In last year’s class Architecture 101: How to Design Almost Anything, taught by Daniels Faculty instructor Jay Pooley, undergraduate students were asked to document the experience of a specific built environment over the course of a 24 hour day. They were tasked with capturing a building or urban environment at different scales including haptic (human touch, building detail), building (relationship to light, pathways) and city (urban fabric, wide angle shots).

Students Adaeze Chukwuma and Adriana Sadun chose U of T’s iconic Hart House. As Adriana explains it, their video attempts to “depict the feeling you have when you are inside Hart House… when you look at it, when you are inside of it and when you interact with it.” They created their video using a series of still photographs to highlight the changes in lighting and textures throughout the day.

Students Izzy Mink and Sébastien Lewis chose Kensington Market as the subject for their film. “Through visual and auditory stimulation,” they explain, “we hope to to put the viewer in a state of mind similar to that of a person exploring the Toronto neighbourhood of Kensington Market.”

Check out the full videos below.

1. Adaeze Chukwuma and Adrian Sadun: “A Study of Hart House”

Adriana: "Our video 'A Study of Hart House' tries to depict the feeling you have when you are inside Hart House. The video is actually made by using a series of still photographs that we then put together to create the video. We were asked to show how the building looks throughout the day, and the use of still images allowed us to show this transition by photographing the same place at different hours and then put everything together in fast motion. We tried to show as many views of the building as possible including landscape and haptic shots. Capturing the essence of the building was a real challenge because there are so many things happening in Hart House at once, but we focused on the feeling the building gives you when you look at it, when you are inside of it and when you interact with it.”

Adaeze: "We wanted make a video that really communicated with the inner architects in all of us, that's why we made the video very slow and subtle. In addition, we divided our video into 3 distinct sections, beginning with the Hart House during the day time. We covered the building, its atmosphere, the lighting, the people, the features, and the feeling of the building during this time period. Then we did the same thing for the night time, which was our 2nd section. And finally we focused on the haptic scale, we dealt with the walls, textures and details of the building. The song we chose was 'In This Shirt' by The Irrepressibles. We chose this because of its incredible sync with our video. When you're watching the video, you don't listen to the song, you let the song connect your spirit and mind to the video. Which was our major goal.”

2. Izzy Mink and Sébastien Lewis: “A Study of Kensington Market”

In their words, "Our intention with this film is to evoke in the viewer a feeling comparable to the extremely subjective and personal experience one has with a space and environment. Through visual and auditory stimulation, we hope to put the viewer in a state of mind similar to that of a person exploring the Toronto neighborhood of Kensington Market."

Watch other films created by Daniels Faculty students on the Daniels Faculty Youtube channel or via the links below:

• Spotlight on Students: Exploring architecture through film
• Spotlight on Students: Master of Architecture students in Professor John Shnier’s option studio create films for thesis prep