Degree: Honours, Bachelor of Arts, major in Architectural Studies, minor in Italian Studies

What was the most enjoyable part of your degree?
I think studio courses are the most enjoyable part of an architectural degree. Studio culture is about learning how to incorporate creative thinking and problem solving into the design process, but it is also about learning how to communicate, collaborate, and negotiate with different people. Leaning into the discomfort of these challenges with other students by working together and supporting each other has led to some of the most memorable and meaningful moments of my degree.

What advice would you give to a new student?
I would encourage students to make a mess. Design schools are places where people of similar interests come together to exchange ideas; they are spaces of testing and making, of using experience and gaining experience. To make the most of your degree, give yourself the freedom to experiment, to play around, to make a mess, to fail, to wander and to grow.

Farah spoke at the official opening of the Daniels Building on November 17, 2017, providing remarks on behalf of the student community.

How has your understanding of architecture changed over the course of your degree?
Architecture as a discipline turned out to be a lot more dynamic than I imagined it to be, and I am always fascinated at the extent to which architectural thinking lends itself to other fields of knowledge. Over the course of my degree, I started understanding architectural design as a response to the context-specific conditions of different times and spaces. Consequently, I found architectural history to be the most engaging way to tell stories about and make connections between these different times and spaces, and the societies that occupied them.

What are your plans after graduation? How has this degree prepared you for the future?
What I appreciate the most about my undergraduate degree is that it helped foster in me a sense of curiosity and a desire to keep learning. Developing techniques and skill sets is certainly an important component of the undergraduate degree at the Daniels Faculty, but what I found to be most valuable is the way that my program encouraged me to think critically about and engage with architectural discourse. Carrying that perspective forward, I plan to continue learning at the Daniels Faculty of Architecture at the graduate level in September.  

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Convocation for #UofTDaniels students is on June 14. This month we are featuring our graduates, including their work, their memories, and their advice for new students. Follow #DanielsGrad18 for more!

What was the most enjoyable or memorable part of your Master of Architecture degree?
The most memorable part of my degree was traveling to Sarasota, Florida as part of my research studio. Our studio toured and studied the work of Paul Rudolph who spent his early career developing a highly contextual, regional architectural style in Sarasota. 

What inspired your #thesis?
My thesis topic was inspired by a longstanding exploration of residential form in Toronto. The realities of residential practice in this city often dictate a derivative, formulaic architecture based on zoning bylaws and building code. I was inspired by the formal and material innovation of modernists such as Paul Rudolph as well as the socially and environmentally performative work of contemporary Scandinavian practices to develop new residential models.

Tell us more about your thesis!
Using Toronto’s Annex neighborhood as a testing ground, my project proposed a gradient of urban infill typologies for incremental densification. These mid-density interventions aim to bridge the gap in planning policy designations that create an adversarial relationship between neighborhoods and their urban context. Narrow lot parcelization patterns are exploited through efficient aggregation and re-distribution of domestic program. Through a marriage of material innovation and contextual, qualitative domestic objectives, the hypothetical typologies aim to examine the morphological potential of Toronto’s established neighborhoods.

What advice would you give to a new student?
My advice to a new student would be to take advantage of the network of professionals you are exposed to at Daniels. Whether as mentors, instructors, or future employers, they represent a wide range of interests within the field and serve as an amazing resource during your studies and as you begin your career.

What are your plans after graduation?
I am currently an intern architect at Studio JCI, a small architecture studio in Toronto. Our firm specializes in mixed-use residential infill at a variety of scales. The work is a logical and rewarding extension to my past professional and academic experience.

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Convocation for #UofTDaniels students is on June 14. This month we are featuring our graduates, including their work, their memories, and their advice for new students. Follow #DanielsGrad18 for more!

Degree: Honours Bachelor of Arts, Architectural Design and Visual Studies

What advice you would give to a new student?
One thing I wish I could change in my university experience is that I wish I started spending time in studio earlier. At Daniels we constantly exposed to such great and inpiring artists and designers that at the end of the day it really motivates you to become a better artist. My only advice to new students is to spend more time in studio and become a part of the studio culture, you will definitely benefit from it! 

How has your understanding of architecture changed over the course of your degree?
I never wanted to be an architect. It was never my dream. Growing up, I changed my mind about what I wanted to be every couple of months—I wanted to be a sergeant, then a teacher, then a volleyball player, and the list keeps going. Because I didn’t necessarily want to study architecture, I hated my first year, but then I met a professor who gave me an even harder time and pushed me to work harder; he showed me what my actual potential was and he made me fall in love with architecture. Working late nights in the studio and engaging with other students, I didn’t just fall in love with architecture but with the studio culture as well. Everyone helps and gives feedback on one another’s designs for further improvement. Each project I worked on became a part of me and I worked on it for hours and hours. For the first time in my life I knew what I wanted to be and how I wanted to spend the rest of my life. I never wanted to be an architect, never planned on being one, but I know for sure that’s what I am meant to be. 

What are your plans after graduation? How has this degree prepared you for the future?
I decided that I want to continue studying architecture and I will start my MArch degree at the Daniels Faculty in September. Eventually I would like to be that one professor who makes students not just like architecture but fall in love with it. 

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Convocation for #UofTDaniels students is on June 14. This month we are featuring our graduates, including their work, their memories, and their advice for new students. Follow #DanielsGrad18 for more!

What was the most memorable part of your Master of Architecture degree?
My education at Daniels taught me how to design through research. It strengthened my capacity in analysis and design. I learned how to build architecture in my bachelor degree, but  Daniels taught me why to build it.

What inspired your thesis?
After a class trip to Utah, where we saw great land art, I wanted to further explore the relationship between humans and landscape.

Tell us more about your project!
At the Francon quarry in Montreal, plowed snow is stored during the winter, contaminating the soil and groundwater in surrounding marginalized communiites. I proposed desrupting this cycle of resource extraction and disposal with a remediation project that transforms snow from waste into a cold energy source. Through heat exchange and desalination, contamination is reduced while the proposed structure creates a recreational space for the neighborhood and rconnects them to the site. Transformed, the urban void created by the quarry helps rehabilitate the city.

What are your plans after graduation?
I have a strong desire to excel in the profession, and am seeking to align myself with a company positioned for strong growth!

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Convocation for #UofTDaniels students is on June 14. This month we are featuring our graduates, including their work, their memories, and their advice for new students. Follow #DanielsGrad18 for more!

Degree: Honours Bachelor of Arts in Architectural Studies and Visual Studies

What was the most enjoyable part of your Honours Bachelor of Arts in Architectural Studies and Visual Studies degree?
Most enjoyable for me has been the friendships I've made with my brilliant and inspiring colleagues. Students often describe Daniels as "tight-knit community", and I wholeheartedly agree; the sense of camaraderie found in the 'studio culture' of both Architecture and Visual Studies has been a memorable and gratifying aspect of my time at U of T. Supporting each other on in-school and extracurricular projects and learning from our collective experiences in fields outside architecture allows for a broader and more rewarding education, not to mention making lifelong friends along the way.

Want to Play Cars? | VIS204 Installation with Ed Pien, Dec 2017
This work explores the idea of play. As kids, we project our imaginations onto the world around us; anything can become a castle, or a road, or a bridge, or a parking lot. 'Playing cars' with friends was a big part of my childhood, so this was a lot of fun to revisit. The pipes in the installation room made for a fantastic, untapped world to explore, and I added an aerial video projection of a real city for context. So, want to play cars?

What advice would you give to a new student?
Consider all of your courses as one giant course. Although every student has different subjects that they study (or different classes within architecture), avoid artificially siloing them: each can bring something new and unique to another, and taken as a whole your education will be far more fulfilling than if they are kept in isolation. Always be thinking about how you can use what you've learned in one class to influence your work in another!

Tension Tower | ARC280 Modelling and Fabrication in Design with Nicholas Hoban, April 2018
Modelling proves a tricky means of exploring a project's physical strength. While often highly delicate, they represent towers that are designed to be strong and resilient. This project was a study in structure, where two non-parallel cores serve to anchor and self-align each floor plate. The final model was built without the use of glue, supporting itself exclusively through tension.

What are your plans after graduation? How has this degree prepared you for the future?
I currently work in the Woodworking and Fabrication lab at Daniels and plan to pursue my Master's degree in the future. As the program encourages students to pull knowledge and experience from courses outside the faculty, such as Environmental Studies, Physics, and Gender Studies, I feel that the breadth of education that Daniels provides has allowed me to broaden my sense of what art and architecture can be and how those practices can influence one another. I'm planning to pursue a career in design/build with an ecological and artistic focus.

Den | VIS431 Thesis with Joanne Tod and John Massey, April 2018 | Photo: Harry Choi
Where does architecture end, and furniture begin? Den explores the architecture of play at furniture scale. Invoking the magic of creative, anarchic, childlike freedom, Den is a playful take on the spatial spectrum and inspired by the unprogrammed primitive shelters of animals.

Illustrations in slideshow, top:
Smaller Than Life | VIS308 Advanced Drawing with Ed Pien, Feb 2017 | Pencil on Paper
This work compares reality and perception. Four stills of my model train set are composed as though they are actual photos of a landscape, and rendered in a traditionally realistic way. However, each still includes a nod to the truth of their existence, such as a leaning paintbrush, unhooked train track, or the rafters of my basement. As such, it is a series of drawings (abstractions) of photographs (direct depictions) of a model (abstraction) of reality, where the abstractions are meant to increase the true reality relative to the perceived and expected idea of what is being shown. The work is scaled to the relative size of the train set, self-reflecting on the idea of the constructed image.

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Convocation for #UofTDaniels students is on June 14. This month we are featuring our graduates, including their work, their memories, and their advice for new students. Follow #DanielsGrad18 for more!

What was the most enjoyable or memorable part of your Master of Urban Design degree?
The one thing that I would always look forward to in our lectures were presentations from guest speakers who were invited in almost every course I took. More often than not, these presentations would focus on particular topics or geographies and completely make me rethink how we view and design urban relationships. I will certainly miss the supportive and extremely knowledgeable professors who have put me on a path to constantly widen my horizon.

What inspired your #thesis?
My thesis topic, Co-Creating the Urban Future, was inspired by an article that I came across while researching on my initial thesis topic of redeveloping the Mumbai Eastern Waterfront. The article discussed the plight of ~14,000 informal inhabitants staying on the waterfront without access to basic amenities and soon to be relocated (read: homeless). In the midst of my vacillation, I realized that informality is a global issue which has failed to garner as much attention as some of other #design challenges. The site in #India provided me the opportunity to delve deeper into the issue and possibly, propose a template which could be modified to local cultures and needs and used in other similar scenarios. I believe the final thesis is reflective of my learning at Daniels as it extensively explores the relationship of urban design to people, culture, and society.

What advice would you give to a new student?
I would recommend that they come with an open mind and actively engage and interact with and their peers and professors. This will provide an immense opportunity to appreciate and learn from different perspectives, thereby widening one’s own horizon. Daniels provides unique opportunities for learning that extends beyond regular classroom teaching.

What are your plans after graduation?
I am looking forward to working as an urban designer in Toronto and contributing to the growth of this beautiful city and Canada as a whole.

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Convocation for #UofTDaniels students is on June 14. This month we are featuring our graduates, including their work, their memories, and their advice for new students. Follow #DanielsGrad18 for more!

On Tuesday, February 27, students in the Daniels Faculty's Master of Landscape Architecture program will come together with alumni working at some of the top landscape architecture firms in Toronto for the MLA Student-Professionals Networking Event. The annual event gives students the opportunity to ask questions of professionals and gather advice on what to expect after graduation. Sandra Cook (MLA 2017) participated in last year's event as a student, and now works for FORREC, one of the firms that was in attendance.  We asked her about her experience at the Networking event and making the transition to her role as Junior Designer with the firm.
 
Tell me about your experience at last year's Networking event.
The networking session was useful as a means of exposure to all the different directions a career in Landscape Architecture can go. Getting to ask questions to such a diverse spectrum of professional landscape architects was valuable to help plan my career path.
 
Do you remember some of the useful advice you received?
I received this advice was from an early career professional: She said, don’t lose the sense of curiosity and freedom in design that you have developed at school. When you start working, you’ll be bogged down by what’s buildable and affordable, and that’s reality, but keep researching and exposing yourself to cutting edge design and keep working on your passion projects outside of work.
 
Now that you have spent a year in the profession, what advice do you have for students who will soon graduate?
Do your research on the type of work new graduates are doing at the firms you apply to. Since graduating, I’ve realized the work entrusted to new graduates varies widely from firm to firm. In my case, I wanted a job where I would be involved in a project from concept to construction. Gaining construction drawing and administration experience was my priority so I chose a firm that was building projects around southern Ontario.
 
What do you do now at FORREC?
I work as part of the Landscape Studio’s local project team. My first big project at FORREC was helping to project manage FORREC’s entry into the Pier 8 Park competition in Hamilton. During the competition, I got to participate in brainstorming and design pin-ups with senior designers from Landscape, Architecture, Creative and Graphics. We won the competition, and now I’m part of the team working on the construction drawings and administration. I’m really excited to see the park built, although I’ve gotten a sneak-peek using VR thanks to our Creative department— so, so cool!

Image, top, by Sandra Cook for her 2017 MLA Thesis project Wet Land

In the summer of 2017, the Daniels Faculty welcomed Learning Strategist Benjamin Prottruff to its Office of the Registrar and Student Services. What exactly is a Learning Strategist, and how can Benjamin help students at Daniels meet their academic goals? Undergraduate student Tina Siassi spoke to Benjamin to learn more about this new role within the Faculty.

What is a learning strategist?
A learning strategist is like a coach. Both little league players new to an activity and high-performance athletes benefit from a coach to help them reach the next level in their development. The learning strategist essentially plays this role, but for the athletics of learning. My job is to help students who are struggling develop strategies to improve their work. I also help high performing students who are trying to advance their work or figure out what their next steps may be.

What is the difference between talking to a learning strategist as opposed to an academic advisor?
The Daniels Faculty has a really strong community of academic advisors in the registrar’s office, and really dedicated faculty members, who provide guidance on the process to obtain your degree, and who can refer you to resources across campus. Learning strategists focus more on helping students figure out how manage all the courses that they take. We help students improve their study skills and develop better time management and motivation strategies.

If students want to meet with you, what’s the best way to get in touch?
I have drop-in hours every Monday from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm in the Daniels Commons near the Café, where I sit at a table, ready to entertain any and all conversations about study skills and academic strategies. Students can also book an appointment with me at the front desk of the registrar’s office or by emailing me at benjamin.pottruff@daniels.utoronto.ca. One-on-one appointments typically last about 50 minutes. This allows extra time to discuss how a student’s courses are going, their ideas behind a particular assignment, or what’s interesting or concerning them about a particular course.

In addition to the drop-in sessions and pre-bookable appointments, I am developing some general programs across campus, including a series of workshops, to provide general help. In the 2017 fall term, we had workshops on Critical Reading and Note-Taking Strategies, Time Management & Procrastination, and Motivation, Stress Management, & Study Focus. In the 2018 winter term these workshops will run again and a few new ones will be added – Deconstructing Your Syllabi & Planning For Success, Fresh Start: Academic Skills for a New Term, and Delivering Effective Presentations. The workshops will be offered on Fridays from 12-1pm as a “brown-bag lunch and learn”, essentially an opportunity for graduate and undergraduate students to learn in community while taking a break to enjoy their lunches. The workshop series is just getting underway this year, by next year a full suite of learning workshops will be integrated with the academic skills programming of the Eberhard Zeidler Library and The Writing Center. You can find out more information about the workshops in the events section of the Daniels website.

What is the most common concern that students bring to you?
The biggest concern that I chat with students about is time management. We often discuss how to incorporate long commutes, part-time jobs, and important relationships with school, to try to figure out the study-life balance. Another common concern is motivation. Motivation tends to be high at the start of a term, but as the work builds up, it often starts to diminish, so we talk about how to maintain motivation throughout your studies. After that, students come looking for specific skill-based approaches, such as how to prepare for exams, how to find a good essay-writing or planning strategy, or how to better focus on readings.

What have you learned in your interaction with students?
The reason I love being a learning strategist is because there’s something I can learn from every student I interact with, and that makes the job very rewarding. Everyone I sit down with tells me a little bit about what they’re learning, how they’re applying it to their life, and where they’d like to go with that knowledge, and that just makes my job really exciting.

What are your top 3 tips for Daniels Faculty students?
1.    Go to class: Students are frequently struggling because they’re balancing multiple concerns or challenges, so sometimes they make a decision not to attend class because there’s something else that they’re putting their energy towards. But the simple truth of it is, there’s often no way to make up for a skipped class. The instructors at Daniels have strong teaching techniques; they’re brewing your knowledge by reviewing what happened in the previous class and outlining what’s going to happen the next class, so they’re supporting your learning across several weeks of study. If you miss that, you will be missing a big piece of the puzzle that you’ll need when you’re trying to put all of that information together at the end of the term. Also, the classroom is full of people who are struggling with the same concepts as you and can help you figure it out through discussions. So, going to class is essential not just to listen to your  instructor or TA, but also to create a dialogue with your peers.  

2.    Take care of yourself: If we want to be successful learners, we need to be well-rested, have a good diet, and get some regular exercise. These are critical for our learning process. Our mind and body are very closely related.

3.    Learn from Failure: Failure can often be really scary and something that we react poorly to, but it’s helpful to think about it as  an opportunity: every time we fail, we have an opportunity to learn how we can do something better for the next time. This is particularly important for design school students, who receive regular critiques in review sessions. Some students interpret criticism to mean that their project is unsuccessful. But if they can hear that criticism and see it as something that will make their ideas stronger, then it’s creates a different and more productive mindset. Learning from failure is an emotional and an intellectual process. The idea is to find a way to manage the emotional reaction, so we can move forward and ask: “how can I use this feedback to make my project more successful?”

It’s not often that a graduate of the Bachelors of Arts, Visual Studies has the opportunity to create an installation for their professor’s bathroom, but Chantal Hassard did just that earlier this year. Professor Joanne Tod had taken a liking to Hassard’s MOOP (Matter Out of Place) artwork, and invited her to create the installation with the desire to have “bottles tumbling down from the skylight.” Since graduating, Hassard started b[art]er (an artist exchange network), exhibited work at Honest Ed’s Farewell Festival, and was profiled by Narcity as one of “14 Toronto Artists To Follow On Instagram If You Want To Be Inspired.” Honours Bachelor of Arts in Architectural Studies student Josie Northern Harrison (HBA 2017) met up with Hassard to chat about her recent initiatives within the artist community, her experience saying goodbye to one of Toronto’s landmark buildings, and how counter-cultural communities have inspired her work.

While you were studying, did you take part in any opportunities at U of T that changed your perspective on art?
My perspective on art really changed when I did a semester abroad in Tel Aviv with U of T’s Centre for International Experience. While studying Political Science and travelling, I stumbled into the Isreali Burning Man community, which organizes Midburn, the third largest Burning Man offshoot event worldwide. I knew Burning Man was a self-sufficient artist community, and I wanted to explore their ideas. I got involved by volunteering with the Department of Public Works to go into the Negev desert to install infrastructure for the temporary city.

The immersive environment really expanded my understanding of how art affects viewers. It was eye-opening to watch large scale installations be built and celebrated, only to be lit on fire and destroyed later on. The counterculture ideology of radical inclusion — the idea that everyone should be welcome — seemed especially valuable in an exclusive state like Israel.

How did you continue your art practice after you graduated?
After graduating from the Visual Studies program, I initiated b[art]er, an artist exchange network, to recreate a setting where people could engage with each other through art. Anyone can bring anything they made to trade with other artists. By exchanging work, participants invest in each other. There is so much rejection in the world, so I hope that b[art]er can be a place where people might try things they’ve never done before just for fun.

I also gallery sit, help install shows, and bartend at Northern Contemporary, an illustration gallery in Parkdale. There is a lot of experimentation going on there, and I can test ideas like b[art]er in the space. I am volunteering in exchange for a show of my own, so I am making work with that in mind now.

Out Home and Native Land by Chantal Hassard, 2017.

It seems like you have a really good relationship with Joanne Tod; has she been a mentor for you?
Yeah, totally. Joanne Tod was my professor during my final semester at U of T. In undergrad courses, I was formally introduced to postmodernism through her figurative work from the 80’s, so I made it a priority to take her painting course. I was new to painting and had hoped to learn some technical skills, but ended up really connecting to Joanne through our shared appreciation for social commentary. At the same time, she advised my Visual Studies thesis course, so she saw how my far-out ideas could hang together. After I graduated, she invited me to extend a series called MOOP — the Burning Man word for garbage, or Matter Out Of Place — in the bathroom of her home. She is a total rockstar, and her support has had a profound effect on my own confidence as an artist.

For the installation in her bathroom, I made Our Home and Native Land (2017). I wanted to acknowledge Canada’s 150th year by creating a nauseating archive of material and cultural consumption that highlights the exploitive relationship our society has with the natural world. I was very inspired by and wanted to highlight the references associated with a tree branch in Joanne’s bathroom from Byng Inlet where Tom Thomson’s painted his iconic White Pines. The branch inspired her artwork Divided Touch (2010), and in an interview with The Walrus (http://walrusmagazine.com/rbc/2010.11/) she describes how impressionists conceptualized their use of unmixed dabs of paint so that colours could be brightened by association. I see the same principle at play in the branding of many products; bright colours create recognition with consumers. To create the installation, I spent a year assembling female bathroom products together with personal photography, materials from tree planting, many cutouts of works by Joanne and many other artists working in Canada who influence me. I assembled all these objects together onto a series of canvases that all had their own dominant colour based on the packaging. Each canvas acts like an impasto brush stroke to paint a hysterically realistic defragmenting landscape that tumbles down from the skylight above her bathtub.

MOOP by Chantal Hassard, 2016.

Band-Aid Solution by Chantal Hassard, 2016.

Do you have any advice for incoming students?
Get out there! Volunteer for events that interest you. Go on an exchange. Go to galleries. Submit to shows. Take all kinds of classes. Follow your intuition and definitely don’t waste time being intimidated or wishing you were done studying — it will all be over before you even know what happened. 

Image, top (in order of appearance):
Februus by Chantal Hassard, 2016.
Reserve Zone by Chantal Hassard, 2017.
Detail of MOOP by Chantal Hassard, 2016.
Detail of MOOP by Chantal Hassard, 2016.

When Isaac Seah started his Honours Bachelors of Arts degree, Architectural Studies at U of T in 2015, his goal was to land a summer job at an architecture firm by third year. This summer, his goal became reality when he was offered a placement at Perkins+Will. During his first two years at U of T, Seah held positions at the GRIT Lab, the Entrepreneurship Hatchery, The Varsity, and Shift Magazine. He also co-founded a start-up called Placey — a virtual reality visualization tool for architecture. Each of these positions provided an opportunity for him to use his skills in design and computer science, topics he enthusiastically writes about for his personal blog on LinkedIn. Honours Bachelor of Arts in Architectural Studies student Josie Northern Harrison (HBA 2017) met up with Seah to chat about his summer job at Perkins+Will, the value of extracurricular activities, and the benefits of creating a start-up.

Tell me about your summer job at Perkins+Will.
My summer internship encompasses a lot of different aspects of architecture; it’s a way for undergraduate students to explore the design industry in general. I’ve been involved in designing a donor wall (a wall that recognizes donors and alumni), and I’ve helped with feasibility studies for higher education buildings. For these studies, I mapped out the spaces for programs in a building to figure out what activities we could fit into a certain space. For example, sometimes I analyze how many labs can fit onto the third floor of a building. We go through multiple explorations based on the programmatic requirements that the client gives us. The exercise is very similar to one of the second year architecture studio courses, but this project is much more technical in the sense that we have to follow code requirements and the structure of a building. For the studio course, we were asked to design a study space that reflected the architectural qualities of the Goldring Centre and Robarts Library. From there, we identified the programs we could fit onto the site, and we were given height requirements, as well as different site conditions that we had to respect.

What inspired you to apply for a summer job at Perkins+Will and how did you go about it?
I was offered my summer position at Perkins+Will because of my start-up called Placey, which I created with Amin Azad and Freddy Zheng. Placey is a virtual reality visualization tool for architecture. To develop our start-up, we participated in the U of T Entrepreneurship Hatchery program last summer. The program allows students to spend a summer developing a product, and if it’s good enough then you are allowed to present your idea to potential investors. We developed a prototype, and went through a series of exercises to identify who our target market would be. We eventually found that our potential clientele could be architecture firms.

We went through 16 weeks of pitch presentations. Every two to three weeks, we would pitch our idea to seasoned entrepreneurs, professors, and other people well-versed in pitching strategies. As we pitched to more people, we became more relaxed and more organic in our presentation. There were several firms interested in listening to our pitch, and Perkins+Will was one of the companies interested in collaborating with Placey. After we presented, the representative from Perkins+Will asked me to send in my resume to be considered for the co-op placement.

Out of all the firms that I researched, Perkins+Will offered a developed research environment. They are highly involved in technological pursuits and research which they publish in their own journal. For example, they often collaborate with Autodesk and create computational tools like space plan generators. My minor in computer science allows me to better appreciate these research efforts. Perkins+Will has that vision and direction of innovation. They serve as practitioners of the architecture field, but try to innovate and bring in people from computer science, materials engineering, and other fields as well. That was something that I got really excited about because it offers an opportunity to imagine practicing as an architect while keeping an active interest in research.

You’ve worked with the GRIT Lab, The Varsity, and Shift Magazine. Did these positions help you with what you’re working on now and maybe what you want to work on in the future?
For Shift I was a Website Designer; for GRIT Lab I helped develop the Performance Index; and for The Varsity I was a Website Developer. There are many different types of architects; for example, you could emphasize the arts aspect, or you could emphasize the technology and optimization aspect like Norman Foster. My involvement with different groups at U of T allowed me to have a taste from these different perspectives. The experience at the Entrepreneurship Hatchery was eye-opening because it helped me understand the potential for computer science, and how helpful programming is to every single field of study. Shift Magazine was my entry into understanding the community at the Daniels Faculty, and how we could perceive architecture through an arts and humanities lens. With the GRIT Lab, I explored the technology perspective: how we assess the performance of green roofs and what kind of tools we can develop to explain this information to the industry. The Varsity pushed that thinking a little further, but it was less about architecture and more about the graphic design, and it was a campus-wide organization, which exposed me to some aspects of organizational thinking.

What advice do you have for Daniels students?
I would highly recommend the Entrepreneurship Hatchery program to anyone who has a chance to do it. The Hatchery experience helped me to adopt a more systematic way of thinking, defined my public speaking skills, and exposed me to the business mindset that explores the value of a product. It’s especially effective for architecture students because we are essentially in a service industry: we have to respect our client’s wishes while convincing them to choose the wisest option without too much pressure.

For the first-year students, I would encourage them to explore the diverse and established ecosystem of research going on at U of T. Those research avenues are places where you can learn about ideas relevant to architecture. If you’re willing to be exposed to these topics early on in your education then you’ll be in a very good position to realize that architecture is more than just drawing a section or a perspective. Architecture can become very exciting when we think about how we can integrate different fields like computer science, engineering, biology, and visual studies. My advice is to go to other faculties and explore the different majors and minors that the school offers.