Tag / explore
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Community Centres as Pivots of Our City
We are slowly getting tired of hearing news about new commercial and residential developments happening in Toronto, so let’s talk about community developments. How often do we hear about community centres opening? In 2015 only, merely two community centres opened throughout Toronto.
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Success and Failure: Thoughts on OAA Awards
Last Monday on March 6th, the Ontario Association of Architects (OAA) has announced twenty Design Excellence Finalists of this year’s OAA Awards. Scrolling down through the list, I experienced a spectrum of emotions: hope, excitement, bitterness, unease, a very mixed feeling, just like the other hundred or so architects!
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Committee of Adjustment: Friend or Foe?
You have a brilliant idea for this new renovation project (that you almost feel genius!). The client wants to create a new lot for a fairly large detached house on a prominent residential street in this growing, hot real estate market right here in Toronto. Everything seems perfect, but does the City agree? Well, the Committee…
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Reimagining Our Streets
What are the words that come to your mind when you think of ‘metropolitan area’? Densely-populated, traffic congestion, crowd, noise, agglomeration… these words often involve negative connotations. Imagine then: What would a metropolitan city with a stretch of car-free road look like?
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Design for Human Well-Being
As architects, we are all familiar with LEED, the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design’ certification program. Sustainable and environmental design has become an integral part of our daily life, not simply for the physical and mental health but social and cultural activities. For such reasons, one of our jobs as an architect is ‘to…
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Tapping into Revit: First Impressions
While still in school, I heard multiple times that Revit is a must-learn software, an advanced building information modelling (BIM) application often used in highly technical architecture firms. The urge to learn basic programs like AutoCAD for school purposes, however, has previously restrained me from learning more comprehensive software like Revit. Motivated by Crystal to…
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The Story Behind House Renovation
Located on a quiet residential street of Roncevalles Village area, this hundred year old, two-storey semi-detached house on Herman Avenue was renovated as a modern, spacious and abundantly lit house. Requested by client, the house was designed to improve circulation, functionality and flexibility in space, with potential future tenants in mind. Having had inconsequent…
