaptable environment that encourages diverse social, cultural, and economic activities. This approach not only accommodates the growing needs of the population but also strengthens the collective identity of Downsview, making it a vibrant and welcoming destination for all." 

Downsview in Reciprocity 

Students: Olivia Chan, Susan Xi, Ariel Zhang   
Program: MARC 
Instructor: Mariana Leguia Alegria 

"The proposal for Downsview reimagines Toronto living as a community-centric and regenerative urban model of local food production, affordable housing, and sustainable infrastructure. Strategies of adaptive reuse and flexible planning are prioritized while providing design agency for residents. In reciprocity, community members become stewards of the land and actively participate in culture sharing and learning through nature as they engage with the social amenities within the central park and its green-fingers that weave the site back into the surrounding context." 

Production City

Students: Huzaifa Chughtai, Jacob Majak, Oliver Parsons
Program: MARC
Instructor: David Verbeek

"Downsview, with its vast expanses of underutilized land, presents a unique opportunity to address farmland loss caused by urban sprawl. Production City utilizes Downsview to develop a prototype for harmonious relationships between food production, the city, nature, and people. By employing the Westland greenhouse model, we aim to boost food production through urban agriculture. This method utilizes UV lights for year-round plant growth, allowing us to ultimately feed nearly 80,000 people, about 75% of our revised Downsview population."