What does it mean to belong? How do the spaces we inhabit reflect who we are? These questions lie at the heart of TO·BE·LONGING: Portraits of Queer Living, an ambitious exhibition curated by architect and educator Quan Thai opening at Design at Riverside on November 27, 2025.
After a year of dedicated work, galt. celebrated the launch of Noise on October 30 at the Bridge Centre for Architecture + Design in the Gaslight District.
School of Architecture Associate Professor Marie-Paule Macdonald contributed her expertise to a recent Toronto Star feature: “Is Toronto’s design bad for our health? How urban spaces affect well-being and how we compare to others.”
We are excited to invite you to join us in celebrating the galt. publication Issue 06 launch on Thursday, October 30th in Galt, Ontario. The launch will be hosted at the BRIDGE space in the Gaslight District on October 30th from 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. There will be light refreshments and snacks provided.
Two University of Waterloo architecture students, Matthew Dlugosz and Simon Liao, have been recognized for their outstanding design work at the 35th Toronto Urban Design Awards, held on September 10, 2025, at the Palais Royale.
Associate Professor Adrian Blackwell and Professor Dr. David Fortin are among the key organizers of a bold, collaborative initiative for the 2025–2026 academic year: a Superstudio focused on ending housing alienation. This nationwide effort brings together students and faculty from 14 institutions, including the University of Waterloo School of Architecture, to explore design solutions that address housing unaffordability, disrepair, precarity, and homelessness.
Andy Ruff is the Research Director at Gray Organschi Architecture and the Timber City Research Initiative, where he focuses on developing a comprehensive approach for incorporating timber construction into cities, an approach which simultaneously addresses regional material flows, economies of carbon generation and sequestration, the development of new industrial processes, and the complex spatial, architectural, legal, and logistical challenges of constructing timber buildings in dense urban centers.
Architects do not make buildings, and they certainly do not make materials; they specify. The “out of stock” sign, often considered as a hiccup in procurement, is in fact a threshold where the ethical reach of architecture becomes visible, yet remains perpetually at risk of collapse.What if architecture is never fully available? What happens when specifying itself no longer leads directly to the production of a building? Drawing on 11 x 17’s recent projects, this lecture explores a material politics of “unavailability” and speculates on new modes of architectural practice that consider how form, material, and labor entangle to produce an architecture of resourcefulness.
On behalf of the various committees who have supported this exhibition and Elizabeth, please join us this Friday for a Lecture and The Chair Exhibition closing event. The evening will start at 6:00 pm
Recorded live this past March at the University of Waterloo before an audience of students, alumni, and colleagues. Four graduates returned to share their journeys: Carol Phillips (Moriyama Teshima Architects), Lisa D’Abbondanza (Arcadis), Robert Kastelic (Atelier Kastelic Buffey—AKB), and Drew Mandel (Drew Mandel Architects—DMA). Together, they reflected on choosing Waterloo, the impact of its cultural history curriculum and Co-op program, and graduating into a recession that demanded resilience, initiative, and a willingness to work anywhere.
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