The Midday Talks lecture series is coordinated by Assistant Professor Wei-Han Vivian Lee and is part of the Exploring Design Practice undergraduate course. These lectures are open to the public and registration is not required.

Ja Architecture Studio is a Toronto based architecture practice that combines the rootedness of a regionally-based practice with the sensibility of an internationally conscious design studio whose work considers larger, global themes.

Founded by a registered architect and a landscape designer, and supported by a passionate team of skilled architects, designers, and students the studio has successfully realized a range projects at different scales, and received a number of awards for national and international competitions. In 2015 Ja Studio’s entry to the Guggenheim Helsinki Competition received an Honorable Mention among 1715 international entries, was the fourth prize winner in Bauhaus Museum Dessau, a two stage international architecture competition to design the Bauhaus Museum in Germany celebrating 100th year anniversary of the Bauhaus school. The competition received 831 entries across the world. Ja’s entry to the Lord Stanley’s Gift Memorial Monument Competition was chosen as one of 8 finalists 42 submission.

The two founding principles, Nima and Behnaz, continually strive to combine their academic and professional work. Both teach at The University of Toronto’s Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design, and The Cooper Union’s Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture in New York City. Ja’s primary research interests focus on how iconographic, geometric, formal, and tectonic issues relate to broader (and sometimes seemingly unrelated) contexts such as fabrication, landscape and urbanism. The product of these research pursuits become evident in Ja’s work.

The trajectory of the practice is based on a method of simultaneously working at the opposing ends of the professional spectrum. From small residential projects that confront domestic sentiments and detail-level building constraints to ambitious international competitions that must draw upon the collective repertoire of the discipline, Ja Studio’s work has attempted to investigate the core of architecture by operating at numerous points within its periphery. This approach was not chosen for its assurance of success but as a means for proving (or disproving) the merit and relevance of its ideas across as wide a variety of scales and contexts as possible.

Nima Javidi is a registered architect and a lecturer at John H Daniels faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design at University of Toronto as well as an adjunct professor at Cooper Union’s Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture in New York City, teaching design Studios. Having studied under a lineage of influential voices and pedagogues within the discourse of architecture his interest in architecture is mainly
focused on the relationship between geometry, structure and build-ablity.

He has a Master of Architecture degree from University of Tehran and a Master of Urban Design from University of Toronto where his thesis with George Baird as the advisor won the prestigious Heather Reisman Gold Medal of Design in 2005. Nima has worked for a range of local and international practices including Baird Sampson Neuert Architects and became a licensed architect with the Ontario Association of Architects in 2009 and established Ja Architecture Studio with his partner.

As part of his work at Ja, Nima has realized a range of small and medium scale projects as test grounds for the themes of the practice and has also worked on a range of international competitions; the firms’ projects have won awards and have been widely published.

Behnaz Assadi is a Landscape designer and a lecturer at John H Daniels faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design at University of Toronto, with a Master of Landscape Architecture from University of Toronto and a Bachelor degree in Fine Arts from University of Tehran. She is a partner at JaStudioInc, a Toronto based architecture office.

Her interest and expertise is focused on topics and areas of our contemporary landscape that have been left out from the scope of traditional landscape design, mainly Landscape Urbanism. Having been mentored at the Rotterdam studio of the Dutch Architect Rem Koolhaas, Behnaz has been a key player in Ja Studio’s achievements in international competitions.

Her unique background both in fine arts and Landscape architecture has equipped her with sensibilities that often leave a refreshing taste in the studio’s work that stems from outside of the traditional boundaries of the architecture discourse. She has presented Ja studio’s work in numerous schools, exhibitions and award ceremonies.