Associate Professor Aziza Chaouni was the subject of a recent BBC Outlook podcast episode that focused on her upbringing in Fez, Morocco and on her return years later as a recently trained architect on an epic journey across the Sahara Desert.

Chaouni was the first Moroccan to study architecture at Harvard University, where her thesis advisor and mentor, Hashim Sarkis, encouraged her to pursue a project close to home—one inspired by social responsibility to a community versus a starchitect’s vision for a monumental building. 

In the end, Chaouni set out to restore the heavily polluted river that runs through Fez's ancient medina—and found her true calling in the process.

Listen to the episode.

The graduate seminar Land Practices/Prácticas de la tierra (ARC3313) taught by Rafico Ruiz (Canadian Centre for Architecture) seeks to situate a range of ‘land practices’ to document how the land holds memories, marks and modes of orientation across subject positions that include humans, but also exceed our capacity to articulate relationships to land. 

Designers, artists and researchers from Indigenous, Afro-Colombian and other communities in Colombia will contribute to the seminar discussions.

Daniels students, faculty and staff are invited to tune in virtually on Mondays from 6-7:30 p.m.

February 10
Josefina Klinger Zúñiga with Pedro Aparicio-Llorente

Colombian environmentalist and community activist Josefina Klinger Zúñiga and Pedro Aparicio-Llorente, architect and founding principal of APLO, will discuss:

• Afro-Colombian land rights and knowledges
• Environmental activism and education in Nuqui, Chocó
• Pacific coast as Afro-Colombian homelands
• Building youth-based environmental knowledges  

Join online.

March 10
Gilma Mosquera with Pedro Aparicio-Llorente

Gilma Mosquera is an architect, teacher and researcher with a wide trajectory on the habitat of the Colombian Pacific and Afro-Colombian ways of creating domestic and urban spaces.   

Topics covered 

• Afro-Colombian-defined architecture on the Pacific Coast
• Community-based methods
• Afro-Colombian spatial knowledges
• Cultural memory and design 

Join online.

March 17
José de la Cruz with Pedro Aparicio-Llorente 

José de la Cruz is a community leader in Bojayá, Colombia. 

Topics covered 

• Bojayá as a site of violence and memory work
• Afro-Colombian commemoration and activism
• Land as a place of healing and repair
• Afro-Colombian land reparations  

Join online.

Images: 1) Mangrove, Jurubira. Courtesy of Pedro Aparicio 2) Payao, engraved drawing. Courtesy of Pedro Aparicio.

The Mass Timber Institute based at the Daniels Faculty is pleased to announce the publication of Historical Tall-Wood Toronto, an open-source digital document authored by Daniels alumnus Ross Beardsley Wood. 

Funded by the Institute, the Canadian Wood Council and Ontario WoodWorks, the publication features contributions by fellow alumnus Daniel Wong and a foreword by Professor Ted Kesik.

Historical Tall-Wood Toronto (the cover of which is pictured below) is an evidentiary database of late 19th and early 20th century vernacular brick and beam buildings that were built using the fire restrictive specifications and construction technology of Heavy Timber Mill-Construction (mill-construction) in Toronto. 

The research in the publication illustrates the urban trajectories of 42 select examples of mill-construction and analyzes patterns in their development to create a morphological index of this set of buildings.

The publication’s index provides a record of architectural, urban development and sociocultural information that defines this distinct urban-vernacular building typology.

To download the document, click here. For more information on the Mass Timber Institute, including other current projects, click here.

Collage in banner and on homepage by Ross Beardsley Wood

The next gathering of the Community for Belonging Reading Group will examine Scarcity: Exploring an Abundance of Creative Possibilities for Social Challenges inspired by the books—Field Notes on Scarcity, edited by Tosin Oshinowo and Julie Cirelli, and Scarcity: A History from the Origins of Capitalism to the Climate Crisis, by Frederick Albritton Jonsson and Carl Wennerlind. 

All Daniels Faculty community members are invited to participate in an abundance of conversation about innovative, inspiring and ingenious strategies to address climate change and economics.  

Date: Friday, February 7 
Time: 12:30-2:00 p.m. 
Location: Eberhard Zeidler Library 
Register in advance. 

Oshinowo, a Lagos-based Nigerian architect and the co-editor of Field Notes on Scarcity, will participate in the conversation following her public lecture at the Daniels Faculty titled “An Alternative Urbanism: The Culture of Self-organising Systems.” 

Published in conjunction with the 2023 Sharjah Architecture Triennial, Field Notes on Scarcity examines what scarcity looks like on the ground, and the challenges and opportunities it presents across architecture and design. Sixty scholars and practitioners from across the Global South—including Lesley Lokko, Yinka Shonibare, Formafantasma, Rahul Mehrotra, Olalekan Jeyifous, Abeer Seikaly, Ilze and Heinrich Wolff, Chitra Vishwanath, and Deema Assaf—contribute reflections, poems, visual essays, and dialogues exploring what scarcity represents, what it inspires, and what it reveals.  

The second text, Scarcity: A History from the Origins of Capitalism to the Climate Crisis, presents “a sweeping intellectual history of the concept of economic scarcity—its development across five hundred years of European thought and its decisive role in fostering the climate crisis.” 

Limited copies of the books will be available for free on a first-come, first-served basis in the Eberhard Zeidler Library beginning Thursday, January 16.  

The Community for Belonging Reading Group is sponsored by U of T Affinity Partners, Manulife and TD Insurance. 

The Daniels Faculty is pleased to announce that Associate Professor Brady Peters has been appointed Associate Dean, Academic (ADA). His three-year term began on January 1. 

Dr. Peters, who joined the Faculty in 2013, succeeds Associate Professor Jeannie Kim, who had served as ADA since January 1, 2022.  

Over his time at Daniels, Dr. Peters “has developed a growing understanding of many areas of our Faculty and an increasing appreciation for the complexities of our interdisciplinarity,” says Acting Dean Robert Levit. “His research, moreover, spans both artistic practice and scientific exploration, giving him a sensitivity to the requirements of managing our wide range of programs.”

Prior to joining the Faculty, Dr. Peters was an Associate Partner at Foster + Partners, where he helped lead the office’s Specialist Modelling Group (SMG), its internal research and development consultancy. 

He was also a Director, from 2013 to 2024, of Smartgeometry, an international, not-for-profit organization that promoted innovation and new technology in the architecture, engineering and construction industries. 

Before acquiring his PhD in Architecture from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts School of Architecture in 2015, Dr. Peters graduated from Dalhousie University with a Bachelor of Environmental Design degree (1999) and a Master of Architecture degree (2001). 

He also holds a Bachelor of Science degree (1997) from the University of Victoria.

Since arriving at Daniels, Dr. Peters has secured funding from a variety of sources, including the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI), the Data Sciences Institute (DSI), the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Mass Timber Institute.

Among his areas of research are digital fabrication and material investigation, computation and simulation.

Peters portrait by Richard Ashman

The John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto is excited to present its Winter 2025 Public Program. 

This semester’s program highlights the work of leading global thinkers and practitioners who are shaping the future of our built and natural environments. Through a dynamic series of lectures, book talks, discussions and more, they’ll explore such themes as extractivism, scarcity, landscape heritage and mosques as sites of contemporary architectural innovation, examining the role of our disciplines in addressing urgent challenges at home and across the globe.  

From the evolving relationship between the built world and the natural one to the ways in which architecture can foster social and environmental innovation, the Daniels Faculty’s Winter 2025 Public Program aims to provoke dialogue across timelines and geographies. 

All events in the series are free and open to the public. Register in advance and consult the calendar for up-to-date details here. Many events will be live-streamed and available on the Daniels Faculty’s YouTube channel. 

Register

January 23, 6:30 p.m.  
The Dominion of Flowers: North American Book Launch 
Featuring Mark Laird (Daniels Faculty, University of Toronto) in conversation with Therese O’Malley 

January 30, 6:30 p.m. 
The Legacy of Claude Cormier: Film Screening & Panel Discussion 
This event is being held as part of DesignTO Festival 2025 and in partnership with the Toronto Society of Architects, The Cultural Landscape Foundation and the University of Toronto’s John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design. 

February 6, 6:30 p.m.  
An Alternative Urbanism: The Culture of Self-organising Systems 
Featuring Tosin Oshinowo (Studio Oshinowo) 

February 7, 6:00 p.m. 
Lewerentz Divine Darkness: Film Screening 
Featuring Sven Blume, Director 

February 11, 6:30 p.m.  
Common Mud and Flooded Pits 
MVS Proseminar Artist Talk
Featuring Cooking Sections 

February 13-14 
Mosque Architecture Now: Public Spaces for Social, Technical & Environmental Innovation 
Organized by Aziza Chaouni (Daniels Faculty, University of Toronto) and Ruba Kana’an (University of Toronto)
This event has been cancelled. 

March 6, 6:30 p.m.  
‘One clover, and a bee’ 
Featuring Shirley Blumberg (KPMB Architects) 

March 13, 6:30 p.m. 
NEW EVENT It is about time
Featuring Stefano Pujatti (ELASTICOFarm)

Jeffrey Cook Memorial Lecture: A Measure of Architecture
Featuring Amin Taha (GROUPWORK), Pierre Bidaud (The Stonemasonry Company) and Steve Webb (Webb Yates) 
This event has been postponed until Fall 2025.

March 20, 6:30 p.m. 
Placeknowing
Featuring Theodore Jojola (University of New Mexico) 

Friday, December 6 to Thursday, December 19
Daniels Building
1 Spadina Crescent

Whether you're a future student, an alum or a member of the public with an interest in architecture, forestry, landscape architecture or urban design—you're invited to join the Daniels Faculty for Fall 2024 Reviews. Throughout December, students from across our graduate and undergraduate programs will present final projects to their instructors and guest critics from academia and the professional community. 

All reviews will take place in the Daniels Building at 1 Spadina Crescent from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. (unless otherwise stated). Follow @uoftdaniels on social media and join the conversation using the hashtags #danielsreviews and #danielsreviews24. 

Please note that times and dates are subject to change. 

Current students should reference the Final Examinations & Reviews schedule for more information.

Friday, December 6 | Undergraduate  

Drawing and Representation I  
ARC100 
Coordinator: James Macgillivray 
Instructors: Lara Hassani, Adrian Phiffer, Zachary Mollica, Brandon Bergem, Anne Ma, Niloufar Jalal-Zadeh, Matthew De Santis, Mariano Martellacci, Kyle O'Brien, Phat Le, Ji Hee Kim, Katy Chey 
Rooms: Main Hall (170A, 170B), 215, 230, 240, 315, 330 

Monday, December 9 | Undergraduate 

9:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. 
Drawing and Representation II  
ARC200 
Coordinator: Roberto Damiani
Instructors: Michael Piper, Maria Denegri, Reza Moghaddamnik, Jon Cummings, Nova Tayona, Karen Kubey, Jeffrey Garcia, Erica Kim 
Rooms: Main Hall (170A, 170B, 170C), 215, 230, 240, 315, 340 

Landscape Architecture Studio III  
ARC363 
Instructor: Behnaz Assadi  
Room: 330 

Tuesday, December 10 | Graduate and Undergraduate 

Capstone Project in Forest Conservation  
FOR3008 
Instructor: Catherine Edwards  
Room: 200  
View detailed schedule.

9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. 
Design Studio II 
ARC201 
Coordinator: Miles Gertler 
Instructors: Shane Williamson, Jon Cummings 
Rooms: 230, 240, 315 

Architecture Studio III 
ARC361 
Coordinator: Adrian Phiffer 
Instructors: David Verbeek, Carol Moukheiber  
Rooms: Main Hall (170C), 215, 230, 330, second-floor hallway 

Technology Studio III 
ARC380 
Instructors: Maria Yablonina (Coordinator), Nicholas Hoban 
Room: Main Hall (170A, 170B) 

Wednesday, December 11 | Graduate 

Capstone Project in Forest Conservation  
FOR3008 
Instructor: Catherine Edwards  
Room: 200  
View detailed schedule.

Design Studio I  
ARC1011 
Coordinator: Chris Cornecelli  
Instructors: Anne-Marie Armstrong, Shane Williamson, Kara Verbeek, Julia Di Castri, Mahsa Malek 
Rooms: Main Hall (170A, 170B, 170C) 

Design Studio I 
LAN1011 
Coordinators: Alissa North, Peter North 
Instructor: Reinaldo Jordan  
Room: 230 

Thursday, December 12 | Graduate  

Design Studio 3: Integrated Urbanism Studio 
ARC2013/LAN2013/URD1011 
Coordinators: Mauricio Quiros Pacheco, Fadi Masoud, Roberto Damiani 
Instructors: Samantha Eby, Chloe Town, Laurence Holland, Christos Marcopoulos, Mariana Leguia Alegria, David Verbeek, Robert Wright 
Rooms: Main Hall (170A, 170B, 170C), 230 

Friday, December 13 | Graduate 

Design Studio 3: Integrated Urbanism Studio 
ARC2013/LAN2013/URD1011
Coordinators: Mauricio Quiros Pacheco, Fadi Masoud, Roberto Damiani 
Instructors: Samantha Eby, Chloe Town, Laurence Holland, Christos Marcopoulos, Mariana Leguia Alegria, David Verbeek, Robert Wright 
Rooms: Main Hall (170A, 170B, 170C), 230 

Post-Professional Thesis
ALA4021
Coordinator: Mason White
Instructors: Noheir Elgendy, Miles Gertler, Carol Moukheiber, Christos Marcopolous
Room: 242

Monday, December 16 | Undergraduate 

Undergraduate Thesis 

Senior Seminar in History and Theory (Research)  
ARC456 
Instructor: Simon Rabyniuk 
Room: Main Hall (170A), 240, 242 

Senior Seminar in Design (Research)  
ARC461 
Instructor: Jeannie Kim  
Room: Main Hall (170B), first-floor hallway  

Senior Seminar in Technology (Research)  
ARC486 
Instructor: Nicholas Hoban  
Room: Main Hall (170C) 

Comprehensive Studio III 
ARC369 
Instructors: Daniel Briker (Coordinator), Joshua Kirk 
Rooms: 230, 330 

Tuesday, December 17 | Undergraduate 

Undergraduate Thesis 

Senior Seminar in History and Theory (Research)  
ARC456 
Instructor: Simon Rabyniuk 
Room: Main Hall (170A), 240, 242  

Senior Seminar in Design (Research)  
ARC461 
Instructor: Jeannie Kim  
Room: Main Hall (170B), first-floor hallway  

Senior Seminar in Technology (Research)  
ARC486 
Instructor: Nicholas Hoban  
Room: Main Hall (170C)  

Wednesday, December 18 | Graduate 

Fall 2024 Option Studios 
ARC3015/LAN3016/URD2013 

platform:MIDDLE  
Instructor: Johanna Hurme 
Rooms: 340, 315 

Expanding Heritage: Imagining Climate Resilient and Inclusive Futures for Stone Town/Ng’ambo 
Instructor: Aziza Chaouni 
Rooms: 240, 242, Student Commons 

The Blurst of Times: Exploring AI’s Creative Potential in Architectural Design  
Instructor: Vivian Lee 
Rooms: 215, 209 

Big Little Village 
Instructors: Florian Idenburg, Jing Liu 
Rooms: Main Hall (170A/170B) 

SEEDS + WEEDS: The Knotty Natures of Botanic Gardens  
Instructor: Karen M’Closkey 
Room: 230 

New (High-Density) Neighbourhoods with “Old City Charm”  
Instructor: Misha Bereznyak 
Room: 330 

Thursday, December 19 | Graduate 

Fall 2024 Option Studios 
ARC3015/LAN3016 

Architecture, Community, and Cultural Memory  
Instructor: Tura Cousins Wilson, Shane Laptiste 
Rooms: 315, 340
Off-campus location: 468 Queen St West

Impersonation: Being a Child 
Instructor: Eiri Ota 
Room: 230 

Entanglement: Human, AI, and Digital Fabrication 
Instructor: Humbi Song 
Rooms: 215, 209 

Plant Diaspora 
Instructor: Behnaz Assadi  
Rooms: Main Hall (170A, 170B) 

(Ex) Base Scape: The Architecture of (Ex) Extra Territories
Instructor: Nahyun Hwang 
Rooms: 330 

Master of Forest Conservation (MFC) Capstone Presentations will take place Tuesday, December 10 and Wednesday, December 11 at the Daniels Building (DA200). Interested viewers are invited to join in person or watch virtually.

The Capstone Project in Forest Conservation is the final stage of the 16-month MFC program. Projects are typically based on a student’s summer internship in consultation with a faculty supervisor who serves as a content expert. 

During the December presentations students deliver a public seminar of their work, including an oral defense of their final report, which the faculty supervisor and an external examiner from the host organization evaluate. This year’s presentation topics range from a case study on biochar use in rural Costa Rica and a cost-benefit analysis of private land tree planting to a market assessment of cross-laminated timber in Ontario.

View the detailed schedule and Zoom links on the Daniels Faculty’s Forestry website.

Select presentations will be available on the Faculty’s YouTube channel in February.

Volume 1 of Scaffold* Journal, created and published by the student-run SHIFT* Collective, has been released. 

It’s the first print edition of the rebooted publication, which evolved out Shift Magazine, a previous Daniels publication.

Shift Magazine, an undergraduate risograph journal, was released nine times between 2014 and 2019. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic shut down all Shift operations until 2022, when they were revived by the members of the SHIFT* Collective. 

Since 2022, the collective has published four additional risograph zines while planning the reimagined Scaffold* Journal. Its members consist of students from across all years and programs within the Daniels undergraduate cohort.

“Our current team created Scaffold* in response to a gap that we had perceived in access to research within our academic context,” says the collective. “All of the research we had seen was perfect, it was pedestaled, and we wanted to provide a clearer path through which students could pitch themselves into the pits of scholarship.” 

Their goal with the new publication, team members add, was “a process-oriented research journal platforming the work of emerging scholars in disciplines of the built environment.” To that end, the editing team met “prolifically” with student contributors and faculty advisers “to understand their practices and our responsibility in representing them.”

Volume 1 of the journal, whose contributions include students and faculty members across programs, contains “a multitude of disparate perspectives that all fall under the constructed-environment umbrella.” According to its creators, the edition explores methodologies ranging from collage and board gaming to junk appropriation and speculative fabulation.

“Scaffold* only attempts to represent the diversity of work that goes on within disciplines of architecture, art and the built environment. Ultimately, it is a testimony to what we, as a community within the Daniels Faculty and beyond, have learned and continue to learn from each other.”

With the first print edition of Scaffold* now complete, the SHIFT* Collective is already at work on Volume 2, submissions for which “will open soon.”

Print copies of Volume 1 are currently available for purchase at Cafe 059 in the Daniels Building at 1 Spadina Crescent. A digital version can also be accessed at theshiftcollective.net.

Above: Contributors and faculty recently joined members of the SHIFT* Collective to mark the launch of Scaffold* Journal’s first print edition. Scaffold* is a new iteration of Shift Magazine, a previous Daniels publication.

For the second year in a row, an international array of architects has put pen to paper (or fingertips to mouse) in aid of Drawing for Food, an initiative supporting an organization that assists individuals facing poverty, food insecurity and homelessness in downtown Toronto.

Proceeds from the sale of their drawings, which are being auctioned off online, will go to the Toronto Food Not Bombs food outreach program. Every Sunday for the past several years, Toronto FnB volunteers have been gathering in the city’s Allan Gardens park to dispense around 150 to 250 bags of groceries and meals to those affected by poverty, homelessness or food scarcity. 

In 2023, Drawing for Food raised over $7,000 for food and groceries. The initiative is organized by Stephanie Davidson and Georg Rafailidis (DAVIDSON RAFAILIDIS/Knowlton School), Eira Roberts (MArch I, Harvard GSD) and the Daniels Faculty’s Adrian Phiffer (Office of Adrian Phiffer/University of Toronto).

A broader aim of the initiative, say the organizers, is to explore ways that architectural drawings can be used for public good.

As in 2023, this year’s selection of drawings is broad and includes contributions by an international group of designers, including Alvaro Siza of Portugal, BUREAU of Portugal and Switzerland, Valerie Marshall of Finland and Canada, Doris Thut of Germany, Jean-Benoît Vétillard of France and Ryan Tyler Martinez, Andrew Kovacs and Outpost Office of the U.S., among others. 

Interested buyers can peruse the drawings on Drawing for Food’s auction website, which is now live. Bidding will open on December 1 and end on December 8. 

After the 8th, top bidders will be contacted via e-mail and asked to donate their bid amounts directly to the organization using an online donation portal. Donors will then ship the drawings to buyers. 

Drawing for Food will act as a go-between throughout, hosting the auction site, taking any questions from bidders, and verifying that bids have been donated so that tax receipts may be issued.

To learn more about Toronto Food Not Bombs, visit tfnb.ca.

Drawings in banner by 1. Jean-Benoît Vétillard 2. Outpost Office 3. Ryan Tyler Martinez 4. Valerie Marshall 5. Alvaro Siza 6. Andrew Kovacs 7. BUREAU 8. Doris Thut