Two projects from the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design were selected by the Local Learning Studio's 2026 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Action global gallery. The work debuts at the World Urban Forum (WUF) in Baku, Azerbaijan, May 17-22.

Launched in August 2025 by an international consortium of academics and professionals, the Local Learning Studio (LLS) is a collaborative action-research initiative designed to accelerate the localization of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in built environment teaching, learning and research. LLS cycle 1 features over 60 built environment projects by educators, emerging voices (students and recent graduates) and communities representing more than 20 countries. The action-research initiative is designed to continue through 2030.

Balikbayan: Home Away From Home

Emerging Voice category 
Julia Buli-e (MArch 2025)
Thesis advisor: Assistant Professor Karen Kubey

"Balikbayan" housing celebrates cultural identity in Toronto’s Little Manila. Addressing unaffordable, inflexible housing for Filipino immigrants, it reimagines accessible homes, adapting the traditional compound into a mid-rise fostering belonging and community resilience.

Architecture and the Right to Housing

Educator category 
Assistant Professor Karen Kubey
Research Assistants: Cassandra Santaguida, Usama Nasim, Sofia Munera Mora, Dima Ghazal, and Kodi Ume-Unyido

The "Architecture and the Right to Housing" series convened public keynote lectures and private workshops in Mexico City, Toronto, Buenos Aires, São Paulo, New York, and Los Angeles.

Photo by Lea Keller courtesy of NCCR Digital Fabrication

University of Toronto MArch alumnus Nicholas Hoban is a computational designer, roboticist, fabricator and educator. He works at the intersection of computational design, robotics, construction and simulation in pedagogy, research and practice. In addition to being a lecturer, he is the director of applied technologies at Daniels, where he oversees one of the country's most advanced fabrication environments: a high-bay robotic cell at the heart of the Daniels Building. 

The foundation for it, he says, was laid in Zurich. Hoban was part of the inaugural cohort to graduate with a master of advanced studies (ETH) in architecture and digital fabrication.

In the above interview, Hoban talks about his very first steps in the MAS ETH DFAB and remembers how, as a student, he and his colleagues had to define their own working parameters, spec their own equipment and build out a functional robotic cell from the ground up. 

"That knowledge wouldn't have been afforded to us if I had just worked on a pre-set up robot," he says, noting that when the time came to build the Daniels lab, he already knew exactly what to do.

Today, his research focuses on timber, including lightweight active timber structures and reciprocal timber shells. Hoban believes robotics and computational design are necessary levers to modernize the North American construction industry and grow collaboration between academia and industry. 

The National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) Digital Fabrication is Switzerland’s initiative to lead the development and integration of digital technologies within the fields of architecture and construction. Initiated at ETH Zurich, dfab.ch is partnered with EPFL Lausanne, the Hochschule für Technik Rapperswil, the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, the Bern University of Applied Sciences, Università della Svizzera italiana (USI) and Empa.

With files from dfab.ch – Alumnus Nicholas Hoban: How Digital Fabrication Found Its Way To Canada

It is well known that urban trees help mitigate climate change impacts by shading and evaporative cooling, and also are important sinks for atmospheric CO₂. But what about the other major greenhouse gases, namely methane (CH₄) and nitrous oxide (N₂O) that together account for about one-third of global warming?

Daniels forestry PhD student Mohd. Rezaul ("Rony") Karim and Professor Sean Thomas made an educated guess about urban trees that grow in soils subject to all manner of insults and injuries, ranging from compaction to dog pee: namely, that these soil conditions would lead to production of non-CO₂ greenhouse gases both from the soil and, when channeled though the water-conducting xylem vessels, these gases would then be emitted from tree leaves.

Equipped with new-generation ultra-sensitive gas analyzers and a measuring system developed by U of T forestry affiliate startup company CredoSense LLC, Karim and Thomas found that, sure enough, representative urban street trees in Toronto do show greenhouse gas emissions both from the soil surface of planting pits, and from leaves. The emission rates are much lower, than, say, landfills—but the total leaf area of urban trees is hundreds of times larger, so the total effect is significant.

Karim and Thomas also examined street trees where the soil was treated with biochar, a charcoal-like material made from wood waste materials, and currently being used in a city-wide trial coordinated by the Thomas Lab (with funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council's Alliance Mission grants program). Remarkably, trees with surface treatments of biochar showed not only reduced emissions of methane and nitrous oxide, but in the case of methane both soils and tree leaves were taking up methane from the atmosphere.

The takeaway from this research is both cautionary and hopeful: urban trees remain vital climate allies, but their role is more complex than previously thought. With better soil management, Toronto and other cities may be able to unlock even greater climate benefits from the forests already growing along our streets.

Karim and Thomas's paper, "Urban Tree Channeling of Soil Methane and Nitrous Oxide and Its Mitigation Using Biochar," is published today in Environmental Science & Technology.

ALD PhD candidate James K. Bird (photo left, Knowledge Keeper of the Dënësųłinë́ and Nêhiyawak Nations and Residential School Survivor) was invited to join a historic gathering of 50 Indigenous PhD scholars from around the world to leverage their unique perspectives and ways of knowing in order to establish research trajectories that benefit Indigenous communities globally and respect Indigenous sovereignty.

Organized by the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), a globally influential research organization, and held earlier this month in Banff, Alberta, the Radical Interdisciplinarity forum seeks to integrate diverse knowledge systems essential to tackling global challenges that transcend borders, disciplines, complex systems and ways of knowing.

The forum will lay the groundwork for future activities at CIFAR, with participants helping to shape and build the foundation for new programming. The forum on Indigenous Knowledges aims to support early-career researchers through blue-sky brainstorming, interdisciplinary exchange and the development of ideas for future and continued engagement with the next generation of Indigenous scholars.

Bird's research explores diverse built forms and strategies by examining the use of language as an entry point (Researching the Intersection of Dënesųłiné linguistics and shape forming). Creating alternative viewpoints that assign agency to the metaphysical aspects that exist within Indigenous languages and culture is one of the key premises of this research. Bird proposes to explore this relationship between language and built form by using the ontological relationships that lie within language morphemes.

With files from CIFAR

In the photo above, Brid (left) is pictured with Dr. Oka Sanerivi, Indigenous representatives from Tonga in the South Pacific (supplied photo courtesy of Bird). In the photo below, Radical Interdisciplinarity: Indigenous Knowledges attendees at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity (Pam Doyle Photography). 

Liat Margolis, an associate professor in the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design, has been appointed as the new academic co-chair of the President's Advisory Committee on the Environment, Climate Change and Sustainability (CECCS).

Professor Margolis is a former CECCS member and previously served as chair of its Teaching and Learning subcommittee.

Since 2017, the CECCS has worked to coordinate, embed and advance sustainability in every aspect of university activities ranging from teaching to research to operations and community engagement. The committee is currently comprised of 22 presidential appointees from the student body, faculty and staff and has contributed significantly to U of T’s recognition as one of the top two universities in the QS World University Rankings: Sustainability.

Over the next year, CECCS will guide U of T's next chapter for sustainability through a dedicated review and consultation process, culminating in a set of recommended strategies for continued leadership in sustainability in advance of U of T's bicentennial in 2027.

Learn more at sustainability.utoronto.ca

The Invasive Species Centre (ISC) has recognized members of the Institute of Forestry and Conservation at the University of Toronto's John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design.

A not‑for‑profit, ISC prevents the spread of invasive species in Canada and beyond, helping safeguard the economy, society and Canada’s biodiversity.

Professor Sandy M. Smith, an internationally recognized expert in the ecology and biological management of invasive forest insects for urban forest restoration and conservation, received the Career Achievement Award. Smith leads innovative biological control research with 160+ publications, mentoring countless forestry professionals, including more than 65 doctoral students.

Adjunct Professor Dr. Rob Bourchier, a retired research scientist of insect ecology and biological control with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, was also the recipient of the Career Achievement Award. Serving in a national scientific leadership role, Bourchier’s innovative biological control research has had a lasting impact in agricultural and range management

Joel Goodwin (PhD 2026), a researcher with Natural Resources Canada, was recognized with the Young Professional Award. His applied research has improved invasive insect monitoring, including creative trap designs and detection methods that are now informing real-world management and eradication efforts. Joel completed his doctoral work under the supervision of Smith and Adjunct Professor Dr. Jeremy Allison, with the Canadian Forest Service. 

“The achievements of Sandy, Rob, and Joel represent the very best of Canada’s forest research community,” said Associate Professor John Caspersen, director of forestry programs at the Daniels faculty. “Their scientific contributions are strengthening Canada’s ability to respond to invasive species. We are proud to celebrate their well‑earned recognition by the ISC.”

The awardees were recognized at an awards presentation held during the annual Invasive Species Forum.
 

For Yan Wu, a PhD student in the University of Toronto’s John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, contemporary art inspires possibility. 

"It completely changed me,” says Wu of Shanghai’s Biennale in the year 2000. “It's the experience you have that stays with you and lingers. That's what I think contemporary public art should be.”

Born and raised in Shanghai, Wu says her formative years coincided with the emergence of the Internet and China’s then underground music scene. 

“I consider that [time] the tail-end of the avant-garde movement in China. I saw artists, happenings and performance. It opened the door.”

Wu, whose PhD research focuses on public art as play space, snaps a selfie inside the bathroom at the Site of Reversible Destiny – Yoro Park by Arakawa + Gins in Gifu, Japan. The 2025 summer research trip was funded by U of T's Asian Institute and undertaken with MArch graduates Lily Lu and Michelle Choi. They studied radical play spaces — and play spaces for seniors and legacy of Metabolism. Their work is documented at the website radicalplay.cargo.site.
 

But Wu says she reached a tipping point. She chose to study abroad and completed her bachelor’s in computer science at the University of Guelph, which she says has helped her interpret ‘60s and ‘70s conceptual art.

"I think computer science, especially software engineering, is about studying process,” says Wu. “You translate something into machine language and execute it to see how the process works. That’s basically what conceptual art is to me; sometimes using process as commentary, sometimes appropriating the process itself. I see those connections.”

Wu spent five years working in the field while continuing to contribute to the arts as writer and translator for Canadian and Chinese art and architecture publications, including Artforum.cn and ArtReview Asia, among others. In 2012, she curated the first exhibition of Mitchell Akiyama at Gendai Gallery, a non-profit public art gallery that was then dedicated to showing works by artists with East Asian background. Akiyama is now an assistant professor of visual studies at Daniels. 

"I chose to study at Daniels because of this history; I know the faculty members. I worked with them and I can keep experimenting with them,” she says of her decision to leave the technology sector and pursue a master of visual studies in curatorial studies at Daniels. 

During her MVS, she co-curated the Canadian Pavilion at the Shenzhen Bi-city Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture with chief curator Janine Marchessault. After graduating in 2015, she spent a year in Shanghai working as assistant curator on the inaugural edition of the Shanghai Urban Space Art Season before holding a curatorial residency at U of T’s Art Museum, where she curated Making Models, an exhibit of experimental architecture projects. Today, Wu is the public art curator for the City of Markham, a role she values in its relationship to curatorial practice, as it goes well beyond the ‘white box’ of the gallery space.

“Public art gives me opportunity to work against spectacle,” she says. “I don't believe in vertical monuments. I believe in horizontal monuments – how this monumentality can be integrated into everyday life.”  

The monumentality of every day mattered most to Wu when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2023.

“The only way I could cope with my time in hospital, was to imagine what kind of projects I could bring to these spaces. That gave me a lot of joy,” says Wu. 

Wu, Kara Hamilton and Patricia Ritacca, all cancer patients, formed the curatorial collective CMBT (Co-conspiracy Means [to] Breathe Together). Together, they brought Between Leaf & Light, an immersive 43-minute soundscape by artist Scott Rogers, to the Hudson Regional Cancer Centre at Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre (RVH) in Barrie last March. 

"Bringing Scott’s sound installation into the cancer centre felt like expanding what care could look like," says Wu. "We weren’t interested in decorative distraction. We were asking whether an artwork could engage more of the senses, introduce complexity into the hospital experience and offer patients a different kind of agency. That question continues to shape how I think about public art."

Wu’s curation of Lost and Found by artists Holly Ward and Kevin Schmidt, a graduate of U of T’s master of visual studies in studio art (all pictured above), unfolded as an outdoor component along the Markham Rouge Valley Trail over the summer and fall of 2023, followed by an exhibition and publication in winter 2024 at the Varley Art Gallery of Markham.

“Conventional understandings of curatorial studies often focus on history-making and spatial design; on how we interpret and present art in space. But it’s more than that,” says Wu. “With public art, I’m not just placing work in a site — I’m thinking about how a space can become a place that serves the project. For example, how do we bring contemporary art into ecologically sensitive trail environments in a way that respects the site?”
 

Volunteers and community groups, including a seniors' group who regularly used the trail for Tai Chi practice, were invited to wear t-shirts designed by Ward and Schmitt.

"[The artists] also constructed two mobile instrument cart and hired local amateur musicians to play the carts, or their own instrument, along the trail,” says Wu. "The idea of a rehearsal was really important. They would rehearse along the trail. People walking down the trail would hear something unexpected and discover someone playing music there." 

Toward the end of the outdoor season, the artists hosted an appreciation event at the Varley Art Gallery of Markham with the participating musicians, where they collected their experiences into Trail News. The t-shirts worn by volunteers were further transformed into sculptural pieces. 

“A lot of [public art] activities end up as video and audio documentation. What we often see is the body politic – it becomes less about the project itself. [With Lost and Found] you don't see any documentation of what happened on the trail, but you manage to experience what happened on the trail.”

Lost and Found was recognized by the Creative City Network of Canada with an Impact Award for sustainability. Their award citation said the project “celebrated everyday presence and civic participation over spectacle, offering a deeply reflective model of sustainable and inclusive public art.” 

“My PhD topic is public art as play space," says Wu, who previously taught a fourth-year undergraduate course on public art. "I see play space as a research lab." 

Collaborating with artist Gareth Long, an assistant professor and director of the Visual Studies program, Long used the Rouge Valley Trail in Markham as a research site for students (pictured above). Four students from the course — Satyam Mistry, Olive Wei, Auden Tura and Ella Spitzer-Stephan — went on to work as summer research interns with Markham Public Art, where they jointly developed an online resource. 

“It's become clear to me, contemporary cultural practice for art in public space is no longer about curating objects, it's about curating infrastructures and conditions," adds Wu.  

Wu has also been recognized by Ontario Galleries’ BIPOC Changemaker Award. The BIPOC Changemaker Award celebrates arts leaders who identify as Black, Indigenous, or People of Colour for their exceptional contributions to BIPOC communities and Ontario’s public art gallery sector, who amplify voices from diverse social and political backgrounds and foster unique relationships with the land.

"By definition, I'm a Chinese Canadian, but I don't feel I  quite fit within that blanket identity because I didn't grow up here,” says Wu. “The dominant narrative is often about the struggle of Chinese immigrants — the Head Tax and the history of Chinese Canadian living conditions here. I didn’t experience that. My ancestors didn’t experience that. I’m not a descendant of that particular history... But my dad told me this designation isn’t rooted in oppression — it’s rooted in respect. It reflects a long evolution of understanding. And if it gives me a platform, I can use that platform to raise my voice.”

Up next, Wu is curating a solo exhibition of Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream Morris Lum’s Interior Chinatown. Lum's Chinatown photography was recently featured by CNN and published in the book, Chinatowns: Tong Yan Gaai. The exhibition will open at the McMaster Museum of Art in September and will then travel to the Varley Art Gallery of Markham in summer 2027.
 

“We’re examining Morris’s existing photographic work, but more importantly, asking what the full scope of his practice is,” says Wu. “In the photographs, there’s this ghosted veil — often no people — but his process is deeply rooted in social networks and in building trust within these communities. The Chinese characters are also a significant part of the images, so we’re beginning to exchange how we read and understand those spaces. We’re also exploring places in Markham that he hasn’t photographed yet.”

For Wu, it all comes back to process. 

"I make projects with artists; we're co-conspirators in a way. I observe their process. I need to understand how they work. Then I can figure out how best to present how they work."

Ambareen Fatima (BAAS 2026) and Usama Nasim (MArch 2026) are recipients of the SDGs@UofT Student Awards.

SDGs@UofT is dedicated to platforming, showcasing and implementing the 17 Sustainable Development Goals outlined by the United Nations. The student awards program supports high-quality research across a wide range of disciplines.

Ambareen Fatima, Supervisor: J. Alstan Jakubiec

"Performance-Based Design Guidelines for Biogenic Carbon in Ontario’s Low-Rise Housing" 

This research develops performance-based design guidelines that integrate biogenic carbon accounting into building life-cycle assessments for low-rise residential construction in Toronto. Developed in collaboration with Isha Sharma and building on her previous thesis research, the project further examines how material choices, particularly mass timber, brick, and concrete, shape embodied carbon, construction waste, and long-term climate performance. Using life-cycle modeling and Ontario-specific material data, the research translates complex carbon accounting methods into accessible, compliance-ready metrics for architects and policymakers. The project aims to support circular design practices and inform building codes that align housing development with Ontario’s net-zero-by-2050 climate goals.

Usama Nasim, Supervisor: Karen Kubey

"Unjust Spaces: Exploring SDG Interdependencies Through Temporary Worker Housing in Ontario"

Canada’s Temporary Foreign Workers Program exposes migrant workers from developing countries to systemic abuse and exploitation. Their housing conditions in Ontario, frequently characterized by overcrowding, unsanitary conditions and surveillance, remain largely absent from planning, design, and sustainability discourse. My thesis explores how a human rights-based approach to housing design can play a critical role in synergizing efforts towards eradicating labor exploitation (SDG 8), reducing economic inequalities (SDG 10), and developing inclusive built environments (SDG 11). By situating migrant worker housing as a key site of SDG interdependence, the research advances design strategies promoting more just, safe, and inclusive living spaces for Ontario’s most vulnerable population.

Learn more about SDGs@UofT awarded projects

Rasoul Yousefpour, an associate professor in John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, is among nine researchers from the University of Toronto have received Connaught Community Partnership Research Program awards for 2025-26.

Given by the Connaught Fund, the awards support research carried out in collaboration with non-academic community partners and driven by their needs and priorities. A total of just over $850,000 is being disbursed for the 2025-26 competition, with each project eligible to receive up to $50,000 per year for one to two years.

Yousefpour receives research program award for forest management approaches for safeguarding water resources against wildfires.

"The Connaught Community Partnership Research Program has a proud track record of supporting projects that have driven research priorities identified by community partners, while strengthening relationships between U of T scholars, community organizations and communities across Canada," said Leah Cowen, U of T’s vice-president, research and innovation, and strategic initiatives.

See the full list of U of T recipients

Republished from U of T Celebrates

Anna Renken, a PhD candidate at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, with a collaborative specialization in environmental studies, has been recognized by the Graham Foundation with the 2025 Carter Manny Research Award. 

Founded in 1956, the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts fosters the development and exchange of diverse and challenging ideas about architecture and its role in the arts, culture, and society. The award supports emerging scholars completing exceptional doctoral dissertations in this area.  

Renken’s doctoral thesis explores how North American architect-led laboratories advanced ecological design through engagement with science and technology from the 1970s to 1990s. Her research seeks to contribute to new histories of ecological design. Renken also received the Beatrice and Arthur Minden Graduate Research Fellowship from U of T’s School of the Environment. 

“Congratulations to Anna for this prestigious recognition of her research,” said Professor Claire Zimmerman, director of the PhD program at the Daniels Faculty. “The Carter Manny is the most celebrated doctoral award in our field. Anna’s work exemplifies the bold, interdisciplinary inquiries our graduate students are undertaking.”

Renken’s doctoral supervisor is Associate Professor Mary Louise Lobsinger and interdisciplinary committee members include James Graham, an assistant professor at the California College of the Arts, Assistant Professor Jason Nguyen, Avery Slater, an associate professor in the Department of English & Drama at the University of Toronto Mississauga and a research lead at U of T’s Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society, and Zimmerman.