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. Today, we hear from Master of Architecture student Saarinen Balagengatharadilak, who spent a month in London, UK last summer with support from the Paul Oberman Graduate Student Endowment Fund.

What did you hope to learn during your time in London?
I was interested in the range of sensibility that architects and planners bring to building in historic contexts. There’s a magic to some places rooted in a rich culture and history that’s reflected in its buildings and public spaces. I wanted to learn how housing, public amenities, and institutions were being integrated with big infrastructural projects, while preserving the “magic”.

Why did you go to London for this research?
The challenges of building for a growing city are super intense in London. Intensification is tied to big plans about infrastructure and moving the masses. Amongst giant transit and development plans is an old city with some of the most beautiful parks, plazas, and monuments, all delicately woven into a continuous fabric.

While the stakes for building in such a complex system are extremely high, there’s a healthy appetite on the part of the people and city to embrace bold ideas. I thought it would be refreshing to see some of the successes and shortcomings of this mentality.

Tell us about something interesting that you discovered.
There are so many moments when you walk through plazas, over or under bridges, or through or between buildings that make London feel continuous. I’ve grown so accustomed to the way infrastructure divides cities (like Toronto). London provided a good wake up call about the potential of infrastructure to be more integrated with architecture and landscape.

How has this travel research opportunity enhanced your academic career?
It’s given me a host of lessons and experiences to pull from. There’s a spirit of social enterprise in London that feels as important as the thriving commercialism.

There was one particular event I remember joining, which brought out the socio-political potential of public spaces. Two artists joined together in a walk of compassion through London to show solidarity with refugees world-wide. It started off with dozens of journalists, other media, and about 80 or so people at the Royal Academy of Arts.

The walk was a few miles and we stopped in a handful of public plazas. I remember each time we stopped, a crowd of curious spectators gathered and we would suddenly swell to close to two hundred people.

While Ai Weiwei and Anish Kapoor addressed the press, the group engaged in conversation with the people in the plazas. Some even decided to join in the walk. People continued to talk and exchange thoughts all throughout. The fluidity and frequency of public spaces acted as an armature. There was a spirit of hope and conviction in the crowd that seemed to spread naturally as we filled and emptied plazas.

How will this research inform your future work (as a student or otherwise)?
The more time I spent in a park or plaza, the more I became convinced that a place could be as carefully crafted as a building. The most frequented urban projects had an understanding of place relative to everything it sat beside and between. I remember the walk through the view corridors to St. Paul’s as vividly as sitting in the Cathedral garden.

The research, for me, shows the value in intensifying collaborative efforts between the community, city, developers, and design professionals to address sites more cohesively. I’ve grown more optimistic of the potential for more continuous public spaces in our city.

Do you have any tips for students who may be considering applying for a travel grant this year?
If there is something you’re passionate about exploring…put it in words and APPLY!

For more information on Saarinen’s research in London, read his report: Historical Preservation in the Age of Mass Development.

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

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.

Three recent graduates from the Daniels Faculty's Master of Landscape Architecture program have received Honor Awards from the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) for their thesis projects. Rui Felix, Logan Littlefield, and Robert McIntosh were among 23 student award recipients, selected from more than 327 entries representing 84 schools around the world.

The winners will receive their awards at the ASLA Annual Meeting and EXPO in Chicago on Monday, November 9 at McCormick Place – Lakeside Center, Arie Crown Theater.

The October issue of Landscape Architecture Magazine (LAM) features the winning projects and is available online for free viewing.

Image by Rui Felix

Rui Felix received an Honor Award in the General Design Category for his project Borderless Landscapes of Control. His faculty advisor was associate professor Alissa North.

Felix’s project looked at the border zones, where nature and wildlife intersect and conflict with the infrastructure of Toronto Pearson International Airport. He developed “border device strategies” that incorporate “a better understanding of the social and behavioural patterns of nearby wildlife, which in turn informs better vegetation management that affects where wildlife populations live.”

Image by Logan Littlefield

Logan Littlefield’s project Confronting the Present: Towards a Civic Realm on Beirut’s Urban Fringe, received an Honour Award in the Analysis and Planning Category. Associate Professor Georges Farhat was his thesis advisor.

Littlefield’s project “responds to the problematic exclusionary and capitalist nature of post-war reconstruction in Beirut and the implications of such development on the public realm.”

Image by Robert McIntosh

Robert McIntosh also received and Honor Award in the Analysis and Planning Category for his project After Steel — Toward an Industrial Evolution. Associate Professor Alissa North also his advisor.

Macintosh explored plans for the former Stelco site, a 865-acre site on Hamilton Harbor, after the collapse of the steel industry in Hamilton, Ontario. “With the end of steel production comes the opportunity to rethink how we address culturally charged brownfield sites,” wrote McIntosh in his project statement. “This project rejects typical approaches to treating similar sites, and instead seeks to commence a deconstruction of the site and a localization of material flows.”

For more information on the ASLA student award winners: visit the American Society of Landscape Architects website.

Ja Architecture Studio recently received fourth place — out of 831 proposals from around the world — in the Bauhaus Museum Competition in Dessau

. A number of Daniels Faculty alumni and students worked on the winning proposal as part of the Toronto-based office's team.

Participants in the two-stage international competition were challenged to design a Bauhaus Museum for Dessau, Germany. Thirty firms were shortlisted firms to continue to the second phase.

“The design is characterized first and foremost by its polygonal and self-contained structural shell that sensitively addresses its urban design position," Wrote the jury in its citation of Ja Architecture Studio's proposal. "It shows a clear-cut edge towards Kavalierstrasse and a ramp forms a clear transition to Friedrichstrasse. All in all, the draft design convinces with its sculptural approach which demonstrates a strong commitment to the museum as a municipal building.”

Team Members included:

Architect:
Nima Javidi (MUD 2005, Daniels Faculty Sessional Instructor), OAA M.Arch LEED A.P

Landscape Architect:
Behnaz Assadi (MLA 2008), MLA BFA

Project Team:
Hanieh Rezai (MUD 2004), M.Arch MUD
Zhou Tang, M.Arch Candidate at the Daniels Faculty
Sally Kassar, M.Arch Candidate at the Daniels Faculty
Kyle O’Brien, M.Arch Candidate at the Daniels Faculty
Goldie Schlaf, M.Arch Candidate at the Daniels Faculty
Arittro Noor, BBA, University of Western Ontario

Professional Consultants:
AMA Design, Structural Design
Thomas Technical, Technical Building Services

Earlier this year, the firm was also recognized with an Honorable Mention, amongst 1715 international proposals in the Guggenheim Helsinki Competition.

For more information about Ja Architecture Studio, visit: http://www.jastudioinc.com

For more information about the competition, visit: http://bauhausmuseum-dessau.de/en/home.html

News & Media

• OAA
• Archinect
• Bustler
• Canadian Architect
• Archdaily
• Dezeen
• Afasia
• Beta Architecture

Director of the Master of Landscape Architecture program Alissa North served as a guest editor of the most recent edition of Landscapes|Paysages magazine – the publication of the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects. The issue focused on the teaching and the practice of landscape architecture, and featured articles by several members and alumni of the Daniels Faculty.

“In this issue, we are particularly interested in those areas where knowledge is flourishing, and especially the exciting and productive interstices between academia and practice,” writes North.

Shelley Long (MLA 2015) wrote an article about “hybrid practices” — a strategy used by some practitioners that combines teaching with practice as a way to incorporate theory into their built work and practicality to their theory. The recent graduate, who is now working as a Landscape Designer at Hapa Collaborative in Vancouver, highlighted North Design Office — the firm of Professors Pete North and Alissa North — as an example of a innovative teaching-based practice.

“Whether the project is a residential garden or international competition, Alissa and Peter North of North Design Office seek out such opportunities to further their investigations into regenerative and performative landscape,” writes Long. "Both professors at the University of Toronto, the Norths’ temporary public art installations experiment with new materials and technologies in a temporary situation for two-to-four years, testing and monitoring them with the intention to apply the principles in future larger public space projects.

Long also described Claude Cormier (BLA 1986) as a designer dedicated to educating clients about good practice, writing, “this type of design leadership through risk-taking is a prevailing attitude at Claude Cormier + Associés (CC+A) in Montreal, where a strong conviction to do only public work and to do something new on every project brings with it the ongoing challenges of getting inventive designs built in low-bid and risk-averse public environments.”

In the article titled "Entangled with the Real World," Jordan Lypkie (MLA 2016) profiled the participation of Daniels Faculty Master of Landscape Architecture students in a design charrette at the Evergreen Brickworks.

“For second and third year students from the Daniels Faculty at the University of Toronto, an Evergreen Brickworks design charrette provided a platform for students to make connections with notable practitioners, including many local landscape architects and national and international icons,” writes Lypkie. The article explored other design/build opportunities for students, including an elective course taught by Professor Pete North on phytoremediation technologies and regenerative landscapes.

In "Gleaning an Ephemeral Wilderness," MLA candidate Kamila Grigo argued for a closer collaboration between native plant nursery staff and landscape architects.

From the article: 

“Form in native nursery landscapes is typically considered aesthetically irrelevant: people and machines must produce crops as efficiently as possible. Nonetheless, within this industrial farming lies potential for closer collaboration between native nursery professionals and landscape architects, not necessarily to aestheticize, but to uncover new typologies. Our practices can be optimized, not only to jump-start succession at sites further afield, but also to magnify a key characteristic of these nurseries not iterated often enough: namely, that they create habitats for local species."

Assistant Professor Elise Shelley wrote the featured article, "Designing Play," on the nuances of playground design in light of stringent Canadian Standards Association standards that have transformed the playing field since their introduction in the 1980s. “In this context, custom designed play spaces which take advantage of unique site characteristics are unaffordable luxuries,” writes Shelley. “Nature is ignored in favour of the tabula rasa, out-of-the catalogue method of playground design.”

Michael Good (MLA 2015) was one of four authors – along with Leila Marie Farah, Mark Gorgolewski, and John Han – of the article "Vivarium: A Sky Condo," which describes the team’s submission to the NYC Sky Condo idea competition. “The Vivarium proposal, our submission to the NYC Sky Condo competition, demonstrates how humans and bugs can coexist and how the latter can be a source of income, ecological regeneration, beauty and protein.”

An article by Robert McIntosh (MLA 2015) and Joanne Proft, explored three university landscapes in various design stages, including the University of Toronto’s St. George Campus, the subject of the Landscape of Landmark Quality competition that was launched in 2015. “The proposal [by KPMB Architect, Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates (MVVA), and Urban Strategies] makes simple, bold moves that unveil the landscape’s hidden potential, by creating new gathering spaces connected by wide, granite-paced pedestrian walkways, and respecting and building on the rich history throughout the campus,” writes McIntosh and Proft. “By opening the door to new ideas, it has shifted the focus back onto engaging landscape and design.”

Master of Visual Studies curatorial studies student cheyanne turions was awarded the 2014 Award for Emerging Curator of Contemporary Canadian Art. The award is presented to a Canadian curator, under the age of 35, whose body of work has achieved a public presence and peer recognition. The award was presented during a reception at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art in Toronto.

Curator and jury member Daina Augaitis said about cheyanne: "Her curatorial vision stands out for being highly considered and articulated, ‎as well as being relevant, provocative, risky and ambitious." cheyanne says her work "approaches the space of exhibition as alive -- the gallery is a space of dialogue where artists, curators and publics can reflect on and experiment with ways of seeing (and being)."

The jury was impressed with turions' breadth of work, its intelligence, and sensitivity. Summary of highlights include:

• Most recently she co-curated the series Canadian Ecstasy with poet and performance artist Ariana Reines at Gallery TPW and reviewed the Kuwait Pavilion at the Venice Biennale of Architecture for C Magazine.
• Her exhibition at the Art Gallery of Windsor, Other Electricities, was presented the inaugural award for Innovation in a Collections-based Exhibition by the Ontario Association of Art Galleries in 2014.
• She has presented other curatorial projects at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Video Fag, SBC Gallery, Nuit Blanche (Montréal), Art Metropole, A Space, Gallery TPW, the Images Festival, VIVO Media Arts and the Western Front.
• Her writing has been published by Monte Cristo Magazine, the Blackwood Gallery, General Fine Arts, Prefix Photo, Syphon, the MacLaren Art Centre, Gallery 44, the Museum of the Near Future, FUSE and Canadian Art.
• Currently she is a member of the co-creative team for the Art and Society theme within the Cities for People project and works as a Curatorial Assistant at the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery while pursing a master's degree in Visual Studies at the University of Toronto.
• She also sits on the Board of Directors for Fillip Magazine and is the director of No Reading After the Internet (Toronto).

turions was selected by a jury of arts professionals, including Daina Augaitis, Chief Curator/Associate Director at the Vancouver Art Gallery and recipient of the 2014 Hnatyshyn Foundation Award for Curatorial Excellence; Reesa Greenberg, art and exhibition historian based in Ottawa; and Pamela Meredith, Senior Curator, TD Bank Group, Toronto.

Related news:

• Mary Lou Lobsinger, Charles Stankievech, Scott Sørli, and cheyanne turions to participate in the event Furnishing Positions: Conversations, November 22

• Charles Stankievech, cheyanne turions, and John G. Hampton receive Ontario Association of Art Gallery Awards

In 2013, Master of Landscape Architecture students Gregory Bunker, Jessica Wagner and David Garcia Gonzales were awarded first place at the 2012/13 Ontario Tire Stewardship Student Design Challenge. The U of T team beat out seven other Ontario design schools in a competition to redesign a space for the YMCA of Greater Toronto that utilized recycled rubber products.

This past November 12, the design — which Assistant Professor Elise Shelley helped them realize — was unveiled outside the YMCA's Yonge and Grosvenor location downtown Toronto.

As reported on Rethinktires.ca, “The OTS Student Design Challenge was created to help revitalize urban environments through creative uses of recycled tire products and sustainable design. The Challenge offers students the opportunity to have their own concept implemented within a meaningful community organization using environmentally progressive products made from recycled tires. The competition helps stimulate ongoing innovation around the use of sustainable materials to meet the needs of our growing communities.”

Global News covered the unveiling of the design in The Morning Show. To view the segment, click here.

A new Visual Studies faculty member, a new Visual Studies student, and a recent graduate of the Daniels Faculty’s Master of Visual Studies program received awards from the Ontario Association of Art Galleries (OAAG) earlier this month.

The OAAG Awards are annual, province-wide, juried art gallery awards of artistic merit and excellence. They recognize the new exhibitions, publications, programs and community partnerships that have been commissioned by and produced by Ontario’s public art galleries over the previous year.

Assistant Professor Charles Stankievech — an acclaimed artist, author, and curator working in the fields of architecture, landscape, and cultural geography who joined the faculty this year — was honoured with two awards: one for the exhibition CounterIntelligence (Themetic Exhibition of the Year: Budget over $20,000), another for a major essay written for the same exhibition (Curatorial writing award).

CounterIntellegence was organized by Barbara Fischer, Executive Director/Chief Curator of the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery, where the exhibition was held, and the University of Toronto Art Centre. Fisher is also a Senior Lecturer and the Director of the Master of Visual Studies program in Curatorial Studies.

The exhibition included film screenings and a project by Stankievech that contemplated “the intersection of art and military intelligence communities.” It ran at the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery from January 23 - March 16.

MVS curatorial studies student cheyanne turions (pictured above), whose curatorial projects have been presented at galleries in Toronto and Vancouver, received the inaugural award for Innovation in a collections-based exhibition for Other Electricities: Works from the AGW Collection for the Art Gallery of Windsor.

“This exhibition presented a rigorous and considered pairing and contrast of modern and contemporary artworks from a range of mediums found in the Art Gallery of Windsor’s permanent collection,” read the jury notes, which tureens posted on her website. “The sensitive juxtaposition and exploration of relationships between colonial and Indigenous cultures effectively brought to light issues of sovereignty and the strategies of cultural decolonization. This entire exhibition was further enhanced by the strong curatorial essay presented in the on-line publication which will provide a lasting legacy of this provocative collections-based exhibition.”

John G. Hampton (pictured above), who recently graduated from the Daniels Faculty’s MVS Curatorial Studies program, received an OAAG award for his exhibition Coming to Terms (Thematic Exhibition of the Year: Budget under $20,000). The exhibition was produced in collaboration with the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery, and was financially supported by the Jackman Humanities Institute, as part of the Instututes 2013-2014 Program for the Arts on the theme of Translation. The show brought together the work of “seven international international interdisciplinary artists working within the intersection of translation studies and artistic practice.

For more information on the OAAG awards, visit: http://oaag.org/awards/2014winners.html

Yonge Street — an online weekly magazine that focuses on innovation, development, neighbourhoods, and community involvement in Toronto — has published an article on the GRIT Lab (Green Roof Innovation Testing Laboratory) at the Daniels Faculty.

Established in 2010 by the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, the GRIT Lab is a 2,000-square-foot state-of-the-art facility that includes 33 green roof test beds, a weather station, and 264 sensors connected to over 5,000 linear feet of wiring. Data on soil moisture, runoff, temperature, rainfall, humidity, solar, and wind is collected every two seconds. The lab sits atop of the Daniels Faculty building at 230 College, and is the only one of its kind testing green roofs in an urban environment in Canada.

"We're hoping this work will potentially influence or augment the green roof standard and green roof monitoring in the City of Toronto, and that it might also affect what industry is actually producing and promoting," Assistant Professor Liat Margolis tells Yonge Street writer Katia Snukal.

Read the full article on Yonge Street's website.