Currently on display across all three floors of the Daniels Building at 1 Spadina Crescent, the 2023/24 End of Year Show spotlights student work from each of the degree programs at the Daniels Faculty, including graduate and undergraduate studies in Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Forestry, Urban Design and Visual Studies.

On view until the end of June, the annual exhibition this year encompasses “three-dimensional, two-dimensional, audio and digital projects,” say Brandon Bergem and Jeffrey Garcia, co-curators of the 2023/24 Show.

Both are sessional lecturers at the Faculty as well as the co-founders of the interdisciplinary design practice Office In Search Of (OISO).

“Our best approximation,” they say, “is that 300-plus students are represented [in the show], with contributions ranging from…a four-foot-by-four-foot orthographic drawing [and] a collection of gifs on a monitor [to] a three-foot-long section drawing and a handcrafted wooden lounge chair.”

According to the curators, the selection and organization of the vast body of student submissions was based largely on two guiding principles.

“The first was how to celebrate the immense collective creative output produced by students at the Faculty and not focus on individual students or prioritize any course or program. The second was how to best represent the projects optimally without compromising the integrity of the work.”

For example, they say, “students in the Forestry program produce exceptional research, and Visual Studies students often display work in formats that require different consideration than what we are accustomed to in studio reviews.”

As a whole, the exhibition offers a comprehensive and revealing survey of the wide-ranging yet synergistic study taking place at the school right now.

Still, say Bergem and Garcia, how to exhibit the breadth of this work presented no small challenge.

“The layout of an entire exhibition catalogue was spread across every pin-up panel in the main-floor hallway. In the second-floor hallway, each pin-up panel was dedicated to specific drawing types (site plans, sections, elevations, etc.), then covered in a wallpaper of black and white drawings from students’ projects, assembled like puzzle pieces. 

“On the second floor, we devised a continuous 16-foot strip composed of collages and renderings that were mounted on the walls in one of the rooms that projected into the space by wrapping around the columns. In another, tree-based objects like mallets, chairs and a memorial sculpture were staged like a tableau in the centre of the room, with research graphics attached to the walls.

“In a room on the third floor, most of the 2D material was suspended rather than pinned to the walls and the 3D objects were placed on a clustered field of plinths and light tables.”

Through these various entry points, visitors are consequently invited “to discern the themes based on commonalities and differences—for example, how can design be used as a method to advocate for biodiversity and the prevention of environmental degradation? How can the intersection of urbanism, architecture and social equity be used to inspire a higher quality of living? [And] how can the concept of a building site transcend physical location to be inclusive of cultural, historical and ecological influences?"

At the same time, questions based on medium and methodology—such as the effectiveness of orthographic drawings in communicating design intent and organization or the degree to which unconventional two- and three-dimensional forms challenge expectations of how design is interpreted—are also posed in the show.

The End of Year Show in its current building-wide incarnation will be on view at 1 Spadina until the end of June. A curated selection will then be installed in the Larry Wayne Richards Gallery and the Commons until early September. 

The Daniels Building is open to the public from 8:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. every weekday, with fob access only on Saturdays and Sundays.

All photographs by Adrian Yu + Office In Search Of

The SHIFT* Collective, a student-run publishing group based within the Daniels Faculty, will be hosting a launch event this week to celebrate the first edition of its new digital and print publication, called Scaffold* Journal.

The launch will take place on Friday, May 31, from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., in the Student Commons at 1 Spadina Crescent. Remarks will be made by the editorial team, accompanied by refreshments and a complimentary zine. No tickets are required, and all interested students, faculty and members of the public are invited to attend.

Focusing on the various methodologies of design research and visual inquiry used by students, scholars and practitioners, the first edition of Scaffold* includes the work of 21 contributors, as well as interviews with six emerging scholars and practitioners, plus visual contributions.

As noted in the call for submissions in December, the journal “intends to demystify the research process and present researchers with the opportunity to curiously and critically reflect upon their own creative and design processes.”

To that end, a diverse range of published works has been assembled, deconstructing methods from the use of interviews and ethnography in the design process to architectural reconstruction and speculative fabulation. Contributions include essays, drawings and mixed-media works spanning architecture, landscape architecture, visual studies and urban design, with projects and ideas from students at the undergraduate, graduate and doctoral levels.

Drawing on the legacy of the previous journal SHIFT* as a risograph publication, the collective will release an exclusive zine that reflects on the inspirations behind the new journal and its formation over the past months. Three commissions from undergraduate and graduate students also reflect on the process of “what it means to scaffold a project,” from the role of social media in curating precedence to self-scaffolding and the ongoing projects of SHIFT* team members.

In addition, the team has designed a small installation detailing the works behind the publication, displayed on the ground level of the Daniels Building (pictured at top).

The SHIFT* Collective “would like to express its immense gratitude for the ongoing support” of the Daniels Faculty and of the Office of the Dean, “both of which have been instrumental in the realization of this first publication.”

The journal’s faculty advisory board, which includes head operational advisor Lukas Pauer and internal advisor Jewel Amoah, “has also played a crucial role in the development and curation of the project.”

The digital publication can be accessed at theshiftcollective.net on May 31.

A full printed volume including the first and second editions will be released in the fall.

Taught by Professor Richard Sommer, Exploring Design Practices (ARC302) introduces students to the practice of architecture and its allied disciplines through a series of presentations by an array of leading practitioners and scholars. 

The conversations go beyond the case studies and examples of architecture and design typically presented in lecture-based courses to probe the ideas and influences that design and planning professionals have drawn on, whom they collaborate with, and the background frameworks to the work they do. 

The following lectures are open to all members of the Daniels community as well as the public. All lectures take place in Main Hall in the Daniels Building at 1 Spadina Crescent. Registration is not required.

Winter 2024

February 28, 12:30 p.m.
Dana Cuff
UCLA Architecture and Urban Design; cityLAB

March 6, 12:30 p.m.
Brandon Donnelly
Slate; Globizen Group

March 13, 12:30 p.m.
Peter Clewes
architectsAlliance 

March 20, 12:30 p.m.
Marshall Brown
Marshall Brown Projects

March 27, 12:30 p.m.
John Bass
UBC School of Architecture + Landscape Architecture

Earlier in the semester, students heard from Amy Whitesides, Võ Trọng Nghĩa, Germane Barnes and Georgeen Theodore.

From investigating and designing agrarian prototypes in Costa Rica to a design-build studio on Toronto Island, internships with top firms in the city and more, the Daniels Faculty is offering a diverse array of summer courses to undergraduate students this year.

Watch the Summer 2024 Info Sessions on YouTube and read the full Course Descriptions to learn more.

Interested students must submit the online application form by 11:59 p.m. on Monday, February 19.

Design Research Internship Program (DRIP)

The Design Research Internship Program (Instructor: Pina Petricone) places third- and fourth-year BAAS students with leading Toronto design practices for a period of six weeks during the May-June summer period.

Studio Abroad

Learn more about the Faculty’s three global studios this summer:

X-Athenas: Architecture & Public Space Stories in Contemporary Athens
Instructor: Petros Babasikas

Berlin, a City in Film
Instructor: Peter Sealy

Costa Rica: No Artificial Ingredients
Instructor: Mauricio Quirós Pacheco

Design Build

Design Build offers a hands-on approach to course material:

Robot Made
Instructors: Nicholas Steven Hoban
Aryan Rezaei Rad (U of T Engineering), AnnaLisa Meyboom (UBC SALA)

Lake, Ferry < Island > Flood, Design - Demarcating public space on Ward’s Island after flood protection
Instructor: Chloe Town

Circularity (of People and Place)
Instructor: TBD

The Daniels Faculty is pleased to announce a new student-edited publication, titled Scaffold* Journal: A Process-Oriented Publication for Design & Spatial Inquiry. Created by student-run publishing collective SHIFT*, the journal will highlight various processes of research and inquiry across disciplines within the Faculty. An official call for submissions will be released in the new year, with the anticipated release of the first edition in April 2024.

“Scaffold* seeks work that investigates and interrogates the processes and practices that contribute to successful research,” the student group writes. “Publishing on fields of visual inquiry within disciplines relating to the built environment, Scaffold* intends to demystify the research process and present researchers with the opportunity to curiously and critically reflect upon their own creative and design processes. Our first volume will contain two editions, the first featuring entirely in-process work from our contributors and the second featuring this same work in its completed iteration, with a focus on critical considerations of the creative process from our contributors.”

The submission period will begin in January, with the journal open to all levels of scholarship within the Faculty. From undergraduate students and research assistants to emerging scholars, practitioners and doctoral candidates, all community members are invited to contribute insights into their processes of design inquiry and research.

In its transition from its original medium of the risograph zine, the SHIFT* Collective would like to also acknowledge the support it has received from the Daniels Faculty community through the production and launch of three thematic magazines over the past two years. The collective is grateful for the Faculty’s readership and is excited to continue working with emerging designers, scholars and artists in the next developmental phase.

“Berlin is a food you have to marinate carefully.”

With this metaphor, the writer, musician and podcaster Musa Okwonga (pictured at centre below) welcomed a group of 18 Daniels Faculty students on their first morning in Berlin as part of a unique global studio led by Assistant Professor Peter Sealy.

Having read Okwonga’s Berlin memoir In The End, It Was All About Love (Rough Trade Books, 2021) before travelling there, the students engaged in a lively discussion about his creative process, why he left Britain for Berlin, and what life is like as a Black, bisexual man in Germany’s capital.

“Musa is a wonderfully generous person whom the students were thrilled to meet,” says Sealy. “His writing captures Berlin’s essence: It’s a city that requires patience to discover in all its complex flavours; you have to find your own way in.”

For Sealy, that “way in” to learning about Berlin is through films. He titled his iteration of ARC 300/2016 “Berlin, A City in Film,” and designed the course to reflect cinema’s powerful role in the construction of Berlin’s image as a modern metropolis. “Berlin’s unique status as a place where movies are made, whether that was in the 1920s or today, makes film an ideal lens for deciphering this huge city,” according to Sealy.

As a historian of media such as film and photography, Sealy himself has studied the Berlin Wall as it has appeared in films. “I believe film is a uniquely accessible medium for students to learn about new places,” he says. “As a society, we constantly consume moving pictures, which often show how people inhabit urban spaces.”

Prior to travelling to Germany, the students watched a series of films set in Berlin, beginning with Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire (1987). Their spectatorship continued with a series of nightly screenings during their three-week stay in Berlin. Highlights included seeing Walter Ruttmann’s Berlin—Symphony for a Metropolis (1927) at a freiluftkino (open-air cinema) in one of Berlin’s ubiquitous courtyards. The film was accompanied by a live performance by the electronic music group Tronthaim. Other films watched included Roberto Rosseillini’s Germany Year Zero (1948), Heiner Carow’s The Legend of Paul and Paula (1973), Cynthia Beatt’s Cycling the Frame (1988) and Sebastien Schipper’s Victoria (2018).

By day, the students explored the city through an intensive schedule of guided tours, site visits, meetings with local experts, and workshops. Among the highlights was an emotionally moving tour of the archives of the Stasi, East Germany’s secret police: a repository showcasing the banal bureaucracy of evil. Architect and U of T alumnus Bruce Kuwabara arranged a tour of the Canadian Embassy on Leipziger Platz, which he designed with his firm, KPMB Architects. The students also took day trips to Potsdam, Hamburg and Dessau, seeing the famous Bauhaus in the latter.

Yixuan Zhang, a third-year student in the Daniels Faculty’s Bachelor of Arts, Architectural Studies program, “loved exploring buildings we usually only see on [lecture] slides…going inside a building and being able to feel its materials is something I treasured from all our site visits.”

In addition to Okwonga, local Berliners who met the students included the architects Christoph Heinemann, Jochen Jürgensen and plattenbaustudio, the photographer Stefan Berg, and the author Maria Zinfert. In the course’s spirit of experimentation and discovery, one afternoon was spent learning to use analog printing presses at galerie p98a, and an evening was set aside for a Hertha Berlin soccer match at the Olimpiastadion.

The students’ main assignment was to make an eight- or 16-millimetre film using Super-8 or Bolex cameras. To do so, they were guided by three young Berlin-based filmmakers from the LaborBerlin collective: Christian Flemm, Jules Leaño and Adèle Perrin. Working in small groups, the students traversed Berlin, each trying to capture some aspect of the city’s unique spatial tapestry. “The goal of the project,” Sealy says, “was to introduce a new, unfamiliar medium [analog filmmaking] while prompting the students to see Berlin ‘through the lens.’ In other words, making films provided an opportunity to glimpse the city as filmmakers do.”

For Auden Tura, a fourth-year student in Daniels’ Bachelor of Arts, Visual Studies program, “the slowness and careful preparation required for 16mm filmmaking” allowed her and groupmates Ella Spitzer-Stephan and Gillian Stam to consider “Berlin’s urban spaces from a new perspective. With our Bolex, we began to see Berlin’s overgrown courtyards and empty buildings as mystical spaces.” Inspired by Maya Deren’s ground-breaking 1943 short Meshes of the Afternoon—which the students watched at a special screening curated by Flemm—their film investigated the surreal qualities of these semi-abandoned spaces found all over Berlin.

For Taylor Joseph, a second-year student in the Faculty’s Master of Architecture program, the entire cinematic focus of the course proved edifying. “Without the context of the course, I don’t think I would have watched or had the knowledge to be pointed in the direction of these films, most of which are in the German language. They provided a wealth of information on and such insight into the metropolis over generations. As an architecture student, I was able to understand the built environment of the past through the films and thus experience it [more richly] in the present.”

The participating students (both undergraduate and graduate) were drawn from the Daniels Faculty’s many disciplines, including architecture, visual studies and landscape architecture. “I was blown away by the way the students’ own knowledge of architecture and urban practices—how people inhabit cities—helped them decipher a multicultural city like Berlin,” Sealy says. “I took a lot of joy from the students’ own moments of discovery and cannot wait to return as soon as possible!”

“All in all,” concludes Joseph, “every moment of Berlin could make the highlight reel, as it was an unforgettable experience and hopefully will be ongoing.”

“Berlin, A City in Film” was one of four global studios offered by the Daniels Faculty in 2023. Other courses included studies in Athens, Greece; Kumasi, Ghana; and Fez, Morocco. A domestic studio also took place on Fogo Island, Newfoundland and Labrador.

Banner image by John Henry. Last image by Mint Song. All other photos by Peter Sealy.

The University of Toronto’s John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design is an unparalleled centre for learning and research, offering graduate programs in architecture, landscape architecture, forestry, urban design and visual studies, as well as unique undergraduate programs that use architecture and art as lenses through which students may pursue a broader education.   

Situated in the heart of Toronto—a hub for creative practice and home to many of Canada’s leading architects, landscape architects, urban designers, foresters, artists and curators—the Faculty focuses on interdisciplinary training and research in architecture, art and their allied practices, with a mission to educate students, prepare professionals and cultivate scholars who will play a leading role in creating more culturally engaged, ecologically sustainable environments.

U of T, which year after year ranks among the top universities in the world, provides a framework of knowledge and expertise on which all Faculty members may draw. Additionally, the environment in which our students learn and congregate is as unique as our program offerings.

The Daniels Building at 1 Spadina Crescent is a bold work of architecture and landscape on a prominent urban site between U of T’s St. George campus and the vibrant centre of Toronto. Across Spadina Crescent, the North and South Borden buildings (home to our visual studies programs) and the Earth Sciences Centre (HQ for forestry studies) complete the Faculty’s trifecta of sites. 

To learn first-hand how you can study at the Daniels Faculty, visit our campus throughout November for the following information-gathering events.

November 7 and 8: Graduate Open House

Stop by the Daniels Building at 1 Spadina Crescent or connect via Zoom on Tuesday the 7th and Wednesday the 8th to learn about the Faculty’s graduate programs in architecture, landscape architecture, urban design and forest conservation, as well as our research stream programs: our PhD in Architecture, Landscape, and Design, our Master of Science in Forestry, and our PhD in Forestry.

Learn, too, how to prepare for the application process, and pick up information on funding, financial aid and awards.  

Four tours of the Daniels Building will also be offered on Tuesday, November 7. 

To register in advance for this Graduate Open House and the individual tours, click here.

November 16: MFC Program Open House

Learn about the Faculty’s Master of Forest Conservation program—either in-person or online—by joining Assistant Professor Sally Krigstin, MFC Program Coordinator, for a presentation on the subject. The in-person session will take place at 3:00 p.m. in Room ES 1016B of the Earth Sciences Centre. For further Zoom, dial-in or other access, contact Laura Lapchinski, Program Administrator, at laura.lapchinski@daniels.utoronto.ca.

If you can’t make it on the 16th, recordings of the sessions will be made available. For more information, please visit the Daniels Forestry website.

November 23: U of T Fall Campus Day 2023 

U of T’s annual fall event for future undergrads, Fall Campus Day provides the opportunity for prospective students, as well as their parents, families and friends, to visit the downtown St. George campus and get details about our programs, colleges, residences, student life and more. Campus and residence tours, mini-lectures and presentations from the different faculties will be running throughout the day.

At the Daniels Faculty, tours and information sessions will take place at 1 Spadina Crescent from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Join us then to learn more about our undergraduate programs in Architectural Studies and Visual Studies, meet with faculty and students, tour Daniels Faculty facilities and more. 

Click here to register for the in-person FCD!

For more information on all three days, check out the Events page on the Daniels Faculty website.

Welcome to the start of the 2023-2024 academic year! Whether you’re a returning student or it’s your first year on campus, I hope that your time with us is a happy and productive one. The Daniels Faculty is a special place, and we want you to reap as much out of your experience here as possible. 

This year as in previous ones, your coursework will be complemented by an exciting roster of extracurricular offerings. Our Fall 2023 Public Program series, launching this month, includes lectures and presentations by some of the leading designers and thinkers in their fields, such as architect Bruce Kuwabara (October 19), curator Tina Rivers Ryan (November 21) and wildfire expert Jonah Susskind (November 30); the series kicks off on September 21 with a lecture by Senegalese architect Nzinga Mboup on the subject of Architecture Rooted in Place.

Look out, too, for the staging of two new exhibitions at One Spadina—a unique display of scale models of Le Corbusier works (opening October 4 in the Larry Wayne Richards Gallery) and the Indigenous-led exhibition ᐊᖏᕐᕋᒧᑦ / Ruovttu Guvlui / Towards Home (in the Architecture and Design Gallery starting October 25)—as well as a range of year-round activities planned around the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, Black History Month, and other noteworthy dates.

To be sure, your schoolwork will keep you busy, but I urge you all to attend and to take in as many of these inspiring and illuminating events as you can.

During Orientation and in the coming weeks, I’ll look forward to connecting with as many of you as possible. Dean Juan Du recently embarked on a short-term leave, and will be back in the Dean’s Office later this fall. I will be serving as Acting Dean until her return.

Now and throughout the year, please feel free to reach out to the Dean’s Office (daniels-dean@daniels.utoronto.ca) and to the Office of the Registrar and Student Services (registrar@daniels.utoronto.ca) if you have any questions or concerns.

On behalf of the Faculty, I want to wish you all a great start of term and a happy and productive semester.

Robert Levit (he/him) 
Acting Dean
John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design

Photos by Harry Choi

The John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto is pleased to present its Fall 2023 Public Program.

Our Program this semester addresses a range of pertinent issues concerning the natural and built environments, continuing the Faculty’s tradition of fostering dialogue and exchanging knowledge through a curated series of exhibitions, lectures, book talks, panel discussions and symposia. 

Through these events, we aim to engage our local and international communities on the important social, political and environmental challenges confronting our disciplines and the world today.  Topics addressed include design and social justice, urbanization and housing, art and media, and ecology and landscape resilience.  

All of the events in our Program are free and open to the public. Register in advance and consult the calendar for up-to-date details at daniels.utoronto.ca/events.  All events will be livestreamed and available to view on the Daniels Faculty's YouTube channel. 

September 21, 6:30 p.m. ET  
Architecture Rooted in Place
Featuring Nzinga B. Mboup (WOROFILA)

Register

September 28, 6:30 p.m. ET 
The Architecture of Disability
Featuring David Gissen (Parsons School of Design, The New School)

Register

October 4, 5:30 p.m. ET
Exhibition Opening—Le Corbusier: Models
A travelling exhibition of models of Le Corbusier works from the private collection of Singapore-based RT+Q Architects

Register

October 12, 6:30 p.m. ET  
Detroit-Moscow-Detroit: An Event in Honour of Jean-Louis Cohen
Featuring Claire Zimmerman (Daniels Faculty, University of Toronto) and Christina E. Crawford (Art History Department, Emory University)

Register

October 19, 6:30 p.m. ET 
George Baird Lecture: Evolving Influence
Featuring Bruce Kuwabara  (KPMB Architects)

Register

October 25, 5:30 p.m. ET
Exhibition Opening—ᐊᖏᕐᕋᒧᑦ / Ruovttu Guvlui / Towards Home
An Indigenous-led exhibition and publication project organized by the Canadian Centre for Architecture with the Daniels Faculty

Register

November 2, 6:30 p.m. ET
Technical Lands: A Critical Primer
Featuring Charles Waldheim (Graduate School of Design, Harvard University)

Register

November 21, 6:30 p.m. ET
Media Art’s Future, Present, and Past: Notes from the Field
Featuring Tina Rivers Ryan (Buffalo AKG Art Museum)

Register

November 23, 6:30 p.m. ET
On Relationality in Housing and Design
Featuring David Fortin (School of Architecture, University of Waterloo)

Register

November 30, 6:30 p.m. ET
Landscape Strategies for a Fire-Prone Planet
Featuring Jonah Susskind (SWA Group)

Register

All first-year undergraduate students are invited to participate in Critical Perspectives (Ways of Looking), a co-curricular opportunity that aims to strengthen the Daniels Faculty student community and foster critical thinking.

Through shared materials, media and workshops, incoming students will address a range of pressing issues, such as the climate crisis, racial and spatial justice, Indigenous allyship, land stewardship and the rise of artificial intelligence (AI).

“Critical Perspectives is an open resource and a greeting to our new students,” says assistant professor Petros Babasikas, director of the Honours Bachelor of Arts, Architectural Studies (BAAS) program. “It creates a common starting point to their liberal arts education while uncovering different ways of looking at the world and fostering shared understanding.”

In addition to a reading list, video interviews with faculty and staff and a future film series, the program includes an upcoming Writing Workshop from August 14 to 25. The two-week workshop offers incoming students practical tools and exercises to become better writers, and to explore the joy of writing. Students should indicate their interest in the in-person or online workshop by completing the participation form before July 15, 2023.

Visit the Critical Perspectives page to learn more and register for the Writing Workshop.