On May 25, Assistant Professor Aziza Chaouni participated in Sci Fri at the Ontario Science Centre. 

Sci-Fri is a free Friday night event for teens that the Science Centre holds every month (except December, July, and August), which includes snacks, DJs, and a panel discussion. Topics discussed include global issues mixed with a bit of science.

Chaouni was invited to share some innovative ways of designing cities, buildings, and products for a future where water is scarce. For her presentation, she drew from her work on the Out of Water Project, which explores how existing and future cities and landscapes can adjust to increased water scarcity. Chaouni is a principal researcher for the project along with Daniels Assistant Professor Liat Margolis. The two are now working on a book on the subject, and it couldn't be more timely: As reported on the Out of Water website,  “the United Nations projects that in the next ten years, 50 million people will be living in desert contexts, potentially causing major migration fluxes, political tensions, and instabilities.”

For more information visit: http://www.oowproject.com/

On Wednesday, January 25, Daniels Associate Professor Pina Petricone is launching her new book Concrete Ideas: Material to Shape a City. To celebrate, she is hosting an evening of wine, cheese, and book signing at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design.

Date: Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Time: 6:00 - 8:00 PM
Location: Larry Wayne Richards Gallery, John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, 230 College Street

Concrete Ideas: Material to Shape a City is about possibilities in concrete architecture. It visually speculates, through a series of montages, drawings and photographs, about concrete architecture’s capacity as an urban catalyst, its potential for defining cities and for virtuosity in urban renewal. It asks; given the now mainstream nanotechnologies that transform the performance of materials at the molecular level without fundamentally changing the material aesthetic, can we anticipate and provoke a change in its inherent authority, perception and aesthetic culture? It represents a series of recognizable brutalist examples from around the world to be read alongside contemporary ‘new concrete’ constructions, to ultimately render their ‘generation’ undistinguishable. The work uses the case of Toronto with its predominant 60s and 70s brutalist stock, and unique minus 30° to plus 30° Canadian climate, to test these speculations with building projects that challenge the limits of concrete performance. With contributions from architects and thinkers such as Mark West, George Baird, Will Bruder, and Charles Waldheim, among others, Concrete Ideas offers a seductive argument for the reconsideration of this age-old building material as supple, light, and instrumental in the re-presentation of existing concrete ‘citizens’.

Architecture Canada | RAIC has announced Taymoore Balbaa, MRAIC, as the first recipient of its Young Architect Award.

The Young Architect Award recognizes an architect under the age of 35 for excellence in design, leadership and/or service to the profession. It is intended that this award will inspire other young architects to become licensed and to strive for excellence in their work.

For more information, see: RAIC

Living The High Life

New York greened an old rail line. Could a similar project succeed in Toronto?

Vanessa Farquharson, National Post

Published: 8/15/2009 12:00:00 AM

The train track hovering 30 feet in the air above New York City, known as the High Line, was originally designed to carry freight traffic; but in 1980, after a thriving trucking industry reduced the need for rail service, it carried its last shipment -- three car loads of frozen turkeys.

View article [PDF]

Presented by Arch 392, Waterloo Architecture Students Association and the Society of Waterloo Architectural Graduates

Thursday, February 5, 2009
University of Waterloo
Faculty of Engineering | School of Architecture
7 Melville Street South, Cambridge

Mason White, Lateral Office will present Condomanium: Cities of Convenience and Adrian Blackwell will present Fractured Atlas at this the University of Waterloo's Urban Futures Colloquium.

Please click here for the full itinerary.