Daniels Faculty student Jaysen Ariola recevied an Award of Excellence for his Master of Landscape Architecture thesis, and Meikang Li, Qiwei Song, and Chaoyi Cui won a Merit Award for their studio project from the 2019 World Landscape Architecture (WLA) Awards.

The WLA Awards is an international competition that recognizes and promotes landscape architects for their outstanding work. The Awards seek to highlight innovative work, either conceptual or built.

Images above and top by Jaysen Ariola

Ariola’s thesis project, Waters in Peril Collective Measures for a Dying Lake Winnipeg, included a framework for a new landscape policy and ecological planning to address the issue of nutrient runoff into the Red River, which drains into Lake Winnipeg. The framework addresses and conveys what it means to protect and restore ecosystems to various groups and people.

Jaysen also received the John E. (Jack) Irving Prize and was among recipients of the Academic Honors Certificate upon graduating last spring. 

Image above by Meikang Li, Qiwei Song, and Chaoyi Cui

Li, Song, and Cui’s project, The Drainage Filter for the Everglades, proposed re-channeling water runoff through public-owned properties, where the water will be stored and treated before arriving at its destination, the Everglades. The project proposes a phased, cost-efficient alternative and improvement to existing expensive water treatment infrastructures in the Everglades.


This project was part of the Daniels Option Studio that received ARCHITECT magazine’s Studio Prize. The Studio "Coding Flux: In Pursuit of Resilient Urbanism in South Florida" (LAN 3016) was taught by Assistant Professor Fadi Masoud (coordinator), and Elise Shelley.


Visit the WLA website for more info and to read about other winners. 

The design of One Spadina's new landscape has received a 2019 National Award from the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects.

Part of the University of Toronto and home to the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, the new landscape at 1 Spadina Crescent was designed by the landscape architecture firm PUBLIC WORK, in collaboration with NADAAA.

Previously the site of a parking lot and inaccessible lawns, the landscape at 1 Spadina Crescent has been transformed with new entry plazas and a perimeter promenade that invites visitors through a variety of landforms, from gentle grade inflections to more majestic inclines and steep vegetated slopes with native plantings.

Sustainability features are a key part of the design. Rainwater runoff from the site is filtered through plantings, bioswales, and permeable pavement before reaching a cistern that collects 95% of the rainwater that falls on the site, which will be used to irrigate the Green Roof Innovation Testing Laboratory on the roof of the Daniels Building.

The new landscape was also conceived as a site of learning for Daniels Faculty students. The site’s largest landform, known as Darwin’s Hill,  showcases different slopes and soil stabilization techniques, as well as an experimental garden. The 6.5m tall reinforced landform was constructed with reclaimed site soils excavated from the building’s sunken north court.

"The complete transformation of One Spadina enables profoundly different civic relations, more fluid community connections, and new social and ecological environments embedded within a landscape for learning," writes the CSLA on its website. "With its prominent location and dramatic topographical landscape, the project charts a new role for the institution within the campus and the city."

For more information, vitas the CSLA website.

Photos by Nic Lehoux

The team behind the recent restoration and expansion of the Daniels Building at One Spadina Crescent recently received the Lieutenant Governor’s Ontario Heritage Award for Excellence in Conservation. The project’s heritage consultants, ERA Architects; design architects, NADAAA; and the University of Toronto were the joint recipients for this prestigious provincial honour, which was announced this past January by Ontario Heritage Trust.

Presented annually at Queen’s Park, these awards were established “recognize exceptional contributions to heritage conservation, environmental sustainability and biodiversity, and cultural and natural heritage.” Ontario Heritage was established by a provincial act in 1990 to preserve Ontario’s significant cultural heritage and educate the public on its history.

ERA Architects highlighted some of the aspects of the project they felt made this project so impactful within Toronto’s urban landscape:

The recent renewal of the south-facing 19th-century Gothic revival building and contemporary addition – home to the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design – is a showcase for the city and an international focal point for education and research on architecture, art and the future of cities. The rehabilitation and new addition at One Spadina Crescent provides a significant expansion to the heritage building for use by the faculty and its students as design studios, fabrication shops, a multi-functional principal hall, library programs, social spaces and offices. The addition was conceived to fill in the “U”-shaped space vacated by demolition of previous additions to the original 1874 Knox College on its north side, thereby preserving the original heritage structure and integrating existing and new program space for optimal use of the finite site.

Read More about One Spadina Crescent, and view the full list of awards the Daniels Building has received to date.

The Daniels Faculty would like to congratulate first year Master of Architecture student James Bird on winning the President's Award for Outstanding Indigenous Student of the Year. Lisa Boivin, an undergraduate student from the Faculty of Medicine, also received this honour. Two students, one graduate and one undergraduate, receive the award each year.

"I felt honored to be selected from a very large cohort of extremely talented people. It is a humbling experience, and I am filled with deep gratitude," said Bird. "The President's Award means a recognition for perseverance and persistence in educations goals I had always hoped for."

Bird recently completed his Bachelor of Arts in Indigenous Studies and Renaissance Studies at U of T. He began his master’s degree in architecture this fall after nearly 30 years as a carpenter, journeyman, and cabinet maker. A knowledge keeper from the Nehiyawak nation and Dene Nation, he says his future goals include the possibly pursuing a PhD and continuing his SSHRC research in "linguistincs and the interaction between space making and Indigenous languages."

A ceremony and reception for the President's Award was held on December 6th at First Nations House at U of T.

Ja Architecture Studio — the firm of Daniels Faculty lecturers Nima Javidi (MUD 2005) and  Behnaz Assadi (MLA 2008) — has been shortlisted to represent Canada at the 2020 Venice Biennale in Architecture.

More than 350,000 visitors from around the world attend the biannual international event, which works to promote "critical conversations about contemporary architecture." The Canada Council for the Arts provides financial support for Canada's exhibition and acts as Commissioner.

Ja Architecture Studio's proposal, entitled Lightness, notes Canada's "paradoxical relationship to light wood framing:"
 

With its simplicity, flexibility, and affordability, architects are able to conceive of spaces of considerable formal imagination, yet these same characteristics have placed light wood framing primarily outside the disciplinary boundaries of architecture and instead within the realm of building.

By examining Canada through the lens of this specific construction method, Lightness—Ja Architecture Studio’s collaborative submission for the Canadian Pavilion at the 2020 Venice Biennale—asks how we can explore the boundaries of the architectural imagination while connecting it to broader national issues such as ecology, regionalism, colonization, and settlement.
 

This is the second time that the Toronto-based firm has been shortlisted for this prestigious exhibition: Ja Architecture Studio was also in the running to represent Canada at the 2018 festival.

The shortlist news falls on the heels of other recent accolades for the firm: Ja Architecture Studio's project The Octagon recently received an Award of Excellence from Canadian Architect.

Photos of Ja Architecture Studio projects, top: 1) The Arch of Light, a finalist in the Lord Stanley’s Gift Monument Competition, 2) The Octagon—awarded a 2018 Award of Excellence by Canadian Architect, 3) Semi-Split.
Photos 2 & 3 by Sam Javanrouh

Looking for ways to enjoy the outdoors in Toronto during the winter holidays? The Winter Light Exhibition at Ontario Place opens up the former theme park grounds to a series of installations designed to engage visitors and bring light to the city during dark winter months.

Eighteen pieces throughout the landscape include Obscura, a colourful interactive installation designed and built by third year Master of Architecture students John Nguyen, Anton Skorishchenko, Stephen Baik, and Robert Lee. Built and fabricated in the Daniels Faculty's workshop, the piece was among those selected for display by a jury guided by the curatorial theme "Disruptive Engagement."

From the Winter Light Exhibition Website:
 

Obscura is an interactive installation that explores the contrast between light vs. darkness using two/three-dimensional geometry. The Human eye is unable to distinguish two/three-dimensional space in darkness. Obscura plays on this shortcoming by introducing an installation that makes use of the darkness at night to reveal a three-dimensional creation of space, while in the daytime, two-dimensional space is created. As visitors look through the front triangle of the first iteration, a series of twirling forms will create the illusion of seamlessly flowing from one frame to another. Visitors can proceed to travel in-between each of the frames to discover how simple geometry in combination with darkness and light can define and create a new dichotomy to experience and understand space.

Winter Light Exhibition and the student's installation has been featured in Azure, BlogTO, and CBC Toronto. The exhibition runs until March 17, 2019.

Obscura is not the only work by the students that will be brightening Toronto's landscape this winter. Nguyen, Baik, Skorishchenko and fellow student Abubakr Bajaman, together with Assistant Professor Victor Perez-Amado recently learned that they won a spot in the fifth annual 2019 Winter Stations exhibition along Toronto's Woodbine Beach. Their proposal, Calvalcade, is one of 5 installations that will appear on Toronto's waterfront in February.

Follow the students on instagram: @john.design, @stephen.baik, @anton_skor, @rjl1417

The Daniels Building at One Spadina was recently honoured as a finalist for Building of the Year as part of the 2018 AN Best Design Awards.  These awards, now in their sixth year, are a unique project-based awards program that showcases great buildings, building elements, interiors, and installations. Additionally, The Architects Newspaper (AN) panel awarded the Daniels Faculty the top honours in the education category, alongside notable buildings from UCSB and Carnegie Mellon University.

In their announcement of the winners, AN’s William Menking and Matt Shawn said that the final decision was a close one:
 

For our Building of the Year award, our esteemed jury was fiercely divided between two exemplary but very different projects. The final debate came down to SCHAUM/SHIEH’s Transart Foundation—a private gallery across from the Menil campus in Houston—and NADAAA’s Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto. SCHAUM/SHIEH’s relatively small but mighty building employs punched-through balconies and a blurred program to utilize the space to maximum effect. Meanwhile, NADAAA’s extension and renovation of a 19th-century neo-Gothic building includes dramatic, complex lunettes that let in Aalto-esque light. In the end, the jury chose the scrappy Houston project, but the decision really could have gone either way.
 

The John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design celebrated the official opening of One Spadina on November 17, 2017. Designed by Nader Tehrani and Katherine Faulkner, principals of the internationally acclaimed firm NADAAA — in collaboration with Architect-of-record Adamson & Associates, landscape architects Public Work, and heritage architects ERA — the revitalized One Spadina is an urban design exemplar and catalyst for the transformation of U of T’s western edge on the Spadina corridor. The Daniels Building at One Spadina is a showcase for the city and the University, and a world-leading venue for studying, conducting research, and advocating for architecture, landscape, and sustainable urbanization.

Learn more about the One Spadina project

A group of four talented students from Daniels Faculty recently nabbed the silver spot at the Marvin Architects Student Challenge, placing alongside other top architectural schools from across Canada.

Marvin Windows and Doors invited senior architecture students from across Canada to submit their best and most creative designs featuring Marvin products. Daniels Faculty students Feng Le, Vitusan Vimal, Jonathan Graham, and Raymond Kuang competed along with participants from schools such as University of Manitoba and Laval, and were awarded second place for their submission. In their announcement, the judges described their design as:
 

A geometric delight. The layout is thoughtfully designed to promote well-being and access to natural spaces through the creative use of interior courtyards. Dubbed “a true sensory experience”, this project shows how you can go “outside” without leaving the perimeter of your home.
 

“We entered the competition after attending a workshop which consisted of architects around the world,” explains Feng Le. “The passion in the room was inspiring. We started looking into possible competitions to start learning and found Marvin Windows. The design brief appealed to our individual expertise, and we knew that this was a competition that we would thoroughly enjoy.”

“This win means a lot to us as individual designers, and as a team,” he continues. “This achievement confirms our dreams to be reality. With this win, we are hoping that our individual skills, and determination to succeed become clear to the architecture world, as we continue exploring our young careers.”   

A pair of Daniels Faculty alumni recently received an honorable mention from Eleven Magazine’s “Shaking Up Havana’s Malecon” design competition.

The competition posed a unique challenge: to re-imagine Cuba’s iconic Malecon esplanade road, which runs alongside Havana for five miles, serving as both a key piece of traffic infrastructure and vital defense against flooding.

Participants were required to consider the following priorities in their proposals: “protection in the form of a renewed sea defence, engagement in the form of new cultural social spaces along the Malecon, and identity in the form of resurrecting an old icon back to life and defining a new beginning for Havana in the 21st century.”

Master of Landscape Architecture graduates Xiru Chen (MLA 2012) and Stella Yuan Lin (MLA 2014) received an honourable mention for their submission “Malecon Rhapsody”.

The team explains their innovative and naturalistic approach to the challenge in the project summary: The MALECÓN RHAPSODY addresses Havana’s vulnerability to coastal flooding with a protective ribbon along Malecón. The 8 km-long landscape infrastructure incorporates public space with the storm and wave surge defense systems. This also creates architectural elements, amenities, energy generation stations, and food production hubs that provide the locally needed cultural, recreational, and socio-economic benefits.

Xiru Chen says that their interest in the project resulted from a meaningful trip to visit Cuba. “We were both fascinated by the colorful landscape, passionate culture and complex history of Cuba,” she explains. “The scope of the competition, to create a renewed sea defence, and act as new cultural social spaces, is also very attractive to us.”

She further explains that the process of working on the project helped them to recall the broader thinking learned during their time at Daniels. “This process reminded us of the days when we spent late nights in school working on studio projects,” says Chen. “We both graduated years ago, and the fast pace of real practices rarely allows for deep design thinking. Working on the competition has reminded us of the essentiality of critical thinking in the design process. This award encourages us to remain curious and keep learning.”

Upon learning he was shortlisted for an Ontario Association of Art Galleries (OAAG) Award, Henry Heng Lu (MVS 2017) said he felt happy just to be nominated — he did not expect that he would actually win. After all, it is rare for a student-curated exhibition to receive Exhibition of the Year (Budget under $20,000 - Thematic).

“When it was announced that I won, I thought, ‘This is happening?’” he said. “I was so thrilled. The award is a great encouragement.”

Held last year at the Art Museum at the University of Toronto, Lu’s now award-winning exhibition Far and Near: the Distance(s) between Us was his final project in the Master of Visual Studies, Curatorial Studies program at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design. It is also the first student-curated exhibition at the Art Museum to receive an OAAG Exhibition of the Year Award. The show — which included a video screening, artist-talks with Karen Tam and Chih-Chien Wang, a public lecture with Ken Lum, and off-site projects at U of T’s John M. Kelly and E.J. Pratt Libraries — explored the work of Canadian artists of Chinese descent and narratives of Chinese Canadian culture.

“We are exceptionally proud of Henry Heng Lu and his well-deserved win at the OAAG Awards. The exhibition, Far and Near: the Distance(s) between Us, represents Henry’s Graduating Project for the MVS degree in Curatorial Studies and is an example of the extraordinary work that students are producing at the Art Museum. The award is wonderful acknowledgement of Henry’s passionate curatorial commitments to connect artists and communities across generations and diasporic backgrounds,” said Barbara Fischer, Director of the Daniels Faculty's Master of Visual Studies program in Curatorial Studies and Chief Curator of the Art Museum.

Lu says U of T’s Art Museum — one of the largest gallery spaces for art exhibitions and programming in Toronto — is a valuable resource for students.

“I owe a lot of thanks to my advisor Barbara Fischer for giving me the opportunity to do the show at the Art Museum and guiding me through the planning and execution processes for this project,” says Lu. “The rest of the Art Museum team was also pleasant to work with. I felt very supported.”

As an undergraduate student, Lu majored in Studio and Arts Management at U of T’s Scarborough campus. It was at that time, as an international student and newcomer to Canada, that he started exploring work created by Canadian artists of Chinese descent, questioning how Chinese art is defined, and wondering why it is usually presented in “cultural clusters.”

“Later on, I got very interested in what being Chinese means in Canada and how ‘Chinese’ identities are configured and fabricated and started my investigation,” he says. “Canadians of Chinese descent have been gradually taking up a bigger role in Canadian cultural dynamics but it seemed to me that artistic practitioners from this population didn’t often get themselves heard. I wanted to learn more about their experiences.”

The exhibition featured works by Alvis Choi aka Alvis Parsley, Chun Hua Catherine Dong, Gu Xiong, Will Kwan, Ho Tam, Ken Lum, Morris Lum, Ho Tam, Karen Tam, Chih-Chien Wang, Paul Wong, and Winnie Wu.

Lu is currently Artistic Director at the Modern Fuel Artist-Run Centre in Kingston, Ontario, as well as an independent curator and artist, whose projects were most recently presented at Trinity Square Video and Nuit Blanche Toronto. Together with Yanjing Winnie Wu (HBA 2016) he cofounded Call Again, an initiative “committed to creating space for contemporary diasporic artistic practices and to expanding the notion of Asian art in the context of North America and beyond.”

The annual OAAG Awards recognize exhibitions, publications, and programming in Ontario’s public art galleries. Art Museum Curator, Sarah Robayo Sheridan was also shortlisted for a 2018 OAAG Award for Short Text (Under 2,000 words) for Figures of Sleep. And though his was the first student-curated show at the Art Museum to win Exhibition of the Year at the OAAG Awards, Lu was not the first student to have his exhibition recognized by the Association: in 2015, Liora Bedford’s, MVS exhibition Image Coming Soon #1 received an honourable mention for Exhibition of the Year (Budget under $10,000).

“We are delighted for our colleagues in the Art Museum, and also for Henry,” said John Monahan, Warden of Hart House, where the Art Museum’s Justina M. Barnicke Gallery is located. “The fact that he won his award for his graduating exhibition in the Master of Curatorial Studies program at the Daniels Faculty only makes his success that much sweeter, for it reminds us, yet again, that the work of the Art Museum and Hart House makes an essential contribution to both the artistic and the academic life of this university.”

Lu says he was very fortunate to be a part of a cohort of amazing artists and curators at U of T. “The sense of community among us was very important to me,” he said recognizing Sandra Brewster (MVS 2017) among those who helped him figure out how to integrate his grad school experience with the broader art world. In addition to Fischer, he said Daniels Faculty instructors Lisa Steele, Kim Tomczak, Ed Pien, and Will Kwan also played an important role in helping him shape his work. “Looking back, the best part of my degree was when my ideas were challenged, and I had to actively brainstorm ways to respond and defend them.”

About the Art Museum at the University of Toronto
Comprised of the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery and the University of Toronto Art Centre, which are located just a few steps apart, the Art Museum at the University of Toronto is one of the largest gallery spaces for visual art exhibitions and programming in Toronto. Building on the two galleries’ distinguished histories, the Art Museum organizes and presents a year-round program of in-house and off-site exhibitions, as well as intensive curricular and educational events. Learn more at artmuseum.utoronto.ca

About the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design
The University of Toronto's John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design provides interdisciplinary training and research in architecture, art, landscape architecture, and urban design. Located in the heart of Toronto, the Daniels Faculty fosters a prominent community of students, scholars, and art and design professionals committed to initiating new modes of research and practice tuned to a changing planet and the evolving needs of society. Its mission is to educate students, prepare professionals, and cultivate scholars who will play a leading role in creating more culturally engaged, ecologically sustainable, socially just, and artfully conceived environments.