Words have the power to change lives. Get Lit is a one-of-a-kind fundraiser where a lineup of notable Canadians read from their favourite book and tell the story of how it impacted their lives. Since 2005, Get Lit’s roster of notable speakers have shared passages from one of their favourite literary works. Although authors are often featured, successful and inspiring Canadians of all professions are invited to share their excerpts with hundreds of enthusiastic attendees of all ages.

To date, the reader line-up has included architects, opera singers, musicians, doctors, artists and chefs. Each tells the story of one book that inspired them, altered their perspective or impacted their lives. We meet, mingle, share our stories and help First Book Canada deliver over 100,000 books each year.

This year the speakers include jazz vocalist Molly Johnson, Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler, Sarah Keenlyside of Inkblot Media, author Kamal Al-Solaylee, and The Honourable Mitzie Hunter.

Join Us!

Get Lit

Wednesday April 26th at 6pm

Tickets $125, incl Food + Drink

The Berkeley Church

315 Queen Street East

On International Women’s Day, Wednesday March 8th at 6:15 – 9:15 PM, Design Exchange and Building Equality in Architecture Toronto welcome architects:

Shirley Blumberg from KPMB Architects
Betsy Williamson from Williamson Williamson Inc.
Peggy Theodore from Diamond and Schmitt Architects Inc
Vanessa Fong from VFA

for an insightful discussion moderated by Chatelaine‘s Sarah Boesveld about why we talk about gender in architecture and if we still need to have this conversation.

In Canada, women represent roughly 28.9% of architects. The Ontario Association of Architects found that during the past 10 years, 33.1% of newly licensed Ontario architects were women.

While women and minorities continue to be underrepresented in architecture and design, and those who are practicing can endure obstacles in the workplace, they have made incredible gains in the profession. Still, their achievements and gender are inseparable – unlike their male counterparts. During our talk we will delve into the question, in 2017 is It Architect or Female Architect? And why do we still need the distinction?

Shane will be presenting our work as part of the 2016 Fall Lecture Series at Prairie View A&M University on Wednesday October 26, 2016. Special thanks to Ross Wienert for the invitation.

Betsy has been selected as a jury member for the 2017 Winter Stations Competition. Fellow jurors include, Lisa Rochon (Senior Fellow, Global Cities Institute U of T; Founder, Friends of the Beach Parks), Dragana Maznic (Design Director, Great Gulf), Mark Ryan (Principal/Co-Founder, PUBLIC WORK), Michael Ondaatje (Novelist), and  Renée Daoust (Founder, Daoust Lestage).

Winter Stations is now embarking on its third-year, opening an international design competition to bring temporary public art installations to The Beaches, exhibited to celebrate Toronto’s winter waterfront landscape. This year they are expecting to include up to six lifeguard stands, including an addition three by invited universities, across Balmy, Kew and Ashbridges Bay beaches located in the heart of the Beach community, south of Queen Street East, between Woodbine and Victoria Park Avenues. These utilitarian structures are to be used as the armature for temporary installations, which will need to be able to withstand the rigours of Toronto winter weather. The exhibition is to run February 20 until March 27, 2017. This is a single-stage open international competition, welcoming artists, designers, architects and landscape architects to submit concept proposals for Winter Stations’ temporary artwork installations.

Betsy Williamson, Sonia Ramundi and Dimitra Papantonis will be hosting a forthcoming session of BEAT‘s Mentorship Mondays on the evening of Monday November 14, 2016. The objective of the event is to provide a platform for dialogue, networking and mentorship while supporting and advancing equality within the Architecture profession. Invitations are open to those at different points in their careers and to those practicing or pursuing various forms of design. See Eventbrite for more info and registration.

Betsy will be presenting our work as part of the The University of Waterloo’s annual Path to Practice series on Thursday, October 20th, 2016. Fellow speakers include Julian Ocampo (HelloEverything), Wei-Han Vivian Lee (LAMAS), and Tyler Sharp (RDH Architects).

Shane will be delivering a keynote lecture as part of the Chair Jorge Montes 2016 at the Universidad del Istmo Facultad de Arquitectura y Diseño. During the Chair, students of architecture of national universities throughout Central America attend lectures, workshops, and participate in competitions. This year’s Chair puts forward the theme ” Roots of Change: Designing the Future” and runs from September 19-23.

Today officially marks the new beginning of Williamson Williamson Inc. as our partnership in Williamson Chong has come to an end. The momentum of our practice remains as we have a number of great clients on-board and projects underway. We couldn’t be more excited about the future. Betsy, Shane, Chris, Sonia, Eric, Paul, Dimitra, and Melissa welcome you to next iteration of our practice.

Over the past 5 years, Williamson Chong produced a number of award winning projects and received notable practice-based honours, including the Professional Prix de Rome from the Canada Council of the Arts, the Emerging Architecture Practice from the Royal Architecture Institute of Canada, and the Emerging Voices Award from the Architecture League of New York.

In July of 2016, Donald Chong left the partnership to head up HDR Toronto’s new architectural design and research studio. Betsy Williamson and Shane Williamson continue to build upon Williamson Chong’s body of work as Williamson Williamson Inc.

Donald Chong, Design Principal
HDR Inc.
255 Adelaide Street West.
Toronto, ON M5H 1X9
647-777-4900
hdrinc.com

Betsy Williamson and Shane Williamson, Principals
WILLIAMSONWILLIAMSON
235 Carlaw Ave. Suite 400
Toronto, ON M4M 2S1
416-703-9271
wwinc.ca

Architecture defines cities, neighbourhoods and communities. It provides form for the human experience. Buildings, homes and institutions shape the environment and reflect each society’s cultural values. Although some buildings ultimately become icons, is architecture art? Come find out at this lively discussion between some of Canada’s top architects and public art practitioners.

As part of Doors Open Toronto 2016, Betsy will be presenting Moments of Engagement, at the Architecture is Art? presentation at Doors Open Toronto 2016.

Please join her at The Aga Khan Museum, 77 Wynford Dr. on Saturday May 28th at 2 PM.

Additional speakers include:

Michael Awad (B.Arch, M.Arch. M.U.D.), is an architect, photographer and Assistant Adjunct Professor at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design.

Christie Pearson (B.E.S., B.Arch., M.Arch., OAA) is an architect, teacher, guest critic and lecturer.

Paul Raff is an award-winning architect and the founding principal of Paul Raff Studio.

Kim Storey (B.Arch., OAA, MRAIC) is an architect, urban designer and founding partner of BROWN+STOREY and the Office for Responsive Environments.

Rohan Walters (B.Arch) is the principal designer of Spaces By Rohan Inc. and an Art Director with the Directors Guild of Canada (Resident Evil and Suits).

Betsy is honoured to serve on the 2016 Portman Prize Jury with this year’s Portman Visiting Critic, Brigitte Shim. The purpose of the Portman Prize and the Portman Visiting Critic Program is to foster design excellence and student creativity in the School of Architecture at Georgia Tech. Recognizing student accomplishment and excellence in the integration of technical considerations as a key constituent of the design process the Portman Prize is awarded through competition by a distinguished jury chaired by the Portman Visiting Critic who also participates over the semester as a roving design studio critic and public lecturer.

It is also Scott Marble’s first year as the William H. Harrison Chair of the School of Architecture at Georgia Institute of Technology. Scott is founder of the innovative and award winning New York practice Marble Fairbanks and was Betsy’s very first professor of architecture in the undergraduate program at Barnard College in 1993! His direction and encouragement helped shape her career in architecture and the practice that he and Karen have built serves to inspire not only the studio here at Williamson Williamson, but the hundreds of students – now professionals – whose careers they have touched over the years.

Betsy will serve on the jury this year for the AIA Portland 2015 Architecture Awards. The Architecture Awards Competition is an annual event open to all AIA Firms, Members, and Associate Members throughout Oregon.  A nationally recognized jury of individuals, review and select projects that reflect the best architecture Oregon architects have to offer.

Jury Critique Night:  October 29
Center for Architecture  |  403 NW 11th Avenue
5:30 pm

Awards Celebration:  October 30
Revolution Hall  |  1300 SE Stark Street
TICKETS

Shane Williamson presented recent work and research to Laval University’s Faculty of Planning, Architecture, Arts and Design as part of their 2015-16 Lecture series. Special thanks to  Samuel Bernier-Lavigne for the invitation.

Fellow speakers in the series included:

Moment Factory (Montreal), Stephane Rasselet (Nature Humaine, Montreal), Jean Perre Crousse (Barclay & Croussse, Lima/Paris), Alexander Redford (Jardins de Metis), Dominiqu St-Gelais and Stephan Lengevin (STGM, Quebec)

The City of Edmonton and the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) believe it is important to promote public and private awareness of the role of urban design.

Every two years, since 2005, the City and the RAIC have co-hosted the Edmonton Urban Design Awards to recognize individuals, organizations, firms and projects that have contributed to urban design and the quality of life in Edmonton.

Betsy Williamson has been included in the five leading voices on urban design will be speaking at Stanley Milner Library, on Thursday October 8, 2015, discussing their perspectives on urban design and its contribution to public spaces.

These experts are known for their work nationally and internationally, and come from varied backgrounds:

Eduardo Aquino, Artist, Winnipeg, MB

Anne Cormier, Architect, Montreal, QC

Christopher Phillips, Landscape Architect, Vancouver, BC

Gordon Price, Planner, Vancouver, BC

Betsy Williamson, Architect, Toronto, ON

They are in Edmonton as jurors for the 2015 Edmonton Urban Design Awards.

Thursday, October 8, 2015
6:30-8:30pm
Stanley Milner Library Theatre

Betsy Williamson is an invited speaker at this year’s Saskatchewan Association of Architects conference and annual general meeting. Held at the Elk Ridge Resort, located north of the prairie flatlands in the boreal forest, from May 8”10, 2015, the conference theme is Evolve, Make, Build and will focus on methods that architects use to broaden their influence during the construction phase of a project.
The intent is to open a conversation with the profession examining and exposing new ways to consider the role of the profession up to and during construction. There are many sides to this conversation, cost, schedule, accuracy, quality, durability, reliability along with many others. New methods of construction, redefining the role of construction documents and/or looking at benefits of improved access to local resources and technology are all affecting the traditional way we practice.
Betsy will be speaking and taking part of an open discussion on the way in which we practice, highlighting the research and work we are doing that explores the use of digital tools with traditional methods of construction in projects like the House in Frogs Hollow and the Living Wood exhibition.

Shane Williamson presented recent work and research to the University of Toronto’s John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design  as part of their 2014-15 Lecture series.

Fellow speakers in the series included:

Ole Schroeder ( Tredje Nature, Copenhagen), Cornelia Hahn Oberlander (Cornelia Hahn Oberlander Landscape Architect, Vancouver), Peter Rose (Peter Rose + Partners, Boston), Sam Jacob (Sam Jacob Studio, London), Carla Juaçaba (Carla Juaçaba Arquiteta, Rio de Janeiro), Patricia Patkau (Patkau Architects, Vancouver), and Jimenez Lai (Bureau Spectacular, Los Angeles).

Betsy Williamson and Shirley Blumberg, partner at KPMB Architects, have recently established WIA Toronto, a leadership network focusing on the issues of women in architecture. The Missing 32% Project, published in Architecture Magazine in October 2014, notes that 42 percent of architecture graduates are female, but the number of licensed female practitioners and senior leaders in the profession hovers between only 15 and 18 percent.

In order to initiate change, Betsy and Shirley have organized Women’s Leadership Seminars at the architecture schools in Toronto. Architects who have established their own practices or have risen to leadership positions in large firms will present their work and practices, then in one-on-one sessions, take small focus groups on office tours and through projects.

These events are envisioned as a way promote discussion between young women coming up in the profession and those of us who have established a presence.

The Podcast  from our spring lecture at the Architectural League of New York is now available on their website along with a transcript from our interview. Thanks again to Anne Riselbach and her entire team at the Architectural League for their support.

Shane Williamson will be speaking at the this year’s NXNE as part of the Interactive stream of artists and designers.  North by Northeast (NXNE) is a ten day festival of Music, Film, Interactive, Comedy, and Art. Now celebrating its 20th year, NXNE takes over Toronto with showcases, screenings, panels, parties, installations, and a whole lot more. From free shows at YDS to extended last calls at your favourite sweaty club/bar, NXNE is the premier destination for bands, filmmakers, innovators, funny people, artists, and most importantly: fans of all of the above. NXNE Interactive: We’re talking big ideas with bright, innovative thinkers. NXNEi panels, presentations, and keynote addresses open the doors of discourse on technology, music, and cultural trendsetting. It’s your opportunity to hear from the best in the business about interesting, relevant topics and gain valuable insight on their experiences developing and progressing these ideas.

NXNE Interactive: Creative speakers include:

Alex Bozikovic (The Globe and Mail) | @alexbozikovic | Toronto, Canada
Kestrin Pantera (filmmaker, RVIP Lounge) | @kestrin | Los Angeles, USA
Liam Oscar Thurston (The Working Group) | @LiamThurston | Toronto, Canada
Matthew Milan (Normative) | @mmilan | Toronto, Canada
Pablo Vio (Jam3) | @pablovio | Toronto, Canada
Ryan & Hays Holladay (Bluebrain, Artisphere) | @BluebrainMusic | Washington, D.C., USA
Shane Williamson (Williamson Chong) | @williamsonchong | Toronto, Canada

Betsy Williamson has been invited to present the work of Williamson Chong at  LATITUDE6, a two-day symposium reflecting on architecture in the Americas hosted by the University of Texas at Austin. The symposium will take place on April 3 +4 in Goldsmith Hall, Mebane Gallery, on the UT Austin Campus. As with the first “Latitudes” conference, initiated by the UT Austin Center for American Architecture and Design and held annually since 2009, the ambition of this symposium is to explore the question of whether there is””already, still emerging, or never to be””an “American” modern architecture, that is, an architecture that transcends the North/Central/South America division and that is in some way distinguishable from European, Asian, and other models.

Clearly latitude matters, climatologically, geographically, and culturally. But, what are the current challenges for American architects in contemporary metropolises now that post-colonialism and post-modern regionalism are fading into history?

Prominent and upcoming practitioners from the Americas will present their recent work in roughly these terms, focusing on the development and execution of a single project in their oeuvre.

Other symposium participants include:

Joeb Moore, Joeb Moore & Partners, Greenwich

Joshua Aidlin, Aidlin Darling Design, San Francisco

Fernanda Canales, Fernanda Canales Arquitectura, Cuidad de Mexico

David Barragan, Al Borde, Quito, Ecuador

Francisco Tomboly + Sonia Carisimo, Asuncion, Paraguay

Rodrigo Perez de Arce, Santiago, Chile

Federico Mirabal Pietra, OAP Arquitectos, Punta del Este

The third evening of the 32nd annual Emerging Voices lecture series, featuring TALLER |MauricioRocha+GabrielaCarrillo| and Williamson Chong Architects is coming up fast. Don, Shane, and Betsy will be travelling to New York on Thursday to present the work of the office.

Mauricio Rocha Iturbide and Gabriela Carrillo Valadez, founding principals of Mexico City based TALLER |MauricioRocha+GabrielaCarrillo|, focus on “the importance of the vernacular, craftsmanship, sustainability, and socially-responsible design.” For more on TALLER |MauricioRocha+GabrielaCarrilloI, click here.

“Context, materials research, economies of construction, building performance, and client-based collaboration” all shape the design approach of Williamson Chong Architects. The Toronto-based practice was founded by Betsy Williamson, Shane Williamson and Donald Chong.

For additional information on all 2014 Emerging Voices, as well as the program in general, click here.

Moderator Annabelle Selldorf is the principal and founder of Selldorf Architects and is the President of The Architectural League of New York. She served on this year’s Emerging Voices committee.

Time & Place: Thursday, March 20, 2014, 7:00 p.m., Scholastic Auditorium, 557 Broadway.

Tickets are free for League members; $10 for non-members. Members may reserve a ticket by e-mailing: rsvp@archleague.org. Member tickets will be held at the check-in desk; unclaimed tickets will be released fifteen minutes after the start of the program. Non-members may purchase tickets online here, beginning March 13.

Shane Williamson will be presenting our 20 slides at tonight’s Pechakucha Lecture. It starts at 6:30 so don’t be late! There is also a Napkin Sketch Auction to which Don has submitted a beautiful drawing so get your checkbooks out too. …and of course food and wine. Williamson Chong will be out in full force so come say hello and take part in the celebration.

Shane Williamson will give a lecture on Friday November 22 at 4:30 pm at the University of Wisconsin School of Architecture and Urban Planning (SARUP). Shane will be presenting the recent work of Williamson Chong Architects as reflected in the notion of “Incremental Urbanism,” which recognizes the possibilities of intensification latent in the morphology of urban fabric.

Other speakers in the lecture series include:

Meredith Sattler, Louisiana State University
Juan Moreno, Juan Gabriel Moreno Architects
Kyle Reynolds and MClain Clutter, mclainclutter / University of Michigan
Hanno Weber, Hanno Weber & Associates
John Cook and Joan Soranno, HGA
Rodolfo Machado, Machado Silvetti Architects
Carl Elefante, Quinn Evans Architects
Chris Macneal, KieranTimberlake
Filip Tejchman, Untitled Office

Shane Williamson gave a lecture on October 24th at the TU Graz Faculty of Architecture as part of the Research/In Architecture Series. Shane’s lecture titled “Incremental”  focused upon the relationship of self-initiated research projects and prototypes relative to the commissioned work of Williamson Chong. Other speakers in the lecture series include: Ardershir Mahdavi, Tu Vienna Silke Steets, TU Darmstadt Johannes Fiedler, Addis Alaba University Andreas Rumpfhuber, Vienna Petra Petersson/Christina Linortner, TU Graz Timotheus Vermeulen, Radboud University Nijmegen

Shane Williamson recently presented Williamson Chong’s current work and research to the professors and students of the Center for Information Technology and Architecture (CITA) at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation School of Architecture. Special thanks to Prof. Martin Temke for the invitation.

Shane Williamson will give a lecture today, April 19, 2013 at 1:30 PM at the Aalto University School of Arts, Design, and Architecture.

Shane’s lecture titled “Up to Small” will focus upon digital fabrication and wood technologies as deployed in the furniture, objects, installations, and buildings of Williamson Chong.

Other speakers in the lecture series include:

Marco Casagrande, Casagrande Laboratory, www.clab.fi
Ville Hara, Avanto Architects, www.avan.to
Janne Pihlajaniemi, M3 Architects, www.arkkitehdit-m3.fi
Teemu Palo, APRT Architects, www.aprt.fi
Anders Adlercreutz, A-konsultit Architects, www.a-konsultit.fi
Pekka Helin, Helin & Co Architects, www.helinco.fi
Markus Wikar & Eero Lundén, Lundén Österlund Wikar, www.nilas.fi
Magnus Silfverheilm, AIX Architects, www.aix.se
Lucía C. Pérez Moreno, Zaragoza University, arquitectura.unizar.es

Betsy Williamson will give a lecture next week, April 2, 2013 at 12:00 PM in the Centre Space of the John A. Russell Building at the Faculty of Architecture on the University of Manitoba’s Fort Garry campus. This talk is part of the Food for Thought lecture series. Betsy’s lecture entitled “By Any Means” will discuss the relationship between the tools used in their emerging practice and the local urban condition in which they practice and how this relationship offers a new take on the incremental growth of architecture in the city. She will discuss the topic through a series of selected projects and studio vignettes.

Shane is holding final reviews for his third year graduate studio at the Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design today. The students are presenting a diverse array of solutions to the following brief:

“This studio will be guided by the supposition that technology is never neutrally deployed but always encompasses ideology, whether consciously declared or subconsciously assumed. Our field of operation will oscillate between practice and theory without subjugating, in the name of idealized principles, the one to the other. Working in pairs, your research will focus upon material adaptation and deployment with particular attention paid to the technical exigencies and contemporary discourse associated with sustainability. As opposed to the appliqué of energy conservation technologies, the studio will mandate the adaptation of an abstract spatial field to performative criteria. We will seek to extend the concept of material systems by embedding their material characteristics, geometric behavior, manufacturing constraints, and assembly logics within an integral design model that promises an understanding of form, material, structure, and behavior not as separate elements but rather as complex relations.

Our presumption will be that the City of Savannah Department of Environment (SOE) and the State of Georgia have partnered to develop a new Pulaski Environmental Center (PEC) along the intracoastal waterway adjacent to the historic Ft. Pulaski and strategically positioned between downtown Savannah and Tybee Island, GA. The environmental center building will have many functions, including but not limited to being an educational resource on the cultural and ecological heritage of the area and serving as an operational base for research activities, environmental remediation and ecological rehabilitation, as well as a base for volunteer stewardship in the region.

In many ways, Ft. Pulaski represents the historical circumstances of the South’s flawed and tragic tendency to overestimate the power of entrenched ideology in the face of agile innovation. With its 11ft thick masonry walls masterfully supported on 70ft pilings in a marshy river environment, Ft. Pulaski was an icon of Southern impenetrability yet after only thirty hours of bombardment, Confederate troops inside Fort Pulaski surrendered to Union forces. The rifled cannon, an experimental gun that was being field-tested by Union Captain Quincy A. Gilmore, rendered masonry forts obsolete, with Ft. Pulaski being its first exemplar.

In December of 1864 General William Tecumseh Sherman telegraphed to President Lincoln, “I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the City of Savannah, with one hundred and fifty guns and plenty of ammunition, also about twenty-five thousand bales of cotton.” It should come as no surprise that Sherman’s March to the Sea and its scorched earth policies have always been highly controversial, and his memory has long been reviled by many Southerners. Rather than address the vestiges of the Old South, though, the Pulaski Environmental Center will embody forward-thinking principles, focused upon cultural and ecological diversity. It will question and or embrace the architectural typologies of the South, while establishing a powerful and engaging presence for both locals and visitors alike.

Digifest is Toronto’s international festival celebrating innovation and digital creativity. From October 18-20, 2012, it will be bringing together some of the world’s best and brightest to showcase next generation digital art, science & design at Corus Quay on Toronto’s waterfront. Established and emerging designers, technologists and artists will come together during Digifest for presentations, incredible demos, interactive exhibitions and parties. Shane Williamson will be joining the Digifest feel. speaking roster on Friday, October 19. He joins an impressive list of speakers from the worlds of fine art, advertising, gaming, business…too many to name here so just have a look at the schedule. Shane will be speaking on Friday afternoon. The Saturday lecture – not to miss – is Carlo Ratti, director of the SENSEable City Laboratory, a research initiative at MIT. The work they do is really incredible.

It was a packed agenda yesterday at the Old Mill Inn. Betsy Williamson, along with David Moses from Moses Structural Engineers, and Lloyd Hunt from Lloyd Hunt Architecture, with guidance from the Wood WORKS! team from North Bay, made some tough decisions among a very strong group of submissions. Williamson Chong will be in attendance at the 12th Annual Ontario Wood WORKS! Awards Evening on November 7th. We will see you there.

Shane will be presenting our current work and new research in a keynote address at the annual conference on Digital Design at the Harbin Institute of technology in Harbin, China. His lecture will be on Saturday August 25th at 2PM. The conference is hosted by the National Specialized Guidance Committee for the Subject of Architecture and the Teaching Committee for Digital Technologies in Architecture.  The conference is co-hosted by School of Architecture, Harbin Institute of Technology and supported by Autodesk (China) Inc.

Other speakers featured at the conference are Ali Malkawi from the University of Pennsylvania, Dennis Sheldon from MIT and Gehry Technologies, Jiancheng Li from South China University of Technology, Immanuel Koh from the AA and the office of Zaha Hadid, Liang Zhong from RTKL Associates, and Shouheng Chen from Shouheng Design and Technology Inc.

We are delighted to take part in Doors Open Toronto 2012. Please join us  10 am – 5 pm on Saturday, May 26 as part of the Toronto Society of Architects: Self Directed Architectural and Design Studio Tour

“Meet some of Toronto’s leading architects as they open their studios for Doors Open Toronto on Saturday May 26 only. This is your opportunity to see the buildings where architects work, to view their studios and to learn about the work they have completed or are developing. Print a copy of the tour map and visit the 10 featured firms. Staff will be on site to provide information and answer questions about their work spaces, their design approach and their past and current projects. Some architects use their studios as demonstration sites to test materials or ideas. In all cases, the studio is the centre for generating ideas, developing solutions and creating the building and urban designs that effect our built environment and how we live and engage with it. As Doors Open Toronto celebrates 200 years of developing the urban environment, we are delighted to introduce you to the architects whose buildings will be celebrated for the next 200 years.” – Doors Open Toronto 2012

Betsy Williamson will be joining the fourth year options studio headed by Dr. Shelagh McCartney for their final review. The option
 studio 
addresses 
the 
experiential substance
 of
 light
 and 
the power
 of light 
to 
articulate
 architecture, 
to 
make 
space
 literate
 and
 to 
activate 
the 
interplay 
between 
thought 
and 
form.

As quoted from the studio brief, “The 
human
 eye 
is 
naturally 
attuned 
to 
twilight.
 
It
 sharpens 
our
 vision 
and
 engages 
our imagination.
 The 
excessive 
bright 
light 
in 
most 
contemporary 
buildings 
blinds 
our 
range 
of vision.
 
Removing
 light 
creates
 an
 opportunity 
to 
use 
of
 our
 imagination
 in 
space, 
eradicating visual 
excitement, 
to 
experience 
being 
and
 creating
 a 
sense 
of 
space
 and
 widening
 the
 methods to 
appreciate 
spaces,
 from
 being 
visually 
pleasing
 to 
mentally 
stimulating
 as 
the 
foundation
 of design. Students 
will 
explore 
the 
sensuality 
of 
light 
in 
space,
 using 
light 
to 
unravel 
details 
or 
to 
layer spaces 
at
 scales 
that 
build 
throughout
 the
 term. 


Through
 both 
reading 
the 
buildings 
of 
masters of 
light 
and 
sculpting
 the 
design 
of 
shadow,
 students
 will 
further
 master
 the 
equilibrium
 between
 the 
illuminated 
and 
unlit, 
aiming 
to 
allow 
space
 to 
bask 
in 
a
 sensuous
 and 
mentally‐stimulating 
atmosphere. 
Giving 
light 
a 
particular 
weight, 
temperature, 
viscosity, 
sound
 or 
to slice
 in 
a 
directional 
sheet
 to 
cut 
through
 the 
darkness 
of 
space.”

Betsy Williamson learned a new word last week: Anthropocene… Professor Geoff Thun’s advanced studio was charged with designing a laboratory for the 21st century and presented provocative and complex projects at their final studio review. It was a pleasure to sit with Kiel Moe and Amy Kulper to engage and discuss the students’ work.

An excerpt from the studio brief, “What should be the ambition of architecture in a time when the earth’s lithospheric and geoclimatic condition has been so fundamentally reshaped by human intervention as to necessitate the definition of a new geologic era, recently proposed to be called the Anthropocene? The identification of this new geologic period attends the emergence of our cultural awareness of a trans-terrestrial interdependent ecosystem, of globalized cultural and economic activity, of ubiquitous computing and information exchange – an era of ever expanding interconnectedness across intellectual and disciplinary boundaries, causality, time and space. This is also an era that has been referred to as the Petabyte Age, where the ability to gather, process and store massive amounts of data is transforming the fields of science, business and technology to move beyond coherent models and unified theories for explanation, and, increasingly, rely on the correlation of the numbers themselves, producing a fundamental paradigm shift in scientific theory across disciplinary specializations. On the one hand, this context reinforces the blurring of boundaries between categories previously juxtaposed; landscape:building, culture:nature, inside:outside, system:environment, control:observation, robust:weak or structured:self-propagating.

In this context, how might we rethink the construct of the Laboratory, simultaneously a locus for scientific discovery, a site intended to foster creative innovation, an engine for public education, and a substrate for new ecologies? If the laboratory is to really embody the “spirit and culture of our age” then it must do so not only by way of program, but by way of the architecture itself – and in turn this may suggest new architectural models”¦The hydroLab Studio and Seminar will explore these questions in developing the Joint Institute for Caribbean Marine Studies (JICMS) Marine Research and Education Center, a radical closed-loop high performance micro campus facility located in the Salt River Bay National Historical Park and Ecological Preserve on St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands. This new building type will be shaped by the unique pressures surrounding island development within a tropical climate, where resource scarcity, proximity to sensitive ecosystems, human comfort in a relentless environment, and the demand for resilience often produce competing agendas. Rigorous technical development and system performance simulation will occur alongside a fundamental questioning of the social and environmental realms produced by such institutions.

Betsy Williamson spent a fantastic 24 hours in Boston, catching up with old colleagues and meeting new friends at MIT’s core studio reviews on Friday. Professor Meejin Yoon, along with Professors Sheila Kennedy and Andrew Scott led an ambitious studio to develop architectural design proposals for the new West Lab research and development facility for the famed Lincoln Laboratory in Lexington, Mass.  A follow up tour of the Media Lab and visits to the Foster + Partners addition to the MFA, Simmons Hall, Howeler + Yoon’s BSA space and the ICA rounded out the whirlwind visit.

From the studio brief, “During World War II, the research laboratory emerged based on a diffuse affiliation of military and university research. Private foundations, military projects, and academic created a “network of networks” dedicated to the emerging technological fields related to national defense. The war effort yielded intense research and applications for technologies ranging from armaments to communications to cybernetics. MIT contributed to these efforts by taking on a leading role in advancing strategic defense through its research and development of radar systems. The success of such ventures encouraged the military to capitalize on the synergies between speculative academic research and commercial industry in order to pioneer new technologies for national security. After the war, the machinery of this research and development model was perpetuated through the establishment of the RAND Corporation (1946), Lincoln Laboratory (1950) and the National Science Foundation (1950), accelerating the interdependences of what would come to be known as the “military-industrial (academic) complex.”

During and after the Second World War, Architecture was also enlisted to serve in the project of national security. This period produced extensive innovation and research in both building types (ranging from the Pentagon to Levittown) and building technologies (ranging from new insulation to fluorescent integrated floor lighting). A new type of building, the research laboratory, became a typology of intense architectural experimentation. Reinhold Martin argues that the architecture of this “aesthetic and technological extension of the military industrial-academic complex acted as a “conduit for organizational patterns,”¦ unifying spaces and subjects into patterns of organization generated by new communication and systems infrastructure.”

Shane recently presented our current work and new research at The School of Architecture at the University of Texas at Arlington as part of their 2011 Fall lecture series. Special thanks to Albert Marichal for the invitation.

Shane will be presenting our current work and new research at The School of Architecture, Art and Historic Preservation at at Roger Williams University on Wednesday February 16th at 6PM in the D.F. Pray Lecture Theater. Special thanks to Andrew Thurlow for the invitation.

Betsy was honored to be a member of the jury for this year’s AIA/IIDA Cleveland Design Awards. These awards celebrate exemplary designs of Northeast Ohio firms for work built locally and abroad.  It was a pleasure to serve with jury chair Don Schmitt and fellow jurors Diego Burdi, Ian MacDonald, Paul Raff, and Barry Sampson.  Congratulations to the winners!

Betsy wants to thank Nigel and Helen for the invitation to present the work of WW INC. at a lunchtime talk at Kerr and Company & Hahn Smith Design on Friday afternoon.

Shane will be representing WILLIAMSONWILLIAMSON at the University of Waterloo School of Architecture this Saturday, October 16th, to take part in a day long symposium about current architectural practice.

Paths to Practice is a day long event hosted by the School of Architecture and Co-operative Education & Career Services to bring together students, professionals, faculty, and co-operative education in exploration of current Architectural practice and employment opportunities. Also on the panel are Manon Asselin from Atelier Tag, Heather Dubbledam, Andrew Jones, Kristina Ljubanovic, Drew Sinclair, and Merike Reigo. The event is sponsored by the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada and the Ontario Association of Architects.

Congratulations to Negar Jazbi, PJ Latoszek, and Farzam Mohajer, students from our recent Daniel’s Options Studio, for winning a 2010 OAA Award for their studio project “Re-Crate.” It was an innovative and comprehensive study for the reuse of discarded wood boards into a highly figural three season structure via a light steel frame and tension cable system.

Betsy was honored to be a member of the jury for this year’s Governor General’s Medals in Architecture. These awards recognize outstanding achievement in recently built projects by Canadian architects and contribute to the development of the discipline and practice of architecture by increasing public awareness of architecture as a vital cultural force in Canadian society.

Congratulations to the medal winners, whose work is best described by the Governor General herself, “Faced with the growing standardization of the urban landscape, we can’t help but recognize their originality, their daring, their vision and their sensibility,” said Her Excellency the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean, Governor General of Canada.

We just wrapped up our design studio at the University of Toronto Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design. Many thanks to our students for their hard work. An excerpt from the studio brief follows.

This studio will seek to extend the concept of material systems by embedding their material characteristics, geometric behavior, manufacturing constraints, and assembly logic within an integral design model that promises an understanding of form, material, structure, and behavior not as separate elements but rather as complex relations.

We will be guided by the supposition that technology is never neutrally deployed but always encompasses ideology, whether consciously declared or subconsciously assumed. Our field of operation will oscillate between practice and theory without subjugating, in the name of idealized principles, the one to the other. Working in pairs, your research will focus upon material adaptation and deployment with particular attention paid to the technical exigencies and contemporary discourse associated with sustainability.

The presumed familiarity of the small scale typology of the single family house will allow the studio to achieve an unusual degree of specificity and detail. Due to the expectation of complex fabrications and material explorations, sponsorship for this studio has been attained and each project will receive funding to fabricate large scale representations of the final proposals. Students will be encouraged to exploit the resources and technical expertise of the Daniels’ Fabrication Lab as well as the production capabilities of local fabricators.

Betsy has begun her service on the Waterfront Toronto Design Review Panel. Comprised of Canada’s leaders in architecture, landscape design, engineering and planning, the Waterfront Design Review Panel is an independent advisory body that guides and informs the revitalization of Toronto’s waterfront. The Panel’s mission is to set new design standards across the waterfront and help Toronto achieve worldwide recognition as a centre of creativity and good design.

Betsy is one of Toronto’s Mille Femmes! The exhibit opens this evening at BCE Place in Toronto as part of the Luminato Festival.

Toronto’s Mille Femmes is a tribute to 1,000 artistic, creative and inspiring women from Toronto and their protégés, who embody the passion and heritage of the city. Architects, actors, dancers, designers, journalists, musicians and others have been chosen in recognition of their achievements and leadership in their field.

Joined together, the 1,000 portraits will become a visual network, a chain of recognition that celebrates not only an extraordinary community of women, but also the creative character and diversity of Toronto. French artist Pierre Maraval calls his photo exhibitions ‘‘human landscapes,” each a collection of 1,000 portraits of individuals linked by a common characteristic or shared passion. Athletes, AIDS workers, Internet pioneers, and women from some of the world’s greatest cities are among those whom Maraval has celebrated since he began his project in ’93.

Shane is moderating a session on Building Information Modeling at the 2007 Construct Canada building and construction trade show. The session, BIM: Practical Tools and Strategies for Architects, Engineers and Contractors, examines the impact of Building Information Modeling (BIM) on fundamental aspects of project design and organization. The benefits of BIM scalability, CAD standardization, and File to Factory approaches to fabrication and construction will be discussed relative to ongoing and recently completed projects. The session includes presentations by Allan Partridge, Principal, HIP Architects, and Andy Thomson, a senior associate at Altius Architecture, and Principal of Sustain Design Studio.

Shane and Betsy begin teaching a ten week graduate level studio course this week at Lawrence Technological Institute in Southfield, MI. The Master Class Practitioner series has been previously led by William Massie, Nader Terani and Monica Ponce de Leon of Office dA, and Lewis.Tsurumaki.Lewis. It is an introduction to the graduate level masters program and serves as a vehicle to introduce students to a critical approach to architecture. Above, a final rendering of the Immigration Tower-Museum in New York’s Battery Park by Babak, David and Galina.

Shane is one of this year’s featured speakers at the 2007 SmartGeometry Education Summit held at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York.

Betsy has been invited to join the Toronto Sculpture Garden’s Art Advisory Board. Located at 115 King Street East, the Toronto Sculpture Garden has been the site of innovative contemporary sculpture installations since 1981. This small, urban park in the downtown core serves as a testing ground for artists to experiment with public space and to address issues of architectural scale, materials and context.

Shane is conducting a workshop dedicated to the future of computer aided design as part of the Subtle Technologies 2006 Festival in Toronto. Using practical software tools and advanced rapid-prototyping systems, the themes of digital simulation and fabrication were explored respective of the interplay between design and computation. Topics included simulation, optimization, form finding, evaluation and genetic algorithms. The workshop was based upon Bentley’s Generative Components software platform.

Shane Williamson was a keynote speaker at eSim 2006, the Tenth Annual International Building Performance Simulation Association Conference. This bi-annual conference was organized to bring together professionals, academics and students interested in building performance simulation issues and applications. It was held in Toronto, Ontario on May 4 and 5, 2006, at the Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design located within the downtown campus of the University of Toronto.

Shane Williamson is the principal investigator for a Digital Design and Research Production Facility grant from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) New Opportunities Fund and the Ontario Innovation Trust (OIT).

Shane Williamson lectures tonight at Auburn University School of Architecture (Auburn, AL) as part of their 2003 Spring Lecture Series: Digital Boundaries Symposium.

Participants included Dennis Sheldon (Gehry Technologies), Hermann Zschiegner (Two-N), Jonas Coersmeier (Probehead), Dean DiSimone (KD Labs), Joseph Kosinski (KD Labs) and Marco Steimberg (Harvard).