Professor Ted Kesik was recently featured in two Globe and Mail articles on building energy standards. A building science expert, Kesik has over 42 years of experience in the construction industry, specializing in building enclosure design, quality assurance, performance verification, and building systems integration.

In an article investigating the adoption of the recommended national building code into binding provincial building codes, Kesik offered an overview of the history of building codes and their current limitations. He argues that problems within the building code stem from the original focus being on basic fire and structural safety; “energy wasn't on the radar.”

He argues that "Canadian building codes contain troublesome loopholes that allow developers, contractors and renovators to build what he describes as 'high cholesterol' structures, especially high-rise apartment towers." 

Says Kesik: "The high-rise buildings we built in the 1960s perform better than what we’re building now. Tell me of any industry that would stand up and be proud to say that."

A similar article focuses more specifically on the energy loss created by buildings with predominately glass facades.

Under current rules, developers of large projects can use sophisticated energy 'performance' modelling software to meet energy targets – in effect, installing more expensive and ultra-efficient mechanical heating and ventilation systems as a 'trade-off' against the use of uninsulated floor-to-ceiling windows, which builders see as a strong marketing feature, especially in tiny apartments.

 

In Northern European and Scandinavian countries, Kesik says, builders can’t design buildings mostly clad in glass because their codes require robust materials and minimum insulation levels for the entire building envelope.

To read the full articles, visit the Globe and Mail:

• Why does Canada lag in demanding environmental diligence from builders and homeowners?
• Ontario looks to close loophole on energy standards for buildings

Assistant Professor Charles Stankievech, director of the Daniels Faculty's Visual Studies program, has been awarded the prestigious Audain Distinguished Artist-in-Residance program for Spring/Summer 2016.

The mandate of the residency is to bring renowned contemporary artists to Vancouver and to support the creation of new works. This week, Stankievech gave a public lecture in Vancouver titled "CounterIntelligence: A Glossary of Doubled Agency." His work addresses the way artefacts of warfare have helped us understand culture in conflict and the meanings they have when placed in the context of museum or art exhibition. It asks the question: what is the contemporary role of the exhibition as caught in the no-man's land between the didacic museum and the conceptual gesture?

On April 2, Stankievech will be speaking at the first annual Translations Symposium at The University of Waterloo School of Architecture. This year's symposium, Representing Ambience Today, will investigate contemporary representations of architecture's milieu. Stankievech will be part of the panel discussion titled "Atmospheres - the ambience of matter," which will explore the physical characteristics as well as the social and cultural characteristics of materiality in contemporary architectural investigations.

PLANT Architect Inc. — an interdisciplinary firm that branches into the domains of architecture, landscape, ecology, furniture, art, and graphic design — recently completed the renovation of a 900-square-foot loft in a former chocolate factory.

The high-end “Chocolate Loft” — designed by Daniels Faculty Instructor Lisa Rapoport, along with recent graduate Jason van der Burg (March 2014) and Danielle Rosen — reimagined the space for two mathematics professors who were looking for a flexible pied-à-terre in the City. The owners requested that the space be either a two-bedroom condominium or a one-bedroom unit with an expanded living room area.

“Our solution was to insert a wall that passes through the high-ceilinged unit on a gentle dogleg stretching from the hallway entry to the front of the building,” writes the firm on its website.

“Transitioning from mostly glazed at the street edge to entirely wood veneered closer to the entry, a series of sliding doors in this wall makes it possible to close off the northeast corner of the loft’s cube-like volume when a second bedroom is required, or append this space to the living room when the owners need only one bedroom.”

The space features architectural elements based on mathematical formulas. A feature wall in the entry niche boasts a series of parabolas, and the sliding doors are shaped in the proportions of the Fibonacci sequence. Both elements are created with high grade cherry wood that was slip-matched from the same slab of timber. The bathroom tile pattern follows an arithmetical sequence, increased intensity of colour around the room. 

Jason van der Burg has previously been recognized for his wood designs. In the fall of 2014, he participated in the Second Annual IIDEX Woodshop. His submission, The Leaning Loop, was a handcrafted multi-purpose upright organizer that incorporated a coat rack, a shoe rack, a small “catch-all” shelf, and a custom insert panel that can be outfitted with a magnetic mirror, chalkboard, or whiteboard.

Photos above by Steven Evans, Steven Evans Photography

Associate Professor Aziza Chaouni was recently featured in TED Ideas for her restoration of the al-Qarawiyyin Library in Fez, Morocco — the world's oldest library.

Built in 859, the building was conceived by Fatima El-Fihriya, who dedicated her inheritance to create a mosque and knowledge centre for her community. Chaouni was commissioned in 2012 to rehabilitate the building, which is set to open in May 2016.

The three year long restoration project has not been without its unique set of difficulties.

“When I first visited, I was shocked at the state of the place,” Chaouni, who grew up in Fez, told TED. “Throughout the years, the library underwent many rehabilitations, but it still suffered from major structural problems, a lack of insulation, and infrastructural deficiencies like a blocked drainage system, broken tiles, cracked wood beams, exposed electric wires, and so on.”

The library is a important monument for Morocco, which is why Kuwait's Arab bank provided a grant to rehabilitate the historic project. UNESCO describes the site as “the oldest operational education institution in the world, with a high-profile role call of alumni.”  The project was also recently featured in Al Huffington Post Maghreb, a French-language edition of The Huffinton Post.

“[The library is important because] it holds manuscripts that are more than 10 centuries old,” said Chaouni in an interview with Sixty7 Architecture Road. “Until today, it was not opened to the public, only a few researchers had access to it.”

When the library opens its doors in May, it will feature a cafe, an exhibition room for manuscripts, a reading room, multiple book stacks, a conference room, a manuscript restoration laboratory, a rare books collection, and a small museum to showcase the history of the al-Qarawiyyin complex.

As the City of Toronto awaits provincial approval for transformative new zoning bylaws, Daniels Faculty Instructor Joshua Thorpe suggests other cities around the world look to Toronto's Tower Renewal initiative for inspiration.

In his article "How to rethink the suburbs: A lesson from Toronto," published in the online magazine Doggerel, Thorpe explores the unique conditions of Toronto's inner suburbs. Unlike any other North American city, Toronto's suburbs contain about two-thousand towers, housing almost a million residents. These towers, which were built following the Second World War, were largely designed for middle-class car-dependent families. Though the demographics of Toronto's inner suburbs have since changed, these neighbourhoods are still shaped by existing zoning policies that limit commercial resources and amenities. Things like cafés, grocers, bike paths, and playgrounds — often taken for granted by people living downtown — are simply non-existent in these suburban neighbourhoods. 

Thorpe outlines the history of the suburban tower-in-the-park typology as well as the important role they continue to play today. He writes about the architects and planners who have been advocating for changes to the city's zoning bylaws, resulting in the Residential Apartment Commercial (RAC) zone, accepted by Toronto City Council in 2014. The final approval for the RAC zone at a provincial level is expected in early summer 2016.

Final approval will create opportunities for small businesses, fresh food vendors, community gardens, medical clinics and more to open up in these suburban tower communities.

Writes Thorpe: "This is the beginning of a new phase for Toronto — and an important part of fulfilling the promise of a fair, equitable, and welcoming city, a city that champions its diversity instead of hiding it."

Related:

• CBC's Metro Morning interviews alumni and faculty about Tower Renewal
• Ted Kesik featured in Globe and Mail article on Tower Renewal
• Alumnus Graham Stewart shares his vision for Toronto's Tower Neighbourhoods with the Toronto Star
• Graham Stewart wins the 2014 Jane Jacobs Prize
• Tower Renewal Guidelines
• Alumus Jesse Colin Jackson presents solo exhibition, Radiant City, at the Pari Nadimi Gallery
  
   

The work of alumni Jasmeen Bains (MLA 2013), Matthew Blunderfield (MArch 2014), Javid Alibhai (MArch 2014), Robin Heathcote (MLA 2013), and Benjamin Matthews (MLA 2013) was recently featured in an article written for the Journal of Architectural Education. The article, titled “Grounding Diaspora”, was based on work done for a Fall 2012 option studio taught by Alison Hirsch, Aroussiak Gabrielian, and Andrea Mantin.

Students were asked to reconsider concepts of democracy, justice, citizenship, and multiculturalism (multi-ethnic, multi-racial) in city planning and urban & public space design. Instructors Hirsch and Gabrielian used the student concepts and designs to write an article focusing on the method of instruction used in the course, the global dynamics of migration and settlement, and the cultural practices of ritual and everyday expression in Queens, New York.

From the abstract:

“The term 'diaspora' connotes a dynamic social formation—a process of settlement and a tenuous sense of belonging based on the negotiation between the collective memory of home and responsive adaptations to host locales. While a global phenomenon, the local impact of shifting patterns of settlement in the multicultural city transforms urban spaces through the varied and overlapping inscriptions of new and adapted rituals. Using a Landscape Architecture studio conducted at the University of Toronto as the experimental means through which to investigate diasporic and transnational urban settlement and its implications for design, this paper focuses on final proposals for the case study site—a particular area of contestation in Queens, New York—as well as the pedagogical methodology used to generate them.” 

To view the full article, visit the Journal of Architectural Education.

Join Shift Magazine in celebrating the launch of this year's publication. SHIFT16 showcases student work created by Architecture and Visual Studies undergraduates. The third issue focuses on reactions: emotional responses and physical impulses generated from images/representations/symbols have been combined to create the collection of student work featured in the magazine. 

The official launch will be held Saturday, April 16th in the lobby of the Daniels Faculty building (230 College Street) from 3PM to 5PM. Refreshments and free copies of SHIFT16 will be provided. An afterparty will also be held at 10PM in Kensington Market. The exact location will be announced on the Facebook event page closer to the date: https://www.facebook.com/events/1722101428070055/

Shift Magazine is the annual undergraduate publication of the John H. Daniels School of Architecture, Landscape, & Design at the University of Toronto.

List of Contributors to SHIFT16:
Lindsay Wu
Tawny Stoiber
Josh Silver
Rupa Morzaria
Valerie Marshall
Abby Yu 
Bo Zhang 
Kathy Zhong
Danni Zhang
Alexandra Kalman
Charlene Lo
Aisha Ali
Sebastian Lopez
Tala Alatassi
Megan Tan
Marienka Bishop-Kovac
Jessie Ji Huang
Lindsay Wu
Vincent Yung
Andrew Keung
Sunny Kim

Editorial Team:
Alexia Hovis, Editor In Chief
Najia Fatima, Editor
Emily Suchy, Editor
Valerie Marshall, Architecture Editor
Phat Le, Editor
Ashita Parekh, Editor
Abby Yu, Layout Designer
Josie Northern, Layout Designer
Isaac Seah, Website Designer
Jayvee Doroteo, Website Designer
Monique Lizardo, Communications Rep.
Gianina Ramos, Communications Rep.

The 4th Annual Gladstone Grow Op returns April 21-24.

This four-day festival will transform the Gladstone Hotel’s second floor with 30+ immersive installations that take on urbanism, environmental sustainability, landscape design, and contemporary art. The exhibit will include evening events as well as both on and off-site participatory events.

This year, the Daniels Faculty is proud to provide support for the art, architecture, and design collective NomadicVisionStudio, founded by Daniels Faculty masters students Claire Kurtin, Nadia Pulez, and Ramin Yamin. Their installation, Hypha, explores “the relationship between nature and urbanity through those places that they undesirably intersect.” The project is inspired by “the form of fungi and mould” and promises to challenge our “assumptions about the interdependency between architecture and the environment.”

Exhibition Hours:

April 21: 11am - 8pm
April 22: 11am - 10pm
April 23: 11am - 10pm
April 23: 10am - 5pm

Events:

Wednesday, April 20: Gow Op Talks 8:00 - 10:00pm
Thursday, April 21: Grow Op’s Alternative Food + Drink Show 6:00 - 1:00pm
Friday, April 22: Opening reception 7:00 - 10:00pm (After party 10:00pm - late)
Saturday, April 23: Offisite Installation by Robert Cram + After Party, OCADU Gallery, 7-10pm
Sunday, April 24: Gladstone Flea Goes Green, Melody Bar, 10:00am - 4:00pm

Daniels Faculty alumni also participating in the Gladstone Grow up include Rui Felix (MLA 2015) and Victoria Taylor (MLA 2008), the curator of last year’s festival.

For more information, visit the Gladstone Hotel’s website or the Facebook page for the event.

Follow NomadicVisionStudio on instagram @nomadicvisionstudio

Associate Professor Aziza Chaouni’s Shobak Special Protected Area Masterplan was commended by the Architectural Review as part of its 2016 MIPIM Future Projects Awards.

The Masterplan was developed under the Designing Ecological Tourism (DET) — a research platform led by Chaouni out of the Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design. DET collaborated with the Royal Society of Conservation of Nature (RSCN) in Jordan, as well as Canadian and Jordanian experts and scholars on the masterplan, which was the only project by a university team to receive an award.

The groundwork research for the masterplan was initiated by an option studio at the Daniels Faculty. Students in the studio spent two weeks in Shobak and later developed speculative ideas for its future and eco-accommodations. The project was subsequently developed and detailed with RSCN, an interdisciplinary group of experts, and three Daniels students: Mani Tabrizi, Nicolas Roland and Keren Golan. In 2015, the masterplan was recognized with a ACSA Collaboration Award.

The project is explored in great detail in Chaouni’s book Ecotourism, Nature, Conservation, and Development: Re-imagining Jordan’s Shobak Arid Region.

Writes DET on its website:

In the field of desert conservation, this book presents a new conservation approach that preserves ecosystems, fosters local economic development and capitalizes on both natural and cultural landscapes for ecotourism. Situated in the special protected area of Shobak, a Jordanian desert region rich in historical background and biodiversity, the innovative strategic plan unites the goals of nature preservation and regional development in a groundbreaking way, by developing tools for promoting the untapped potentials of wild arid areas. It integrates the professions of landscape architecture and architecture with various other disciplines including natural resources management and ecology in order to provide complex, tailored solutions that are resilient to shifting socio-political contexts and harsh arid environments.

Related:

• Research team at Daniels launches a new website: Designing Ecological Tourism
• Daniels Faculty students complete two-week research workshop in Jordan
• Designing Ecological Tourism (DET) presents: "Living in the 'Rurban' — The furture of Guaratiba," in partnership with the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
• Aziza Chaouni volunteers to design a music school for 2,000 children and youth in Morocco
• Aziza Chaouni participates in the New Cities Summit 2015

The 4th Annual Gladstone Grow Op takes place this weekend. (Don’t miss the opening reception this Friday, April 22!) Among the "must-see home farming prototypes” to take in (according to Canadian Architect) is Cricket Reactor by alumnus Jakob Dzamba (MArch 2011) of Third Millennium Farming.

Writes Christine Leu in Canadian Architect:

Cricket Reactor by Third Millennium Farming is an alternative approach to urban agriculture where city bio-wastes are used to farm algae and fungi, which are in turn fed to insects. In turn, the crickets are processed into an edible flour—a low carbon footprint form of protein.

…

The architectural language of the Reactor could be described as “antfarm-Modernist.” A large, clear, central atrium with detachable clear pods at the sides to accommodate a variety of programmes, or in this case, different bio-wastes. The density of the insects per square inch is evocative of urban living, and reminiscent of maximizing return on investment for repeating condominium units in the sky.

On Sunday, Dzamba the Cricket Reactor moves to the AGO for the Terrior Hospitality Symposium, which will include a number of “art installations that look beyond food production and preparation to draw from the wider ecology that informs these systems and open up new ways of thinking about the anthropocene, locality and place.”

Installations at the symposium will include Soil is the Mother by Victoria Taylor (MLA 2008) and Hypha by NomadicVisionStudio (founded by Daniels Faculty masters students Claire Kurtin, Nadia Pulez, and Ramin Yamin).

Related:

• Fungi and mold inspire NomadicVisionStudio's installation at the 4th Annual Gladstone Grow Op: April 21-24
• Daniels alum Jakub Dzamba interviewed on CBC radio stations across Canada
• M.Arch alum Jakub Dzamba featured speaker at upcoming Future Food Salon II