Alumnus Ben Watt-Meyer (MLA 2012) will be launching a new solo exhibit titled A New Archaeology for the Leslie Street Spit on March 3^rd at the Enoch Turner Schoolhouse. The exhibit is based on a previous installation Watt-Meyer created for the 2015 Gladstone Grow-Op, where it won the Jury's Choice Award and the Ontario Association of Landscape Architects / GROUND Magazine Award. This new series is a collaboration with the Friends of the Spit, and is part of the inaugural Myseum Intersections festival launched by the Myseum of Toronto. 

From the Myseum of Toronto website:

"Toronto’s largest constructed breakwater is literally built of rubble from the demolished walls of its lost architectural heritage. To see this place as a burial ground provides a moment to mourn our losses. Yet to celebrate it as the material evidence of Toronto’s dramatic post-war urban reconstruction is an opportunity to rediscover the transformation of lake fill into a landscape. Putting together historical records of demolished buildings with maps of the yearly growth of the spit, the project hypothesizes the resting place of some of the city’s lost structures. Next, the geographic origins of the rubble are identified, tracing the material cycle of Toronto’s brick and building stone from quarry to city and back to landscape."

The exhibit will be on display March 3 to 13, Thursday to Sunday from 12:00PM to 6:00PM.

Opening reception: March 3, 7:00PM – 9:00PM

Artist talk: March 12, 2:00PM

For more information, visit: http://myseumoftoronto.com/event/new-archaeology-leslie-street-spit

Daniels alumnus Sywa Sung (BArch 1994) was featured in the February 2016 edition of Air-Canada's inflight-magazine enRoute as part of its monthly "Leaders of the Pack" series, which profiles Canadian business travelers — and what they pack in their carry-on luggage.

After graduating from Daniels in 1994, Sung went on to expand his career in experiential design. He has created themed attractions all over the world and served as creative director for the 20th Century Fox World theme park set to open in Malaysia later this year, and Dubai in the near future. Sung has also provided creative direction and brand stewardship for Fox's Aliens vs. Predator franchises' massive themed Halloween maze experiences at both Universal Studios Hollywood and Orlando theme parks which debuted in 2014 to great success.

From the article by Caitlin Walsh Miller:

How did you get into this field?

I wanted to design in ways that you don’t get to as a traditional architect. One day, I was reading about Star Trek: The experience, a new attraction in Las Vegas. I light bulb went off: I realized you needed to draw and design for that kind of attraction - you needed an architect.

Sung's background in architecture and his connection to University of Toronto are highlighted in the conents of his carry-on, which include a custom-made U of T letterman jacket, a set square and scales, and the very same mechanical pencil he's been using since his days at Daniels.

Sungs profile can be found on page 38 & 39 of the February issue.

Williamson Chong, the architecture firm founded by Daniels Associate Professor Shane Williamson, his partner Betsy Williamson, and Daniels Alumnus Donald Chong (BArch 1994), was featured earlier this month in Architectural Record. The firm, which was established in 2011, has developed a design strategy that involves identitfying the latent value in less desirable urban spaces. Called "incremental urbanism," they use it as a guiding principle in many of their projects. In another unique approach contemporary urban living, the firm is exploring multigenerational living in a number of their residential projects.

Williamson Chong is further investigating innovative urban solutions by exploring wood technologies and computational design.

“Our architectural projects reflect the changing trajectories of cities,” Chong tells Architectural Record. “Toronto makes it easy for us, because people here are willing to try out new ways of living.”

Related:

• Williamson Chong Architects featured in the June issue of Metropolis Magazine
• Williamson Chong Architect's Howland Avenue Residence featured in Design Lines
• Williamson Chong Architects receives a 2014 Emerging Voices Award
• Williamson Chong Architects wins the Professional Prix de Rome in Architecture
• Professor Shane Williamson and Williamson Chong Architects receive a 2011 Wood WORKS! Award for House in Frogs Hollow
• Shane Williamson featured in the Globe and Mail

A recent article in the Globe and Mail explored how rapidly rising housing prices in the city are affecting not only young adults struggling to enter the housing market, but also residents approaching retirement who are looking to downsize.

According to some Toronto architects, there is a simple solution: rethink the family home to suit several generations. The growing group of local architects and firms taking a multigenerational approach includes Daniels aulumni Janna Levitt (BArch 1986), Dean Goodman (BArch 1983), Lloyd Alter (BArch 1976), and Williamson Chong Architects, firm of alumnus Donald Chong (BArch 1994), Associate Professor Shane Williamson and Betsy Williamson.

Not wanting to move into an apartment or to leave their familiar neighbourhood, Alter and his wife have taken a creative approach to the architecture of the empty nest. "We're going into a generational change where the kids don't have enough money, and the parents have the house and don't need it," Alter told The Globe and Mail.  With that in mind, they chose to divide their house, which they've inhabited since 1984, into a duplex with one unit for themselves to occupy and the other for their daughter and her fiancé.

That adaptability can be built into the architecture of a new house, according to Williamson Chong. Their Grange Triple Double house, which was also recently profiled in the Architectural Record, was built for a three-generational family and designed to adapt as the owners' needs evolve. "The ingredients for this kind of house," partner Betsy Williamson tells The Globe and Mail, "are spaces that are discrete yet flixible."

With the same goal of adapatability in mind, Levitt and Goodman designed their own home a decade ago, when their children were still teenagers. The foresight to design a private area for their children has turned into an opportunity to rent that space out now that their children have all moved out.

The soultion comes down to good design: "It's important to think about what you're building for," Goodman tells The Globe and Mail, "not just right now, but in the longer term."

Related:

• Multigenerational home designed by Williamson Chong Architects featured in Metropolis magazine

Sessional lecturer Rodney LaTourelle and partner Louise Witthöft — of the firm Witthöft & LaTourelle — were recently interviewed by Detail Magazine about the application of colour to architectural spaces.

“Colour interacts with the material; it interacts with the body of a material in space. Colour can expand the space, it can structure or differentiate the space,” LaTourelle told Detail. 

LaTourelle is an artist, architect, and writer. He recently launched a solo exhibition The Stepped Form last September at the MacKenzie Art Gallery in Regina. The installation was part of his spring 2014 artist-in-residency at the Alberta College of Art & Design's Illingworth Kerr Gallery.

From the MacKenzie Art Gallery website:

"LaTourelle explores the ways in which institutional structures are constructive of social relationships and meaning.  This encompasses the often subtle—at times nearly invisible—means by which the built environment influences the ways we interact with each other, and the world around us. In the wake of heightened global security concerns, the built environment is increasingly controlled and controlling—utilizing means of design in lieu of overt forms such as policing—and public space is subsumed by private space or new forms of “private-public” space."

The exhibit will be on display until April 24, 2016. For more information, visit The Mackenzie Art Gallery's website.

Earlier this year, the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) announced Monica Adair (MArch 2005) as the recipient of the 2015 Young Architect Award. This award recognizes a young architect for excellence in design, leadership, and service to the profession.

Adair is the co-founder of Acre Architects along with Stephen Kopp (MArch 2005). The firm believes in “the importance of creating our own stories,” and “how the power of the story can convey strong and deep-felt emotions that are key to the structure that form our lives.” In addition to her professional work, Adair has held multiple teaching posts including an Instructor position in History of Canadian Architecture at the St. Thomas University Fredericton, and the Gerald Sheff Visiting Professorship in Architecture at McGill University. She has also served on the New Brunswick Arts Board, and currently sits on the Saint John Waterfront Development Board.

“In choosing Adair, the five-member jury cited the consistent quality of her project work, commitment to her hometown and her work in the arts community,” writes the 2015 Young Architect Award jury. “They also recognized her teaching, advocacy, and contribution to regional collaboration in Atlantic Canada.”

Started in 2011, the RAIC bestows the Young Architect Award to one recipient every year. Adair received her award at the RAIC/AAA Festival of Architecture, which took place in Calgary, June 3rd to 6th. Previous winners include past sessional lecturer Taymoore Balbaa, and Lola Sheppard (Lateral Office co-founder). 

Related:

• Canadian Builders Quarterly features 23-page-spread on the Daniels Faculty and alumni
• Daniels sessional lecturer Taymoore Balbaa wins Young Architect Award
• Williamson Chong Architects named the recipient of RAIC's 2014 Emerging Architectural Practice Award
• George Baird recipient of 2010 RAIC Gold Medal
• Team North receives RAIC award | Innovation in Architecture

Last fall Dean Richard Sommer spoke to U of T News writer Brianna Goldberg about regional transit, the commuter experience and the urban-suburban divide. A portion of the interview, which was featured on U of T’s Cities Podcast, was recently published in U of T Magazine.

“For many Torontonians, the daily commute is a spirit-crusher,” reads to introduction to the Q&A, “but what if it could enrich your life instead?”

Sommer argues that when the debate around transit is narrowly focused on how to simply move people from A to B, we often “fail to ask questions about the overall network experience we are trying to build, who we’re building it for, and what the bigger picture looks like.” In other words how does our transit system affect our quality of life?

The interview also discusses the book Huburbs, which the Daniels Faculty published in partnership with Metrolinx, the provincial agency that helps coordinate transportation infrastructure in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area.

“Huburbs looks at the inconvenient-to-access and often-ugly transit hubs in the outer GTA,” explains Sommer. “It uses complex documentation analysis and visually sophisticated models to explore how these hubs could be lively and enriching, instead of barren platforms surrounded by parking lots and vacant space.”

On the urban-suburban divide, Sommer argues it’s not always helpful to label one place a suburb and another a city. “It really has to do with the level of maturation of the geography in question,” he says. “It’s all urbanization, and some of the most interesting and diverse areas, culturally, are in what some think of as a suburb.”

For the full Q&A, visit the U of T Magazine website.

Related:

• Professor Liat Margolis and Dean Richard Sommer featured in new U of T Cities podcast series
• John Lorinc reviews the Daniels Faculty's new book: Huburbs
   

Associate Professor Mason White’s firm, Lateral Office, has received a number of awards for its work in the arctic — including the inaugural Arctic Inspiration Prize and a special mention from the jury at the 2014 Venice Biennale for the exhibition "Arctic Adapations: Nunavut at 15." This week, Mason White and his partner Lola Sheppard were profiled in the Globe and Mail among other architects who are working to address the needs of the north.

The article outlines the growth taking place in many northern communities: Iqaluit, where White has worked, for example, has seen its population more than double since becoming Nunavut’s capital in 1999.

White explained to the Globe’s Matthew Hague, “Typically, people in Iqaluit have been told, ‘Here’s the plan,’ without being consulted...There might be a fear of innovation. Because in the past, innovation may have done bad things."

“But there are other forms of innovation,” says White, “that are based on collaboration and intelligent, informed knowledge-sharing.”

Writes Hague:

One of their design proposals, envisioned after extensive travel and consultation throughout the Arctic, is a series of beautifully articulated trading huts and food storage sheds, collectively called the Arctic Food Network. The buildings would be lashed together like snow sleds, and take advantage of snow-pack walls that insulate in the winter and melt for better ventilation in the summer. But they would be strategically placed to take advantage of a food distribution strategy that largely relies on snowmobiles to reallocate hunted meat between various communities.

For the complete article, visit the Globe and Mail.

Related:

• Arctic Adaptations: Nunavut at 15 recognized by the 2014 Venice Biennale jury
• Mason White and Lateral Office win the Arctic Inspiration Prize
• Architecture embraces the Canadian arctic at upcoming Venice Biennale
• Mason White works with Nunavut carvers to produce stone models of arctic buildings for the 2014 Venice Biennale
• U of T's Mason White and Lateral Office at Venice Biennale

Arctic Adaptations: Nunavut at 15, Canada’s exhibition at the 14th International Architecture Exhibition of the Biennale di Venezia, was honoured with a “Special Mention” at the Biennale’s awards ceremony on June 7 for “its in-depth study of how modernity adapts to a unique climatic condition and a local minority culture.”

The exhibit, which explores the past, present, and future of architecture in Nunavut (Canada’s youngest territory) was curated by Associate Professor Mason White, Lola Sheppard, and Matthew Spremulli (MArch 2011). Local community groups in Nunavut as well architects and architecture students from across Canada contributed to the display.

This year’s jury included Francesco Bandarin (President, Italy), Kunlé Adeyemi (Nigeria), Bregtje van der Haak (The Netherlands), Hou Hanru (China), and Mitra Khoubrou (United Arab Emirates).

The 14th International Architecture Exhibition was curated by Dutch Architect Rem Koolhaas, who chose the theme “Fundamentals.” The theme “exposes modernity as a vehicle for social, cultural and geopolitical transformations,” explains the Biennale's website. “It shows that modernity has not only been absorbed, but also adapted, rejected and critically transformed.” Forty countries participated in the exhibition.

Architecture critic Alex Bozikovic reviewed the Arctic Adaptations: Nunavut at 15 exhibit in this weekend’s Globe and Mail.

“It’s a region that is awe-inspiring in its beauty and its complexity and its strangeness,” says Lateral’s Lola Sheppard. She and fellow principal Mason White have visited Nunavut dozens of times over the past five years, researching the history and the current state of the territory’s communities and buildings, and they see important challenges in its profound state of flux.

The Inuit “have gone from igloos to the Internet in 60 years,” Sheppard says. “We’re trying to establish what a Canadian Arctic urbanism would look like. I don’t think we know what that is yet, at least in [Nunavut].”

…

“A building is just one piece of any architectural design. This philosophy reflects Lateral Office’s approach to its work, part of a broad movement in the profession toward what’s called “social architecture.” “It’s about motivating a new approach to design,” White says, “one that responds more directly to culture and environment.”

Click here for the full article.

The Daniels Faculty would like to extend its congratulations to the team at Lateral Office on its exhibition and the recognition that it has received.

Related stories:

• Mason White and Lateral Office chosen to represent Canada at the 2014 Venice Biennale
• U of T's Mason White and Lateral Office at Venice Biennale
• Architecture embraces the Canadian arctic at upcoming Venice Biennale
• Venice Biennale exhibition, Arctic Adaptations, explores how architectural design can enhance daily life in Nunavut
• Mason White works with Nunavut carvers to produce stone models of arctic buildings for the 2014 Venice Biennale

Now magazine recently profiled recent Master of Visual Studies graduate John G. Hampton for its monthly education and career training feature "Class Action." Hampton is the programming director at Trinity Square Video, a not-for-profit centre that provides video production and post-production support for artists and community organizations at accessible rates, as well as community workshops, exhibitions and screenings.

Hampton received his undergraduate degree in visual art at the University of Regina and a diploma in 3D animation and game design from the New Media Campus in Regina. At the time of the interview with Now, his was in his last few weeks of visual and curatorial studies at the Daniels Faculty.

Says Hampton:

The program divides the curriculum between curatorial studies and studio art. I entered it primarily because I was trying to decide which career to pursue and thought it would give me an education that worked with both.

Curator is a strange profession. This program is as close to a professional degree as you can get for curatorial practice. It’s somewhat similar to doing an MFA for an artist. There are opportunities for students to curate exhibitions as they’re going along. Last year I curated a screening of undergrad video work for an annual exchange with an institute in Stuttgart, Germany.

…

The program helps with the intellectual aspects of being a curator. A big part of the job is framing contemporary artwork through writing and how you speak about it. The university is well suited to train you for that. Access to the various departments at the University of Toronto – the program is interdisciplinary – means you can seek out the types of advisers you need. I’m taking classes in the philosophy department and in museum studies to gain administrative-type skills.

For the full article, visit Now’s website.