Scott Sorli

Scott Sorli received a degree in engineering from the University of Waterloo, majoring in process control with a minor in statistical management science. He obtained his professional licence in 1990 and traveled extensively, implementing multivariate representation and control systems. A subsequent terminal professional degree in architecture is from the University of Toronto. His graduating thesis, on open systems, interrogates the design of freedom and the location of complexity.

Given that architecture can also be considered a temporal art, time-based representation is an important tool to be deployed in its communication. Sørli has programmed the Toronto Society of Architects’ annual film and video series since 1999, and was on the YYZ Artists’ Outlet’s time-based programming committee from 2001 to 2005. He teaches architecture, media, and communications in both the undergraduate and graduate programs at the University of Toronto, with an emphasis on time-based media. Sørli is also an independent curator and co-founder of the street window gallery convenience, which programs artists in an architectural, urban, and civic context.

He worked at the small award-winning design firm of Ian MacDonald Architect for several years. Since 2002 Sorli has pursued an independent architectural and design practice with a continued focus on the domestic realm, but that also includes small institutional work such as YYZ Artists’ Outlet at the 401 Richmond complex. A conviction in ornament as architecturally meaningful and in the detail as the locus of communication has encouraged his practice to include art, furniture, and industrial design as requisite parts of the whole.