toronto: The Latest Architecture and News

With questions such as Where do roads come from?, popular educators in the US Black Freedom Movement like Septima Clark have long used discussions about architecture and the built environment to unpack ideas of citizenship, politics and power. People’s observations and analyses of built form offer insights into the surroundings we share and opportunities for collective action to change it. In this lecture, Jae Shin and Damon Rich of HECTOR urban design will share stories from their attempts to learn from this tradition of popular education as a resource for architecture, urban design and planning.

Mark your calendars! The DesignTO Festival returns January 20-29, 2023! Celebrate art and design online and in-person at venues across Toronto.

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The Aga Khan Award for Architecture was established by His Highness the Aga Khan in 1977 and is one of the most prestigious architectural prizes in the world. Since its launch 45 years ago, 121 projects have received the award and nearly 10,000 building projects have been documented. The Award not only rewards architects, but also identifies municipalities, builders, clients, master artisans and engineers who have played important roles in the project.

Using Toronto as a laboratory, the study and exhibition Housing Multitudes: Reimagining the Landscapes of Suburbia unlocks the DNA of the suburb to create a composite “big picture” of how the urbanism that characterizes many North American cities can be transformed for the greater benefit of all.

The work of Dhaka-based Marina Tabassum Architects (MTA) often addresses the needs of marginalized communities, whose well-being has been especially threatened during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020 and 2021, the firm undertook various projects that dealt with displacement, vulnerable populations and humanitarian challenges. During this lecture and presentation, MTA founder Marina Tabassum — the Daniels Faculty’s 2022-2023 Frank Gehry International Visiting Chair in Architectural Design — will be speaking about those projects, about her experience as an architect in South Asia and elsewhere, and about the changing role of architects as agents of change.

Indigenous knowledge keepers, architects and artists from across Turtle Island will gather to share their artistic work and involvement in creative projects situated at local post-secondary institutions. This is happening at a time when universities are re-imagining their role in collective education and knowledge, as well as in sharing narratives of Indigeneity, settler colonialism and Canadian identity. These presentations will explore the role of art and architecture in Truth and Reconciliation and the artists’ process of creation from their respective Indigenous cultures and points of view.

At Doors Open Toronto 2022, come see why the Daniels Building — groundbreaking home of the University of Toronto’s John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design — has been named one of the best buildings in Canada of the past decade.

United Contemporary is proud to present Turning of Day, a contemplative solo exhibition by Toronto-based painter Stefan Berg. In this new suite of plein air paintings and studio interpretations, Berg draws out and emphasises a compelling geometry found in nature. Grasping the weight and mass of the subject, both in feeling and substance, the artist makes real the physicality of experience, to procure a tangible, haptic touch for the eyes. However, the true subject of this exhibition is light. Returning to familiar landscapes with cumulative inquiry, Berg has painted on-site and from memory, the evanescence of time, exploring temporality and duration. As a result, his paintings are evocative of the mechanics of seeing, layering and revising the passing light and atmosphere observed over days, sometimes months, even years.

After an amazing response to the first Virtual World Tour, during the peak of the pandemic in late 2020 early 2021, "AnA" has decided to continue the global digital approach to connect the architectural community on a personal level.