Associate Professor Pina Petricone’s Design Research Internship Program (DRIP) has received a LEAF Impact Grant from the University of Toronto’s Office of the Vice-Provost for Innovation in Undergraduate Teaching.

Unique across Canada, the Daniels Faculty’s undergraduate Architectural Studies program is rooted in a liberal-arts model that affords its students a depth and range uncommon among pre-professional undergrad programs. Recognizing the particular skillset for research, ideation and representation of the Faculty’s BAAS students was the first step in establishing DRIP as a new experiential learning course that partners with design professionals to offer a unique academic internship unburdened by practical requirements.

Images from left: At gh3*, DRIP Internship student Orly Sacke aided in the research and compilation of a “Concept Design Report” for the City of Edmonton; Hariri Pontarini DRIP Internship student Luca Patrick developed axonometric diagrams as a new standard for comparative dynamic drawings of several key HPA projects.

Launched by Petricone last summer, DRIP is designed to provide students with a critical educational experience outside the classroom/studio while undertaking design research projects enriched by the realities of professional practice. It exposes BAAS students to architectural design as a form of scholarly research and in turn exposes the rich community of professional design practitioners to the uniquely skilled students at U of T.

The initial DRIP undertaken last summer involved 13 local practitioners and 15 student interns. Key to the DRIP model is the definition of design research projects by host offices in advance of the internship, as well as a weekly seminar delivered by Petricone that both presents models of design research to students and allows interns to position their work in a larger disciplinary context.

Images from left: Denegri Bessai DRIP Internship student Giacomo D’Andrea developed prototype models to test spatial proportion for active studio projects; at KPMB, DRIP Internship student SongYuan Wang researched and documented performative wall assemblies based on Passive House Standards.

Images from left: LAMAS DRIP Internship student Nur Nuri catalogued available market siding components to then create customized facade configurations with standardized methods; Wayne Swadron Studios DRIP Internship student Joshua Frew analyzed and critically documented a collection of archived projects along parallel threads of architecture, interior design and landscape architecture.

DRIP’s first iteration saw internships that ranged broadly across research models. They included the research and design of Farrow Partners’ new publication, Constructing Health; analytical tracings and documentation such as those for KPMB, Teeple Architects and LGA/TUF LAB; modeling and diagramming research of the kind for Hariri Pontarini, Denegri Bessai and WZMH; creative and critical cataloguing projects such as those for LAMAS, ZAS Architects and Wayne Swadron Studios; and “proof of concept” re-presentation projects such as those for gh3*, ERA Architects and SvN Architects + Planners.

Images from left: Teeple Architects DRIP Internship student Priscilla Barker critically analyzed the changing status of the artifact and librarian in the 21st-century academic library; at SvN Architects + Planners, DRIP Internship student Gong Xingtian analyzed three structural scenarios for their comparative rates of carbon emissions.

The LEAF Impact Grant will fund the development and advancement of DRIP to allow this unique experiential learning opportunity to go from being available to only a dozen or so top students to being available to a large component of the Architectural Studies program. It will in turn instigate a critical enrichment of the undergraduate curriculum overall, setting a new model for design internships that takes full advantage of the wealth of design practitioners in the city of Toronto and eventually in other parts of the world.

Any practitioners interested in participating in DRIP this coming summer should contact Petricone at p.petricone@daniels.utoronto.ca. Students wishing to apply for the Summer 2023 program may do so before 11:59 p.m. on Monday, March 20 by clicking here.

Images from left: ERA Architects DRIP Internship student Sarah Janelle used QGIS software to identify and document sites of interest for potential intensification; ZAS Architects DRIP Internship student John Wu developed and documented 45 student-centred learning spaces that promote communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity.

Images from left: Farrow Partners DRIP Internship students Negar Mashoof and Najwan Farag developed research and graphic standards for the firm’s Constructing Health publication; for LGA Architects with TUF LAB, DRIP Internship student Callum Gauthier analyzed and documented typical yellowbelt typologies to define addition and renovation opportunities and techniques for Accessory Dwelling Units.

Banner image: DRIP Internship students Du Jiachen and Melody Ekbatani collaborated at WZMH on SPEEDSTAC, a new prefabricated “building block” for residential integral units that are spliced into place, graft new apartments onto old ones and save whole buildings from demolition. An early concept model of SPEEDSTAC is pictured on the homepage. Images courtesy of WZMH

The Daniels Faculty’s Adrian Phiffer (Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream) has been awarded a 2023 Architectural Education Award by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA). 

The award, in the category of Creative Achievement, recognizes Design Studio 2: Site, Matter, Ecology, and Indigenous Storywork, the second studio in the Faculty’s Master of Architecture core studios sequence. 

Developed in partnership with a team of Indigenous advisers, including the citizens of the Ho:dinösöni/Six Nations of the Grand River, Design Studio 2 encompasses two interconnected design projects interwoven with workshops illuminating Indigenous ways of being, ways of knowledge and traditional design practises.

The first project tasks students with imagining a new Haudenosaunee Centre of Excellence where the modest building currently housing the Woodland Cultural Centre sits in Brantford, while the second “advances the explorations from Project 1 at the scale of a building via the design of a Seedbank at Kayanase, on the Six Nations of the Grand River land.”

The syllabus was developed in collaboration with alumnus and co-instructor James Bird (Knowledge Keeper of the Dënesųlįné and Nêhiyawak Nations and a residential school survivor), the late Alfred Keye (Lead Faith Keeper at the Seneca Longhouse), Amos Key Jr. (Faith Keeper of the Longhouse at Six Nations of Grand River Territory and a member of the Daniels Faculty’s First Peoples Leadership Advisory Group), Janis Monture (Executive Director of the Woodland Cultural Centre) and Patricia Deadman (Curator at the Woodland Cultural Centre).

Other contributors to the course include Carole Smith (Administrative Team Lead, Kayanase Ecological Restoration Centre), Kerdo Deer (Cultural Coordinator, Kayanase Ecological Restoration Centre), Nina Hunt (Junior Botanist, Kayanase Ecological Restoration Centre), Erin Monture (CEO, Grand River Employment and Training Inc.) and Matthew Hickey (Partner at Two Row Architect).

In addition, Phiffer cites the “incredible support” offered by Wei-Han Vivian Lee, Director of the Faculty’s Master of Architecture program.

A “concrete response” to Answering the Call: Wecheehetowin, the University of Toronto’s follow-up to the report by Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Design Studio 2 specifically addresses Call to Action No. 17, which proposes the integration of “significant Indigenous curriculum content” in all of U of T’s divisions by 2025.

Among the stated course objectives are engaging with Indigenous worldviews, exploring the concept of relational accountability, and understanding the meaning of contextualizing and re-contextualizing.

“The final studio projects are developed in response to real site, program and cultural demands,” a course précis notes. “The results make an impact in the life of the community.”

Based in Washington, D.C., ACSA was founded in 1912 by 10 charter members and now represents more than 200 schools in the United States and Canada. 

Its Architectural Education Awards, handed out annually, are bestowed in a range of categories, with the Creative Achievement Awards recognizing specific initiatives in teaching, design, scholarship, research or service that advance architectural education.

Images 1 and 2: Design Studio 2 students conduct a site visit at Kayanase, on the Six Nations of the Grand River land, as part of their two-project coursework. The second project in the studio involved designing a seedbank for the site.

The Daniels Faculty’s Ted Kesik, Professor of Building Science, has been made a Fellow of the California-based Facade Tectonics Institute.

He was inducted into the FTI’s College of Fellows during the organization’s World Congress last month in Los Angeles.

Based at the University of Southern California School of Architecture, the FTI was established in 2015 with “the mission of carrying out progressive and broad-based research in building facade technology.”

In addition to its research activities, the Institute conducts a biennial World Congress and an annual series of Regional Forums. It also publishes the Facade Tectonics Journal and produces various publications ranging from technical guides and research reports to books addressing diverse areas of building facade technology.

According to the Institute, Professor Kesik’s induction “acknowledges over three decades of leadership in professional practice and building science education for the advancement of building enclosure design.”

Professor Kesik first became involved in the construction industry in 1974, and he continues to practice as a consulting engineer for leading architectural offices, forward-thinking enterprises and progressive government agencies. Among his numerous areas of research are building resilience and sustainability, high-performance buildings, life cycle assessment and building performance simulation.

It is with sadness, respect and tremendous gratitude that the Daniels Faculty reflects on the recent death and extraordinary life of alumnus and benefactor John H. Daniels (BArch, 1950; Hon LLD, 2011), who passed away on Saturday, October 22. 

An architect, developer, philanthropist and civic leader, Daniels had an immeasurable impact on the city of Toronto, on the University of Toronto, and on the Faculty, which has been forever transformed by the magnanimity and vision that he and his wife, Myrna Daniels, displayed over many years.

“The legacy of Mr. Daniels’ life will be felt for a very long time,” says Dean Juan Du. “His commitment to lifting communities around him, his dedication to excellence, and his optimism for the future are values that inspire and drive our school. John and Myrna’s generosity has contributed not only to the creation of the Faculty’s dynamic world-class hub at 1 Spadina Crescent, but to the lives and futures of the many who have passed and will pass through it. Our thoughts are with John and Myrna’s families, friends, and colleagues, and with the many people whose lives he has touched.”

Born in Poland in 1926, John H. Daniels immigrated to Canada when he was 12 years old, escaping Nazi oppression on the cusp of World War II. He later graduated from Toronto’s Central Technical School, addressing the rights and responsibilities of Canadian citizenship in the speech he made as class valedictorian. In 1949, while a student in the architecture program at the University of Toronto, he made his first foray into real estate development by co-founding Modern Age Construction. Though only intended as a summer building project to raise tuition money before he graduated in 1950, the work demonstrated Daniels’ entrepreneurial capacities and established the tenor of his future career. 

As CEO of the Cadillac Fairview Development Corporation, he later helped build such impressive properties as the Eaton Centre in Toronto and the Erin Mills community in Mississauga. In 1983, Daniels left Cadillac Fairview to start The Daniels Corporation, a company that would quickly become synonymous with vibrant communities, affordable housing, social infrastructure and architectural innovation. Responsible for countless Canadian residential developments, The Daniels Corporation also worked closely with government agencies to create thousands of not-for-profit rental units and to lower market barriers for first-time homebuyers. Among its many noteworthy projects, the company was instrumental in revitalizing the Regent Park neighbourhood, transforming it from a failed public housing estate into a vital, growing community at the centre of Toronto.

Beyond Daniels’ work as a developer, he was also a remarkable Toronto philanthropist. Together with Myrna, he invested in a broad number of causes and gave significantly to cultural, healthcare and academic institutions, changing the city for the better at every step.  

John and Myrna Daniels’ gifts to the Daniels Faculty through their Foundation are unprecedented, totalling more than $30 million and resulting in its gateway building at 1 Spadina Crescent, a host of new scholarships, and an expanded global reputation. 

In 2008, John and Myrna Daniels gave the University of Toronto a $14-million gift, the largest private donation ever given to a Canadian architecture school. In recognition, the Faculty was officially named the  John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design. The $14 million was designated to the capital renewal and expansion of the school (at that time located on College Street) and created an endowment and award program named The John and Myrna Daniels Scholars.

Gift to 1 Spadina Crescent Building Project 

The revitalized 1 Spadina Crescent site, to which John and Myrna Daniels contributed $10 million through their Foundation, opened in 2017.

In 2013, John and Myrna Daniels donated an additional $10 million through their Foundation to revitalize and expand an existing landmark building at 1 Spadina Crescent. Daniels Building, the Faculty’s new home, opened in November of 2017. Heralded in The Globe and Mail as “one of the best buildings in Canada of the past decade,” it has been awarded 30 international awards for its design so far. 

“John would joke that his favourite hobby was pouring concrete, an allusion to the more than 300 buildings he created during his lifetime,” says Richard Sommer, former dean of the Faculty and director of the Global Cities Institute. “In our case, John asked a deceptively simple question: How could he and Myrna help us make our school one of the best in the world, and in the process raise the prospects for young people from a broad section of society wanting to study architecture. The answer was Daniels Building, which speaks to John’s passion for architecture and cities. Together with the John and Myrna Daniels Scholars award fund and other financial-aid programs they support, they have created a unique place at 1 Spadina Crescent as well as the endowments that sustain many students who study there.” 

Former University of Toronto president David Naylor (standing in opening photo) joins John and Myrna Daniels for the design reveal of the future Daniels Building at 1 Spadina Crescent in June 2013. Mr. and Mrs. Daniels (in second photo) at the official opening of the Daniels Building in November 2017. U of T president Meric Gertler (at right in third photo) and Professor Ronald Daniels, president of Johns Hopkins University, take part with Mr. and Mrs. Daniels in the ribbon cutting ceremony at the Daniels Building opening.

The John and Myrna Daniels Scholars

To date, the endowment has provided 287 individual awards to 128 graduate students, many of whom are the first in their families to access post-secondary education.

John and Myrna Daniels pose with former Daniels Faculty dean Richard Sommer and a group of John and Myrna Daniels Scholars. (Photo by Yvonne Bambrick)

In 2013, John and Myrna Daniels Scholar Nicholas Gosselin addressed Mr. and Mrs. Daniels at a luncheon, noting: “You are influential city builders in Toronto and beyond. However, you also shape cities indirectly — through the unbelievable support you provide the University of Toronto and future professionals. Toronto is going through incredible change and, consequently, behaves as a laboratory for students to experiment with different ideas and concepts. Unfortunately, not all students can support themselves to participate in this endeavour. Your generous donation to U of T makes a world of difference for students and has personally made graduate school a possibility for me — thank you.” 

John and Myrna Daniels Scholar Devin Tepleski with Mr. Daniels.

In 2016, Scholar Devin Tepleski spoke about the impact of John and Myrna Daniels’ support at a celebration at the school, saying: “What excites me most about my studies in landscape architecture is the opportunity to work on solutions — answers to the questions I’ve been asking for the last five years since finishing an undergraduate degree in anthropology. What makes places matter to the people who live there? What is worth protecting?

“I have been extremely lucky to be able to travel with my work, firstly to Ghana, where I worked as an ethnohistorian and documentarian with communities displaced by a hydroelectric dam. From there I went on to spend four years working with Cree and Dene communities in northern Alberta and on a marine use study with Salish nations of southern Vancouver Island. I got to interview everyone from the wisest elder to the youngest schoolchild about what matters to them about the places they live.

“Such opportunities have continued in no small part due to the generosity of the Daniels. Over the course of the last year, it is clear to me that John and Myrna have been asking these same questions about the importance of community and place. We could all learn a lot from the answers they have no doubt reached over their years of community service and philanthropy. I am inspired by their genuine curiosity in others and commitment to making a difference in Toronto. I thank them wholeheartedly for all that they have done for me and those around me.” 

Mr. and Mrs. Daniels with John and Myrna Daniels Scholar Bahia Marks.

At an event in honour of John and Myrna Daniels in 2018, Scholar Bahia Marks thanked them for bringing everyone together and spoke about the opportunities she had had as an undergraduate in the U.S. and then as a Master of Architecture student at the Daniels Faculty: “When you are in the trenches of people’s lives in the projects of Brooklyn, you can see how the design of the projects and housing affects the lives of families and young people. You begin to see the direct impact of design on people's lives. It is this search for justice that led me to pursue architecture and choose the Daniels Faculty. In my research, I was really looking for a school that would allow me to learn the skills, attitudes and qualities of an architect, the role of housing in society, and about empowering youth to contribute to the betterment of their neighbourhoods.” 

The John and Myrna Daniels Foundation Opportunity Awards

In April 2018, the couple gave an additional $6 million, establishing The John and Myrna Daniels Foundation Opportunity Awards, an endowment prioritizing the financial need of undergraduate and graduate students within the Faculty.

On November 12, 2018, Mr. and Mrs. Daniels were hosted by University and Faculty leadership at a luncheon recognizing graduate-student beneficiaries of the John and Myrna Daniels Scholars award program.

“In a way, John Daniels never left his alma mater,” says David Palmer, U of T’s Vice-President, Advancement. “His giving at U of T was strongly tied to a desire for future generations of students to enjoy the education he had, to make Canada a global leader, and to share in his vision for sustainable, innovative architecture that is accessible to all. For that, we will be forever grateful.”

The Daniels Faculty’s Jane Wolff, Professor in Landscape Architecture, has been awarded this year’s Margolese National Design for Living Prize.

Awarded annually by the University of British Columbia’s School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, the honour recognizes a Canadian designer whose work and advocacy in the built environment addresses the pressing human and environmental challenges of our time, improving lives and communities in the process.

In its citation, the 2022 jury noted how Wolff’s “work on landscape literacy has had a significant impact on our collective understanding of critical environmental issues. Her human-centric tools of writing, hand drawing and public engagement reach a wide audience without compromising the complexity of the subject matter.”

“I am thrilled and honoured to be recognized by an organization focused on design as a means of addressing urgent, complicated questions about the places we live and the way we live in them,” says Wolff.

“The prize makes it possible to begin working right now in even more public, more collaborative ways — and that’s a chance to bring more people into the conversation.”

For Wolff, the past 12 months have been a banner year professionally. In addition to the Margolese Prize win, her recent book BAY LEXICON was awarded a 2022 John Brinckerhoff Jackson Book Prize, established by the Foundation for Landscape Studies and now administered by the University of Virginia’s Center for Cultural Landscapes.

This past spring, moreover, her Toronto Landscape Observatory, an interactive installation co-curated with Susan Schwartzenberg, was a highlight of this year’s Toronto Biennial of Art.

On October 3, Wolff will officially accept her Margolese Prize at a presentation and panel discussion in Vancouver. The ceremony will be held at the Robert H. Lee Alumni Centre on the UBC campus.

It has turned out to be an exciting summer for a pair of Daniels Faculty MVS students, each of whom have earned rare opportunities both in Canada and abroad to hone their talents and skills.  

To name just one of her accomplishments this season, Omolola Ajao, a Master of Visual Studies candidate in Studio Art, has been taking part in the Doc Accelerator program, a “bespoke private lab” run by the documentary-film organization HotDocs to foster the careers of emerging filmmakers. “Her films,” HotDocs says of Ajao, a Nigerian-Canadian who is one of 14 2022 fellows there, “waver and work within documentary and narrative, [revolving] around consciousness, temporality and spatiality.” 

The Doc Accelerator program will allow Ajao to undertake in-depth career workshops and engage with industry experts, promoting real-world skill development in the process. Her past documentary work has already been screened internationally and even garnered a Canadian Screen Award. She was also a 2021/22 fellow at TIFF. 

But that’s not all: In addition to participating in this year’s Doc Accelerator program, Ajao is the Daniels Faculty’s first-ever Flaherty Film Seminar Fellow. An intensive week-long “process of screening and exchange” that attracts some of documentary film’s best artists, curators and programmers, Flaherty describes itself as the world’s leading seminar for experimental moving image practice. This year — the fellowships’ 67th — the seminar was held from June 24 to July 1 both online and in person at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York. Ajao’s fellowship was supported by the Flaherty Film Seminar and the Canada Council for the Arts.  

And there’s more: Ajao’s itinerary this summer also includes a Hambige Center Artists’ Residency in Rabun Gap, Georgia, some 186 kilometres northeast of Atlanta. One of the first artist communities in the U.S., the Center was established by artist’s-model-turned-weaver Mary Hambidge in 1934 and has a distinguished history of supporting creative thinkers of all kinds through self-directed residency programs. Current residencies, which provide successful applicants with private studios, living spaces and meals, range from two to four weeks. Ajao is using hers to conduct research and production work on her forthcoming thesis project. 

Meanwhile, fellow Visual Studies student Atif Khan, MVS candidate in Curatorial Studies, is also venturing abroad. Through a biannual international-travel award administered by the Art Museum at the University of Toronto and Hart House, he’ll be taking in the 2022 Venice Biennale, which opened this year in April and closes in November, as well as a couple of Germany’s leading cultural events.  

Established by Reesa Greenberg, an internationally renowned scholar on museums and exhibition studies, the award bestowed on Khan recognizes academic excellence among Curatorial Studies students at the end of their first semester by supporting travel to Europe for study and research at the Venice Biennale.

In addition to visiting Venice, Khan is slated to attend both the 15th edition of contemporary-art exhibition documenta in Kassel and the 2022 Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art.

As part of his VIS1004 MVS internship requirements, he will also be conducting preparatory work on his 2023 thesis exhibition through a two-week research program with the National Archeif, the National Archives of the Netherlands.

Banner images: Master of Visual Studies students Omolola Ajao (left) and Atif Khan (right) are broadening their academic horizons this summer through artistic residencies and work-study trips.

Nicollo Abe, a fourth-year architecture student, has been recognized by the University of Toronto Libraries for his innovative research project on mobility and architecture, called “Architecture on Modern European Banknotes: In Search of Stability through Abstract Circulation.” 

Each year, U of T Libraries recognizes undergraduate students from various faculties with the Patricia and Peter Shannon Wilson Undergraduate Research Prize. This prize provides students writing a research essay or assignment with an opportunity to reflect on their information-seeking experience while showcasing their research skills beyond the classroom. Abe’s effective and innovative use of various university libraries’ information sources led to his recognition.  

Completed as part of the ARC451H: Mobility and Architecture course at the Daniels Faculty, Abe’s essay explores the cultural impact of currency imagery on architecture by focusing on the Euro banknotes of 1996. He considers how architecture performs as a vehicle of symbolic power and is utilized as a cultural technique that shapes national identities while maintaining global imaginaries. Figures and photographs guide readers as they go through 12 pages of content, concluding with a question concerning architecture’s role in the digital age. 
 
“What I learned throughout this information-seeking process,” Abe says, “was the value of images and photos [in both] the Eberhard Zeidler Library and U of T Libraries’ online database. Whether my primary or secondary sources were printed or digital, there were many times when I relied upon the images that are embedded in them. Perhaps this was due to the nature and scope of the research, but I found that photographs and illustrations are essential components in knowledge-making and research.”  

Abe’s sponsoring faculty member was Daniels Faculty Sessional Lecturer Ipek Mehmetoğlu, who worked closely with him throughout his research process. Abe was able to critically reflect, says Mehmetoğlu, “on the contribution of his sources to the development of his topic on European banknotes and architectural abstraction and mobility. His research proves his curiosity for innovation, self-reliability and good understanding and effective use of secondary and primary sources.”

As an undergraduate student, Abe was able to use the knowledge he acquired in his architecture program to contribute to an international discussion on imagery and architecture. His research can now be found on TSpace, U of T’s research repository, here.  

With files from a U of T News story by Larysa Woloszansky

Banner image: Daniels Faculty architecture student Nicollo Abe, winner of a 2022 Patricia and Peter Shannon Wilson Undergraduate Research Prize, is pictured second from left. The prize is given out by U of T Libraries annually to undergraduate essay writers who demonstrate superlative research skills.

Newly minted BAAS grad Jessie Pan’s research into the use of trees in building simulation has come full circle in a little over a year.

It started in May of 2021 when she won the NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award to study how better tree modelling could improve building designs. Flash forward 12 months and she will be presenting the fruits of her research, which include a framework for the creation of more dynamic tree models than typically used by designers, at the e-Sim conference in Ottawa on June 22.

“I am excited about the presentation,” says Pan, who received her Honours Bachelor of Arts in Architectural Studies degree on June 15. “It is a great honour to be presenting my first paper at my first conference.”

Titled Simulating the Impact of Deciduous Trees on Energy, Daylight and Visual Comfort: Impact Analysis and a Practical Framework for Implementation, the peer-reviewed paper that Pan will be presenting at eSim encompasses the research she undertook with Assistant Professor Alstan Jakubiec over the past year.

The current practice in building simulation, she notes, tends to use solid or simplified trees, disregarding their complex and fluctuating effects, especially when it comes deciduous varieties. 

“Deciduous trees are sophisticated due to tree phenology and leaf senescence that impact their foliage density and colour throughout the year,” Pan explains. “We created a framework for developing dynamic tree models that integrate temporal schedules of colour change, leaf drop and regrowth, as well as physical measurements of gap fractions.”

What she and Jakubiec discovered was that, “when compared to our detailed tree models,” there are “significant differences in lighting, heating and cooling loads when using simplified models…or no trees at all.”

More sophisticated tree modelling, in short, can quantifiably lead to better, more energy-efficient buildings.

The eSim Building Simulation Conference — organized by Carleton University, National Research Council Canada and Natural Resources Canada — is slated to be held at Carleton on June 22 and 23. The theme this year — the conference’s 12th — is Simulating Buildings for the New Normal, with a focus on “using building performance simulation to model and research indoor air quality and other strategies for mitigating risks related to transmission of infectious disease.”

Typically, some 200 delegates attend each conference, with more than 75 peer-reviewed papers presented. Pan is scheduled to present hers on the first day of the event.

In addition to receiving the NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award, Pan also won the 2021 Project StaSIO Summer Challenge, which was focused on the subjects of daylight and glare, for her graphics illustrating her findings.

She created the graphics using Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Excel, Grasshopper/Rhino and Python. The tools used in the simulation analysis were ClimateStudio, Radiance and Python.

The entire project was “my first exposure to academic research and I am very grateful for this experience with Professor Jakubiec,” Pan says. “This opportunity has jumpstarted my research interest, skillset and background, and I look forward to applying it all during my future graduate studies.”

Banner image: BAAS student Jessie Pan poses for a portrait after receiving an Academic Merit Award during the Daniels Faculty’s Graduation and Awards Celebration at 1 Spadina Crescent on June 14. (Photo by Sara Elhawash)

Assistant professor Bomani Khemet is the 2022 beneficiary of the Mayflower Research Fund, the research endowment established four years ago at the Daniels Faculty. 

An expert in building science and HVAC systems, Khemet will direct his grant, totalling $10,000, into his research on improving fresh-air circulation in multi-unit buildings, an issue that has taken on extra resonance in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Khemet’s specific area of focus is the feasibility in Canada of skip-stop and single-loaded corridors, designs that give building occupants greater control over indoor air quality. 

“As a new faculty member, this financial assistance helps me jumpstart my research exploration into how building air movement in the form of natural ventilation can impact various aspects of occupant comfort and building operations,” he says. 

“The first step of the research is to (1) create a comprehensive design catalogue of existing buildings using single-loaded and skip-stop treatments, and (2) understand the design barriers, financial barriers and regulatory barriers to implementing these design strategies in a Canadian context.” 

The Mayflower Research Fund was established by a generous donor in 2018 to encourage and stimulate research in the fields of architecture, landscape architecture and urban design, and allows for collaboration with other areas of the University when deemed appropriate. Since then, $10,000 has been given annually to three assistant professors in the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design: Fadi Masoud, Maria Yablonina and Alstan Jakubiec. Any faculty member with a full-time appointment at Daniels is eligible to apply.  

Khemet, who began teaching building science at Daniels in 2018, became a permanent member of the school as a tenured assistant professor in 2021. In addition to teaching building science and HVAC courses to undergraduate and graduate architecture students, he has conducted a number of groundbreaking studies during his time at the Faculty, including a large-scale analysis of airtightness in Canadian single-detached homes (his data was culled from a Natural Resources Canada survey of over 900,000 properties) and another on the airtightness of the Daniels Building at 1 Spadina Crescent itself. 

Khemet’s newly funded research into skip-stop and single-loaded corridors — a response to the fact that most of Canada’s mid- and high-rise residential buildings “use double-loaded corridor floor plans [that] prevent effective natural ventilation” — is in keeping with his interests in air quality, building performance and resilient design.  

The corridor designs he aims to catalogue and promote have also been cited as effective ways of combating the transmission of airborne viruses such as SARS and COVID-19.  

“Skip-stop and single-loaded designs are highly recommended as best practice for multi-unit residential buildings primarily due to the placement of operable windows on opposing facades,” Khemet said in his funding proposal. “Unfortunately, there is precious little information on the implementation of skip-stop and single-loaded corridors in multi-unit housing for Canadian climates.” 

Khemet’s research, which will be conducted with co-investigator Marianne Touchie, an assistant professor at U of T of civil engineering and of mechanical and industrial engineering, aims to remedy that. 

U of T's Marianne Touchie

In addition to creating a record of Canadian buildings that utilize skip-stop and single-loaded corridor designs and to cataloging any barriers to their incorporation, the research team aims to disseminate its findings through a variety of media, including public lectures, trade publications and academic journals.  

Two research assistants — Master of Architecture students — will be engaged to work on the project, in Fall 2022 and Fall 2023 respectively.  

Khemet and Touchie plan to have the research completed by 2024. 

Banner image: Assistant professor Bomani Khemet, who joined the Daniels Faculty in 2018, will apply his Mayflower Research Fund grant to researching how certain corridor designs might improve air circulation and quality in Canadian multi-unit buildings.

Acclaimed architect Douglas Cardinal, who served as the Daniels Faculty’s Frank O. Gehry Chair in 2020/21, has been awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree by the University of Toronto. 

Known for his longtime commitment to sustainable design and for such landmark buildings as the Canadian Museum of History, the 88-year-old received his degree during the spring Convocation ceremony for Daniels Faculty students. 

“I feel so honoured to be here,” Cardinal told the assembly in Convocation Hall on the morning of June 15, adding that he was also representing the Elders “who have taught me to live in harmony with the land and with each other.” 

Born in Calgary to a father of Blackfoot heritage and a German/Métis mother, Cardinal is one of the world’s most prominent Indigenous architects, although he didn’t fully embrace his Indigenous heritage until he was a young man and has eschewed describing his work simply as “Indigenous architecture.” 

“I never thought of expressing myself as an Indigenous architect,” Cardinal once told CBC Radio. “I thought of expressing myself as an organic architect that emphasized the beauty and vitality and richness of nature.” 

In addition to the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Cardinal’s body of work includes a number of iconic structures, from St. Mary’s Church in Red Deer, Alberta (designed very early in his career, it was featured on a Canada Post stamp in 2007) to the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. (completed between 1993 and 1998). 

In 2020/21, he served as the Frank O. Gehry International Visiting Chair in Architectural Design, an endowed chair that brings an internationally recognized architect to the Daniels Faculty each year. This spring, Cardinal returned to Daniels to serve as a reviewer and advisor during final thesis presentations. 

Over his long career, Cardinal has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the Governor General’s Award for Visual and Media Arts, a Gold Medal from the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, and a National Aboriginal Achievement Award. 

In 2018, he led a team of Indigenous architects and designers who represented Canada at the Venice Architecture Biennale, and he continues to design residential, institutional and industrial buildings. 

Cardinal has also been an influential voice for the dignity of Indigenous Peoples. 

With files from a U of T News story by Scott Anderson

Banner image: Honorary degree recipient Douglas Cardinal addresses the Daniels Faculty’s Class of 2022 at Convocation Hall on June 15. (Photo by Harry Choi)

Watch Douglas Cardinal's speech at Convocation Hall: