The Daniels Faculty is pleased to be co-hosting the 2018 TimberFever student design-build competition September 20-23 in conjunction with Ryerson University. TimberFever is presented by Moses Structural Engineers.
 
TimberFever brings architecture and civil engineering students from universities across Canada together to build a life-size structure out of wood. A total of 96 architecture and engineering students from ten universities across Canada have registered for this year's event, making it the farthest-reaching TimberFever competition yet.
 
The intense four-day competition is a valuable experiential learning opportunity for students, which includes a design charrette, to be held at Ryerson University, and two days of construction, which will be held at the Daniels Building at One Spadina. Each year the design brief is top secret and centered around a current issue. Each team is given the same amount of wood and a base for their structure. They have access to power tools, a workshop, and are given help from workshop staff and representatives from the Carpenters’ District Council of Ontario.
 
An awards ceremony will take place at the Daniels Faculty's Main Hall on September 23 at 4:30pm. The ceremony is open to the public.
 
After the competition, structures remain on display and the public is encouraged to vote for their favorite design on TimberFever website starting Monday September 24, 2018. The People’s Choice will be announced on TimberFever's social media accounts after the structures are taken off display and online voting has ended.

For more information, visit the TimberFever website.

Follow TimberFever on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

Photo, top: Daniels undergraduate students design and build an installation at Hart House Farm, Summer 2017 | Photo by Harry Choi

This summer, Associate Professor Aziza Chaouni led a research field trip with five Daniels Faculty graduate students to the Australian outback.
 
In conjunction with the Designing Ecological Tourism (DET) research platform, Chaouni and the students have been working with the South Australian Government and the University of Melbourne to develop rehabilitation scenarios for a decommissioned coal mine in the village of Leigh Creek, South Australia. The research builds on work the students completed as part of Chaouni's winter 2018 Option Studio (ARC 3016) entitled Rethinking the Australian Outback: Imagining Leigh Creek.
 
"I chose this studio because it deals with a real social, economic, and environmental context and because of the ability it presents for our ideas to have an impact," said Master of Architecture graduate student Nicholas Callies. "The opportunity to visit and study a site and to meet with and discuss our ideas with locals has been very influential. It's encouraging to know that our projects have a real potential to make a difference to a place."
 
Australian media took note of the students' work. As The Transcontinental Port Augusta reported, "Local businessman Darryl Bowshire helped sponsor the students' visit and said it gave local people a really positive feeling to have these young people from the other side of the world be so enthusiastic about the town's future."

 
Participating students included: Xiaoting Stephanie Yuan, Yueyi Li, Nicholas Callies, Luis Quezada, and Chenxuan Meng. Alumna Samar Zarifa (MLA 2012) and Professor Gini Lee from Melbourne University joined them on the trip. After attending a seminar at the University of Adelaide, visiting the Leigh Creek mine, and installing a permanent exhibition of their work onsite, the team spent 4 days at Professor Lee’s Oratunga Estate where they synthesized their research findings and completed two outdoors installations composed of found objects.
 
"Ecotourism was one of the main tools we investigated in order to reveal the complex history of the site, while instigating economic growth," says Chaouni. "We developed a unique multidisciplinary approach that integrates ecology, engineering, sociology, landscape architecture, architecture and urban design."
 
Visit The Transcontinental Port Augusta's website to read the full article. 

Whether you're kicking off an undergraduate or graduate degree, starting a new program at a new school can be both exciting and overwhelming. Looking for tips on how to make the most of your time as a design student? We surveyed some of our 2018 graduates for advice.

Student volunteers at the opening of the Daniels Building, Nov. 17, 2017

“Architecture may be your start goal, but it may not (and probably won't) be your end goal. What I mean is that architecture is a room with many doors (pun intended), and all those doors can take you in so many directions in the world of design. As my classmates and I graduate, I see more and more of them interested in pursuing other fields, such as video game design, set design, graphic design, furniture and lighting design, urban design, and the list goes on. My advice for prospective students would be to stay open minded, you might just fall in love with something else along the way.

“Stay involved, and take advantage of all the events / clubs / organizations that are available to you (most of them offer free food!). The most memorable moments don't happen in the classroom, they happen unexpectedly in the studio late-night, at Orientation Week or an AVSSU event, or games night with your arch/vis friends.” — Shalice Coutu, HBA, Architectural Studies and Psychology

Students Xiaoting Stephanie Yuan, Yueyi Li, Nicholas Callies, Luis Quezada, and Chenxuan Meng joined Associate Professor Aziza Chaouni in Australia this summer via the Designing Ecological Tourism research platform.

“Don't miss any chance to travel as much as possible before and during school. It is okay to miss a semester or a year before you finish your degree if you get to work and/or travel through Europe, Latin America, Africa, Australia or Asia.” — Herman Borrego, MArch

Lecturer Adrian Phiffer received the Incentive Award in the Riga Circus Competition. A team of third year Master of Architecture students — including Angela Cho, Matthew Leander, Mariano Martellacci, and Avi Odenheinmer — also contributed to the winning submission.

“University of Toronto is a big fruit; don’t be scared to take a bite! It is a great institution with many means and capacities to support good ideas and projects, do not be shy to apply to grants, awards, working positions, and ask for funding. While being a university student, you are in the best spot to initiate projects and gain meaningful experience that will propel you to where you want to be in the future.” — Sebastian Beauregard, MArch

 “One thing I wish I could change in my university experience is that I wish I started spending time in studio earlier. At Daniels we constantly exposed to such great and inspiring artists and designers that at the end of the day it really motivates you to become a better artist. My only advice to new students is to spend more time in studio and become a part of the studio culture, you will definitely benefit from it!” — Sky Ece Ulusoy, HBA, Visual Studies and Architectural Studies

The Daniels Faculty has a rigorous public lecture series that brings in leading professionals, academics and scholars from around the world. Last year, we hosted the Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate Lecture, with Balkrishna Doshi (pictured above).

“I would encourage new students to approach their studies with an eagerness to learn and an open mind to take advantage of every experience studying at Daniels will offer. There is something very inspiring about learning and exploring in an environment with peers and instructors with similar interests and goals. The opportunity to grow as a professional is limitless.” — Christina Poulos, MArch

Stacey's thesis project explored the vast areas of urban landscapes that are highly maintained, mowed, and managed, including vast tracks of hydro corridors. "I envision cities as epicentres of biodiversity, connectivity, and resilient natural systems," says Stacey. Read a Q&A with Stacey here.

"Make every project your own. There is always a way to bring your interests to the forefront.” — Stacey Zonneveld, MLA

"Take advantage of the network of professionals you are exposed to at Daniels. Whether as mentors, instructors, or future employers, they represent a wide range of interests within the field and serve as an amazing resource during your studies and as you begin your career.” — Matthew Mckenna, MArch

 “Consider all of your courses as one giant course. Although every student has different subjects that they study (or different classes within architecture), avoid artificially soloing them: each can bring something new and unique to another, and taken as a whole your education will be far more fulfilling than if they are kept in isolation. Always be thinking about how you can use what you've learned in one class to influence your work in another!” — Robert Raynor, HBA, Architectural Studies and Visual Studies

 “I would encourage students to make a mess. Design schools are places where people of similar interests come together to exchange ideas; they are spaces of testing and making, of using experience and gaining experience. To make the most of your degree, give yourself the freedom to experiment, to play around, to make a mess, to fail, to wander and to grow.” — Farah Michel, HBA, Architectural Studies and Italian

Read our Q&A with Catherine Howell and Hadi El-Shayeb, student lab managers & research assistants at the Green Roof Innovation Testing Laboratory (GRIT Lab) in the summer of 2017.

“I have learned more skills in this program than I ever thought possible. I was disillusioned with school after my undergrad; this program reinstated my love of learning and pushed me to create work that I am proud of and can actually see, as opposed to an essay or test. If you are both creative and technically‐minded I would wholeheartedly recommend this program to you, it will change the way you view the world and give you a clear, exciting career path.” — Catherine Howell, MLA

Looking for inspiration? Watch this video featuring U of T Lecturer Jay Pooley who led a team of undergraduate students in a design/build project this summer to create a meditation space for Lululemon.

Pooley is a architect, art director and journeyman carpenter as well as a production designer for film and television.

"My work as a production designer is to set the stage for people to tell the stories of our lives," says Pooley. "Largely I'm responsible for most things in a film that is not a person."

Along with design for film and television, Pooley has also completed a number of design/build projects for clients including The Drake Hotel, Town Barber, Willowbank School and Worship Motion & Design Studio. Current research projects include design/build studio projects and documentary film studies centered around innovative formats for capturing the experience of a building.

Says Jay: "It's absolutely empowering for a student to tell them: that thing you're drawing? You can build that. You can absolutely build that. Go make it!

Visitors to Toronto's Lower Don Valley trail this past June may have found artist and Daniels Faculty Lecturer Gareth Long out for a stroll with a pair of donkeys. Part of a public commission, entitled Travels with Two Donkeys, each outing created an unexpected prompt for conversation with passers-by, who were invited to join Long and the Donkeys on their walk. The artwork was a catalyst for a new social situation set within the changing public landscapes of Toronto.
 
Culturally speaking, donkeys have a long history as a motif in art and literature, typically representing stupidity, the “ass” or the fool; but they are also often included to represent moments of metamorphosis. In some of the oldest donkey stories – The Golden Ass by Apuleius, Lucius, or the Ass by Lucian, and that of Bottom from A Midsummer Night’s Dream – this “beast of burden” is frequently depicted as undergoing a process of transformation, changing itself, as well as the people and environments around it.
 
Such shifts have strong allegorical parallels with the Don Valley. The modern (and colonial) history of the Don Valley is one of industry and labour, and over the past century the Valley has been transformed, over-industrialized, and neglected. In this public work, Long layered these two narratives.
 

Images, above by Claire Harvie

Long has introduced the motif of the donkey in many of his previous works as well — each time as a way of engaging with methods of education and the processes of learning. Through quiet, communal explorations of the Don Valley every Saturday, the learning from Travels with Two Donkeys was manifold: It raised awareness of the vital work of The Donkey Sanctuary of Canada; it fostered dialogue around the ongoing transformations of the Valley; and the project’s emphasis on empathy, care, and ecological awareness acted as an antidote to a frenetic urban environment.
 
Each Saturday, the donkeys temporarily resided in a shed installed in the Don Valley. The shed, designed by Long, was inspired by a modular schoolhouse design by mid twentieth-century French designer and architect, Jean Prouvé. His temporary, demountable architecture was produced as a solution to the housing crises of his day and espoused an underlying social and political consciousness in how they were designed and built. Long extended these principles to present-day Toronto, building the structure using materials that resonate with both the past and present of the Don Valley and the vernacular materials of the farm, while introducing the schoolhouse as a site of education and conversation – a reversal of the usual connotation of the donkey and a surprising discovery in the heart of the Don Valley. Afterwards, the shelter was donated to the project’s partner, The Donkey Sanctuary of Canada.

The shed was designed and built in collaboration with artist and architect Christian Kliegel, and was fabricated at 1 Spadina with the assistance of Daniels students: Hoda Mashhadi Farahani, Thomas Buckland, and Dennis Fischman. Buckland and Fischman also helped with the installation each Saturday.
 
This project was made possible with the support of the Toronto Arts Council, and with Gareth Long’s support from the Canada Council for the Arts.

About the Donkey Sancturary of Canada

Since 1992, The Donkey Sanctuary of Canada has been a refuge for donkeys, mules and hinnies who have been neglected or abused, or who can no longer be cared for by their owners. At the Sanctuary, the animals are provided a welcome and often life-saving peaceful haven after years of suffering and neglect.
 
As the Sanctuary’s website states:

One of the questions we regularly get, from visitors, from people in conversation, indeed, even from our friends and family, is: why donkeys? We provide a simple answer to this question - 'Because it's necessary'. It is necessary because, as one of our staff members puts it, the donkey is the forgotten equine, too often a subject of ridicule, and too often as well considered disposable at the end of its working life. […] We provide a sanctuary for these animals, where they may live out their lives naturally, in peace, and without obligation to humans. Because we believe in the value of animal life, and because in particular at our Sanctuary - we believe in the value of the lives of the no-longer-forgotten equine. That is why donkeys.
 

Artist Biography 

Gareth Long holds a BA in Visual Studies and Classical Civilizations from the University of Toronto and an MFA from Yale University. Long has held solo exhibitions at Kunsthalle Wien, Austria; Kate Werble Gallery, New York; Michael Benevento,  Los  Angeles; TORRI, Paris; Super Dakota, Brussels; Susan Hobbs Gallery, Toronto; SpazioA, Pistoia; Oakville Galleries, Oakville; the Southern Alberta Art Gallery, Lethbridge; Galerie Bernhard, Zürich. His work has been shown at galleries and  institutions such as MoMA PS1, Long Island City; The Hessel Museum of Art at Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson; Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, Denver; Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Montreal;  Artists Space, New York; Casey Kaplan Gallery, New York; Flat Time House, London; Drawing Room, London; Spike Island, Bristol; Wiels, Brussels; Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg; Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe; and Witte de With, Rotterdam.

A version of this text by Kari Cwynar, was also published on The Don River Valley Park website.

Five Daniels Faculty Master of Landscape Architecture students have been recognized this year with American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) awards — outnumbering all other schools with students among the winners. The University of Toronto was also the only Canadian school with prize winners on the list.

The ASLA awards honour the top work of landscape architecture students around the world. This year the Society received 332 entries across 17 schools. Of the 332 entries, 27 winners were announced.
 

Niloufar Makaremi Esfarjani received the top prize — the Award of Excellence — in the General Design Category for her thesis In Between Walls, a project set in Sistan, Iran, where dust storms are "causing socio-economic, health, and environmental issues and compromising a valuable cultural site." Makaremi Esfarjani''s proposed design included a series of  strategically located walls that would contribute to ecological improvements and cultural reconnections and act as a diplomatic gesture.

A total of four Daniels Faculty students received an Honor Award in the Analysis and Planning Category: Meikang Li, Marianne Lafontaine-Chicha, Qiwei Song, and Jaysen Ariola

Meikang Li's thesis focused on the Hollygrove District in the 2013 Greater New Orleans Urban Water Plan an re-imagined "a new landscape framework that forges a better water culture, promotes future development, and welcomes residents to return and stay."

Marianne Lafontaine-Chicha's thesis looked at Lake St. Pierre, a UNESCO biosphere reserve "traversed by a major navigation channel that will require a capital dredging project in the near future."

For her final thesis, Qiwei Song proposed a topographic landscape strategy for the future development on the hills of Mexico City.

Jaysen Ariola's thesis examined "how changes in landscape policy and ecological planning can mitigate nutrient loading from the Red River into Lake Winnipeg."

The student awards jury included:
    • Roberto Rovira, ASLA, Chair, Florida International University, Miami
    • Andrea Cochran, FASLA, Andrea Cochran Landscape Architecture, San Francisco
    • Kurt Culbertson, FASLA, Design Workshop, Aspen, Colorado
    • Tom Dallessio, Professional Planner and Policy Expert, Philadelphia
    • Jennifer Daniels, ASLA, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
    • Ray Gastil, City of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh
    • Jeffrey Hou, ASLA, University of Washington, Seattle
    • Elizabeth Kennedy, ASLA, Elizabeth Kennedy Landscape Architect, Brooklyn, New York
    • Lucinda Sanders, FASLA, OLIN, Philadelphia

This summer, a team of local Indigenous youth came together at both the Daniels Faculty at the University of Toronto and Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA)’s Bolton Camp to learn about design, filmmaking, and ecological conservation combined with traditional teachings of the land.
 
The inaugural program provided the youth with summer employment and an opportunity to contribute design ideas for the revitalization of the Bolton Camp, a 254-acre site 40 kilometres north of the city at the headwaters of the Humber River, which once provided a summer getaway for low income children.

The summer program grew out of a grant that Associate Professor Liat Margolis, director of the Daniels Faculty's Master of Landscape Architecture program; Sessional Lecturer Sheila Boudreau, Senior Landscape Architect at TRCA; and Fred Martin of the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto (NCCT) received this year to explore a participatory model that includes the voice of Indigenous youth in the development and design of green infrastructure.

The Bolton Camp presented an ideal opportunity to build on this initiative. TRCA purchased the property, which had long been abandoned, in 2011, with the goal of bringing it back to life as a cultural hub. ERA Architects and Levitt Goodman Architects are currently involved in the master planning of the site. Ideas developed and presented by the youth — Miles Dziedzic, Aron McVean, Ella Kelly, and Avery Hill — will help inform future planning.
 
The pilot initiative was collaboratively developed by the organizers — including Elder Whabagoon, the Daniels Faculty, the Great Lakes WaterworksWater Allies coordinated by Principal Bonnie McElhinny at the U of T's New College, TRCA, and the NCCT — and provided them with an opportunity to connect youth with Elders and knowledge keepers and expose them to new education and career paths in the fields of architecture, landscape architecture, film, Indigenous studies, and environmental conservation.

The youth had the opportunity to meet regularly with Elder Whabagoon throughout the program. Daniels Faculty Master of Landscape Architecture student Aaron Hernandez and Master of Urban Design student Dalia Gebran worked closely with the highschool students to guide them through the steps involved in designing for buildings and landscapes. The program challenged thel students to plan a retrofit of two existing cabins and their surrounding landscape, and engage in storytelling through short films.

As TRCA interns, the students were introduced to a range of field work, including stream restoration, benthic and water quality testing, and bee surveying, organized by Lucia Piccinni, Senior Program Manager of Bolton Camp. A remarkable group of mentors (see list below) generously contributed to the program with guest lectures and design reviews, guided site visits to sustainable urban and landscape projects, a First Story tour, and field trips to Kayanase native nursery and the office of Two Row Architect at Six Nations of the Grand River Territory.

The youth compiled their individual ideas for the site into a single plan that included new trees, a bike path, a rain garden, an accessible boardwalk that leads to the water tower, a tipi and sweat lodge, and a turtle-shaped medicine garden surrounding a fire pit. Ideas for the cabins included a clever way of connecting interior space with the surrounding landscape to provide additional programmable area and gathering space, while preserving the heritage structure of the iconic cabins.

On August 16, the youth met at the Daniels Faculty to present their designs for the site, as well as short films they created about the project with the guidance of filmmaker, Jamie Whitecrow. Together with Elder Whabagoon, they also unveiled a name for the new program: Healing of a Flooded Valley, or Nikibii Dawadinna Giigwag (Flooded Valley Healing) in Anishinaabemowin (Manitoulin dialect).

Pictured standing in the photo above (left to right): interns Miles Dziedzic, Aron McVean, Ella Kelly, and Avery Hill; Elder Whabagoon; Lucia Piccinni (Senior Program Manager, Bolton Camp), Sheila Boudreau, TRCA; Associate Professor Liat Margolis, filmmaker and artist Jamie Whitecrow; Aaron Hernandez, and Dalia Gebran.

Special thanks to supporting institutions and mentors: LACF, Dean Richard Sommer (Daniels Faculty), Dean Robert Wright (Faculty of Forestry), Principal Bonnie McElhinny, (New College), Cal Brook (Brook McIlroy), Doug Webber, Mark Palmer, Andrew Palmer (Greenland Consulting Engineers), Urban Watershed Group, Matthew Hickey (Two Row Architect), Terence Radford (Trophic Design), Danny Bartman, Joe Loreto  (Levitt Goodman Architects), Trina Moyen and Shak Gobert (Bell & Bernard), James Bird (UofT),  Kahentakeron Tyrone Deer (Kayanase Nursery), Michael Etherington, Yvonne Battista (DTAH), Heather Broadbent (Bolton Historical Society), Heather Campbell, Janice Quieta (ERA Architects), Emily Rondel, Christine Furtado, Amanda Yip, Kate Goodale, Jennifer Ouimette, Eric Bender, Elizabeth Wren, Colin Love, Chris Bialek, and Stephanie Perish (TRCA), Nick Reid (Ryerson Urban Water), David Atkinson (Ryerson), Alex Gill (Ryerson Social Ventures Zone), Kristina Hausmanis, Ruthanne Henry (City of Toronto), Marcia McVean (TDSB), Olivia Magalhaes, Marc Ryan (Public Work).

Daniels Faculty alumni swept Canada's Prix de Rome in Architecture awards this year.

Recent graduate David Verbeek (MArch 2017) received the Prix de Rome in Architecture for Emerging Practitioners, while Monica Adair and Stephen Kopp (both MArch 2005) of the New Brunswick-based firm Acre Architects were awarded the Professional Prix de Rome in Architecture.

Presented annually by the Canada Council for the Arts, the Prix de Rome is one of the field's most prestigious national awards.

Prix de Rome in Architecture for Emerging Practitioners - David Verbeek

“Congratulations to David Verbeek: he is one of our most talented recent graduates, and we are thrilled that the Canada Council for the Arts jury has chosen him for this year’s Prix de Rome,” says Dean Richard Sommer. “Field-based architectural research can illuminate the complexity of some of our most rapidly transforming urban geographies. Building on his award-winning thesis and experience at Daniels, Verbeek’s proposed study will bring techniques of careful documentation, visual analysis, and design speculation to bear on a set of liminal spaces where difficult intersections between emerging architecture, globally-networked waterfronts, and climate change come into play.”

Upon graduating from the faculty in 2017, Verbeek (pictured above) received the RAIC Gold Medal, the AIA Henry Adams Medal, and the OAA Architectural Guild Medal. The designer, researcher, and urbanist is now working in Rotterdam with OMA (office for Metropolitan Architecture).

"David's work has been observed to be representative of a true artistic act of architecture, and indeed his illustrations, are evidence of the alternative tendencies that young architects are taking in imagining their work through drawing," says Associate Professor John Shnier, who was Verbeek's thesis advisor in 2017, and Canada Council’s inaugural Prix de Rome winner in 1987. "His published drawings have been described as 'game-changers;' part of a generation of architects that are exploring 'Post Digital' techniques in illustration."
 
Verbeek's prize includes $34,000, which he will use to broaden his knowledge of contemporary architecture through travel and participate in an internship at an internationally acclaimed firm of architecture. The award will provide him with the opportunity to investigate "constructed coastlines in transition," and observe first-hand, the frontlines of urbanization and coastal threats, building on work he completed as part of his Master of Architecture thesis, which explored the idea of "an eventual archipelago in Toronto's constructed port lands as grounds for invention in the future megacity."
 
Verbeek follows in the footsteps of Daniels graduates Drew Sinclair (M Arch 2007) and Kelly Doran (M Arch 2008) who won the Prix de Rome for Emerging Practitioners in 2008 and 2009, respectively.

Professional Prix de Rome in Architecture - Monica Adair and Stephen Kopp, Arce Architects

Adair and Kopp have been receiving a steady stream of awards and media recognition for their work at Acre Architects, where they work to create "original, provocative, contextually driven design." (Read our Q&A with Monica Adair from 2017.)
 
In 2017, they received a Lieutenant-Governor’s Award of Excellence in Architecture. In 2016, Wallpaper listed the firm among 20 “breakthrough practices from around the globe.” And in 2015, Adair was a recipient of RAIC's Young Architect Award.

Last year the duo returned to the Daniels Faculty to teach an option studio that took students from Toronto to the Saint John Harbour to study and develop design ideas for Partridge Island, a former quarantine station and National Historic Site.

Adair and Kopp plan to use the $50,000 awarded by the prize to "experience firsthand world renown projects, places and key people that have succeeded in creating a sustainable tourism that enhances a sense of place, including its environment, its heritage, its aesthetics, its culture, and the well-being of the people who live there."

"There is an appetite in the Maritimes to go beyond the sentimental pseudo-traditional recreated environments, complete with landlocked imitation lighthouses, and to explore new ways to guide the perception of a region toward more meaningful development," write the architects in a post about the award on their website. "We want to be part of shaping an architectural history that bears witness to our era and its richly diverse ambitions, and this requires specialization and currency in learning from successful tourism precedents that serve to forge new ways forward."
 
Adair and Kopp join other Daniels Faculty and alumni who have received the Professional Prix de Rome in Architecture. Associate Professor John Shnier received the inaugural Prix de Rome from the Canada Council for the Arts in 1987.  Associate Professor Shane Williamson (2012), Associate Professor Mason White (2010), and alumni Omar Gandhi (2014) and Pierre Bélanger (2008) have also been recognized.

Next week, first year Master of Landscape Architecture students will start, and complete, their first course —  all before the new academic year officially begins.

Fields Studies I and II (LAN1041 and LAN1043, respectively) — taught by Associate Professor Jane Wolff  along with lecturers Michael Ormston-Holloway and Todd Irvine — are intensive one-week first-year courses in the MLA program, designed to teach students to observe, decipher, document, and analyze complex ecological systems in situ.

LAN1041 Field Studies I |  Waiyee Chou

Field Studies I uses central Toronto is a laboratory. Field Studies II expands in scope to study the city’s regional boundaries: the Great Lakes, the Oak Ridges Moraine, the Niagara Escarpment and the Greenbelt. These landscapes, like all intensely inhabited places, are products of long, reiterative interactions among cultural demands, geographical circumstances and environmental processes. They demonstrate tangled relationships among geomorphological patterns, plant and animal communities, water and weather, and structures that permit dense population. They change cyclically and in linear time at scales from days and seasons to decades, centuries and millennia.

Both courses ask students to look carefully at the landscape, to identify its living and non-living elements, to interpret their significance and to represent field observations through drawing. Centred on fieldwork, they follow the trail of stories about the landscape’s evolution and current circumstances. Readings that contextualize course field trips in relation to landscape architecture, ecology, and cultural geography complement students’ work on site.

LAN1043 Field Studies II |  Hillary Dewildt

The premise of the courses is that the landscape’s dynamic elements and systems constitute the medium of landscape architecture. Toronto and environs serve as both an immediate subject and a case study to understand ecological issues and dilemmas that occur in a wide range of urbanized landscapes.

The goal is to help students develop methods of thought, observation and representation that can support their work in practice in many different places. This course brings hands on experience and tactility into landscape architecture education.  With a profession being so in tuned with responding to nature, it is important that students experience the phenomenon that define their designs. 

LAN1043 | Siteng Xu, Yuanyuan Ye, Dan Zhao

Illustrations in slideshow, top:
Ambika Pharma | Jayson Ariola | Neda Nassiri
 

Lecturer Adrian Phiffer received the Incentive Award in the Riga Circus Competition. A team of third year Master of Architecture students — including Angela Cho, Matthew Leander, Mariano Martellacci, and Avi Odenheinmer — also contributed to the winning submission. Competition participants developed sketches for the renovation of the historic  Riga Circus building in Latvia and a vision for the territory.

Writes Phiffer:

It is rare and fascinating to find a nomadic institution, such as a circus, permanently embedded in the center of a city. Usually, the circus is a temporary structure built at the edge of the urbia. It is kept on the outskirts out of fear. The circus brings with itself a new reality that can only be allowed for short periods of time. It is as if it is dangerous to allow its presence for too long because it might contaminate the empirical and monotone reality of the permanent urban form. This prompts a question of type: what kind of city is that one that accepts a circus in the middle of its fabric? It could only be a city that is always ready to expand its collection of realities, a city that has convictions, a city open to the new. Riga is such a city.
 

Congratulations to all involved!