Archinect - News

Bracket [Goes Soft] Toronto Book Launch

2013-02-22T19:56:00-05:00

Bracket [Goes Soft] Toronto book launch will be hosted by creatures:collective on March 1st, starting at 7pm. Editors Lola Sheppard and Neeraj Bhatia will launch the book, which will be available for purchase. Edited by Neeraj Bhatia and Lola Sheppard of Infranet Lab, this second volume in the impressive [bracket] series “examines the use and implications of soft today – from the scale of material innovation to territorial networks.” Free and open to the public, no RSVP is required.

Competition for a Toronto High Line

2013-01-24T13:04:00-05:00

In New York City, an elevated freight rail lane in west Manhattan became the High Line, a celebrated linear park running through a busy part of the borough. Design firm Workshop Architecture hopes that one of Toronto’s hydro corridors can be similarly transformed into a continuous recreation area for Toronto’s pedestrians and cyclists, and that an international contest soliciting ideas for the space will help hasten the process.

Toronto Leading Western World in Tall Building Construction

2013-01-07T23:48:00-05:00

Canada’s biggest city is getting even bigger, with a pace-setting number of skyscrapers set to join the city skyline. According to a Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) report dubbed “Canada Rising,” Toronto is leading the western world in terms of new buildings 150 metres or taller currently under construction.

Foster unveils major redevelopment plan for Toronto

2012-10-16T15:38:00-04:00

Riding on the tailwinds of last week’s Mirvish + Gehry announcement, Oxford Properties Group today announced plans for the large-scale redevelopment of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre and its surrounding areas. Dubbed "Oxford Place," the project will include much more than a refurbishing of the convention centre. Oxford plans to build four towers: one residential, one office and, of particular interest, two for a hotel that would serve a proposed casino...

PLANT ARCHITECT’S EXHIBIT OPENS AT HARBOURFRONT CENTRE

2012-10-04T11:00:00-04:00

On 29 September 2012, the Architecture Exhibition Fall 2012 opened at Harboufront Centre in Toronto. Curated by Patrick Macaulay, BREATHTAKING: Constructed Landscapes features PLANT Architect Inc.’s installation Lenticular Curtain alongside the works of architects Baird Sampson Neuert, Idea Tank Design Collective, and visual artist Vid Ingelevics.

BREATHTAKING: Constructed Landscapes explores the use of architecture in defining and directing how people view and understand nature and landscape. In response to the curatorial question “How can architecture create an awe-inspiring experience through the placement of built form within the landscape?”, PLANT Architect Inc. designed an immersive architecture meant to overwhelm, infuse, inhabit, and amplify the landscape. Lenticular Curtain is a larger-than-life, interactive lantern—a sculptural intervention that, when entered, disturbs and distorts multiple landscapes in order to form new ones. The central role of the visitor, whether ...

Gehry and Mirvish project officially unveiled in Toronto

2012-10-01T14:52:00-04:00

David Mirvish and world-renowned architect Frank Gehry formally introduced their plans for a major overhaul of King Street West this morning at the Art Gallery of Ontario — an appropriate setting considering the 2008 AGO redesign exists as Gehry's other major Canadian project.

Architecture Exhibit Outlays Cities of the Future

2012-09-28T12:10:00-04:00

The Future of Architecture, an overnight exhibition led by the Ontario Association of Architects (OAA), looks into the city’s future and explores different architectural visions as to how Toronto may evolve and transform in the coming years.

A tale of two Toronto church conversions

2012-04-26T18:18:00-04:00

During the age of foolishness, when congregations moved on, the last visitor to these sacred spaces was usually a wrecker’s ball. Now, it seems as though a spring of hope is upon us, as more and more churches become homes.

Jane Jacobs compares Toronto & Montreal, 1969

2012-02-09T17:29:00-05:00

From CBC TV's "The Way It Is" program, circa 1969, urbanist and author Jane Jacobs compares late 1960s Toronto and Montreal on how they have been planned and built, while condemning major highways planned for GTO.

Architecture App developed by Ryerson Researchers puts Downtown Toronto at your fingertips

2012-01-19T16:10:00-05:00

Downtown Toronto is filled with architectural masterpieces, designed by the likes of Calatrava, Gehry, Liebskind and Alsop. A new app developed at Ryerson University will allow tourists, Torontonians and architecture fans to delve into the design, function and history of many of downtown Toronto’s most significant buildings.

Future looking up for tall buildings?

2012-01-10T14:19:00-05:00

“There needs to be intensification,” argues architect Bruce Kuwabara. “What we have to think about are ways to create a vertical urban life that’s livable. It isn’t just about the view. It has to be about how buildings work at the base and how they contribute to the public realm.”

An architect speaks out for cities in colour

2011-09-26T20:31:00-04:00

Our first commissions were conversions and residential renovations with no budget. We were looking at how to convert an 1890s Victorian terrace house into something that suits a more modern spirit. Many of these spaces were tiny. But if you coat a wall in a certain colour, the visual experience of the space suddenly changes. You can use the effect of colour... to make spaces that look generous, but are actually quite restricted.

From the School Blogs: Summer Job Search / China 2010 / MArch Yr 3 / China 2011

2011-08-01T15:34:00-04:00

My last entry was in December of 2009. I suppose I never was particularly good about updating this thing, but it seems a bit ridiculous that I couldn't be bothered to post once about the many, many things that have gone on since then. My apologies. I guess I could start by saying that the world looks like a very different place than it did back in second year.

CN Tower walk will put visitors on edge

2011-05-10T17:52:44-04:00

The CN Tower will add a new attraction this year that could make bungee jumping look like a walk in the park. The tower’s new EdgeWalk will allow thrill-seekers to stroll outside on the world-famous tower on a 1.5 metre ledge that rings the main pod 356 metres (1,168 feet) above the ground.

Via the Forum

Building culture means cutting the compromises

2011-05-09T14:05:14-04:00

“We wanted … for the work to speak for itself,” says Mr. Kuwabara, who won the 2006 RAIC Gold Medal, awarded for a significant and lasting contribution to Canadian architecture. For the group, every project matter, he says. “A lot of architects do some kind of work just to keep the cash flowing,” says Mr. Kuwabara. “They’re always waiting for the next big project where they’re going to do exactly what they want. [But] it never happens.”

Swiss Team Wins Student Design Competition for 2015 Pan American Games Award Pavilion

2011-04-19T13:19:32-04:00

A group of four recent graduates from Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland has won the First Place in the AIAS competition for the awards pavillion of the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto, Canada. Team members were Manuel Gross, Patrik Staub, Yannick Vorberg, and Stefan Vetsch.

Snøhetta and Zeidler come to Ryerson

2011-04-13T01:01:55-04:00

"The Student Learning Centre will provide bright, open, technologically rich, barrier-free spaces for individual and collaborative study that will accommodate our students' different learning styles and our faculties' different teaching practices..."

The 155,463 sq. ft. Student Learning Center will feature a facade system that passively adjusts natural light levels and a roof that's at least 50% green. In addition, the school hopes to attain LEED Silver status. Expected to be completed by 2014, the center is designed for everyone in mind-- from the Chatty Cathy to the Somber Simone. To top it all off, the center boosts a bridge to the library and an elevated plaza along with retail at- and below-grade.

"While it remains important to find places of introspection, it is also vitally important to create places where people can more actively seek knowledge, where social connections can intertwine and where all forms of activity, quiet and loud, can find a suitable home. The design of the Student Learning Centre is foremost about providing these new and diverse functions." —Craig Dykers, principal architect and co-founder, Snøhetta

No word yet on budget or costs but Ontario had set aside $45,000,000 in 2008. Construction is expec...

Toronto should be more like Singapore, Moshe Safdie says

2011-04-11T20:50:00-04:00

A global architect based in Boston, Mr. Safdie wants Toronto’s planners and politicians to explode conventional thinking and dream big like the visionaries writing the design manifestos in China and Singapore, where Safdie Architects were lead designers of the just-completed $5.7-billion Marine Bay Sands hotel, casino and art science museum complex.

The Globe & Mail interview Moshe Safdie about his ides for Toronto.

Toronto: From Civic to Culture

2006-04-08T10:46:00-04:00

Chris Hume delcares a renaissance in Toronto, but is unmoved by the new (Mall-like) Four Seasons Peforming Arts Centre. | thestar

by Diamond Schmitt