Daniels student Andrew Chun-An Wei is participating in the 2019 University of Toronto Shelley Peterson Student Art Exhibition, opening April 17 at the Art Museum.

The annual exhibition celebrates the diverse artistic excellence of visual studies undergraduate students from all three campuses. This year's show considers themes of surveillance, cultural construction, and fantasy.

A 4th year undergraduate student double majoring in visual studies and architectural design, Wei will be exhibiting his piece, Jia De.

“Jia De (呷茶)” is Taiwanese for having tea," writes Wei. His installation, consisting of 28 panels and a fabric sculpture, was influenced by his grandmother's recent passing. Having tea, was an activity they often shared.

From Wei's artist statement:

The panels consist of 2 drawings – one being a line drawing of a dry tea leaf, and the second being a blob imprint created by the wet and brewed tea leaf. These daily drawings capture the two permanent stages of a tea leaf: The dry period it is stored in and the wet condition it is then discarded in. Concrete presence of the tea leaf is absent in both drawings as the line drawing is abstracted and too difficult to recognize, while the colour of the blob imprint only hints at its tea-related origins. The fabric sculpture, on the other hand, brings the often overlooked state of a tea leaf —  the fluctuating state it is brewed in — into the spotlight.
 

The 2019 University of Toronto Shelley Peterson Student Art Exhibition front from April 17 to May 18, and was curated by Masters of Museum Studies students Laetitia Dandavino-Tardif, Kesang Nanglu, and Melina Mehr.

Visit the Art Museum's website for more information.

A team of Daniels Faculty alumni have collaborated on a new immersive art installation which seeks to provide insight into the experience of immigrants and refugees. Museum II is an installation which recreates the journey from home to a foreign land experienced by many when they first arrive in Canada. Novka Cosovic (MArch 2013) & Andres Bautista (MArch 2013) say their piece attempts to examine the intersection of architecture and trauma.

The pair first collaborated on a piece for Toronto’s Nuit Blanche in 2016 entitled Museum. “We built a pool for the festival, an empty pool that was once used as a makeshift morgue during the Yugoslavian War,” explains Cosovic. “In this new project, we're presenting an airport and bedroom for Myseum of Toronto's Intersection Festival, called Museum II. Many Torontonians had to live in functioning airports for weeks, upon arriving to Canada. Before that, they had to sleep with sounds of bullets and explosions in their own bedrooms.”

Cosovic further explains that the intent of the project was the examine the impact of conflict on the individual. “We're building these installations because we want to examine trauma from war and political conflicts, through architecture and shared experiences across Toronto's immigrant and refugee communities,” she elaborates.

Museum II is part of the Myseum of Toronto's Intersection Festival, and will be open to the public for one month (March 2 to March 29), at the Toronto Media Arts Centre (32 Lisgar Street, Toronto.) There will also be a public opening reception on Saturday March 2, between 5-7 PM at the Toronto Media Arts Centre.

Upon learning he was shortlisted for an Ontario Association of Art Galleries (OAAG) Award, Henry Heng Lu (MVS 2017) said he felt happy just to be nominated — he did not expect that he would actually win. After all, it is rare for a student-curated exhibition to receive Exhibition of the Year (Budget under $20,000 - Thematic).

“When it was announced that I won, I thought, ‘This is happening?’” he said. “I was so thrilled. The award is a great encouragement.”

Held last year at the Art Museum at the University of Toronto, Lu’s now award-winning exhibition Far and Near: the Distance(s) between Us was his final project in the Master of Visual Studies, Curatorial Studies program at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design. It is also the first student-curated exhibition at the Art Museum to receive an OAAG Exhibition of the Year Award. The show — which included a video screening, artist-talks with Karen Tam and Chih-Chien Wang, a public lecture with Ken Lum, and off-site projects at U of T’s John M. Kelly and E.J. Pratt Libraries — explored the work of Canadian artists of Chinese descent and narratives of Chinese Canadian culture.

“We are exceptionally proud of Henry Heng Lu and his well-deserved win at the OAAG Awards. The exhibition, Far and Near: the Distance(s) between Us, represents Henry’s Graduating Project for the MVS degree in Curatorial Studies and is an example of the extraordinary work that students are producing at the Art Museum. The award is wonderful acknowledgement of Henry’s passionate curatorial commitments to connect artists and communities across generations and diasporic backgrounds,” said Barbara Fischer, Director of the Daniels Faculty's Master of Visual Studies program in Curatorial Studies and Chief Curator of the Art Museum.

Lu says U of T’s Art Museum — one of the largest gallery spaces for art exhibitions and programming in Toronto — is a valuable resource for students.

“I owe a lot of thanks to my advisor Barbara Fischer for giving me the opportunity to do the show at the Art Museum and guiding me through the planning and execution processes for this project,” says Lu. “The rest of the Art Museum team was also pleasant to work with. I felt very supported.”

As an undergraduate student, Lu majored in Studio and Arts Management at U of T’s Scarborough campus. It was at that time, as an international student and newcomer to Canada, that he started exploring work created by Canadian artists of Chinese descent, questioning how Chinese art is defined, and wondering why it is usually presented in “cultural clusters.”

“Later on, I got very interested in what being Chinese means in Canada and how ‘Chinese’ identities are configured and fabricated and started my investigation,” he says. “Canadians of Chinese descent have been gradually taking up a bigger role in Canadian cultural dynamics but it seemed to me that artistic practitioners from this population didn’t often get themselves heard. I wanted to learn more about their experiences.”

The exhibition featured works by Alvis Choi aka Alvis Parsley, Chun Hua Catherine Dong, Gu Xiong, Will Kwan, Ho Tam, Ken Lum, Morris Lum, Ho Tam, Karen Tam, Chih-Chien Wang, Paul Wong, and Winnie Wu.

Lu is currently Artistic Director at the Modern Fuel Artist-Run Centre in Kingston, Ontario, as well as an independent curator and artist, whose projects were most recently presented at Trinity Square Video and Nuit Blanche Toronto. Together with Yanjing Winnie Wu (HBA 2016) he cofounded Call Again, an initiative “committed to creating space for contemporary diasporic artistic practices and to expanding the notion of Asian art in the context of North America and beyond.”

The annual OAAG Awards recognize exhibitions, publications, and programming in Ontario’s public art galleries. Art Museum Curator, Sarah Robayo Sheridan was also shortlisted for a 2018 OAAG Award for Short Text (Under 2,000 words) for Figures of Sleep. And though his was the first student-curated show at the Art Museum to win Exhibition of the Year at the OAAG Awards, Lu was not the first student to have his exhibition recognized by the Association: in 2015, Liora Bedford’s, MVS exhibition Image Coming Soon #1 received an honourable mention for Exhibition of the Year (Budget under $10,000).

“We are delighted for our colleagues in the Art Museum, and also for Henry,” said John Monahan, Warden of Hart House, where the Art Museum’s Justina M. Barnicke Gallery is located. “The fact that he won his award for his graduating exhibition in the Master of Curatorial Studies program at the Daniels Faculty only makes his success that much sweeter, for it reminds us, yet again, that the work of the Art Museum and Hart House makes an essential contribution to both the artistic and the academic life of this university.”

Lu says he was very fortunate to be a part of a cohort of amazing artists and curators at U of T. “The sense of community among us was very important to me,” he said recognizing Sandra Brewster (MVS 2017) among those who helped him figure out how to integrate his grad school experience with the broader art world. In addition to Fischer, he said Daniels Faculty instructors Lisa Steele, Kim Tomczak, Ed Pien, and Will Kwan also played an important role in helping him shape his work. “Looking back, the best part of my degree was when my ideas were challenged, and I had to actively brainstorm ways to respond and defend them.”

About the Art Museum at the University of Toronto
Comprised of the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery and the University of Toronto Art Centre, which are located just a few steps apart, the Art Museum at the University of Toronto is one of the largest gallery spaces for visual art exhibitions and programming in Toronto. Building on the two galleries’ distinguished histories, the Art Museum organizes and presents a year-round program of in-house and off-site exhibitions, as well as intensive curricular and educational events. Learn more at artmuseum.utoronto.ca

About the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design
The University of Toronto's John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design provides interdisciplinary training and research in architecture, art, landscape architecture, and urban design. Located in the heart of Toronto, the Daniels Faculty fosters a prominent community of students, scholars, and art and design professionals committed to initiating new modes of research and practice tuned to a changing planet and the evolving needs of society. Its mission is to educate students, prepare professionals, and cultivate scholars who will play a leading role in creating more culturally engaged, ecologically sustainable, socially just, and artfully conceived environments.

When Rachel McKenna-Marshall ran the Toronto Waterfront 10K, she got to see a display of the fruits of her labour from the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design.

 

Marshall, who came to U of T to study architecture two years ago, will be graduating this fall with a double major in architectural studies and visual studies.

 

This summer, McKenna-Marshall took an intensive course where the class designed and built a meditation pavilion for athletic apparel firm Lululemon, with groups working on different aspects of the final product.

 

She and a few classmates “were the most excited about it, so we got a lot done” – including building meditation chairs by hand. 

 

The pavilion was displayed at the Toronto Waterfront 10k. “It was really incredible,” she says, of seeing the pavilion in use, post-race.

 

McKenna-Marshall also did an independent study this summer involving her artwork. She took underwater photos of friends in a pool, which served as the source images for her paintings.

 

Her project was conducted under the supervision of Associate Professor Sue Lloyd, who praises McKenna-Marshall’s productive and self-led efforts and says the course allows students to do work at the master's level.

 

Looking back, McKenna-Marshall is grateful for the opportunities she’s had, especially working closely with faculty members. “They care about the individual students.

 

“I think that it’s really good to have a lot of creative people in the same space," she says. "I think it helps your work, I think it helps what you produce."

On November 19, the Ontario Associate of Art Galleries (OAAG) will host the OAAG Awards, an event that “celebrates and recognizes the exhibitions, publications, and programming of Ontario’s public art galleries over the past year.”

Far and Near: the Distance(s) between Us — curated by Henry Heng Lu (MVS 2017) as part of his Master of Visual Studies degree — is on the short list for Exhibition of the Year (Budget Under $20,000 Thematic). Lu’s exhibition ran last year from September 6 to October 9 at the University of Toronto’s Art Museum.

Far and Near: the Distance(s) between Us offered different perspectives on the Chinese Canadian community’s historical and cultural evolutions by “exploring notions of distancing and being distanced in relation to race, identity, sexuality and their relation with Chinese Canadian history.”

Writes Lu:

The idea of distance unfolds in multiple layers: in the geographic sense, as in going through a distance from point A to point B, like the construction process of the Canadian Pacific Railway; in the cultural sense, through the mainstream’s imposition of stereotypes, as in how the Chinese Canadian community has been culturally differentiated and essentialized; and in the context of the Chinese community itself, as in who is “Us”, and the distances between different groups of ethnic Chinese.
 

The exhibition featured works by Alvis Choi aka Alvis Parsley, Chun Hua Catherine Dong, Gu Xiong, Will Kwan, Ho Tam, Ken Lum, Morris Lum, Karen Tam, Chih-Chien Wang, Paul Wong, and Winnie Wu.

The Art Museum, comprising two galleries located just steps apart — the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery at Hart House, and the University of Toronto Art Centre at University College — is one of the largest gallery spaces for visual art exhibitions and programming in Toronto and a vital cultural resource and destination for arts and academic communities world wide.

The 41st OAAG Awards Gala takes place at the Harbourfront Centre on Monday, November 19, at 6pm. Winners will be announced live during the ceremony.

For more information, visit the OAAG website.

The John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design is pleased to announce its 2018/2019 public lecture series: Home and Away.

The Faculty’s stunning 400-seat multichromatic Main Hall in the heart of the Daniels Building is now open. To inaugurate our first full year of public programming in this space, we are bringing together talent and ideas from near and far for a series of discussions and debates on design issues of global importance.

Engaging broad, timely topics — including the Anthropocene, smart cities, the political functions of art and architecture, and new equations of technology and craft — this year’s speaker series connects the wealth of expertise within the Daniels Faculty community with an international, multidisciplinary network of designers, scholars, artists, and curators. As depicted in the Faculty’s lecture series poster, each set of Home and Away speakers are represented by different “game flags,” highlighting the Faculty’s role as an arena for debate and the exchange of ideas on how architecture, landscape, art, and urbanism can effect meaningful change in society today.

Featured speakers include Toronto filmmaker and MacArthur fellow, Jennifer Baichwal and landscape architect Kate Orff (who will be presenting the Jeffrey Cook Memorial Lecture); Daniels Faculty Professor Brigitte Shim and London-based architect Alison Brooks; artists Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Krzysztof Wodiczko; and Mauricio Pezo and Sofía von Ellrichshausen of the Chile-based art and architecture studio Pezo Von Ellrichshausen.

New faculty member, Associate Professor Jesse LeCavalier will join Dean Richard Sommer, Director of the Public Realm for Sidewalk Labs Jesse Shapins, renowned critic Michael Sorkin, and others in a debate about meaning, implications, and rhetoric surrounding the “smart city” movement — a keynote panel that’s part of the two-day symposium: URBAN IQ TEST.

The Daniels Faculty continues its collaboration with the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) with a joint presentation of University of Toronto philosophy Professor Mark Kingwell and Princeton University history and theory of architecture Professor Sylvia Lavin, exploring themes raised by the CCA Exhibition: Architecture Itself and Other Postmodernist Myths. We will also be co-presenting a public film screening of the Islands and Villages documentary series, which explores the transformation of architecture in rural Japan. Introduced by CCA c/o Tokyo Curator Kayoko Ota, the documentaries feature Atelier Bow-Wow, Kazuyo Sejima, Toyo Ito, dot architects, and Hajime Ishikawa.

This year’s George Baird Lecture features Chief Planning and Development Officer at Metrolinx Leslie Woo. Associate Professor Georges Farhat and author of Earthworks and Beyond John Beardsley will present the Michael Hough / Ontario Association of Landscape Architects Visiting Critic lecture.

The Daniels Faculty’s Home and Away lecture series is free and open to all students, faculty, alumni, and members of the public. Online registration for each event is required.

Details for all public lectures can also be found on the Daniels Faculty’s website.

If you are an alumni of the Daniels Faculty and would like to receive a copy of the 2018/2019 events poster, please contact John Cowling at john.cowling@daniels.utoronto.ca.

HOME AND AWAY
2018/19 Daniels Faculty Events
1 Spadina Crescent
daniels.utoronto.ca

Oct. 25-26, 2018
WOOD AT WORK 2018
Symposium
Keynotes
Oct. 25: Michael Green, Vancouver
Oct. 26: John Patkau, Vancouver

Nov. 7, 2018
Mark Kingwell, Toronto
Sylvia Lavin, Princeton
A joint initiative with the CCA

Nov. 9, 2018
Film screening: Islands and Villages
With CCA c/o Tokyo Curator Kayoko Ota
A joint initiative with the CCA

Nov. 14, 2018
Leslie Woo, Toronto
George Baird Lecture

Nov. 21, 2018
Brigitte Shim, Toronto
Alison Brooks, London

Nov. 22, 2018
Shane Williamson, Toronto
Marc Simmons, New York

Jan. 15, 2019
Charles Stankievech, Toronto
Ville Kokkonen, Helsinki

Jan. 18-19, 2019
URBAN IQ TEST
Symposium
Keynote: Jan. 18, 2019
Jesse LeCavalier, Toronto / New York
Richard Sommer, Toronto
Jesse Shapins, Toronto
Michael Sorkin, New York

Jan. 22, 2019
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Montreal/Mexico City
Krzysztof Wodiczko, New York

Feb. 5, 2019
Jennifer Baichwal, Toronto
Kate Orff, New York
Jeffrey Cook Memorial Lecture

Feb. 26, 2019
Matthew Davis, Toronto
Barbara Bestor, Los Angeles

Mar. 19, 2019
Georges Farhat, Toronto
John Beardsley, Washington
Michael Hough / Ontario Association of Landscape Architects Visiting Critic

Apr. 16, 2019
Robert Levit, Toronto
Mauricio Pezo and Sofía von Ellrichshausen, Concepción

Apr. 26-27, 2019
NEW CIRCADIA
Symposium

The Daniels Faculty would like to congratulate sessional lecturer Amanda Boulos on winning the RBC Canadian Painting Competition. In addition to receiving $25,000, Boulos — who is teaching painting this fall in the Faculty's Visual Studies program —  has been offered a residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. Her painting In the Morning (2017), pictured above, will become part of the RBC Corporate Art Collection.

From Canadian Art:

“Painting is not passive; it can make one act, learn and feel, and it continues to be a unique method of knowledge exchange for both artists and audiences,” Boulos, who was also a finalist in the 2017 competition, has written. Her most recent body of work, of which In the Morning is a part, deals with family stories of the Lebanese Civil War and the 1948 war in Palestine. She writes, “I rely on painting to archive inherited ancestral knowledge and history while emphasizing that this information is not simple or univocal, but instead endlessly complicated and constantly changing.”
 

Visit the Canadian Art website to read the full article.

Learn more about the Daniels Faculty's graduate and undergraduate programs in Visual Studies.

Visitors to Toronto's Lower Don Valley trail this past June may have found artist and Daniels Faculty Lecturer Gareth Long out for a stroll with a pair of donkeys. Part of a public commission, entitled Travels with Two Donkeys, each outing created an unexpected prompt for conversation with passers-by, who were invited to join Long and the Donkeys on their walk. The artwork was a catalyst for a new social situation set within the changing public landscapes of Toronto.
 
Culturally speaking, donkeys have a long history as a motif in art and literature, typically representing stupidity, the “ass” or the fool; but they are also often included to represent moments of metamorphosis. In some of the oldest donkey stories – The Golden Ass by Apuleius, Lucius, or the Ass by Lucian, and that of Bottom from A Midsummer Night’s Dream – this “beast of burden” is frequently depicted as undergoing a process of transformation, changing itself, as well as the people and environments around it.
 
Such shifts have strong allegorical parallels with the Don Valley. The modern (and colonial) history of the Don Valley is one of industry and labour, and over the past century the Valley has been transformed, over-industrialized, and neglected. In this public work, Long layered these two narratives.
 

Images, above by Claire Harvie

Long has introduced the motif of the donkey in many of his previous works as well — each time as a way of engaging with methods of education and the processes of learning. Through quiet, communal explorations of the Don Valley every Saturday, the learning from Travels with Two Donkeys was manifold: It raised awareness of the vital work of The Donkey Sanctuary of Canada; it fostered dialogue around the ongoing transformations of the Valley; and the project’s emphasis on empathy, care, and ecological awareness acted as an antidote to a frenetic urban environment.
 
Each Saturday, the donkeys temporarily resided in a shed installed in the Don Valley. The shed, designed by Long, was inspired by a modular schoolhouse design by mid twentieth-century French designer and architect, Jean Prouvé. His temporary, demountable architecture was produced as a solution to the housing crises of his day and espoused an underlying social and political consciousness in how they were designed and built. Long extended these principles to present-day Toronto, building the structure using materials that resonate with both the past and present of the Don Valley and the vernacular materials of the farm, while introducing the schoolhouse as a site of education and conversation – a reversal of the usual connotation of the donkey and a surprising discovery in the heart of the Don Valley. Afterwards, the shelter was donated to the project’s partner, The Donkey Sanctuary of Canada.

The shed was designed and built in collaboration with artist and architect Christian Kliegel, and was fabricated at 1 Spadina with the assistance of Daniels students: Hoda Mashhadi Farahani, Thomas Buckland, and Dennis Fischman. Buckland and Fischman also helped with the installation each Saturday.
 
This project was made possible with the support of the Toronto Arts Council, and with Gareth Long’s support from the Canada Council for the Arts.

About the Donkey Sancturary of Canada

Since 1992, The Donkey Sanctuary of Canada has been a refuge for donkeys, mules and hinnies who have been neglected or abused, or who can no longer be cared for by their owners. At the Sanctuary, the animals are provided a welcome and often life-saving peaceful haven after years of suffering and neglect.
 
As the Sanctuary’s website states:

One of the questions we regularly get, from visitors, from people in conversation, indeed, even from our friends and family, is: why donkeys? We provide a simple answer to this question - 'Because it's necessary'. It is necessary because, as one of our staff members puts it, the donkey is the forgotten equine, too often a subject of ridicule, and too often as well considered disposable at the end of its working life. […] We provide a sanctuary for these animals, where they may live out their lives naturally, in peace, and without obligation to humans. Because we believe in the value of animal life, and because in particular at our Sanctuary - we believe in the value of the lives of the no-longer-forgotten equine. That is why donkeys.
 

Artist Biography 

Gareth Long holds a BA in Visual Studies and Classical Civilizations from the University of Toronto and an MFA from Yale University. Long has held solo exhibitions at Kunsthalle Wien, Austria; Kate Werble Gallery, New York; Michael Benevento,  Los  Angeles; TORRI, Paris; Super Dakota, Brussels; Susan Hobbs Gallery, Toronto; SpazioA, Pistoia; Oakville Galleries, Oakville; the Southern Alberta Art Gallery, Lethbridge; Galerie Bernhard, Zürich. His work has been shown at galleries and  institutions such as MoMA PS1, Long Island City; The Hessel Museum of Art at Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson; Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, Denver; Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Montreal;  Artists Space, New York; Casey Kaplan Gallery, New York; Flat Time House, London; Drawing Room, London; Spike Island, Bristol; Wiels, Brussels; Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg; Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe; and Witte de With, Rotterdam.

A version of this text by Kari Cwynar, was also published on The Don River Valley Park website.

Degree: Honours, Bachelor of Arts, Architectural Studies & Visual Studies

What was the most enjoyable or memorable part of your degree?
Visual studies studios and moments shared with friends.

Image, above: the only thing i know | Out of frustration with the circumstances that have contributed to my unfamiliarity with Chinese writing, I impulsively and obsessively fill a 4-yard length of white synthetic silk, fervently claiming the only thing I know how to write: my name.

What advice you would give to a new student?
Pour your love and effort into the things you make; really try to embrace everything you do.

Image, above: the whirlpool | I am weighed down; the whirlpool will consume me.

How has your understanding of architecture changed over the course of your degree?
I have learned that you can be more than an architect with an architecture degree.

Image, above: us | A depiction of the relationship I have with one of the shadows I have encountered.

What are your plans after graduation? How has this degree prepared you for the future?
I am looking forward to finding design and art-related work. The degree has shown me how flexible my creativity can be.

Image, above: aeh khee | White paper chrysanthemums, used as funerary flowers in Chinese communities, act as stand-ins for the bodies of the Chinese-Indonesians slaughtered during the mass killings of 1965-1966. My work seeks to dignify the hundreds of thousands lost and to serve as a reminder of the importance of reconciliation.

Illustration in slideshow, top:
uggggggggh | A self-portrait on one of my low days.

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Convocation for #UofTDaniels students was on June 14. This month we are featuring our graduates, including their work, their memories, and their advice for new students. Follow #DanielsGrad18 for more!

Degree: Honours, Bachelor of Arts, Double major in Architectural Studies and Psychology

What was the most enjoyable or memorable part of your degree?
I know parents won't want to hear it, but definitely the late night antics that happen in the studio during an all-nighter (or my personal favourite, the 3/4 nighter). Going through the intensity of studio work is a lot more fun when you're with your closest friends, listening to music, and bouncing ideas off each other. The most memorable moments don't happen in the classroom, they happen unexpectedly in the studio late-night, at Orientation Week or an AVSSU event, or games night with your arch/vis friends. 

Daniels is a unique experience because it is so community and family based. At no point did I feel in competition with my classmates. We all strive to succeed by helping each other. One of my most enjoyable moments was taking part in the Daniels Mentorship Program as a mentor and then the coordinator of the program a year later. Daniels has a unique community where first years aren't afraid to walk up to a fourth year in the studio and ask for help, and I really enjoyed going out of my way to help first years the way the upper year students did for me when I was a new student.

What advice you would give to a new student?
Architecture may be your start goal, but it may not (and probably won't) be your end goal. What I mean is that architecture is a room with many doors (pun intended), and all those doors can take you in so many directions in the world of design. As my classmates and I graduate, I see more and more of them interested in pursuing other fields, such as video game design, set design, graphic design, furniture and lighting design, urban design, and the list goes on. My advice for prospective students would be to stay open minded, you might just fall in love with something else along the way.

Stay involved, and take advantage of all the events / clubs / organizations that are available to you (most of them offer free food!). The most memorable moments don't happen in the classroom, they happen unexpectedly in the studio late-night, at Orientation Week or an AVSSU event, or games night with your arch/vis friends. 

How has your understanding of architecture changed over the course of your degree?
I think architecture surprised me with its differentiation from the ordinary. Architecture in our everyday life seems so simple and functional, yet there are designers out there making arguments for the 'paper architecture', the challenge of the conventional. Daniels challenges us to not only learn and understand this critical thinking, but to also critique it ourselves.

Architecture surprised me with its collaboration with other disciplines. Not just the classic 'engineer and urban planner' collaboration, but a cross-pollination from the realms of business, technology, psychology, and sociology, and even sports and politics. As someone who has a passion for psych, I was, and am, able to bring my own experiences and interests into architecture using a unique perspective from another discipline. 

What are your plans after graduation? How has this degree prepared you for the future?
I am excited to be continuing my studies in architecture at Daniels as a graduate student in the Master of Architecture program. My BA was instrumental in affirming my passion for architecture, helping me gain knowledge and insight into the design, history, and theory of architecture first before pursuing it at the rigorous and fast-paced level of masters.

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Convocation for #UofTDaniels students was on June 14. This month we are featuring our graduates, including their work, their memories, and their advice for new students. Follow #DanielsGrad18 for more!