BID Projects – Toronto Metropolitan University

• ARIDO Jun 15, 2022
• • Share this article

For the third year in a row, ARIDO would like to celebrate the class of 2022 from Ontario ARIDO-recognized schools and ensure their work is shared within the ARIDO community and beyond.

 ARIDO has worked with these schools to promote a selection of 4th year BID student work on BLOG//ARIDO and will be posting the work each Wednesday during May and June.

Meimei Yang - Archival Thresholds: A Ritual Activation of Architecture

Archival Thresholds documents the living and architectural heritage of one of Toronto's oldest and largest Artscape studios which ceased to operate as a space for art in March of 2022. It proposes a reincarnation of the building's evolving heritage through the making of objects from found and collected artifacts of the site.

The method of archiving takes the found artifacts of heritage through digital and physical means of collection, re-presentation as functional objects, and finally activation in the existing building envelope as archival thresholds of memory. These objects are dormant yet resilient. They can insert themselves into any time and any space in order to serve as a memorialization of its history, and force themselves to be remembered and engaged with through the daily visual and physical engagement of threshold interactions. Archival Thresholds challenges the idea of the discarded versus the sacred - dealing with something ephemeral like time and the change that comes with it by making it permanent.

Wandia Muchiri - Spoken Form

A large part of Chinatown's history lives on orally: knowledge that exists only from being told and heard. The proposed design method honours this vocal tradition practiced by the community, by carrying it on through materiality.

Recognizing the limitations of digital fabrication tools in design, the workshop will have participants manipulate the clay 3D printing process with their own sound - re-introducing the human influence in clay fabrication.

Marilou Vaillancourt, Nautica Holdip - Legacy of the Past

Our answer proposes the implementation of two experience-based paths which start and end at Piazza Garibaldi. These two paths offer vastly different experiences for everyone to enjoy. The loop is created throughout the historic city where people can enjoy both paths with the Fortezza now acting as a stop along the way. Both paths are made up of a modular system of blocks that can be stacked, rearranged, folded, and stored away, varying in size, material, and function. The blocks were loosely derived from the varying sizes of the historic Etruscan and Roman stones that make up Cortona's walls.

Elaine Hoang - (a)synchronous

Flash forward 200 years: exploring 2 spheres with 2 illustrations each, correlating with the unfolding map. The human sphere (synchronous) is where life happens, seasonal changes and the flow of time. There’s the wild, our earth in its natural state. And an endless territory, a continuous scene of structure.

In the bitsphere (asynchronous) nature is but a little part. We have the city of bits exploring asynchronous dominance, no seasonal rhythm, presence of land nor ebb and flow of life. 

Lastly, is spaceship earth, a place that requires us to make sense of the world through creations, inventions and technology.

Nassila Oudahmane - Mosque & Community Centre

This design-forward mosque and community centre aims to address internal and external challenges; including police-reported hate crimes, gender inequality and stereotypes faced by Muslims in Toronto. The design stimulates interaction, connection and social discourse amongst Muslims and non-Muslim presenting true Islamic values. Rather than aiming to attain a specific outer appearance, this project adopts an atypical mosque program by integrating a community kitchen.

By readapting mosque programming in a Canadian context, the hidden harmony that connects souls, nature, and spirituality shines allowing to stitch the gaps between Muslims and non-Muslims and Muslims and their spirituality fostering change within the community.