Sabbatical Talks by Dr. Keith Bresnahan and Dr. Dot Tuer

Monday, November 19, 2018 - 3:00pm to 5:00pm

Working with Emotions in Architectural History
Dr. Keith Bresnahan

November 19, 2018
3:00pm-4:00pm
205 Richmond St. West Room 420

This talk describes a body of work developed during my sabbatical in 2016-17, including fellowships in Berlin and southern France. 

It explores my engagement with new research in the history of emotions, and my attempt to bring this into conversation with architectural history.

 

Traces and Talismans: Reflections on Witnessing and the Performing of Memory
Dr. Dot Tuer

November 19, 2018
4:00pm-5:00pm
205 Richmond St. West Room 420

This talk addresses site specific research that I undertook for my half sabbatical in the winter/spring of 2016. During this time, I visited the Guaraní community of Loreto in Corrientes, Argentina, to witness the procession of their personal saints; traveled to Rosario, Argentina with my partner to witness his return to a clandestine torture and extermination centre, now a Space of Memory; and accompanied a collective of artists to the Atacama Desert in Chile to witness a performance about the disappeared of Pinochet’s regime of terror. How witnessing as a form of research illuminates the intersections of history and haunting, materiality and mourning will be the focus on my reflections.

Venue & Address: 
205 Richmond St. West Room 420
Website: 
https://www.facebook.com/events/710815132650374/
Cost: 
FREE
"Sabbatial Talks" in black text on white background; photo of gentlemen in suits and top hats; photo of concrete corner pillars

Inspirational Architect Will Alsop passes away

President Sara Diamond standing next to Will Alsop
Monday, May 14, 2018

Will Alsop, the British architect, visual artist and academic who designed OCAD University’s iconic Sharp Centre for Design, died on Saturday May 12, 2018 at the age of 70 after a brief illness. Will Alsop’s buildings, most recently Finch West and Pioneer Village subway station, are renowned for visual clarity, playfulness and a mix of sculptural and painterly detail. Marcos Rosello, director of aLL Design, which Alsop set up in 2011, shared the following, “Will has inspired generations and impacted many lives through his work. It is a comfort to know that due to the nature of Will’s work and character, he will continue to inspire and bring great joy… His design ethos, essentially to ‘make life better’, is evident in the architecture of his buildings and their surrounding communities. We will miss him greatly.”  OCAD U can concur. Alsop understood the transformative impact that the Sharp Centre would have for OCAD University, worked closely with both the university and local community and delivered a building that continues to act as both brand and beacon for our school. The Sharp Centre has been credited with kicking off architectural creativity in Toronto, according to Nick Patch of the Toronto Star, “Perhaps some amount of credit is due to Alsop’s checkerboard in the sky, which with playful irreverence, set a bar for risk-taking architecture in the city just ahead of a transformative boom in reimagining Toronto’s cultural icons”. Alsop stayed close to OCAD U, acting as Adjunct Professor and occasional sessional instructor and connecting with the OCAD U community when in Toronto.

By 2000, when he began design of the Sharp Centre, Will Alsop and was elected to the Royal Academy, won the Sterling award and two RIBA awards, and was appointed OBE (Order of the British Empire). In the last decades his work has been focused on large international commissions (in particular in China) as well as residential housing and TTC stations in Toronto. Will Alsop sat on the architectural advisory boards for Wandsworth and Kensington & Chelsea Councils. He was Professor of Architecture at TU Vienna, Professor of Architecture at Canterbury School of Architecture, UCA and in 2018, received the degree of Honorary Doctor of Design (HonDDes) from the University of Greenwich, in recognition of his achievements.

Reed more about the renowned architect in The Guardian.

Call for Submissions: AZ Awards

AZURE, the influential contemporary design and architecture magazine, announces the opening of submissions to the 2018 AZ Awards. Now in its 8th year, the AZ Awards competition celebrates the best in architecture and design from around the world.

OCAD U Environmental Design graduate Pedram Karimi

p.karimi
Tuesday, December 5, 2017 - 10:00am to Friday, January 19, 2018 - 5:00pm

Pedram Karimi's contribution to the current show at the McCormick Gallery of the Boston Architectural College. The exhibit, which includes architectural drawings, VR and interactive stations, as well as a display of museum objects, is about the aesthetics and architectonics of an abolitionist neighborhood in New Bedford, MA. The show is curated by faculty at UMass and was partially funded by Perkins and Will. It was just opened at the Boston Architectural College's McCormick Gallery (Nov 19-Jan 29). Pedram was responsible for several large-scale architectural panels and projects as well as a large urban model of the Abolitionist Row of New Bedford. I will be participating in the grand opening and panel discussion on Dec 1.

Venue & Address: 
McCormick Gallery of the Boston Architectural College
Website: 
https://the-bac.edu/experience-the-bac/news-and-events/events/black-spaces-matter

IIDEX, the annual architecture and interior design show

Thursday, November 30, 2017 - 11:00am

 

As part of Doreen Balabanoff's work with the Colour Research Society of Canada, there are two events of interest:

 

1) December 7th, a three-person panel discussion on the aesthetics of architecture featuring Gordon Grice, architect and editor of Right Angle magazine, (moderator & speaker), Ian Ellingham, Chair of The Built Environment Open Forum (speaker) and
David Pearl, Artist -- Design Team for the New Highway 407 Transit Station (speaker). David is an OCADU faculty member. https://www.universe.com/events/built-environment-aesthetics-panel-discussion-and-networking-event-tickets-toronto-PKYF4M

 

2) An open call for participation for a curated exhibition on colour and colour knowledge as a touchpoint between the arts and sciences. The exhibition is entitled Colour: What Do You Mean By That?  See attached pdf.

 

I would welcome an opportunity to speak to faculty and students in any area of the school about colour research (in any field) or about environmental design, embodied experience, colour and light, phenomenological approaches to practice-based research, etc. I am the founding President of the Colour Research Society of Canada (CRSC), the national organisation affiliated with the AIC, the International Colour Association (Association Internationale de la Couleur)  http://www.aic-color.org/

Kunlé Adeyemi: Water and the City 

MFS II by NLE
Thursday, September 21, 2017 - 12:45pm

The Angelo Donghia Foundation Design Residency brings a renowned designer of the built environment to OCAD University whose work focuses on collaboratively working in global contexts by creating bridges between communities, inform urban areas, and focus on the education and development of a new generation of professionals, who will transform spaces, landscapes and cities in the 21st century. 

In this, our inaugural year, OCAD U will host architect, designer and urban researcher Kunlé Adeyemi of NLÉ as the 2017-2018 Design Resident, who will act as a creative catalyst for the students participating in a Design Charrette that will take place on October 21-23, followed by a public lecture on October 23rd.
 

Kunlé Adeyemi: Water and the City 

Lecture. Open to The public:
Monday, October 23

7:30 pm

100 McCaul Street. Auditorium MCA190

*Details about the Design Charrette to be announced soon.

____

About Kunlé Adeyemi:

Kunlé Adeyemi is the founder/principal of NLÉ and Aga Khan Design Critic in Architecture at Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

His notable works include ‘Makoko Floating School’, an innovative prototype floating structure located on the lagoon heart of Lagos, Nigeria. This acclaimed project is part of an extensive research project – ‘African Water Cities’ – being developed by NLÉ an architecture, design and urbanism practice founded by Adeyemi in 2010, focusing on developing cities and communities.

NLÉ recently launched MFS II – a new, improved iteration of Makoko Floating School at this year's La Biennale di Venezia, for which it was awarded the Silver Lion.

Other projects include Chicoco Radio Media Center – an amphibious community building in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, ROCK – Lakefront Kiosk in Chicago, USA, CDL Head Office in Lagos, Nigeria and Serpentine Summer House at the Royal Kensington Gardens in London, UK. 

 

Poster: 
Kunlé Adeyemi, photo by Mark Horn

Augmented Assembly for Tessellated Structures

Augmented Assembly
Monday, June 5, 2017 - 9:15am

Environmental Design Sessional Instructor, Parantap Bhatt presented the talk "Augmented Assembly for Tessellated Structures" at the Symposium on Simulation for Architecture and Urban Design, SimAUD 2017, hosted by the University of Toronto (John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design).

Augmented Assembly for Tessellated Structures
Parantap Bhatt, Nicolo Bencini, Spyros Efthymiou and Antoniya Stoitsova

"This paper focuses on describing how augmented reality (AR) and object tracking methods can become tools for overlaying real-time information, for assembly of structures with tessellated geometries. Within this context, guided assembly is explored as an alternative to the energy intensive construction and demolition processes currently used in the building industry. For the research, sheet folding is chosen as the process upon which all assembly data is based on, and object tracking and augmented reality software are used as tools to guide the assembly of the proposed system. Experiments across multiple scales are conducted to study various methods of translating digital geometric information into a series of physical guided manipulations, which form the techniques for achieving a correct degree of folding within the component. Through large scale assembly tests, the viability of using guided assembly techniques as well as the potential of applying them in construction ascenarios is assessed. The paper concludes with a description of benefits and drawbacks in which such technology may be used for, and outlines suggestions for further developments of the system to become a viable tool for construction assembly."
 

*From SimAUD 2017 program

OCAD U alumnus awarded Peter Prangnell Travelling Scholarship

Monday, April 3, 2017

Parham Karimi (BDes, Environmental Design, 2013), master’s student at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture at the University of Toronto, has been awarded a scholarship to fund a study trip to Morocco.

This scholarship will allow Karimi to travel and meet with stakeholders and conduct further research for his thesis project titled “Women’s multipurpose co-op program of Mesti (Morocco): space, power and difference.” The project examines the issue of space dichotomy in Islamic societies, craft and materials and women’s co-op programs in Iran and Morocco. The government of Morocco will collaborate with Karimi to complete the project. 

His brother, Pedram Karimi (BDes, Environmental Design, 2016) has also been admitted to U of T's Master of Architecture program. This term, five OCAD U students were admitted to the U of T Master of Architecture, an unprecedented number of OCAD U admissions to a single program.  

The Peter Prangnell Award provides travel funds to students enrolled in the Daniels faculty at the U of T. The award is given on the basis of financial need and the merit of the applicants’ proposals. The award funds travel to a specific location where the student will remain for a minimum of a week to study the way architecture, landscape, urban design, or some other aspect of the human-built modeled environment shapes and/or is shaped by everyday life.

 

10: Sharp Centre for Design Anniversary Exhibition

Janie Reed, Feet First, 2003. Digital print, 7 x 9 in. (18 x 23 cm).
Thursday, November 27, 2014 - 5:00am to Thursday, April 9, 2015 - 4:00am

It’s been called “courageous, bold and just a little insane”. 10 years, later, the Sharp Centre for Design continues to make a bold statement. This exhibition celebrates the Sharp Centre for Design’s first decade with works inspired by its bold and lively presence.

Curated by Janna Eggebeen.

Special thanks to Will Alsop Design and ALL Design, Scott Hillis, Hadley Obodiac, and Caroline Robble.

 

Sharp Centre for Design, OCAD University, design and construction 2000 to 2004

 

People:

  • Alsop Architects with Robbie/Young + Wright Architects Inc.
  • Carruthers & Wallace Ltd. and MCW Consultants Ltd., structural engineers
  • Peter Caldwell, Executive Vice President, OCAD U Project Steering Committee
  • Rosalie and Isadore Sharp, benefactors

Building Facts:

  • centerpiece of a $42.5 million campus redevelopment project
  • 6,215m2 of new studio, workshop, office and classroom space
  • tabletop is 80 metres long by 30 metres wide, 10 metres high, and 26 metres above ground
  • structural system is an intersecting grid of steel Vierendeel trusses
  • cladding is white aluminum tiles with a random pattern of black tiles
  • concrete core contains elevators and 15 flights of stairs
  • 12 tapered rainbow-hued steel columns, each 28 metres long by 0.914 metres in diameter
  • each pair of columns is bolted to three caissons buried 18 metres below ground

Awards:

  • Worldwide Award, Royal Institute of British Architects, 2004
  • Engineering Award of Excellence, Ontario Region Steel Design Awards, Canadian Institute of Steel Construction, 2004
  • Award of Excellence, Toronto Architecture and Urban Design Awards, 2005
  • Most Technically Innovative Project, Canadian Consulting Engineers Awards, 2005
  • HUE Award (to Will Alsop), Benjamin Moore, 2006

Play

Architect Will Alsop unorthodox design process begins with abstract paintings and community workshops that encourage a blue-sky conceptualization of the project. At OCAD U, this non-linear, collaborative and ad hoc approach was by turns contentious and serendipitous. By March 2001, the three towers concept represented in the model had morphed into the tabletop, which maintained the neighbors view of Grange Park, opened up stunning panoramas from the studio windows, and provided a new space for play: Butterfield Park.

The playful transformation of ordinary materials into lively objects shows a similar irreverent and experimental spirit.

  1. Alastair MacLeod, workshop drawing, January 2001. Gouache on newsprint. OCAD U Archives.
    Alastair MacLeod is a visual artist and OCAD U Director of Information Technology Services.
  2. John Kissick, workshop drawing, January 2001. Gouache and pencil on newsprint. OCAD U Archives.
    John Kissick was Dean of the university Faculty of Art from 2000 to 2003. He is now Director of the School of Fine Art and Music at the University of Guelph.
  3. Greg Woods, workshop drawing, January 2001. Gouache and pencil on newsprint. OCAD U Archives.
    Greg Woods was an architect at Robbie/Young + Wright and the lead project architect for the Sharp Centre for Design.
  4. Will Alsop, early tower model, January 2001. Perspex and plywood.
  5. Will Alsop, Really Almost There + Sex study, January 2001. Digital print.
  6. Lorraine Kwan, The Pencil Box, mixed media.
    Lorraine Kwan is an OCAD U alumna and mixed media artist in Vancouver.
  7. Rob Shostak, Sharp costume, 2004. Mixed media.
    Rob Shostack is an architect with Quadrangle Architects, Toronto.
  8. Sarah L. Mulholland, Squishy Sharp Centre, 2009. Knit object.
    Collection of Peter Caldwell.
    Sarah L. Mulholland is an OCAD U alumna and the university Social Media Officer.

Structure

The construction of the Sharp Centre for Design was very condensed in time and space. It was a feat of controlled chaos and technical innovation that took place over an 18-month period while classes were in session on a dense urban site. For first-hand observers, the building process and the bold animal-mechanical structure that took shape became a source of inspiration.

  1. ALL Design (Will Alsop), Sharp Centre for Design model, 2011. Metal.
  2. Terri Meyer Boake, Sharp Centre for Design construction time-lapse video, 2002 to 2004.
    Terri Boake is a Professor of the School of Architecture at the University of Waterloo whose specialty is steel construction.
  3. Janie Reed, Look Up! triptych, 2003. Digital print.
  4. Janie Reed, Feet First, 2003. Digital print.
    Janie Reed is an OCAD U alumna and mixed media artist in Toronto.
  5. Gregory P. McRoberts, Lego Sharp Centre for Design, 2009. Lego.
    Greg McRoberts is an OCAD U alumnus and mixed media artist in Toronto.

Pattern

The Sharp Centre for Design unique pixelated cladding was the outcome of an intense endgame between OCAD U and Will Alsop. The cladding was especially important to the building impact as it would be visible not only on the building exterior walls but also its underside. The architect advocated for a colorful patterned surface of lighted glass panels a decorative tablecloth for the tabletop that would camouflage the building large mass and enliven the streetscape both night and day. The university argued for a more economic and pragmatic choice, and, after Alsop threatened to paint the entire exterior black, a successful compromise was reached with syncopated black spots that added to the completed structure animated character.

  1. Will Alsop, Void of Opportunity study, 2001. Digital print.
  2. Edmond Rampen, OCAD Uke, 2013. Wood. Collection of Christine L. Bovis-Cnossen.
    Edmond Rampen is a professor of Fabrication Studies at OCAD U.
  3. Otino Corsano, Oeuvre, 2006. Enamel on Plexiglas.
  4. Otino Corsano, Big Crossword, 2006. Enamel on Plexiglas.
    Otino Corsano is an OCAD U alumnus and visual artist in Toronto.
  5. Pearlamina Cheung, Fly High, 2014. Silver ring, earrings, and pendant.
    Pearlamina Cheung is an OCAD U alumna, a jewelry designer and Assistant Art Director for the Director Guild of Canada in Toronto.
  6. Christopher Hutsul, OCAD University, 2004. Serigraph.
    OCAD U Collection.
    Christopher Hutsul is an OCAD U alumnus and an artist and filmmaker in Toronto.
Venue & Address: 
Anniversary Gallery, 100 McCaul St.
Janie Reed, Look Up! Triptych, 2003. Digital print, 10 x 32 in. (25.4 x 81.3 cm).
Embed Video: 

Inclusive Design Hackathon

Wednesday, October 12, 2016 - 4:00am to Thursday, October 13, 2016 - 4:00am

Want to Play around? The Inclusive Play Design Hacakthon runs at DEEP from Oct. 12- Oct. 13. We will showcase the inclusively designed projects at the DEEP Reception on Oct. 13.

All results will also be shown at Canada’s Design & Architecture Show:  IIDEX 2016

 

Venue & Address: 
Room 104, 49 McCaul St
Website: 
http://deep.idrc.ocadu.ca/
Email: 
idrc@ocadu.ca
Phone: 
416 977 6000 x 3967

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