Canada

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Join editor Alissa North of the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design as she discusses her new book Innate Terrain: Canadian Landscape Architecture, a collection of papers written by Canadian scholars and practitioners in the field of landscape architecture. Concerned with the practice and theories of landscape architecture in Canada, the book documents the breadth of contemporary practice from across the country, with each chapter author using works of landscape architecture to theorize a distinct approach practiced by Canadians in their national context. The book’s central argument is that Canadian landscape architecture is distinct because of the unique qualities of the Canadian terrain and the particular relationship that Canadians have with the landscapes of our nation.

Habitat 67, designed by the Israeli-Canadian architect Moshe Safdie as the Canadian Pavilion for the World Exposition of 1967, was originally intended as an experimental solution for high-quality housing in dense urban environments. Safdie explored the possibilities of prefabricated modular units to reduce housing costs and allow for a new housing typology that could integrate the qualities of a suburban home into an urban high-rise.

Reflecting on the project’s significance in “A look back at habitat ’67” Safdie stated that “Habitat ‘67 is really two ideas in one. One is about prefabrication, and the other is about rethinking apartment-building design in the new paradigm.” [1]

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Featuring Tura Cousins Wilson of SOCA, Jessica Kirk of the Wildseed Centre for Art and Activism and Jessica Hines of Black Urbanism Toronto, this conversation about what it means to take accountability within the practice of design and focus on Black community engagement is the first in a series centred around Blackness in architecture, landscape, and design within academia. As noted in the University Commitment in the Scarborough Charter, the work of Black flourishing and thriving should “be informed, shaped and co-created by communities” in order to be effective. Other discussions in this series will include Black Flourishing through Design (February 15), a workshop for designers and educators called Blackness in Architectural Pedagogy and Practice (March 1) and a student-led online event that centres Black belonging through design.

Dimitra doesn’t want to move symposium to be held on February 14, 2023

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This daytime roundtable uniting urban scholars, designers, planners, community developers and policy specialists will explore how to take some of the ideas of the Housing Multitudes exhibition forward. Discussion will be especially focused on what is being forgotten or ignored in the proposed “solutions” to housing shortages and affordability that Ontario’s Bill 23, and Toronto’s Housing Action Plan, seek to address.

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.

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