The 2024 Prix de Rome for Emerging Architects has been awarded to Daniels alumnus Daniel Wong. His win marks the second time in two years that the prestigious prize has gone to a graduate of the Faculty.

Every year, the Prix de Rome for Emerging Architects is awarded by the Canada Council for the Arts to a recent graduate from a Canadian architectural school who demonstrates exceptional potential in architectural design. 

With the prize, “the recipient may visit architectural buildings and carry out an internship at an international architectural firm.”

Wong, who acquired his Master of Architecture (MARC) degree last year and is currently an intern architect at AAmp Studio in Toronto, has been pursuing internships in Paris and Rotterdam, in addition to a research residency in New York. 

His Prix de Rome proposal builds on his award-winning thesis project, {In}visible Maintenance, which investigates the cultural and material practices of maintenance, cleaning and repair. 

As part of this research, Wong plans to visit buildings, sites and industries across Japan, London and Belgium to explore and document different cultural mindsets around architectural maintenance. 

“This incredible opportunity,” he says, “will allow me to expand my research into how we might adopt a culture of maintenance, cleaning and repair—one that could suggest alternative sustainable practices and offer a path forward for retaining and revitalizing our built environment."

“Through this research," he adds, "I hope to show how maintenance is not merely a remedial task, but an essential, proactive component of architecture.”

In 2022, the Prix de Rome also went to a Daniels architecture graduate: Yiyao Ivee Wang, one of three recipients that year. (The other two were Julia Nakanishi of Toronto and Paulette Cameron of Halifax. No prizes had been awarded in 2020 or 2021 because of the pandemic.)

Having acquired her MARC degree in 2021, Wang (pictured below) focused her research on exploring and expanding the design potential of future-facing and adaptive residential architecture.

Her stated goals upon winning the Prix de Rome included the investigation of relevant projects and practices in Canada, the U.K., France and China, exploring creative design processes and solutions that transform obsolescence into metamorphosis.

Wang portrait by Melanie Lo

How does one fabricate a biological architecture? What are the conditions of stewardship? What are the strategies to instigate this at scale, regionally and globally? 

These questions are the foundation of inquiry for Living Room Collective’s exhibition Picoplanktonics, presented by the Canada Council for the Arts as part of the 19th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, on view in the Canada Pavillion from May 10 until November 23, 2025.  

The Living Room Collective (featured below) is a group of architects, scientists, artists and educators who work at the intersection of architecture, biology and digital fabrication technologies—led by Canadian architect and biodesigner Andrea Shin Ling, alongside core team members Nicholas Hoban, a lecturer and the Director of Applied Technologies at the Daniels Faculty, Vincent Hui, a professor at Toronto Metropolitan University’s Department of Architectural Science, and Clayton Lee, a curator, producer and performance artist.   

Amidst the ongoing global climate crisis, Picoplanktonics showcases the potential for collaboration between humans and nature. Comprised of 3D printed structures that contain live cyanobacteria capable of carbon sequestration, the exhibition is an exploration of our potential to co-operate with living systems by co-constructing spaces that remediate the planet rather than exploit it. By leveraging ancient biological processes alongside emergent technologies, Picoplanktonics proposes designing environments under an ecology-first ethos. 

“The interdisciplinary research at the core of Picoplanktonics, led by Andrea (Shin Ling) and the team from ETH Zurich, is exactly the type of forward-thinking collaboration we encourage among faculty and students across our fields at the Daniels Faculty,” says Robert Levit, Acting Dean of the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design. “I’m thrilled by the exhibition and the work of Nicholas and Living Room Collective, and can't wait to see what it inspires beyond its life in Venice.”

When visitors enter the Canada Pavilion, they will encounter 3D printed structures that were originally fabricated in an ETH Zürich laboratory. These are the largest living material structures produced using a first-of-its-kind biofabrication platform capable of printing living structures at an architectural scale.  

The unique Picoplanktonics experience stems from adapting the Canada Pavilion to provide enough light, moisture, and warmth for the living cyanobacteria within the structures to grow, thrive and change. For the duration of the exhibition, caretakers will be onsite tending to the structures, emphasizing care and stewardship as essential elements of the design.  

As global carbon emissions continue to rise to untenable levels, Picoplanktonics presents a vision of how a regenerative system of construction could operate. It is an ongoing experiment centered on leveraging the reciprocal relationship between living structures, the built environment, and humans. In this way, the Living Room Collective is rethinking building principles and prioritizing ecological resilience beyond human species survival. 

“Through the lens of architecture, this year’s Canadian exhibition brings technological innovation and ecological stewardship together,” says Michelle Chawla, Director and CEO, Canada Council for the Arts. “It is a unique exhibition, sure to inspire global audiences and to ignite important conversations, about how our built environment might better house and use natural systems for a more sustainable future.” 

Commissioned by the Canada Council for the Arts, the selection committee was comprised of: Aziza Chaouni (architect, principal, Aziza Chaouni Projects and associate professor, John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, University of Toronto); David Garneau (Métis, painter, curator, critical art writer and professor, Visual Arts Department, University of Regina); Daniel Pearl (archi-tect, principal, L’OEUF Architectes and professor, School of Architecture, Université de Montréal); Siamak Hariri (architect, founding partner, Hariri Pontarini Architects); and Sepake Angiama (curator, educator, and artistic director, Institute for International Visual Art).  

Learn more on the Picoplanktonics website: picoplanktonics.com

Read the full media release via Canada Council for the Arts: canadacouncil.ca/initiatives/venice-biennale/2025  

Visit the Venice Biennale website for more information: labiennale.org/en/architecture/2025  

Photo credits: Living Room Collective.  

James Bird, a PhD candidate in Architecture, Landscape, and Design, has been awarded the King Charles III Coronation Medal in recognition of his contributions to Crown-Indigenous relations and his role as Chapel Royal Tobacco Keeper at Massey College. 

The Honorable Edith Dumont, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, presented Bird with the medal on May 6, 2025, during a ceremony at Queen’s Park. Created to commemorate the coronation of His Majesty King Charles III in 2023, the Coronation Medal is the first Canadian commemorative medal to mark a royal coronation. 

At Massey College, Bird is one of three Tobacco Keepers for the Chapel Royal—formally designated by Queen Elizabeth II in 2017 and known in Anishinaabemowin as Gi-Chi Twaa Gimaa Kwe Mississauga Anishinaabek AName Amik (The Queen’s Anishinaabek Sacred Place). A tobacco garden outside the chapel reflects the sacred role of the plant in Indigenous ceremonial life and its enduring significance in Crown-Indigenous diplomacy. 

In his doctoral research, Bird explores the intersection of Dënesųłiné linguistics and shape forming. His work examines how language can serve as an entry point into understanding diverse built forms and architectural strategies. A key premise of his research is the creation of alternative viewpoints that assign agency to the metaphysical elements embedded within Indigenous languages and cultures. By investigating the ontological relationships within language morphemes, Bird seeks to uncover how these linguistic structures inform and inspire Indigenous design practices. 

Through academic research, knowledge keeping and ceremony, Bird continues to deepen understandings of Indigenous sovereignty, language, and the evolving relationship between Indigenous nations and the Crown. 

Students, donors, faculty and staff came together at the Faculty Club recently for the yearly breakfast gathering celebrating student award recipients and those who support them.

This year’s Student Awards Breakfast took place in the main room of the Club on the morning of February 26. 

A total of 216 students from across the Faculty’s disciplines were supported through 41 awards in 2024/25. Many were in attendance at the breakfast last month.

“In hosting this event today, we are very pleased to be bringing together our faculty, our many generous donors and our talented award recipients, the latter having distinguished themselves academically and as student leaders,” said Acting Dean Robert Levit, who introduced the proceedings.

“At the University of Toronto,” he continued, “awards have been a part of academic life for nearly 200 years, contributing immeasurably to U of T’s achievements and to its global reach. Today, as the funding of post-secondary institutions by government continues to decline, the support by donors of endowed scholarships, awards, prizes and bursaries at universities is crucial.”

Among the new awards singled out by Dean Levit (pictured below) was the Nelda Rodger Indigenous Student Award in Architecture and Design, a renewable award that provides financial support to full-time Canadian students of First Nations, Inuit and Métis heritage in the Faculty’s Architectural Studies program.

This award, he noted, is the first of its kind devoted to the study of architecture at U of T. 

Matthew Arnott, a third-year Master of Landscape Architecture student, was one of two award winners to address the breakfast gathering. The recipient of this year’s Claude Cormier Award in Landscape Architecture, he expressed how much the award, which was established by the acclaimed landscape architect and alumnus before he passed away in 2023, meant to him personally.

“Claude, being queer, Canadian and unapologetic in his design approach, has long served as a source of personal inspiration, blazing a trail for so many young designers like myself that previously did not exist,” Arnott said.

“To Claude and the folks at CCxA [Cormier’s Montreal-based practice], I’d like to express great thanks for establishing an award that makes graduate education so much more accessible and, more broadly, for their celebration of creativity, whimsy and humour in their approach to design.”

Olivia Carson, a student in the Bachelor of Arts in Architectural Studies program, also addressed the breakfast. She is a recipient of a John and Myrna Daniels Foundation Opportunity Award.

“I have been fortunate to have my family, peers and professors as my greatest supporters and inspirations,” Carson said. “But even with that support, there are moments when external recognition is needed—a reminder that what we are doing [as students] matters.”

“These awards,” she continued, “do just that; they nurture curiosity, fuel ambition and enable students to embrace learning as more than just an academic pursuit, but as a lifelong endeavour. Their support reminds us that education is not just about meeting requirements but [also] about exploration, creativity and growth. I would like to express my gratitude to the John and Myrna Daniels Foundation for the award I have been granted and for their generous contributions to the Daniels Faculty.”

In concluding the event, Dean Levit thanked both Carson and Arnott for sharing their experiences.

“You have painted a touching picture of the importance of recognition by others,” he said, “and of the impact of the kind of financial support shared by all of the award recipients who have joined us this morning.”

As of this year, the Daniels Faculty administers more than 125 donor-supported funds, a large proportion of which are devoted to student aid and recognition.

All photos by Richard Ashman

New alumnus Jose Power, who graduated from the Daniels Faculty with his Master of Architecture (MARC) degree this past spring, is the recipient of Canadian Architect’s 2024 Student Award of Excellence.

Power was awarded the honour for his highly inventive thesis project, a reimagination of the elevator entitled Ascending Worlds.

The project, Canadian Architect notes, nods to the “historical significance and spatial essence” of elevators while redefining them as catalysts for “reshaping communal dynamics within residential towers.”

Power proposed 10 different elevator prototypes in his thesis. Among them, the two-elevator-wide Express Café offers riders “a chance to grab a barista-pulled espresso on their way downstairs,” while the multi-level Venue “includes a lower storey stage and comfortable seating on upper balcony levels for acoustic mini-concerts.”

The one-elevator-sized Matchmaker, meanwhile, “includes a cozy interior with a small table to set the stage for an intimate conversation between two individuals. If the chemistry is right, either participant can slow down the journey—or, conversely, opt to discreetly access the ‘speed up’ or ‘emergency exit’ buttons under the table to bring the blind date to a quick end.”

Other suggested functions include a library, a confessional and a speakeasy.

“The jury was delighted by this project’s witty and irreverent reworking of generic elevator spaces in residential buildings,” member D’Arcy Jones enthused in his summation of Ascending Worlds. 

“Emphasizing the differences between people’s wants and needs, the design proposes new short-term communal uses, such as moving coffee shops, speed-dating tables or speakeasies,” Jones added.

In his own words, Power describes his project, for which Associate Professor Jeannie Kim served as advisor, as a restoration of the elevator and its surrounding core “to their former status as integral components of communal interaction within buildings.”

“In the 21st century, the elevator has faded into obscurity, its potential for strangeness and opportunity overlooked,” Power writes. “Ascending Worlds endeavours to reignite the allure of the elevator, infusing it with newfound vibrancy and significance within our evolving urban landscapes.”

His thesis, he adds, “celebrates the complexity of human behaviour, recognizing the myriad individual routes, purposes, urgencies and characteristics that converge within these vertical spaces. These designs are not dictated by the typical restrictions of vertical transportation, but the quality and duration of the potential interactions that our ascending rooms may evoke.”

Power’s winning project is documented in the December 2024 issue of Canadian Architect. To read more about it, click here.

Banner images: With his award-winning thesis project Ascending Worlds, 2024 MARC graduate Jose Power reimagines elevator spaces as catalysts for new communal dynamics within residential towers. Among the alternate uses he proposes are, from left to right, speakeasies, “express cafés,” confessionals and libraries.

“The most valuable tool in addressing the climate crisis is collaboration,” says Matt Arnott, reflecting on his time as a 2024 Holcim Foundation Fellow. 

Now a third-year Master of Landscape Architecture (MLA) student, Arnott traveled to New York City this past August to participate in the inaugural Holcim Foundation Fellowship in North America. Focused on the theme “Decarbonization at Scale,” the competitive two-week program brought together participants from architecture, engineering, urban planning and landscape architecture to tackle pressing sustainability challenges.  

Read on to learn more about his experience creating connections, designing beyond neutrality, and how he plans to incorporate this knowledge into his final year of the MLA program.

How did you first learn about the inaugural Holcim Foundation Fellowship? What inspired you to apply? 

I found the fellowship through an Instagram story. I felt the theme was of great importance. As the pressures of the climate crisis continue to compound, I feel the role of the designer must adapt, placing the socioecological impacts of our work at the fore. 

Tell us a bit more about your experience over the summer.

The fellowship was incredibly enriching. By engaging with workshops, lectures and site visits, we were exposed to the numerous angles that you can frame sustainability. Some of my highlights include a trip to the Parsons Healthy Material Lab where we explored ecologically and health-conscious alternatives to traditional building materials; a visit to the future site of the New York Climate Exchange led by representatives from SOM who emphasized the role of landscape in sustainable design; a salvage material reuse workshop facilitated by ARUP; and examining socially responsible approaches to sustainability at Henning Larsen. 

The Fellowship’s central theme was “Decarbonization at Scale.” How has it impacted your perception of sustainability in the built environment? 

I feel that as designers we have the unique opportunity to shape how we care for and engage with our surrounding environments. Sustainability has always been something near and dear to my heart, however, the ways that we can engage with sustainable design have always felt vague to me. The fellowship offered an opportunity to bridge this divide, giving firsthand and tangible insight into the most current approaches to tackle the layered challenge(s) of climate resiliency. 

In speaking with professionals navigating the complex world of sustainability within the (L)AEC industry, I could develop an actionable tool kit for sustainable design. I was encouraged to challenge the unwavering industry standard, framing the design process as an opportunity to be ecologically beneficial—not just neutral. Most importantly, the fellowship made clear that no one person alone can tackle the issue of sustainability—the most valuable tool in addressing the climate crisis is collaboration. 

How do you plan to incorporate what you learned into your future projects? 

During the fellowship, we were asked to explore themes of decarbonization as they relate to our individual research interests. In preparation for my thesis this coming year, I had the opportunity to study forestry management systems as they relate to the increasing threat of wildfires with Professor Robert Wright. During the fellowship, I was exposed to the industry of carbon dioxide removal (thanks to Professor David Benjamin of Columbia GSAAP). The industry seemed aligned with my previous research and I was curious about what potential synergies existed. 

As we developed our research project throughout the course of the fellowship, I was given the time, space, and support to flesh these ideas out further. (If you’re interested, snippets from all of the fellows’ research projects can be found here.) Moving forward, I hope to integrate the work from the fellowship into potential design strategies for my thesis! 

Arnott's fellowship research project (images above) looked at the scalable potentials of biochar. Here, it was argued that through engaging with both short- and long-term interventions, biochar appears as a key tool in the pursuit of decarbonization and an even more vital agent in the process of carbon dioxide removal. By leveraging instances of oversight in larger supply chains and the remnant materials found following wildfires, adaptable land-based solutions can be created bringing the industry closer to its goals of net zero. 

What advice would you give to future students considering applying for this fellowship or similar opportunities? 

Apply! Apply! Apply! The people you’ll meet along the way will become valuable connections and friends. Walk into each experience with open eyes and ears, allow conversations with those outside of your field to highlight gaps in your knowledge, and be open to change! 

The Daniels Faculty is pleased to announce its newest Emerging Architect Fellows: Humbi Song and Anthony Kalimungabo Wako.

Song’s fellowship, which commenced on July 1, will run until July of 2026. Wako’s residency will start in 2025, running until 2027.

The two-year Emerging Architect Fellowship, a non-tenure appointment at the rank of Assistant Professor, was established by the Faculty in 2022 to offer early-career architects an opportunity to teach in a supportive environment as well as the resources to develop focused research. 

The aim is “to bring new voices and matters of concern to the school through teaching and research,” says Jeannie Kim, Associate Professor, Teaching Stream and Associate Dean, Academic. “We are excited to welcome this new cohort and look forward to the conversations and ideas that will ensue.”

Song (pictured above) holds a Master of Architecture degree from Harvard University and has taught at Harvard GSD, Northeastern University and Wentworth Institute of Technology. 

Her work, she says, focuses on the intersection of architecture, technology and human-computer interaction. She is currently teaching an option studio in the Daniels Faculty’s MARC program.

“Humbi is committed to a humanistic approach to technology that holds space for lived experience and intersectionality,” says Kim. “Her work explores the potential of co-creation and co-design with machines and AI, with a particular emphasis on the relationship between human and machine agency.”

Wako, meanwhile, has been a lecturer in the Faculty of the Built Environment at Uganda Martyrs University, from which he also holds a Master of Architecture degree, since 2020.

“Anthony will be joining us next July,” says Kim, “with an exciting proposal to trace diasporic movements and transnational exchange between Uganda, South Asia and Canada through migrating building and constructional practices that find their imprint on cultural spaces, commercial activity, agricultural practices and other moments of spatial exchange.”

Earlier this year, Wako was awarded a 2024 Graham Foundation grant for his research documenting the socio-cultural encounters of the Ugandan city of Jinja’s built heritage, “a visible but hidden legacy” of generations of immigrants from South Asia, many arriving as labourers between 1895 and 1901 to construct the famed Uganda Railway.

“The contribution of Asians to Uganda’s urban and architectural heritage is often talked about but poorly documented," says Wako. “This project seeks to rectify this oversight.”

Song portrait by Richard Ashman

Professor Brigitte Shim has been recognized with one of the country’s highest honours in the fields of arts and science: election to the Royal Society of Canada (RSC) as a 2024 Fellow.

Every year, a select group of artists, academics and scientists are inducted into one of the RSC’s three Academies—the Academy of Arts and Humanities, the Academy of Social Sciences and the Academy of Science—on the basis of their impact, both nationally and  internationally, on their respective disciplines. 

Professor Shim, who has been teaching at the Daniels Faculty since 1988, will be elected to the RSC’s Academy of Arts and Humanities. 

There are currently 2,524 Fellows in the Society, which has been recognizing creative excellence in Canada since 1882.

Professor Shim was selected, according to the RSC, for “an exceptional body of design work that is committed to craft, tectonics, site and ecology.” Also cited was her “ongoing commitment to advocacy, mentorship and teaching.”

“She is one half of a collaborative partnership,” the Society says, referencing her longtime personal and creative alliance with husband and fellow architect A. Howard Sutcliffe, “addressing built work that tackles multiple scales [in] architecture, landscape, interiors, furniture and hardware—all developed to a high standard, with craft, rigour, sense of place, mastery of proportions and placemaking.” 

Professor Shim co-founded her practice, Shim-Sutcliffe Architects, in 1994. She and Sutcliffe have since been recognized with 16 Governor General’s Medals and Awards for Architecture, the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada’s Gold Medal in 2021 and an American Institute of Architects National Honor Award. 

Her induction into the RSC, which was announced last month, will formally take place at a ceremony in Vancouver on November 8. A total of 104 new Fellows are being inducted this year.

The John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto is excited to announce Isabel Okoro as its inaugural Filmmaker-in-Residence.  
 
This new initiative, generously supported through private donor support and the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives Fund at the Faculty, provides a platform for emerging and mid-career filmmakers whose work reflects a commitment to historically underrepresented communities within the Faculty’s diverse disciplines. 

“I am thrilled that this new residency has begun this fall,” says Robert Levit, Acting Dean of the Daniels Faculty. “It’s an important demonstration of our desire at the Faculty to include as wide a range of voices and experiences as possible in the work we do and to encourage the kind of cross-fertilization of ideas that comes with such exchanges. I want to congratulate and thank everyone who worked toward bringing the residency about and very much look forward to Isabel’s time with us.” 

Running from early October to late November 2024, Okoro’s residency will engage a wide array of Daniels Faculty members, including undergraduate and graduate students, faculty and staff through a series of workshops and a public lecture. The goal of the residency is to explore how cultural representations in film and video can build community, foster belonging and enhance engagement across the Faculty. 

Born and raised in Lagos, Nigeria and now based in Toronto, Okoro produces multidisciplinary work inspired by her identity and the diverse community of creators from the global diaspora of which she is a part. Recent projects include the video installation it’s real, i watched it happen, exhibited during Nuit Blanche in Toronto, and the exhibition Constructing Eternity at FÁBRICA in Mexico City. 

As an artist whose work sits comfortably on the line of reality and imagination, world-building is Okoro’s preferred method of storytelling. She has spent the last three years developing the visual universe Eternity.  

“I think a lot about what is and how that informs what could be,” Okoro explains. “In moments of uncertainty and distress, I tend to find myself looking back at my dreams and imagining the stories I’d like to see. Dwelling in the present leaves very little to the imagination, so I find solace in my own visual universe, Eternity, where hope and trust in Black imagination is the sole foundation.” 

Her work is characterized by “Normatopia,” a concept she coined to describe a world where lived experiences—both good and bad—are central. “A Normatopia describes what is normal, not perfect,” Okoro notes. “So the question becomes, what is normal to me? I believe that normal is simply the right to be.” 

During a series of workshops over the Faculty’s Reading Week (October 28-November 1) and a public lecture on Wednesday, November 13 at 4:00 p.m., Okoro intends to expand on the factors she considers when world-building and developing her cinematic language—including discussions on research, screenwriting, directing, music and post-production.  

“My hope is that my time on campus will promote a transparent and inclusive space where students, faculty, and the surrounding community can hold space for one another while we experience the power of communal discussion and creation.” 

Details on how to participate in the workshops and registration for the public lecture will be published soon.  

Photo Credit: Bidemi Oloyede

A design team headed by JA Architecture Studio, the practice co-led by Assistant Professor Behnaz Assadi and alumnus and former lecturer Nima Javidi, has been selected by the Ontario Association of Architects (OAA) to transform the grounds of its Toronto headquarters into “a more sustainable, accessible, artful and welcoming space.”

Called The Grounding Meadow, the winning design (pictured in slideshow above) was chosen anonymously by a five-person jury.

The design team, which also includes landscape architect and sessional lecturer Todd Douglas of Janet Rosenberg & Studio and civil engineer Kayam Ramsewak of MTE Consultants, receives a $20,000 prize and the job of refashioning the OAA property, which is located at 111 Moatfield Drive near the Don River. 

Praised for its “embrace of natural systems that allow the landscape to evolve as a biodiverse ecosystem with minimal intervention, as well as its thoughtful integration of public art and innovative stormwater-management strategies,” the winning proposal addresses the site both ecologically and culturally.

“It allows water to freely run underneath the wild meadow, bringing a more natural ecology to the site and welcoming stormwater to support and sustain the habitat,” says the OAA. “The project also pays homage to Indigenous communities by including plants of cultural significance, including a diversity of perennials and grasses that will also attract pollinators, wildlife and birds.”

“Our project,” explains Javidi, “tries to address the two core themes of the competition—climate change and Reconciliation—through one legible protagonist: the ground. We aimed to translate our awareness of the importance of land, its history and ecology into a spatial and experiential one.”

Assistant Professor Assadi adds: “By recalibrating the contours of the site, we converged the flow of water, people and plants into an ecological threshold where the overlay between the act of entering, the collection of water and the changing landscape will make the visitors physically aware of the interrelationship between architecture, access and ecology—an awareness long embedded into the Indigenous way of coexistence with nature.”

Launched in March, the OAA’s Landscape Design Competition challenged competitors to reimagine the terrain of the OAA headquarters as a symbol of design innovation, environmental sustainability and active community involvement, “creating an inviting space that respected environmental principles and celebrated the natural beauty of the Don River ravine.”

Among the eligibility requirements was that each team include a full member of the Ontario Association of Landscape Architects (OALA) and a civil engineer. Membership in the OAA was not a requirement, although Javidi is an OAA architect.

In addition to the jury, a technical advisory team comprising a landscape architect, a civil engineer and a cost consultant, as well as senior OAA staff and members of its Building Committee, offered feedback on all submissions. The 19 interdisciplinary teams that submitted proposals were kept confidential from the jury and OAA.

For a full list of participating teams, visit the OAA website. Construction on the exterior overhaul is anticipated to begin in the spring of 2025. 

In addition to securing the OAA redesign, JA Architecture has also received an Honourable Mention in the international competition to design the Museum of History and the Future in Finland's oldest city, Turku.

Called Dot, Dot, Dot, Dot, JA’s design for the facility, on the tip of the Turku Peninsula, comprised a linear cluster of two-and-a-half-storey architectural volumes (one of which is shown below) that would maximize water views but be open at ground level to the city.

More than 400 proposals from around the world were accepted for evaluation.

The winning design, announced at Turku Castle on June 17, was submitted by Finnish firm Sigge Architects Ltd.