Thanks to generous donations made by alumni and donors, Daniels Faculty students can apply for grants, fellowships, or scholarships to fund travel and research at sites of interest both within Canada and abroad. The application deadline for this year is March 2.

We’ve asked students who received travel awards last year to share their experiences with us. Yesterday we heard from Saarinen Balagengatharadilak. Today, we hear from Master of Architecture student Vanessa Abram, who spent a total of eight weeks conducting research in Detroit, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Tokyo with support from the Paul Oberman Graduate Student Endowment Fund.

What did you hope to learn during your time in Detroit, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Tokyo? 
I set out to learn histories of destruction and reconstruction within these cities from 1945 onward.

Why did you choose these cities for this research?
Each of these cities had an important role in wartime production during WWII and each has seen an impressive magnitude of erasure, destruction and material ruin since.

Tell us about something interesting that you discovered.
While in Hiroshima, I met with Mr. Toshikuni Nakagawa from the Municipal Archives where I was shown documentation prepared by Tange Kenzo for the design of 'Peace City Hiroshima' and Peace Park.  Along with this documentation, we went through a number of images that depicted the transformation of the site over the years following the atomic bombing. Tourist facilities and 'Peace Institutions' were among the first buildings to be erected out of the city's ashes. Public housing, as well as health and welfare institutions for both atomic bomb victims and others returning home from their countryside refuge, were to come much later (Tange, Peace City Hiroshima). Photographs of the annual Peace Ceremony held in Peace Park show temporary and precarious housing conditions in the background of many ceremonies, in some cases screened off by a curtain for privacy. Meanwhile, the American Cultural Center was also one of the first buildings to erect itself within the destroyed city. It was, in 1952, "a welcome sight — an oasis in the desert [... amidst] mountains of rubble" (Zqigenberg quoting Abol Fazl Fatouhi, 2004, 94).

How has this travel research opportunity enhanced your academic career?
The opportunity positioned my thesis within a more thorough research framework and historical awareness of my site and thesis topic. It led to me producing a book in conjunction with my thesis that broadened my interests in the subject and enriched the discussion around the architectural project.

How will this research inform your future work?
The research expanded my understanding of the profession beyond traditional limits of architecture to think of construction and destruction as dependent processes; Detroit's expansion, for example, as being a result of it's inner city demolition, or Hiroshima's annihilation as paving the way for opportunistic planning. The project changed the way I was viewing the limits and influence of architecture and design and also exposed me to alternative readings of history. In addition to this broadening of perspective, the research skills I acquired throughout my travel experience will impact my ability to contextualize and frame future projects.

Do you have any tips for students who may be considering applying for a travel grant this year?
Travel grants are a great opportunity to connect with architectural institutions, research groups, and offices across the globe. Take advantage of the experience to learn through local organizations, businesses, and individuals who know the place best!

For more information on Vanessa’s research in Detroit, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Tokyo, read her report: The Destruction of Two Cities

Visit the Current Students section of the Daniels Faculy's website for more information on the travel awards and how to apply.

Indrit Alushani (MArch 2015) and Craig Deebank (MArch 2013) have had a behind-the-scenes look at the many things cities must do to make large sporting events like the Pan Am and Parapan Am Games possible. The two Master of Architecture grads scored contract positions doing Games Overlay — designing and overseeing construction of the temporary infrastructure required for venues hosting this summer's competitions. Bachelor of Arts in Architectural Studies student Josie Harrison tracked them down to find out more about their experience, what they have learned, and how the Daniels Faculty helped prepare them for their roles.

What exactly is “Games Overlay”?

Indrit Alushani (IA): Games Overlay deals with the temporary infrastructure that is needed to run the Games. This includes but is not limited to commodities and spaces that are necessary to meet the standards of an international sporting event. Overlay managers collaborate closely with stakeholders and others who will use the venue to ensure the space that meets everyone’s requirements.

Craig Deebank (CD): I was told when I started that no venue is 100% ready to host a game. There is always an alteration process that takes place based on the Game’s unique standards and protocol. There are a lot of different client groups you have to please at the end of the day within the design and budget parameters you’ve been given.  In some cases, venues are 100% overlay. For example, some venues are constructed over parking lots, such as the beach volleyball venue. The overlay team would bring in the temporary seating, sand, power, platforms, grandstands, broadcast stands and all of the other things required to make the venue and sport function. These commodities then get removed at the end of the Games and can be repurposed for other things.

Could you describe your role for the Games?

IA: I was first assigned to the East Zone team to help out six site managers who were in charge of designing and delivering the infrastructure of one or more venues. At first I would jump from one task to another, one venue to another. As things progressed I was assigned to assist in the delivery of the President’s Choice Pan Am Ballpark in Ajax where baseball and softball was held, as well as the General Motors Center in Oshawa for the Weightlifting and Boxing.

CD: As an Overlay Site Manager in the West Zone, I was involved in managing the design of several venues and delivery phase of the Cisco Milton Pan Am / Parapan Am Velodrome. It’s a high-pressure environment. One day you’re working on coordinating the Velodrome cycling track; the next day you’re trying to plan the Cycling Time Trial Race. During the design phase you jump around from venue to venue, sport to sport, so there’s a lot of learning that takes place. A lot of the people working in our overlay department are architects or architecturally trained. It’s very much like a studio environment. We don’t do physical models, but we sketch a lot and use similar software. So it’s like being in a studio, but you are putting on the Games.

Indrit Alushani, at the President’s Choice Pan Am Ballpark

What attracted you to this position?

IA: I come from a heavy design background, and previously worked in offices that taught me a great deal of things about design, but I wanted to implement my knowledge in practice. It was the perfect opportunity for me to be on site and be part of the building phase. As architects, we are often caught up with perfection and achieving the “ideal” design. We often forget that what is designed in the office and what is built on site are two different things. You can plan so much before going on site and building, but there will always be unforeseen contingencies that will need you to think on your feet. The experience was truly enriching, working with so many professionals, architects, project managers. I learned a lot from them.

CD: I grew up just outside of the City of Toronto in Pickering, and I have always been very passionate about sports and design. It seemed natural and was a great opportunity to be part of something unprecedented in the city that aligns with my interests.  Because it is a temporary position, there was a low risk aspect from my end. It was an opportunity to see if it would be something that I’d like to continue.

What have you learned from your experience working on overlay for the Games?

IA: Where do I even begin? This has been such a unique experience, and I consider myself lucky to have been part of it. Project management is one of the first things that comes to mind: being able to work with schedulers in order to have contractors build on time, meeting budgets and legal requirements, ensuring that the work is conducted safely, communicating and delegating work to a large number of people, from your own contractors to your colleagues. It is a huge role with great responsibility.

CD: It’s a very high tempo, fast paced, social, and collaborative environment. You have to be able to think quickly and be adaptable, and that’s been a fun challenge. I worked with many great people who have experience with the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and the World Cup in Brazil. Hearing what they did in these particular locations and the challenges they faced — be it a labour shortage or the need to use local materials — and how they problem-solved in those cases was really interesting. You learn more about the sports as well. I have spent a lot of time at the Cisco Milton Pan Am / Parapan Am Velodrome in Milton, so I learned a lot about track cycling; it’s incredible what the athletes can do. You don’t know how steep those curved walls are until you see it in person. And then you see the athletes ride at 70 km or more around it — it’s really cool.

Craig Deebank, in the Cisco Milton Pan Am / Parapan Am Velodrome

How did your time at the Daniels Faculty prepare you for this role?

IA: The Daniels Faculty is a world-class school of design in part because it emphasizes collaboration and creativity. The Faculty welcomes people from different backgrounds both cultural and academic because diversity and collaboration is key to successful design ideas. The Toronto 2015 office has been one of the most diverse offices I have been to. People were coming from all ends of the world with different career backgrounds, working together to create one unique and remarkable final product, the Pan Am / Parapan Am Games.

CD: The Daniels Faculty really promotes the city as an organism, understanding the city, and where architecture and design fits within it. This has stuck with me, and I try to apply it wherever I go. The Faculty also provides a diverse and collaborative environment between landscape architecture, visual studies, urbanism, and architecture, and people coming into these programs with completely varied academic backgrounds. There is a cross-disciplinary approach to problem solving. That, I think, was very applicable to this job. I’m really thankful for what I’ve learned at Daniels, and how I’ve been able to apply it in a professional setting.

So, what’s next?

IA: I hope to find a position in an architectural firm, and I plan to become an OAA member. One thing is certain: I will need a vacation first.

CD: I am hooked; there is a desire to travel and work on other games around the world after this one concludes. But right now we’re in games operation mode with the Pan Am Games closing and Parapan Am Games beginning August 7th, so I’m just thinking about the immediate objectives for the day. I would like to do another games in the near future.

The Parapan Am Games begin on August 7th, 2015. For more information, visit www.toronto2015.org

Since graduating from the Master of Landscape Architecture program in 2011 with a specialization in Knowledge Media Design, Denise Pinto has piloted an impressive multi-disciplinary career, incorporating civic engagement into a diverse range of fields. These days, Pinto is applying the work she does locally — which includes advocating for safe, accessible, and stimulating pedestrian environments and encouraging people to explore their city on foot — to a global scale. As Global Director of Jane’s Walk, an annual international festival of citizen-led walking tours, she has been convening conversations within communities in cities around the world.

Bachelor of Arts in Architectural Studies student Josie Harrison (HBA 2017) met with Pinto in advance of this year’s Jane’s Walks (taking place May 1-3) to learn more about walking tours as a form of civic engagement, Jane Jacobs’ influence in the online virtual world in Second Life, and how her Master of Landscape Architecture degree helped prepare her for the work she does today.

Can you describe Jane’s Walk?
Jane’s Walk is a global project of citizen-led walking tours inspired by writer and activist, Jane Jacobs. On the first weekend of May, we host an annual festival which takes place in over 100 cities. Last year, in Toronto alone, over 150 walking tours were held over the course of three days!
The project isn’t an expert-led initiative — we encourage people of all ages and abilities to explore and discuss the places they live, work and play. Everybody has a perspective or experience that can offer real insight into making better, more inclusive cities. The walks are an incredible platform for civic dialogue because people don’t feel intimidated to attend and participate like they might at a town hall meeting. Walkers are encouraged to explore neighbourhoods in a way that means something to them, and in some cases that even creates an appetite for grassroots action.

What are your responsibilities as Global Director?
As the Global Director, my responsibilities are to think about the project’s broad impacts. For example, we’ve grown Jane’s Walk to include in-class education for high school students, workshops in priority neighbourhoods, and facilitated conversations between organizers across different continents. I manage our staff, and help build partnerships in Toronto, across Canada, and in the United States. My goal is to bring together the constellation of people who are part of the project and engage them in a discussion about what civic dialogue looks like in different places, and what the walks can teach us about shaping good cities.


A Jane's Walk weaves along Spadina to explore women's labour in the city. Walk led by Tanya Ferguson / Mayworks Festival of Working People and the Arts, 2014. Photo by Moe Laverty

Your past work experience has involved a diverse range of projects that incorporate various forms of civic engagement. What inspired your interest in this area?
I started with an interest in human-centered design research, and that interest has stayed with me. HCD focuses on human interactions, persuasions, and habits. It understands messy systems and contradictions and incentives. Urban landscapes are some of the most complex and messy systems, so making them legible and understandable at the community scale is vital. Figuring out how and why people engage with, invest in, and steward public spaces is an intensely interesting question.

How did your experience at the Daniels Faculty prepare you for the work that you do today?
One of our goals is to increase "urban literacy." Urban literacy is about understanding that the city is a made thing, it can be reworked and appropriated. My background in Landscape Architecture gave me a set of methods and technical skills to design and critique public spaces which is essential to the advocacy part of my job. I also think that toggling between a great many scales, from a human interaction right up to regional and watershed issues, requires a mental flexibility that is sorely needed to take on today’s civic challenges.

Although you haven’t pursued a traditional career as a landscape architect, you have remained well connected to the field as a regular contributor to Ground, the magazine of the Ontario Association of Landscape Architects. How do you see your relationship to the field and your future within it?
What landscape architecture was when it first became a professional body is very different from where we are now. I see myself as occupying an “edge space” that explores where the profession is going, what it intersects with, and how to make sense of the overlaps. We have just started to think about how an age of pervasive data affects our relationship with urban places. That brings up all sorts of questions about how our experience with urban landscapes is mediated, amplified or enabled by our devices. Jane’s Walk deals with stewarding a global face-to-face movement through a website, so it looks to technology as an ally. Landscape architects are uniquely positioned to think about the world in terms of these kinds of spatial and social relationships.

That reminds me, I noticed that there’s going to be a digital Jane’s Walk this year.
It’s true! Vanessa Blaylock, an artist with a virtual-reality-based practice and an interest in walking, has signed on to organize a ‘walk’ in Second Life. Inspired by Jane Jacobs, she and her colleagues see the critique of car-centric culture paralleled in this massive virtual world, which has taken on a culture of its own. In Second Life, users are able to fly and teleport as a method of travel. Flying and teleporting, Baylock noticed, is the equivalent of driving — it’s detrimental to the community and social fabric in Second Life. They were moved by the idea that if we seal ourselves off from the world and the city’s streets (as we often do when driving), then we can’t observe, relate to, and engage deeply with the wonderful diversity of things around us. She and others launched a project called Pedestrian Access, which includes “no-fly, no-teleport” zones. In these zones, Second Life users have to walk around so that they will come across and interact with the stuff they would miss if they were simply going from point A to point B through flight or teleportation.

I’m excited that this walk will be happening. It’s a novel context. It is the kind of mental flexing that I think we should encourage — a cross-pollination between two concepts that are not obviously similar. What can we learn from melding ideas like this?


Walkers ascend the staircase to Mabelle Park in Etobicoke to talk about "idea gardening." Walk led by Leah Houston / MabelleArts, 2013. Photo by Jeremy Kai.

When I was doing the research for this interview, I thought, “If I led a Walk, what would I discuss?” — and I realized that I had no idea. Do you know of any good brainstorming strategies?
This is a big, big question for us. One approach is to start using some of the existing tours given by citizen walk leaders in other places as story templates.

We also have tools that people can use to jump start the process. We take an asset-based community development approach (ABCD) to our workshops, which we host in libraries and community centres to draw in a wide audience. ABCD is about taking an inventory of all the things that are of value to a person in the places around them. We ask questions like “What spaces do you feel safe to walk around in? What’s one neighbourhood you go to often and why? What’s something that happened to you near where you live?” These prompts can become fodder for a really good tour.

The other thing you can do is to go for a walk with a friend. That’s often a really great way of sussing out topics that might come up in conversation. To capture the ideas that come up while you wander, we’re introducing an Instagram plugin so that people can walk around, take photos, tag them onto a map, and think about whether there’s a narrative arc that they can turn into a story.

The very last thing is a series of video tips for walk leaders, which you can access once you register on janeswalk.org. One of the videos discusses how to create dialogue by inviting responses and stories from people in the crowd. I went on a great walk that did this. The walk leader got to one of the stops, and said, “You know, I don’t know anything about this space,” and then passed the mic off. It was truly a conversation because everybody was able to share something.

That moment when you learn about how varied and storied the places around you are, and that you only have one slice of the experience, that’s what’s so special and wonderful. I haven’t yet found a project outside of Jane’s Walk that gets at community engagement in quite that way.

For more information on Jane’s Walk, visit janeswalk.org

Related:

• 11 Jane's Walks being led by Daniels Faculty alumni, faculty, and students this weekend in Toronto

When it came time to choose a topic for her final thesis, Master of Architecture student Tings Chak (MArch 2014) was interested in combining her architectural skills and knowledge with her political organizing work. The result was an investigation into migrant detention centres in Canada — “the fastest growing incarceration sector in an already booming prison construction industry.” Chak transformed her research into a graphic novel that documents the intimate experiences of detainees and the impact of the architecture in which they are forced to reside.

In fall 2014, Chak’s work was on display in the Daniels Faculty’s Eric Arthur Gallery as part of the exhibition Tactical Resilience. The show also featured an exhibit by Elisa Silva entitled “Pure Space: Public Space Transformations in Latin American Slums.” Both projects look closely at the political and material economies of space that permeate public and institutional settings occupied by some of North and South America’s most marginalized individuals.

Bachelor of Arts in Architectural Studies student Josie Northern Harrison (BA 2017) asked Chak about her work with the organization No One Is Illegal - Toronto, how it influenced her thesis, and her book Undocumented: The Architecture of Migrant Detention.

No One Is Illegal heavily influenced your thesis and professional work. Could you describe the work that they do?
No One Is Illegal is a grassroots, all-volunteer organization made up of migrants and allies. We lean heavily to the left and have a very critical analysis of the immigration system. Our broad work challenges detentions and deportations, supports Indigenous sovereignty struggles, and works with people who are undocumented to make sure that they can access essential services. Last September, 191 immigration detainees staged a mass hunger strike (which is featured in the book), but it sparked a larger effort for those of us on the outside to work in solidarity with people leading the resistance and to build a campaign around ending immigration detention.

How did you get involved with No One Is Illegal?
I got involved just after my first year of doing the Masters of Architecture program here at the Daniels Faculty. The first year of architecture school was extremely challenging. What I found the hardest was the isolation from communities and the political work that is really important to me. I was constantly searching for a more critical, political analysis of architecture and the built environment beyond form and aesthetic. I have also always been interested in themes of migration, displacement, and colonization, so for these reasons I joined the organization. It definitely made life strained at times — It's very hard to do any type of organizing as a student because of the intense culture of architecture school, but I felt like I needed it, in a way, to keep me going.

I should mention Scapegoat, which is a journal about architecture, landscape, and the political economy founded by a number of people who have been associated with the Daniels Faculty. It's great! I would highly recommend this to students who are also struggling with these political questions.

How did your experience with No One Is Illegal influence your thesis?
My education and my political work felt like two opposing worlds. I had a hard time bringing my work for No One is Illegal into my life as an architecture student. When it was time to do my thesis, when we could really explore our own interests, I started thinking about where architecture intersects with migration. I was looking at things like border infrastructure, ports of entry and airports, and that led me to consider migrant detention centres, which are the fastest growing incarceration sector in North America’s prison system. I started looking into why architects’ designs of these centres and prisons were not talked about, and why they are not featured in our design magazines even though architects are given huge commissions to design them. These investigations informed my thesis work and the book. Halfway through my thesis research, the migrant detainees in Lindsay began their strike, which made it feel urgent and necessary to feature their experiences and courageous actions.

Could you explain your decision to present your research in the form of a hand-drawn graphic novel?
Using hand drawings was not just an aesthetic decision. A lot of what I’m talking about is about paper, of having papers as a proof of personhood and the fragility of paper. Having certain documents can determine a lot of things in our lives. For a migrant, it can determine your freedom, what rights or services you have access to, and what protections you might have. Hand drawing the book helped emphasize that arbitrariness and fragility. Also hand drawings helped emphasise the role of architectural representation, and how the act of drawing and revealing can be a political practice.

You launched your graphic novel in September. What happened to your mother on the night of the launch?
Someone at the launch went up to my mom and said, “Oh, this is a book launch, are you supposed to be here?” This question — even if it’s said in the nicest tone — is clearly just saying: “You don’t belong here.”

For me, it was important to make a small statement on Facebook afterwards to acknowledge that we have a lot to work to do in terms of creating welcoming spaces. It’s very easy to say, “It's a public space. It’s a free space. It’s inclusive.” But we are constantly excluding people, and here in academia, as well as in artist or activist spaces, we have to be conscious about those levels of exclusion and what "publics" we serve.

It’s interesting that my parents reacted differently, whether to be offended or to brush it off. People learn different ways of dealing with these common subtle forms of racism.

In your work, there seems to be a conflict between your desire to become a designer of spaces that affect people’s identity and your determination to shine a light on the way that spaces can oppress people’s identity. Have you found a way to resolve this conflict in your professional practice?
Most of the people I’ve befriended who remain in the architectural discipline are people who teach and are not practitioners. I don't think that's a coincidence! I think people who are politically minded tend choose a path that’s not around practice because there are a lot of the real problems associated with it. But that’s not to say that I’m ruling it out. There are design practices that try to complement research-based work, though, in a time of global austerity, this work tends to involve small-scale interventions rather than large permanent projects.

Occasionally, I do see amazing projects that enhance community life in a real way and further social movements. I often wonder though: are those involved in this work just independently wealthy, or do they rely on having a permanent paid gig that allows them to do something collaborative on the side?

But these are important questions to think about, like: What is the role of service in architecture? Is this a public service? If so, who is it accountable to and who gets to access it?

How does it feel to come back to the Daniels Faculty as a recent graduate?
The fact that the Daniels Faculty is showing support for my work and exhibiting it is not just great on a personal level; it’s great because the Faculty is engaging challenging political questions. It's also exciting to see new political projects emerge like speaker-series being organized by students [Editor's note: more on this to come!]. There is obviously a need for this type of work, and people are organizing to make it happen.

The exhibition Tactical Resilience runs until November 28th in the Eric Arthur Gallery.