This summer, undergraduate students at the Daniels Faculty explored the role that architecture could play in fostering community outreach and engagement in Toronto’s Parkdale neighbourhood.

As part of a design/build studio (ARC399) led by Sessional Instructor Reza Nik, the students worked with members of the Parkdale Neighbourhood Land Trust (PNLT), to look at ways that engagement in social justice movements could be more spatially dynamic.

Over the course of two weeks, they designed and built a mobile structure that could be rolled out and set up in the public spaces people often pass through. The goal: to help local organizations, such as PNLT, spark discussion, participation, learning, and action in their own neighbourhood. Inspired in part by tourist information kiosks, The Mobilizer made its debut outside the Toronto Public Library’s Parkdale branch, July 4.

"In a city like Toronto, the general public often engages with social justice movements in the form of demonstrations, pickets, and, occasionally, targeted pamphleting campaigns — efforts that are typically limited in frequency and geographical scope, or are aesthetically unapproachable," says Nik. "As architects and designers, we could have a major part to play in addressing this problem. We are uniquely poised to design new spatial nodes that connect social movements with new and diverse elements of the public."

Led by Parkdale residents and community groups concerned about the gentrification that threatens the neighbourhood’s unique social, cultural, and economic diversity, PNLT formed to build a community land trust, which would allow it to acquire land. Once owned by the community, the purchased land could then be dedicated to affordable housing, social enterprises, non-profit organizations, urban agriculture, or open space. The organization bought its first piece of land in 2017. In 2019, it purchased an existing rooming house and will help ensure its units remain affordable for another 99 years.

Andrew Winchur, who currently chairs PNLT’s Communications Engagement Committee and manages the Parkdale Free School, joined Nik’s summer class as a guest instructor. He spoke to the students about the strengths and weaknesses of typical engagement tactics and the idea of using tourist kiosks as a framework for social movements. The students visited the Parkdale neighbourhood to meet with members of the community and learn more about PNLT.

The objective of the course was to develop a type of “pop-up architecture” that would “take up space” and facilitate a high level of social engagement. “The community wanted something that was mobile, so it could be set up anywhere, anytime, and something that provided a spectacle when pushing it down the sidewalk,” says Nik.

The resulting "Mobilizer" is flexible and easy to move, with fold out seating, a built-in chalkboard, shelves and slots for books and pamphlets, and a small battery-powered generator for microphones and laptops. The structure was designed to not only engage passersby, but also support pop up events and an outdoor classroom for the Parkdale Free School. A corkboard map of the neighbourhood provides wayfinding, and poles can be set up to support shading. The Mobilizer also includes six benches that can easily be assembled to seat 3 people each. The pattern of holes on one of the fold-out walls reflects the community’s solidarity flag.

In addition to providing students with the opportunity to turn their own drawings and concepts into a real physical piece of architecture, Nik hopes that the two-week intensive design/build studio will also inspire them to rethink their understanding of the role that architecture can play in social movements. “Lack of attention to the spaces of engagement creates an opportunity for architectural intervention,” says Winchur.

Visit PNLT’s website to learn more about the organization and how to get involved.

By Romi Levine, Cross-posted from U of T News

The University of Toronto’s Governing Council recently approved a proposal for academic restructuring that closes the Faculty of Forestry and has faculty members, students, and staff from forestry join the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design.

The move, which took effect July 1, creates a new home for forest science research, programs and professional forestry education and means that all programs from the former Faculty of Forestry will continue within the Daniels faculty. The decision follows extensive consultations over several years with faculty members, students, staff, alumni and industry groups, and aims to secure a sustainable future for forestry-related academic programs and research at the university.

 “We are committed to ensuring forestry as a discipline not only flourishes, but continues to be a source of innovation at the University of Toronto,” said Vice-President and Provost Cheryl Regehr. “This new vision for forest sciences and forestry education will provide students and faculty with the resources necessary to engage in forestry research and interdisciplinary collaboration for years to come.”

The 122 graduate students in forestry programs will not be affected by the move, nor will undergraduate students who are pursuing forestry-related courses and programs through the Faculty of Arts & Science. There will be no reduction to the number of faculty or staff. Professor Sandy Smith has been appointed Program Director for the forestry graduate programs, which will continue to be offered through the forestry graduate unit and housed at 33 Willocks St.

To assist with the transition and to support future innovative research and interdisciplinary collaboration, the provost has allocated an additional $1 million in funding to the Daniels faculty budget. Five new faculty positions will also be added to support cross-disciplinary forestry research within the Daniels faculty.

“We are excited to join forces with U of T’s forestry faculty, staff and students to continue and expand upon its outstanding programs and vital scientific research in the field of forestry,” said Richard Sommer, dean of the Daniels Faculty. “Through their research, teaching and outreach, our forestry colleagues lead their field in exploring the most sustainable ways to manage Canada’s – and the world’s – forests.”

Forestry’s new home within the Daniels faculty will pave the way for new collaborations between design and forest sciences scholars, he added.

“Bringing forestry’s strengths in ecosystem management, biomaterials science, conservation science, urban forestry and mass timber technology together with our strengths in architecture, urban design, art and landscape architecture is going to create a unique and, we believe, powerful interdisciplinary approach to environmental design, land conservation and wood-based design and construction.”

The move also better positions students to meet societal and environmental challenges as they enter the workforce, according to Robert Wright, an associate professor at Daniels who was named dean of  forestry in 2017 for a two-year term.

“Design without having scientific partners doesn't make a lot of sense in a world with climate change and environmental change,” he said. “There's a lot of good crossover in terms of interests.”

Beyond its academic benefits, placing forestry within a larger faculty will allow its students, faculty and staff to access more resources and supports, Wright added.

“We now have a full set of student services, including embedded counselors for mental health, financial officers, language supports and full-time fundraising people – a whole host of faculty-level services, which will really benefit forestry into the future.”

A group of graduate students from the Daniels Faculty who were among the winners of the 2019  International Garden Festival Competition have constructed their installation Making Waves at Reford Gardens / Jardins de Metis. While there, they learned that they were the first student team to have ever won the competition.

The team included Master of Landscape Architecture students Cornel Campbell, Thevishka Kanishkan, and Reesha Morar, and Master of Architecture student and Anton Skorishchenko. Professor Ted Kesik was the students' advisor.

From the students' project description:

In physics, the kinetic energy of an object is the energy built up within it due to its motion. Building upon this idea, our team wanted to show how the motion of just two individuals could build up, expand, and multiply kinetic energy to create a spectacular wave of colour. Visitors are invited to play on a seesaw, but will be surprised at how a familiar activity can have such unfamiliar and exciting results. As the seesaw moves up and down, a wave of kinetic energy radiates from pink to blue as the colourful bars oscillate from the motion created by the users. The fantastic displays of colour and movement created by kinetic energy allows each participant to “make waves” in their own way.
 

Established in 2000, the International Garden Festival is the leading contemporary garden festival in North America. Making Waves was among six new garden projects that were selected from 154 submissions around the world.

The International Garden Festival runs until October 6 at Jardins de Metis / Reford Gardens on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River between Rimouski and Matane in Quebec. Visitors to the festival can explore 27 contemporary gardens, and enter the interactive spaces created by more than eighty-five landscape architects, architects, designers, and visual artists.

For more information, visit the International Garden Festival website.

Photos, top by Martin Bond for the Reford Gardens

On June 14, the Daniels Faculty held a reception to celebrate students graduating from our Honours Bachelor of Arts, Architectural Studies; Honours Bachelor of Arts, Visual Studies; Master of Architecture; Master of Landscape Architecture; Master of Urban Design; and Master of Visual Studies programs.

During the reception, a number of students were bestowed with awards, established through the generous support of Daniels Faculty donors and friends. Pictured at the top of this page is Camila Campos Herrera (centre)  who received the Ontario Association of Landscape Architecture  (OALA) Certificate of Merit. Pictured with her is the Director of our Landscape Architecture program Associate Professor Liat Margolis and Past President of the OALA Doris Chee.

Undergraduate Awards

Academic Merit Award
Mingzhu Cao / Eric Emerson Chen / Inge Donovan / Zina Fraser Jeffrey Hill / Xingzhi Huang / Erich Zakary Jacobi / Chun Kin Lui / Estefania Belen Mera Molina / Farwa Mumtaz / Tina Siassi / Mark Jin Chuen Soh / Daniel Vanderhorst / Evan Douglas Webber / Hanyong Xu / Jie Zhou

Daniels Faculty Undergraduate Community Leadership Award
Eric Emerson Chen
Emily Morton

Daniels Faculty Undergraduate Critical Practices Award
Nouran Abdelhamid

Daniels Faculty Undergraduate Design Award
Novak Djogo

Daniels Faculty Undergraduate History/Theory Award
Inge Donovan

Daniels Faculty Undergraduate Merit Award
Tina Siassi

Daniels Faculty Undergraduate Studio Art Award
Isabel Mink

Daniels Faculty Undergraduate Technology Award
Hao Wu

Daniels Faculty Visual Studies Undergraduate Thesis Project Prize
Chun Kin Lui
Kelcy Timmons

Governor General’s Silver Medal nominee
Jeffrey Hill

Graduate Awards

Academic Honours Certificate
Kathleen Alexander /  Brandon Bergem / Samantha Eby / Dalia Gebran / Serafima Korovina / Nicholas Reddon / Devin Tepleski

Alpha Rho Chi Medal
Jeanie Lim

AIA Henry Adams Medal and Certificate
Samantha Eby

ARCC / King Student Medal
Simon Rabyniuk

ASLA Certificate of Honor
Aaron Hernandez
Devin Tepleski

ASLA Certificate of Merit
Hadi El-Shayeb
Peggy Wong

CSLA Student Award of Merit
Kathleen Alexander

Faculty Design Prize
MArch:
Zainab Firas Adil Al-Rawi / Brandon Bergem / Barron Crawford / Katerina Gloushenkova /Jaimie Howard  
Serafima Korovina / Joseph Loreto / Nicholas Reddon / Jake Wolf

MLA:
Hadi El-Shayeb / Cynthia Chiu-Chen / Devin Tepleski

MUD:
Gabriela Luna-Vélez

Heather M. Reisman Gold Medal in Design
Katerina Gloushenkova

Irving Grossman Prize
Nicolas Mayaux

The Kuwabara-Jackman Architecture Thesis Gold Medal
Brandon Bergem

Master in Visual Studies Graduating Scholarship
Miles Rufelds

OAA Architectural Guild Medal
Serafima Korovina

OALA Certificate of Merit
Camila Campos Herrera

Royal Architectural Institute of Canada Student Medal
Serafima Korovina

Royal Architectural Institute of Canada Honour Roll
Nicolas Gordon Ager
Serafima Korovina
Ramsey Leung
Nicholas Reddon

Toronto Society of Architects Scholarship
Samantha Eby

On June 6, the Class of 2019 joined the Daniels Faculty's esteemed alumni community. As our graduates begin this new chapter in their lives, we asked veteran alumni to share some words of wisdom on life after school.

Congratulations to all students from our undergraduate and graduate programs who have now received their degree!

1. Don't spend too much time with Architects.

"That was the advice Arthur Erickson gave me before I started my Master's degree. I haven't fully heeded his advice but it's been healthy to spend as much time as possible outside of practice... to find the most useful stuff, the inspiring stuff, and to keep things vital.” — Drew Sinclair (MArch 2007)

(What are the keys to designing successful social housing? Azure asked the experts, including Mark Sterling and Drew Sinclair)

2. Walk in cities unknown to you.

Look at the textures, notice where people are sitting, watch how the sunlight sets on a city’s walls and streetscapes. Document these experiences in ways that feel familiar to you: sketching, filming, photography. Then, when you return home and are working on new projects, recall why certain places remain in your memory long after you have left, and strive to create similar experiences in the landscapes you create. — Jordan Duke (MLA 2016)

(Mitigating wildfires through landscape design: Jordan Duke explores the role that landscape architects can play in diminishing disasters.)

3. Don’t drown in trying to be like others.

Embrace yourself and your unique perspective. Trust it. Value it. Grow it. Find ways to share it with the rest of us. — Safoura Zahedi, (MArch 2016)

(Safoura Zahedi's installation at the Gladstone Hotel explores geometry's potential as a contemporary, universal design language.)

4. Dream about the kind of city you want to live in.

Go out there and try to build it now because it could take a lifetime to realize. — Gabriel Fain, (MArch 2010)

(Follow Gabriel Fain Architects on Instagram.)

5. With both colleagues and clients, learning how to listen is key.

In architecture school, you're judged for the individual effort you put into your work. In contrast, clients don’t know or care about what you do as an individual. They just want their project to look great and be sustainable.  
 
In order to meet the expectations of clients, architects must learn to work as an effective team in completing projects and in communicating with clients. — Thomas Tampold (BArch 1982)

(Long-time architect Thomas Tampold details why he opened Yorkville Design Centre – and the Toronto design outposts that inspired him.)

6. Be bold and take risks.

Turn things you don't like into things that you can learn from. Find the balance between work and leisure.

Travel whenever you can. When you are there, take public transit, go to local grocery stores, and buy a book from a family-run bookstore. — Henry Heng Lu (MVS 2017)

(In case you missed it: Henry Heng Lu won an Exhibition of the Year award from the Ontario Association of Art Galleries. Website: henryhenglu.org)

7. Study broadly, read widely.

Seek out people and conversations and ideas and work that challenge you. Some of the most surprising moments of learning and discovery can be found there. Wherever you find yourself, support others the way you would want to be supported; the simple act of listening or care can be best way to create and foster an inclusive space and community. — Elise Hunchuk (MLA 2016)

(Learn about Elise Hunchuck’s recent research trip to the Chernobyl Exclusion zone.)

8. Take on EVERY assignment with an inquisitive passion and soak up the wisdom from your senior colleagues.

Every day is a learning experience — Bryce Miranda (BLA 2001)

(Bryce Miranda contributes to 8 tips for Master of Landscape Architecture students about to start their career)

 
9. Better conversations equal better results.

In today’s climate of accelerated change and uncertainty about “what’s next”, the past is no longer predictive of the future. As an architect, before jumping straight into design remember to take a step back and challenge yourself and others to think beyond the immediate problem. Meaningful solutions are created by approaching the process of discovery as a conversation, informed by a collaborative fusion of perspectives rather than a singular voice. — Lisa Bate (BArch 1987)

(Learn about Lisa Bate’s role as Chair of the Board of the World Green Building Council.)

10. Don’t back down from a challenge.

Especially at the beginning of your career as an architect, perseverance and resilience are key to unlocking opportunities to grow, learn and advance. Don’t give up. Ask for help, vent to friends, learn how to work through the anger and frustration so you can keep pushing yourself forward. It will be worth it in the end. — Megan Torza (MArch 2005)

(Megan Torza gave a public lecture on low cost sustainability at the University of Toronto this year.)

11. There are many ways to be in this world.

Unimagined territory awaits you in future experiences opened by education. — Christopher Babits (BArch 1994)

(Learn more about Christopher Babits’ firm FWBA Architects.)

12. If you work for someone else, also consider doing personal projects that capture why you got into architecture in the first place.

Try to put as much energy into these personal projects as you put into your employer’s. There is a deep satisfaction in having a commitment to your own vision. — Em Cheng (MArch 2011)

(My House, a solo exhibition by Em Cheng came to the Bloor / Gladstone library in 2018.)

13. Through architecture, you are being given the privilege of using your creative gifts to improve the world, one person, one building, one neighbourhood, one city at a time. Honour that privilege.

The journey in architecture you are about to embark upon will have sunny days and storms. There will be long days and nights, and victories will feel brief. Yet, if you invest creativity and passion in each task, in each project, you will always have the immeasurable and irreplaceable joy of being able walk around and inside your project, something that was merely a dream, for the rest of your life.
 
The cultural, urban, artistic and technical challenges presented by every project can seem insurmountable, and unfortunately will not change much for your entire career. What will change, however, is the experience to know how to navigate them successfully and still create beautiful inspiring architecture. — Michael Leckman (BArch 1988)

(Michael Leckman provided advice to students at our Networking & Personal Branding Workshop held this year.)

14. Chase pursuits outside of architecture, whether it be art or sports or cooking or horticulture.

Architecture is a multi-disciplinary practice and great ideas often come from the collision between different worlds. Also, don't work for free. It not only devalues yourself, but our profession as a whole. — Yupin Li (MArch 2018)

(Read about Yupin Li’s recent TEDxUofT Talk on housing in Toronto.)

15. The day you stop learning, change your environment or try something new or better yet, pursue an idea that has been on your mind for quite some time. 

— Novka Ćosović (March 2013)

Novka Cosovic & Andres Bautista provide insight into the immigrant experience with “Museum II”

16. Make the world better.

— Alissa North (BLA 1998)

(Alissa North is an Associate Professor at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design. The photo above was taken at her graduation in 1998.)

In Toronto, 91% of residents agree that climate change threatens personal health and well-being. But while the vast majority of those in Canada’s largest city understand that more extreme weather is on its way, 48% of Torontonians don’t know what can be done to address it.
 
How do we as a city prepare for greater instances of flooding and extreme heat, as well as increasing inequality that can exacerbate our ability to bounce back?
 
To address this question, the City of Toronto has developed its first ever Resilience Strategy, launched June 4 at the Daniels Building. An exhibition highlighting the work of the strategy — and how design can contribute to building a city that is better able to adapt, survive, and thrive in the face of growing challenges — is also now on display in the first-floor heritage hallway of One Spadina Crescent.
 
Assistant Professor Fadi Masoud (MLA 2010), whose research focuses on coastal urbanism, adaptive climate planning, resilient infrastructure, and design responses to urban flooding, was part of the Flood Resilient Working Group that contributed to the Strategy. He also curated the Resilient TO exhibition on display until Aug 1st, 2019.
 
“We wanted to showcase what the physical city could do to increase resilience,” says Masoud. “Our exhibition showcases the elements of the strategy related to the built form of the city and how design can contribute to meeting the strategy’s goals.”
 
Masoud was among the many community members, organizations, industry representatives, and government leaders at the Daniels Building June 4 for the Strategy’s launch. Toronto’s Chief Resilience Officer Elliott Cappell emphasized the importance of breaking down silos within the city, connecting the dots, and leveraging partnerships to move forward on the actions laid out in the report.

He also emphasized that flooding in Toronto is a major issue. To this end, Masoud and other members of the Flood Resilience Working Group created and signed a Charter that details their shared vision for flood resilience in Toronto.
 
“Unlike cities that are coastal, Toronto isn’t affected by sea level rise or storm surge, and we know how to manage riverine flooding though our conservation authorities. Our issue is surface flooding,” says Masoud. “The faster our city is growing and the more we are paving, the fewer places there are for water to go. We also have episodic extreme precipitation, but our watershed and flood maps have not been updated for a long time.”

Anchoring the exhibit are two large models that represent two of the fundamental pillars of the Strategy: equity and urban flooding. One model shows the City’s increasing inequality based on research by U of T Professor David Hulchanski; the second shows Toronto's topography, the hills, ravines, and river systems that affect where water flows.

“A lot of people think Toronto is pretty flat,” says Masoud. “but the reality is that the terrain of our city, what is upstream and what is downstream, has huge localized impacts on the city.”
 
He says there is huge potential to design networks of greenspace, both public and private, to serve multiple functions and to act as water retention systems.
 
While the threats to our resiliency are well laid out, the exhibition also highlights possible solutions, including award-winning design ideas proposed by Daniels Faculty students for a county in South Florida; urban design research on Toronto’s apartment tower clusters, which make up 45% of the city’s market rental housing stock; and the Faculty’s Green Roof Innovation Testing Laboratory (GRIT Lab) research that has helped informed Toronto’s pioneering Green Roof bylaw.

When asked at the launch event about the key take-aways from the Resilience Strategy, Cappell stressed that although the city as a whole is getting hotter, wetter, and wilder, residents throughout the city experience these things differently. Understanding how inequity influences a community’s resiliency is key. Lower income neighbourhoods are likely to be harder hit.
 
How is the concept of resilience integrated into research and teaching at the Daniels Faculty?
 
“Resilience is a framework that should set the tone for everything,” says Masoud. “It means that a system, building, or landscape, has to be able to bounce back and bounce back better than how it was before it faced stress, whether economic, social, or environmental. As designers, we need to build in flexibility to make sure that whatever is designed can respond to various pressures. Resiliency should be something that describes all designs.”
 
Click here to read the full Resilience Strategy.

The Daniels Faculty would like to thank the following sponsored of the Resilitent TO exhibition: Canadian Urban Institute and ResilientTO, School of Cities, Faculty of Forestry, University of Toronto, Autodesk, and Jay Pooley Design Practice.

Photos by Harry Choi

Every Thursday to Sunday this spring and summer, visitors to the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA)  in Toronto will find Master of Landscape Architecture student Alexandra Ntoukas conducting research on one of its exhibits. Her work is helping give new life to a dead white ash tree, its trunk laying in sections and on display on the museum's third floor. The installation, by artist Mark Dion, draws attention to the devastation wrought by the Emerald Ash Borer, an invasive species first detected in North America in the early 2000s.

"Trees are an integral part of life on earth," says Ntoukas, who completed her Honours, Bachelor of Science with a double major in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Psychology at U of T before starting her MLA at the Daniels Faculty. "Not only do they provide the oxygen we breathe, but they consume carbon dioxide, provide shade, regulate temperature, absorb water, support ecosystems, support human well-being, and provide aesthetic qualities."

Entitled, The Life of a Dead Tree, the exhibition runs until July 28th. Working on behalf of MOCA and the artist in partnership with U of T's Faculty of Forestry and the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), Ntoukas is collecting data on the various insects in the tree and the molds and fungi that are decomposing it.

"The display of the massive, 150 year-old White Ash tree on exhibit at MOCA forces one to consider the devastating impact of invasive species, like the Emerald Ash Borer, and our relationship with the world," says Ntoukas.

As Chris Hampton writes in the Toronto Star, "While a close encounter with a deceased tree may sound unexceptional, shown in this irregular context — the majestic ash extracted whole, transported inside the usually sterile white cube space and presented in exploded view — what becomes startlingly evident is just how alive a dead tree really is. There are patches of fungi and moss, a crust of blue-green lichen, spiderwebs just hours old and an assortment of arthropods, including several ant species, which have already begun colonizing the gallery floor. (Is it OK that they’re doing that?) There are so many that you can hear them. They sound like boiling water."

Ntoukas is working closely with University of Toronto Forestry Professor Sandy Smith, who teaches landscape ecology at the Daniels Faculty. Smith and Melanie Sifton, a PhD student in Forestry at U of T collaborated with MOCA to source the tree for the exhibition. The ROM provided MOCA with a KEYENCE camera for high-resolution photographs of specimens collected from the tree itself.

"While science brings critical awareness and remedies to global environmental issues, such as the introduction of invasive species, the realities of our impact exceeds the speed that it can be measured," says Ntoukas. "For my thesis, I hope to draw inspiration from this exhibition to inspire new relationships towards what we call 'nature'."

For more information on the MOCA exhibition, visit the MOCA website.

ARC381, Technology Studio IV: Adaptive Architecture, provided an opportunity for undergraduate students to compare digital design and physical fabrication techniques while creating architecture that can adapt and respond to its environment, changing shape in respond to stimuli such as humidity and light.

Taught by Tom Bessai and Nicholas Hoban, the intensive experimental workshop introduced students to current theories and methods for design and production and enhanced their fabrication skills.

Over the course of the semester, students were challenged to design a deployable enclosure, such as a pavilion, that could adapt to the specific physical and environmental conditions of a given location. They worked in groups of two or three to create both physical prototypes and digital models, and engage in ongoing testing of materials and assembly properties.

Physical tests and prototypes were cross referenced with digital design strategies. For each physical model, students were required to create a similar digital model and compare the two.

“The studio’s focus on technical processes will help give the students an edge in both the profession and in industry, where all parties are struggling to stay current,” says Bessai. “While we emphasized the use of cutting-edge technologies, we remained focused on iterative design, which is a central plank of the broader curriculum in design at Daniels.”

One of the goals of the undergraduate program's Technology of Architecture, Landscape, and Urbanism design stream is to advance design strategies within the changing technological context of the building industry, he explains.

“Our students are already working with confidence with the next wave of powerful tools and techniques.”

Over the course of the semester, Pablo Espinal Henao and Alex Reiner created a kinetic shelter that tracks the position of the sun and modulates its surface to block harsh sunlight.

After building their first prototype (image 2), the duo experimented with a different method to block the sun: curve folding, based on how flower petals expand and contract (image 3 & 4).
 
"We were inspired by [the work of architect] Jan Kaplicky so we strove to make something capable of existing anywhere," says Henao. "Mars is a bit of a stretch, but we just wanted to get playful with it."

Cezanne Llagan and Afsah Ali's project explored techniques for forming three-dimensional plywood shapes determined by two-dimentional cutting and darting patterns. The process delivered strongly figural modular components with axial symmetries. Ordered groupings of the components were developed into porous enclosures that responded to topography and other environmental features.

For their project, Mina Yip and Qin Wang created a structure that could modulate light within a black box theatre.

Evan Guan, Sarah Garland, and Sanjana Patel worked together to develop a textile-like, light screen made of wood. They designed a dynamic system that can alter the amount of shade that the screen casts.

Hao Wu and Jue Wu's project was developed as a shading structure made up of an aggregation of interlocking geometric shell components, carefully developed in a parametric environment. Secondary and tertiary systems responsive to climatic and humidity change were nested within and throughout the main components.

Kevin Nitiema and Raphael Kay experimented with curing wood veneers in low and high moisture content environments. The grain direction in the thin pieces of wood influenced how they bent in response to high or low humidity — similar to how pine cones naturally respond to different degrees of humidity, opening and closing  to effectively burrow into the ground without consuming any electrical energy. The students' series of experiments explored how climate-responsive-driven systems could be deployed in a variety of ways with no mechanical input to drive the movement.

Taught by Katy Chey, ARC3712 "Multi-Unit Housing in Urban Cities: From 1800 to Present Day" explored the development and evolution of different types of multi-unit housing in cities around the world.
 
At the start of the semester, students were introduced to a different housing typology in a different city each week. Examples include Haussmann apartments in Paris, tenements in New York, tong lau in Hong Kong, or high-rise condos in Toronto. An examination of case studies highlighted the historical, social, economic, and political circumstances that lead to the development of each type.
 
The students also had the opportunity to work on their own semester-long research project focused on a multi-unit housing typology of their choice. "There was so much incredible and in-depth research that went into these projects," says Chey.
 
For their chosen multi-unit housing type, students examined the characteristics, historical context, building components, building organization, and construction materials. They drew floor plans, sections and elevations, and researched how residents lived in the space. They also looked at government policies and regulations and the influential individuals who helped shape the design. In addition, the students explored how their housing type functions in the present day. For their final project, they were required to submit a written document and present a slide presentation to the class.

Images above: 1) Dingbat, Los Angeles by Andrew Harvey; 2) Four-Plus-One, Chicago by Nicholas Ager; 3) Microdistricts, USSR by Francesca Lu

"Since none of the typologies had readily available information, the students had to  learn to be resourceful and be detectives following leads to uncovering the information they required and piecing it together," says Chey. "Learning how to research, is extremely important because not everything is Google-able, and if it is is, it may not be trustworthy. If one takes the time to investigate, one can be rewarded with deeper, undiscovered information, which was what my students found with their projects."
 
The course was based on Chey's recent book Multi-Unit Housing in Urban Cities: From 1800 to Present Day, published by Routledge. The book emphasizes the importance of understanding the direct connection between housing and dwelling in the context of a city, and the manner in which the city is an instructional indication of how a housing typology is embodied.
 
"Housing has the ability to make cities and can define much of a city's presence and mood," says Chey. "It is important to try to learn from the good housing precedents and not repeat any bad examples."

Multi-Unit Housing in Urban Cities is available in-stores at the U of T Bookstore, Swipe Books + Design, Type Books on Queen Street, and Indigo in the Eaton Centre, and other major online retailers.

Image, top, Microdistricts, USSR, by Francesca Lu