Tom Bessai
Tom Bessai joined the faculty at Daniels in 2001 as adjunct professor. He became an assistant professor in 2006, and was director of the Bachelor of Arts, Architectural Studies program until 2011. He has a BA from the University of Alberta and a BArch from the University of British Columbia. He received an MArch from UCLA in 2000.
Tom Bessai’s design projects and research focus on experimental digital design techniques: digital shape capture, complex form modeling and evolutionary computation. He is committed to exploring these design strategies within the context of contemporary architectural theory and practice with an emphasis on sustainable infrastructure and building design.
He was selected in 2005 for Digifest: New Voices for his experimental work with digital shape capture entitled ‘Wildcurves’. The approach was showcased on Canada’s online cultural gateway Culture.ca: Designing for Tomorrow. Bessai is currently completing a studio publication entitled Ontario Place: Experimentation in Urban Form. It situates contemporary emergent design strategies within the context of the utopian urban experiments of the late 1960s / early 1970s, using Eb Zeidler’s 1972 Ontario Place as a vehicle.
Bessai teaches design studio at all levels of the Masters program, including core architectural design studio, advanced option studios and thesis. He also teaches core and advanced MArch courses in computation. He instructs studio courses in design and representation in the undergraduate BA AS program.
He is principal of Denegri Bessai Studio, a Toronto-based architectural design and research practice founded in 2004 with Maria Denegri. Recent work by DB Studio includes a proposal for the renewal of University Avenue in Toronto. It was featured in the Globe and Mail series ‘Fixing Toronto’. The project proposes a field of undulating markers and paving patterns calibrated to their specific context via dynamic digital simulation. DB studio’s University Co-op Daycare playground design was featured in 20+ Change, a group exhibition of emerging Toronto design practices. The project proposes low cost open frame pavilions that reflect and enhance movement and play via oblique geometries and vibrant colors.
Tom Bessai has worked with the Office of Frank Gehry in Los Angeles and Arriola Fiol Architects, Barcelona. He is currently design consultant to SUWIRA inc., a recently established design and research company developing applications for wind energy technology in urban areas. He has acted as specialized design consultant for Kearns Mancini Architects, Montgomery Sisam Architects and Bruce Mau Design and has contributed to projects at other notable design practices including Patkau Architects and Arthur Erickson Architects.