On April 5^th, The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation announced Deanna Bowen (MVS 2008) one of the recipients of the 2016 Guggenheim Fellowship.

Deanna Bowen is a descendant of the Alabama- and Kentucky-born Black Prairie pioneers of Amber Valley and Campsie, Alberta. Her auto-ethnographic interdisciplinary works have been shown in Canada, the US, and Europe in numerous film festivals and galleries. Bowen currently teaches studio, video art and documentary production in the Department of Arts, Culture & Media at the University of Toronto Scarborough.

In 2013, Bowen’s exhibit at the Art Gallery of York University exploring the Ku Klux Klan’s role in 20th century Canadian history caused “people who pass by everyday to literally trip over themselves.” Bowen had strategically made use of the violent white supremacist banners to spark a conversation on campus.

“A project in mapping African diasporic movement and a genealogical investigation in equal measure, my autobiographical, process-driven interdisciplinary practice is concerned with the document and the act of witnessing,” writes Bowen. “My practice revolves around the research and creation of conceptually rooted works that draw upon interrogations of personal and community based genealogical research, local and international 'domestic' histories, American slavery, Migration & Diaspora studies, Trauma theory and corollary discussions of memory and testimony, Southern Gothic Literature, and contemporary debates about political/personal art production.”

The Foundation awarded Bowen with the Fellowship for her “repertoire of artistic gestures” that “define the Black body and trace its present and movement in place and time.”

“In recent years, her work has involved rigorous examination of her family lineage and their connections to the Black Prairie pioneers of Alberta and Saskatchewan, the Creek Negroes (Black Indians) and All-Black towns of Oklahoma, the extended Kentucky/Kansas Exoduster migrations, and the Ku Klux Klan,” writes the Guggenheim Foundation. “Her works and interventionist practice have garnered significant critical regard internationally.”

Often characterized as “midcareer” awards, Guggenheim Fellowships are awarded to scholars, artists, and scientists who have already demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts.

Associate Professor Mary Lou Lobsinger gave the CBC program Spark a lesson on Brutalist Architecture over the weekend — background for an episode Brutalist web design.

Writes Spark:

It's easy to get frustrated by bloated websites that are slow to load with their big photos that move and take over the screen, JavaScript pop-ups, giant ads, and autoplay videos.

All this has some people longing for a return to old-school websites. And we've been seeing an emerging trend toward stripped down website design.

To listen to Lobsinger’s full interview with host Nora Young, visit the Spark website.

Mary Lou Lobsinger is a historian and teaches the history and theory of architecture and design. Her research focuses on the histories and theories of modern architecture and urbanism with specific expertise in issues around historiography, science, technology, and techniques of articulation. She is currently working on two book projects, the most immediate is titled, Architecture Institution: Media,Techniques,Territories.

Related:

• History and theory of architecture professor Mary Lou Lobsinger speaks in Toronto and abroad
• CBC Radio features Making Camp on Spark
• RAD director Rodolphe el-Khoury talks to CBC's Nora Young about responsive architecture

Places Journal, an Academic Partner of the Daniels Faculty, recently published the first volume of the Places Books series, titled Where Are the Women Architects? by Despina Stratigakos. This short paperback grew out of two articles written for Places: “Unforgetting Women Architects” and “What I Learned from Architect Barbie.”

From Princeton University Press:

For a century and a half, women have been proving their passion and talent for building and, in recent decades, their enrollment in architecture schools has soared. Yet the number of women working as architects remains stubbornly low, and the higher one looks in the profession, the scarcer women become. Law and medicine, two equally demanding and traditionally male professions, have been much more successful in retaining and integrating women. So why do women still struggle to keep a toehold in architecture? Where Are the Women Architects? tells the story of women's stagnating numbers in a profession that remains a male citadel, and explores how a new generation of activists is fighting back, grabbing headlines, and building coalitions that promise to bring about change.

Despina Stratigakos, the author of Where Are the Women Architects?, is an architectural historian and the interim chair of the architecture department at the University of Buffalo. She has previously published five articles on Places Journal, and has published extensively on the history of women in architecture.

Places Journal is “a leading journal of contemporary architecture, landscape, and urbanism” that publishes “essays, criticism, photography, and narrative journalism, as well as peer-reviewed scholarship that deserves a wide audience.” Places Books is a recent project undertaken by Places Journal in collaboration with Princeton University Press. The series offers readers accessible paperbacks and e-books of writing that developed from Places articles.

Master of Architecture alumni Mario Christian (MArch 2012) and Heng Tang (MArch 2012) are co-founders, along with Luca Daniel, of the innovative jewery firm Daniel Christian Tang. The team recently launched a new line titled “ICON – An Exhibit at the Intersection of Jewery and Architecture,” which has received significant media attention.

Writes the National Post:

Tang and Mario Christian Lavorato, both 31, met at the University of Toronto, where they graduated from the masters of architecture program. During their studies, they started getting involved in digital fabrication and 3D printing, and worked on architectural pieces using the emerging technology.

“We realized at that time that we could actually take files and designs we had done for architecture and turn them into wearable pieces of art,” Mario Christian Lavorato recalled in a recent interview at an Oakville, Ont., 3D printing facility, where he and Tang awaited completion of one of their pieces.

“A lot of our pieces are inspiration from what we took from architecture, what we’ve designed, what we’ve learned in school,” said Tang, who also has a degree in biochemistry.

Daniel Christian Tang has seen their jewelry published in AZURE Magazine, ELLE, Globe & Mail, FLARE, among others. Additionally, they have recently been nominated for a Swarovski Award for Emerging Talent, Accessories from the Canadian Arts & Fashion Awards.

Their latest collection "ICON" will make its runway debut at Toronto Fashion Week, March 17^th on the Main Runway at David Pecaut Square.

Last September, sessional lecturer Rodney LaTourelle launched an exhibit titled The Stepped Form at the Mackenzie Art Gallery in Regina. The exhibit consists of a series of platforms ranging in material and colour, which are periodically rearranged by the gallery staff. Visitors are allowed to touch the artwork. Since its opening, the exhibit and LaTourelle have received significant press coverage.

“Students can be seen sitting and socializing — and even drinking beer during the opening — on the art work’s tiered steps,” writes Gregory Beatty for Prairie Dog Magazine who attended the first instance of the exhibit at the Illingworth Kerr Gallery in Calgary.

Last week, New Dance Horizons responded to LaTourelle's installation at the Mackenzie Art Gallery by inviting guests to use the space as a backdrop for song, sound, and motion. Guest artists included Neal Adolph, Stacy Allan, Jon Fearnside, Brady Frank, Arthur Jack, Adelle Johnson, Janelle Johnston, Kelsey Kuz and Jeanette Wiens and Sbot N Wo, Helen Pridmore & WL Altman, Krista Solheim, Johanna Bundon, and others.

More recently, LaTourelle was interviewed about The Stepped Form for the National Gallery of Canada Magazine. The article reflects on the exhibit, LaTourelle's experiences of public space, and how this has affected his work.

“'Trust in people' is a theme that seems to run throughout LaTourelle’s own work,” writes Lisa Hunter. “There’s something extra-satisfying about art with which we can interact. Surely we light up more parts of our brains when we use multiple senses to experience art.”  

Professor Ted Kesik was recently featured in two Globe and Mail articles on building energy standards. A building science expert, Kesik has over 42 years of experience in the construction industry, specializing in building enclosure design, quality assurance, performance verification, and building systems integration.

In an article investigating the adoption of the recommended national building code into binding provincial building codes, Kesik offered an overview of the history of building codes and their current limitations. He argues that problems within the building code stem from the original focus being on basic fire and structural safety; “energy wasn't on the radar.”

He argues that "Canadian building codes contain troublesome loopholes that allow developers, contractors and renovators to build what he describes as 'high cholesterol' structures, especially high-rise apartment towers." 

Says Kesik: "The high-rise buildings we built in the 1960s perform better than what we’re building now. Tell me of any industry that would stand up and be proud to say that."

A similar article focuses more specifically on the energy loss created by buildings with predominately glass facades.

Under current rules, developers of large projects can use sophisticated energy 'performance' modelling software to meet energy targets – in effect, installing more expensive and ultra-efficient mechanical heating and ventilation systems as a 'trade-off' against the use of uninsulated floor-to-ceiling windows, which builders see as a strong marketing feature, especially in tiny apartments.

 

In Northern European and Scandinavian countries, Kesik says, builders can’t design buildings mostly clad in glass because their codes require robust materials and minimum insulation levels for the entire building envelope.

To read the full articles, visit the Globe and Mail:

• Why does Canada lag in demanding environmental diligence from builders and homeowners?
• Ontario looks to close loophole on energy standards for buildings

As the City of Toronto awaits provincial approval for transformative new zoning bylaws, Daniels Faculty Instructor Joshua Thorpe suggests other cities around the world look to Toronto's Tower Renewal initiative for inspiration.

In his article "How to rethink the suburbs: A lesson from Toronto," published in the online magazine Doggerel, Thorpe explores the unique conditions of Toronto's inner suburbs. Unlike any other North American city, Toronto's suburbs contain about two-thousand towers, housing almost a million residents. These towers, which were built following the Second World War, were largely designed for middle-class car-dependent families. Though the demographics of Toronto's inner suburbs have since changed, these neighbourhoods are still shaped by existing zoning policies that limit commercial resources and amenities. Things like cafés, grocers, bike paths, and playgrounds — often taken for granted by people living downtown — are simply non-existent in these suburban neighbourhoods. 

Thorpe outlines the history of the suburban tower-in-the-park typology as well as the important role they continue to play today. He writes about the architects and planners who have been advocating for changes to the city's zoning bylaws, resulting in the Residential Apartment Commercial (RAC) zone, accepted by Toronto City Council in 2014. The final approval for the RAC zone at a provincial level is expected in early summer 2016.

Final approval will create opportunities for small businesses, fresh food vendors, community gardens, medical clinics and more to open up in these suburban tower communities.

Writes Thorpe: "This is the beginning of a new phase for Toronto — and an important part of fulfilling the promise of a fair, equitable, and welcoming city, a city that champions its diversity instead of hiding it."

Related:

• CBC's Metro Morning interviews alumni and faculty about Tower Renewal
• Ted Kesik featured in Globe and Mail article on Tower Renewal
• Alumnus Graham Stewart shares his vision for Toronto's Tower Neighbourhoods with the Toronto Star
• Graham Stewart wins the 2014 Jane Jacobs Prize
• Tower Renewal Guidelines
• Alumus Jesse Colin Jackson presents solo exhibition, Radiant City, at the Pari Nadimi Gallery
  
   

The work of alumni Jasmeen Bains (MLA 2013), Matthew Blunderfield (MArch 2014), Javid Alibhai (MArch 2014), Robin Heathcote (MLA 2013), and Benjamin Matthews (MLA 2013) was recently featured in an article written for the Journal of Architectural Education. The article, titled “Grounding Diaspora”, was based on work done for a Fall 2012 option studio taught by Alison Hirsch, Aroussiak Gabrielian, and Andrea Mantin.

Students were asked to reconsider concepts of democracy, justice, citizenship, and multiculturalism (multi-ethnic, multi-racial) in city planning and urban & public space design. Instructors Hirsch and Gabrielian used the student concepts and designs to write an article focusing on the method of instruction used in the course, the global dynamics of migration and settlement, and the cultural practices of ritual and everyday expression in Queens, New York.

From the abstract:

“The term 'diaspora' connotes a dynamic social formation—a process of settlement and a tenuous sense of belonging based on the negotiation between the collective memory of home and responsive adaptations to host locales. While a global phenomenon, the local impact of shifting patterns of settlement in the multicultural city transforms urban spaces through the varied and overlapping inscriptions of new and adapted rituals. Using a Landscape Architecture studio conducted at the University of Toronto as the experimental means through which to investigate diasporic and transnational urban settlement and its implications for design, this paper focuses on final proposals for the case study site—a particular area of contestation in Queens, New York—as well as the pedagogical methodology used to generate them.” 

To view the full article, visit the Journal of Architectural Education.

Associate Professor Aziza Chaouni’s Shobak Special Protected Area Masterplan was commended by the Architectural Review as part of its 2016 MIPIM Future Projects Awards.

The Masterplan was developed under the Designing Ecological Tourism (DET) — a research platform led by Chaouni out of the Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design. DET collaborated with the Royal Society of Conservation of Nature (RSCN) in Jordan, as well as Canadian and Jordanian experts and scholars on the masterplan, which was the only project by a university team to receive an award.

The groundwork research for the masterplan was initiated by an option studio at the Daniels Faculty. Students in the studio spent two weeks in Shobak and later developed speculative ideas for its future and eco-accommodations. The project was subsequently developed and detailed with RSCN, an interdisciplinary group of experts, and three Daniels students: Mani Tabrizi, Nicolas Roland and Keren Golan. In 2015, the masterplan was recognized with a ACSA Collaboration Award.

The project is explored in great detail in Chaouni’s book Ecotourism, Nature, Conservation, and Development: Re-imagining Jordan’s Shobak Arid Region.

Writes DET on its website:

In the field of desert conservation, this book presents a new conservation approach that preserves ecosystems, fosters local economic development and capitalizes on both natural and cultural landscapes for ecotourism. Situated in the special protected area of Shobak, a Jordanian desert region rich in historical background and biodiversity, the innovative strategic plan unites the goals of nature preservation and regional development in a groundbreaking way, by developing tools for promoting the untapped potentials of wild arid areas. It integrates the professions of landscape architecture and architecture with various other disciplines including natural resources management and ecology in order to provide complex, tailored solutions that are resilient to shifting socio-political contexts and harsh arid environments.

Related:

• Research team at Daniels launches a new website: Designing Ecological Tourism
• Daniels Faculty students complete two-week research workshop in Jordan
• Designing Ecological Tourism (DET) presents: "Living in the 'Rurban' — The furture of Guaratiba," in partnership with the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
• Aziza Chaouni volunteers to design a music school for 2,000 children and youth in Morocco
• Aziza Chaouni participates in the New Cities Summit 2015

The 4th Annual Gladstone Grow Op takes place this weekend. (Don’t miss the opening reception this Friday, April 22!) Among the "must-see home farming prototypes” to take in (according to Canadian Architect) is Cricket Reactor by alumnus Jakob Dzamba (MArch 2011) of Third Millennium Farming.

Writes Christine Leu in Canadian Architect:

Cricket Reactor by Third Millennium Farming is an alternative approach to urban agriculture where city bio-wastes are used to farm algae and fungi, which are in turn fed to insects. In turn, the crickets are processed into an edible flour—a low carbon footprint form of protein.

…

The architectural language of the Reactor could be described as “antfarm-Modernist.” A large, clear, central atrium with detachable clear pods at the sides to accommodate a variety of programmes, or in this case, different bio-wastes. The density of the insects per square inch is evocative of urban living, and reminiscent of maximizing return on investment for repeating condominium units in the sky.

On Sunday, Dzamba the Cricket Reactor moves to the AGO for the Terrior Hospitality Symposium, which will include a number of “art installations that look beyond food production and preparation to draw from the wider ecology that informs these systems and open up new ways of thinking about the anthropocene, locality and place.”

Installations at the symposium will include Soil is the Mother by Victoria Taylor (MLA 2008) and Hypha by NomadicVisionStudio (founded by Daniels Faculty masters students Claire Kurtin, Nadia Pulez, and Ramin Yamin).

Related:

• Fungi and mold inspire NomadicVisionStudio's installation at the 4th Annual Gladstone Grow Op: April 21-24
• Daniels alum Jakub Dzamba interviewed on CBC radio stations across Canada
• M.Arch alum Jakub Dzamba featured speaker at upcoming Future Food Salon II