DAS News

In this issue: M.Arch Milestone 4 Reviews | Year End Show 2025 | Solar Decathlon Symposium | Waterfront Stories Exhibition | Engineering & Architectural Science Day 2025 & More!

Final 2025 Graduate Design Reviews Kick Off This Week

Join us for our M.Arch Thesis Milestone 4 final presentations: April 22th – 24th!

M.Arch Milestone 4 Unveiled with Special Publication

Join us for the Master of Architecture Milestone 4 Presentations starting at 10 AM, Tuesday, April 22.

The official 2025 Thesis Booklet is now live on Issuu—complete with presentation schedule and student abstracts. A QR code for easy access will be available on-site. Don’t miss the full exhibition of student work throughout the building, open until Friday, April 25!

Register for Our 2025 Year End Show: Opening May 8th

The wait is over—the 2025 Year End Show is here!

Opening Night: Thurs, May 8 @ 6PM (Free food + drinks!)
Location: 325 Church St.
Exhibit Runs: May 8 – June 23

Explore 4 floors of our best student work—from first-year to our grad programs. Models, drawings, digital work—all part of our largest exhibition of the year! Don’t forget to register below.

Access Tip: Use the North West or South East doors + intercom.

FEAS team takes top prize in 2024-2025 Precast Concrete Bench Design Competition

We’re thrilled to announce that TMU’s interdisciplinary team has taken First Place in the 2024-2025 Precast Concrete Bench Design Competition with their innovative Oasis Bench!

Designed by Chloe Thorp, Luke De Bartolo, Bryana Jagdipsingh, Awfa Mohammad, and Kateryna Stokoz (supervised by Dr. Medhat Shehata and Prof. Vincent Hui), Oasis reimagines urban seating as a self-sustaining ecosystem. Key features include:

✅ Rainwater harvesting via pervious concrete
✅ Modular, lightweight precast components
✅ Closed-loop irrigation supporting urban biodiversity
✅ Adaptable design for reduced material waste

The jury praised Oasis for its forward-thinking integration of sustainability, functionality, and modularity—addressing urban challenges while enhancing public spaces. Congratulations to the team and their advisors!

TMU M.Arch Students Shortlisted in International Denver Housing Challenge

Congratulations to our M.Arch 1 students Elaine Nahli and Hunter Kauremszky for being shortlisted in the International Buildner Denver Single-Stair Housing Challenge competition! Their project, CO-Habitat, is a communally-focused residential project designed to emphasize and facilitate social connection and inclusivity. CO-Habitat accommodates a variety of living arrangements, ranging from micro-apartments for individuals to large family-sized loft spaces, integrated within a shared network of third spaces and green areas.

CO-Housing seeks to create a balance between private, semi-private, and public spaces. The central inspiration stems from the traditional courtyard housing and contemporary co-housing models, reimagined to suit the urban context. The selection of cladding materials reflects the character and material history of Denver. CO-Habitat celebrates its material context through the playful introduction of vertical and horizontal languages reflected in the orientation of the wood louvers, brick veneer, and concrete panels. This material expression achieves the intended contextual emphasis while also maintaining cost-effectiveness.

Follow @tmu_archgrad to see more of our students’ successes!

Solar Decathlon Symposium This Thursday

Date, Time: April 24th, 2-5pm

Location: ARC 108, 325 Church St.

The Building Science Grad Studio (BL8104) will be hosting an inter-university Solar Decathlon Symposium this week along with students and faculty from the University of Waterloo and the University of Toronto. Students from each University will display and present their work on the Solar Decathlon Competition this year! Please feel free to drop by to check out the presentations and posters! 

Stories in the Making: Transforming the Toronto Waterfront

Waterfront Stories Exhibition: April 30th - May 2nd 

As part of the Spring Research Convention for Quality in Canada’s Built Environment, a national ongoing research project, the Department of Architectural Science will host an exhibition of student work in the Paul H Cocker Gallery on April 30 - May 2nd. There will be work on display from the Fall 2024 Master of Architecture Studio “System City”, which explored opportunities for the radical reimagining of the Toronto Waterfront and included study tours of Amsterdam, Hamburg and Berlin. Further, the exhibition will also review how the East Bayfront Precinct has evolved over the past twenty years, since the publication of its master plan in 2005. There will also be an exhibition of physical models from the Winter 2025 Collaborative Studio. This year, the Collaborative Studio partnered with The Bentway as the community partner to explore the potential for expanding the definition of design excellence in the built environment to include critical issues such as accessibility, equity, well-being, and inclusion, specifically in the context of Toronto’s waterfront. For the full program of the 2025 Convention, running April 30th to May 2nd in Toronto see here.

Help Green the DAS Entrance – Volunteer for a Planting Event

Join us on Tuesday, April 29 between 1-3pm as we enhance the front entrance of the DAS building with new plantings! We're inviting students, faculty, and staff to help bring more greenery to our school by planting in the front entrance planters.

This event, organized in collaboration with the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, TMU’s Urban Water Student Leadership Committee, and TMU Facilities Management & Development, is part of Earth Month celebrations. Together, we'll plant native shrubs, boost biodiversity, and contribute to a healthier campus environment.

📍 Meet at the TMU Quad – Look for the tent and table marking the gathering spot.
👟 Dress for the weather – Close-toed shoes are required.
🧤 All equipment provided – Bring your own gardening gloves if preferred.

Come get your hands in the soil and help transform our entrance into a greener, more welcoming space! No experience needed – just enthusiasm! See you there!

Engineering & Architectural Science Day 2025

Join us to celebrate our final-year Engineering and ArchSci students as they showcase their innovative, real-world projects!

📅 Agenda Highlights:

• 10:00 AM–12:00 PM: Project Showcase (ENG Building)

• 12:00–1:00 PM: Student Lunch (ENG Lower Ground)

• 1:00–3:00 PM: Employer Networking (DCC 103/104)

• 3:15–4:00 PM: Awards Ceremony (ENG 103)

📌 Student Poster Requirements:

• Size: 24" x 36" portrait on foam core

• Content: Title, team names, motivation, approach, and findings

• Deadline: Submit entry form + video by April 19 for FEAS Awards ($1,000/program)

Edmonton Urban Design Awards Student Submissions

The Edmonton Urban Design Awards are celebrating 20 years of urban design excellence. This biennial awards program recognizes individuals, organizations, firms and projects that have contributed to urban design and quality of life in Edmonton.  Recognizing the work of students is an important component of the awards program.

The student award category is open to students enrolled in planning or design programs at a post-secondary level. Student projects must have an urban design focus and have been completed as part of a studio assignment, or as a result of a final project or an individual thesis.

The project must have been completed by a student, enrolled in an architecture, landscape architecture, planning, industrial design or similar program, in the past two years. Student projects must be located within the municipal boundaries of the City of Edmonton.

Submissions will be accepted beginning July 7. More information on the awards program, including an awards booklet highlighting the 2023 award winners, is available at www.edmonton.ca/urbandesignawards.

For more information, please feel free to contact Peter Spearey, Lead Urban Designer, at 780.508.9503 or at peter.spearey@edmonton.ca.

Competition launched to imagine future of public washrooms in Toronto

The Toronto Public Space Committee has launched a global design competition aimed at imagining the future of public washrooms in the city.

The global design competition invites designers, architects, urban planners, and creative thinkers from around the world  to propose design ideas for inclusive and innovative public washrooms to help advocate and spread awareness for the urgent need of a robust public washroom network in Toronto.

Submission Deadline: May 25, 2025

CASA-ACÉA Student Work Showcase Prizes

The Canadian Architecture Student Association (CASA-ACÉA) is happy to announce this year's Student Work Showcase prizes. 

Submit your work by May 1st  2025, 11:59pm EST: https://www.casa-acea.org/2025-sws-call-for-submissions

The winners of each category will get:

• Their work featured at the RAIC Conference in Montreal this June
• A subscription to Canadian Architect
• $100 gift card to spend at Post Digital Architecture
• A subscription to ArchAdemia courses

The Michael Evamy Scholarship for Architecture Students presented by DIALOG

AIA Canada Student Design Awards Competition

Student Competition:
Retrofit of an Existing Institutional Building

RAIC Foundation – College of Fellows Centennial Fund

2025 Lyceum Competition:
A Community for the Future of Food

TSA Portfolio & Resume Clinic 2025

Bytes & Barriers: Addressing Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence for Women and Girls with Disabilities

housed…[un]housed...[re]housed… 2025 Symposium

Architecture Camp Summer 2025 Now Accepting Applications!