DAS NEWS

In this issue: Picoplanktonics Exhibition Opening | Cabinet Fundraising | Women in Architecture Across Canada Symposium | CAFÉ 2026 Exhibition: Indigenous-Led Design at DAS | Guest Lecture with Janna Levitt & more!

Contribute to ARC Studio Upgrades Today: Donor Spotlight

Thank you to everyone who has contributed thus far!

Students spend countless hours in design studio, but many don’t have a secure place to store what they need each day. This semester, we’re upgrading the studio experience by adding Steelcase mobile storage pedestals for third- and fourth-year students. We are extending the fundraising deadline to March 14, 2026!

To designate your gift, choose "Architectural Science" from the dropdown menu.

Read more about this initiative here.

Thanks to early supporters like David, we are making progress. But with the dollar-for-dollar match from the RELIEF fund, your donation today goes twice as far.

David joins Gow Hastings Architects, UOAI, EMS Advisors, Plstic Studio, simonjames and DAS Alumni from 1983 in supporting studio upgrades for our students!

Coming to Light: Interview with DAS Students on Queer Representation in Design

What happens when students set out to uncover the hidden history of queer architecture in Toronto? In our latest feature, we sit down with Aashir Imran, Avery La-Rose, and Gisele Ortega-Joseph—the curatorial minds behind the Coming to Light exhibition at DAS. They share what it was like to bring this vital project to life, from uncovering the coded language of hidden queer spaces to building a gallery that finally allows their peers to see themselves reflected in the built environment. Dive in to hear their powerful conversation on resilience, representation, and why the future of architecture depends on listening to the community.

DAS Indigenous Initiatives included in TMU's First 10/Next 10 TRC Poster Series

In recognition of the 10-year anniversary of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s final report, the Orange Shirt Day/National Indigenous Peoples Day planning circle is launching a community-wide call to action.

The First 10/Next 10: TRC Poster Series is an endeavour to create accountability to Indigenous peoples and to the TRC’s calls to action. It is an opportunity for departments, faculties, student groups and administrative units to reflect on the truth-telling and reconciliation work already done – and commit to what comes next – through digital posters that document initiatives implemented in response to the 94 Calls to Action.

Architecture Camp for Kids Registration is Now Open

Register now for our Architecture Camp programs or Digital Creativity program to lock in your summer of fun at Toronto Met Architectural Science Day Camps.

Women in Architecture (WIA) Symposium

March 12 | 6:30 PM
Location: Upper Atrium, Architecture Building

The Architectural Course Union (ACU) at Toronto Metropolitan University’s Department of Architectural Science is proud to present the third annual Women in Architecture (WIA) Symposium.

Through the Layers: Women Shaping Architecture Across a Career explores how women navigate architecture across the full arc of a career, from graduation and early practice to leadership, entrepreneurship, and broader professional impact. Moderated by Assistant Professor Jennifer Esposito, the panel will bring together women working across different branches of the built environment to share their experiences, career transitions, and lessons learned along the way.

The symposium is designed to connect students with professionals, highlight diverse post-graduation pathways both inside and beyond traditional design practice, and offer honest insight into building sustainable and meaningful careers in architecture.

CAFÉ 2026 Exhibition:
Learning from the Land: Indigenous-Led Design at DAS

Learning from the Land: Indigenous-Led Design at DAS
Presented as part of CAFÉ 2026

Learning from the Land features student work from Indigenous-led courses at DAS. Presented by the Canadian Architecture Students Association (CASA-ACÉA), the exhibition showcases selected student work from ARC920 Advanced Architecture Design Studio (Fall 2024, Fall 2025), led by Erik Skouris (Two Row Architect), and AR8106 Current Topics in Architectural Praxis: Indigenous Form Making (Fall 2025), led by James Bird (Massey College / Moriyama Teshima Architects), along with other Indigenous curriculum development initiatives in DAS.

Installed in the DAS Upper Atrium, the exhibition highlights architectural inquiry grounded in land-based perspectives and community knowledge, reflecting diverse approaches to investigation and research within the Department of Architectural Science. The exhibition forms part of the Canadian Architecture Forums on Education (CAFÉ 2026) programming taking place across Canada, including a keynote panel on March 20 at the Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto - details coming soon.

A casual launch of CAFÉ Toronto 2026, with brief remarks, will take place to open the exhibition on Monday, March 9, at 12:00 PM, DAS, Upper Atrium.

Guest Lecture with Janna Levitt

Thursday, March 19th | 6:30 PM
ARC 202, 325 Church St.

Janna Levitt co-founded LGA Architectural Partners with Dean Goodman in 1993 with a vision to help diverse and often under-resourced clients to realize places that spark positive cultural and environmental change. Through research, public consultation, and design Janna aims to improve lives: creating places that advance equity, wellness and community, educating and mentoring the next generation of designers, and collaborating with artists, scientists and others to draw attention to pressing issues impacting our world.

Janna has earned wide respect for her inquisitive, thoughtful and imaginative approaches that demonstrate fresh possibilities for everyday living. Her diverse initiatives – such as community hubs that foster arts and culture, public spaces that connect citizens with ecology, and residences that contribute to equitable cities – underscore the expansive role that architects play in redesigning our world.

Picoplanktonics: Partners Exhibition Reception

Thursday, March 26th | 6:30 PM

Paul H. Cocker Gallery, 325 Church St.

Exhibit open between March 19 - April 8, 2026 (9am - 5pm)

Picoplanktonics: Partners is a student-led exhibition that presents the project through the perspectives of those directly involved in its making and care. Centering student voices, the exhibition reflects on their contributions to the work, through producing its components, supporting its installation, and maintaining its presence over time. Drawings, mock-ups, assembly artifacts, and reflections trace how students navigated collaboration, responsibility, and stewardship  while engaging the realities of fabrication and exhibition life. By foregrounding the experience of both building and visiting Picoplanktonics at the 2025 Venice Biennale, the exhibition offers an architectural account of learning through participation—where design is understood not only as a finished artifact, but as a lived, collective process. 

Glaciate at Winter Stations

DAS in collaboration with Ming Chuan University School of Design: Finn Ferrall, Nicholas Kisil, Marko Sikic, with faculty supervisor Yew-Thong Leong and Vincent Hui have designed and built Glaciate as part of Winter Stations 2026. Winter Stations is an international design competition held annually in Toronto, Canada. Since 2015, artists, architects, designers, and students have been invited to reimagine lifeguard stations as interactive public art installations, transforming city beaches into an open-air exhibition each winter.

About Glaciate

The lifeguard stand has become the fixed marker of the Winter Stations competition: an element that survives each annual installation, anchoring every design to Woodbine Beach. A series of vertical polycarbonate panels, filled with water from the lake nearby, creates a set of ice lenses that glaciate the stand. As the lake water freezes and thaws, the panels cycle through phases of transparency, translucency, and full opacity. The stand is never wholly visible or wholly concealed; instead, it appears through fragments, outlines, and momentary flashes of red. This collage of visual clarity creates a celebratory mirage of the lifeguard externally, and a mirage of Woodbine Beach from within.

Glaciate will be on view until March 30.

STRATA

‘STRATA’ is a student-led installation directed by DAS undergraduate student Dhruvan Modugula. The project grew from a shared curiosity about how light, material, and landscape can come together to create a sense of movement.

Inspired by the Northern Lights, ‘STRATA’ reflects the way light drifts across terrain. The installation translates this natural phenomenon into layers of material that shift in color and tone, echoing the rhythm of the aurora as it moves across the sky. As light flows across the structure, it reveals the textures, edges, and patterns that connect the work back to its inspiration in nature. The project was developed and built by students through a hands-on design-build process that encouraged experimentation, collaboration, and learning through making. Each layer represents both an individual contribution and a collective effort to transform an idea into a physical experience.

The project team includes Faculty Supervisor Vincent Hui, Project Lead Dhruvan Modugula, Design Leads AJ Singh, Zain Malik, Bill Tran, and Mahiya Majeed, Fabrication Team members Ambreen Dhaliwal, Arjun Jain, Avery Jordan, Cindy Lui, Emma Ortega Parsons, Emma Uzoma, Gabriel Gouvea, Isaiah Owens, Jillian Pretti, Jorge Cruz Toro, Kristi D’Agostini, Lucas Kuo, Marianela Lalonde, Noel Sawaguchi, Samanta Sohail, Tiara Sugiyanta, Valerie Tseng, and Yassna Gordiz, and Shop Advisors Jordan So, Filip Tisler, and Jason Ramelson.

Design Competition:
Tactical Urbanism Now! The Revolution of Public Space

Participants are invited to explore how temporary, lightweight interventions can act as powerful tools for testing ideas, responding to local conditions and rethinking the future of public space.

Rather than fixed solutions,  this competition looks for proposals conceived as prototypes: flexible, testable and rooted in real urban life. Whether addressing climate stress, reclaiming space for people or strengthening community ties, the goal is to show how small-scale interventions can unlock new possibilities and reshape the urban experience over time. Submissions due by October 20.

ACSA Competitions

ACSA has a long precedence in creating and providing competitions for students and faculty. ACSA competitions are national and international in scope, offering unique opportunities to investigate, develop, and challenge systematic approaches to design. Entries are critiqued and judged by a jury of experts with diverse backgrounds. Competitions also assist instructors with developing a range of design challenges for use in their courses.

National Capital Commission Design Challenge 2026:
Student Ideas Competition

Green Building Solutions 2026:
Scholarship application opens in January

CASA Call: Student Work Showcase

Light of Tomorrow:
International VELUX Award for Students of Architecture

Competition - Spatializing Justice: Building Blocks

Competition: Mass Timber Innovation and Design Center
of Canada

OUT-OF-MAP. Feminist Narratives of Public Space

DAS participating in AAHA SuperStudio lectures

Vertical Urbanism Resources

SSAC 2026: Call for Sessions

Calling all first- and fourth-year students: Share your feedback

TMU Student Care - Reminder of Services

Giving Tuesday

Call For Mentors