Current exhibition
Let’s Build a Collective
Memory of Chinatown!
邀请您共同创作唐人街的记忆!
邀請您共同創作唐人街的記憶!
December 12, 2024 - Feburary 7, 2025
Through intergenerational storytelling with more than 200 community members, we invite you to explore how shared memory, imagination, and co-design can build community power. “Cold” memories anchor Chinatown in its legacy of anti-displacement organizing and mutual aid traditions. “Hot” memories celebrate Chinatown as an everyday, dynamic, and active space. Together, these memories honour Chinatown’s past while reminding us that Chinatown’s story is still being written every day.
Interactive co-maps of Toronto’s Chinatowns weave personal stories with collective hopes for the neighbourhood's future. Co-design models reimagine present-day spaces while honouring Chinatown’s history of placekeeping. Architectural models use archival documents to reconstruct displaced landmarks, igniting old memories and new possibilities.
Featuring work by Samira El Badaui, Kayla Estacio, Lana Dang, Cindy He, Jenny Hu, Khadeejah Kazi, Avory Lai, Alisa Lau, Jhony Li Feng, Tina Lin, Nathan Man, Areeba Saleem, Derek Shin, Jacquelyne Jane Villaspin.
Co-designed with Eva Chu, Christie Carrière, Bryan Hong, Sharon Hong, Phyllis Lam, Chiyi Tam, Shulan Tien, Beryl Tsang, Julie Wang, Angela Wang, Amy Wang, Eric Wang, Wendy Yang and Linda Zhang.
Co-presented by UWSA 3B Option Studio (Zhang), Planting Imagination, Cecil Community Centre and Scadding Court Community Centre.
Riverside Gallery, is located on the campus of University of Waterloo School of Architecture in the historic former Riverside Silk Mill. Situated along the banks of the Grand River in Cambridge, the gallery showcases the work of students in the graduate and undergraduate programs.
Contact
7 Melville Street South
Cambridge, Ontario
Tel: (519) 621-0460
Gallery Hours
Holiday 2024 hours:
December 23: 8:30 am - 3:00 pm
December 24: 8:30 am - 3:00 pm
December 25: Closed
December 26: Closed
December 27: 8:30 – 3:00
December 28: 8:30 – 3:00
December 29: 8:30 – 3:00
December 30: 8:30 – 3:00
December 31: 8:30 – 3:00
January 1: Closed
January 2: 8:30 – 3:00
Regular opening hours:
Monday: 9:00 am - 3:00 pm
Tuesday: 9:00 am - 3:00 pm
Wednesday: 9:00 am - 7:00 pm
Thursday: 9:00 am - 7:00 pm
Friday: 9:00 am - 7:00 pm
Saturday: 9:00 am - 4:00 pm
Sunday: 9:00 am - 3:00 pm
Past exhibitions
Ron Sims Purchase Prize 1987 - 2024
Ron Sims Purchase Prize 1987 - 2024
Curated by Associate Professor, Teaching Stream, Rick Andrighetti
The Ron Sims Purchase Prize is awarded annually for outstanding presentation work produced by a graduating thesis student. Exhibited here is the full collection of 37 Purchase Prize recipients. The definition of “presentation work” has expanded over the years. As a collection, these works are remarkable in their heterogeneity, which is indicative of the diversity of the individual students, the multifaceted nature of the academic program and the creative and intellectual culture within the institution.
Beginning with early manually produced drawings, paintings and models, the range of work in the collection expands to include experimental film, sound work and material studies. The most significant changes over time can be found in the digital works, from early attempts at Photoshop compositions and digital renderings, which were state-of-the-art at the time, to much more complex digital drawings as the technology becomes more sophisticated.
One might expect a collection of presentation work to include definitive, finished drawings. One notable aspect of much of the work displayed here is that it remains speculative and open-ended as if deliberately avoiding any sort of closure. These works leave us with a set of opportunities and potentials yet to be explored, very much like the condition the new graduates themselves faced at that point in their careers.
Ronald Hubert (Ron) Sims (1923 – 1999) was an English architect and artist who became Director of the University of Waterloo School of Architecture, after a successful two-decade career as an architect in the Bournemouth area of southern England, and a decade of teaching at various British and American schools of architecture. Professor Sims’ had a forceful personality and ideas about academic governance rooted in the more conservative milieu in which he had matured in the late 1940s, and his leadership style found many challenges in the much more egalitarian and experimental atmosphere of Waterloo in the 1970s. As a result, he only served one term as director, but continued afterwards as a teacher. One of the gifts he brought to Waterloo was a highly developed artistic ability that set a new standard of architectural draughtsmanship at Waterloo. It is in recognition of that part of Professor Sims’ legacy that the school established the Ron Sims Prize in honour of outstanding artistic execution of a thesis project.
Masterworks 2024: The Reading Room
Masterworks 2024: The Reading Room by The Site Magazine
On View July 4 - September 13, 2024
Curated by Amrit Kaur Phull
Riverside Gallery
The Site Magazine welcomes you into The Reading Room to explore a decade-long journey through publishing and the printed word. Akin to an archaeological dig through layers of time, artifact, and narrative, this exhibit demonstrates how research can reveal valuable fragments that shape our awareness of the built environment. Navigate a material archive of objects and stories spanning ten issues of The Site Magazine, alongside notable thesis projects from the University of Waterloo School of Architecture Graduate program.
Featuring work by Reese Babcock, Tzu-Yen Chang, Ali Khaja, Madeleine Reinhart, Laura Woodall, and Elizabeth Yeoh.
Dialogues in Action: Design studio options at Waterloo Architecture Fall 2023
Dialogues in Action: Design studio options at Waterloo Architecture Fall 2023
MAY 15 - JUNE 21, 2024
Design at Riverside, Main Gallery
Architectural design studios address ongoing questions, but often they are monologues, not dialogues. In the fall of 2023, four option studios leveraged architecture as a medium to step outside the walls of the school and into ongoing conversations about space, creating opportunities for students to join in. From two studios addressing the deep and protracted problem of housing inequality, to one exploring our intrinsic need to belong within our built environments, and one navigating international reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, these four courses engage students and faculty together in urgent global problems, and connect them with allies and movements who challenged and inspired them.
This exhibition included work from several fall 2023 studio courses:
- Architecture, Activism, and Advocacy Against Housing Alienation
- Alternative housing strategies: Tiny Home Studio
- Creativity, Identity, & Belonging
- Turtle Island’s Embassies: Diplomacy and Reconciliation on Pennsylvania Ave
Projects Review 2023
Projects Review 2023
Projects Review is an annual exhibition of undergraduate and graduate projects from the University of Waterloo School of Architecture.
The exhibition celebrates student works that critically engage a wide variety of architectural discourses. The projects on display have been produced between May 2022 and April 2023.
Undergraduate studios take on contemporary issues facing the practice of architecture, from combating residential alienation to creating growth strategies for sustainable communities. Electives and core coursework engage new design methodologies, such as utilizing computational workflows and living organisms to redefine urban landscapes. Graduate projects are defined by self-directed theses that explore pertinent territories of architectural research in the 21st century.
This exhibition is generously sponsored by Cornerstone Architecture Incorporated and SvN Architects + Planners.
Masterworks 2023: The Signs That Define
Masterworks 2023: The Signs That Define
June 29, 2023 - September 18, 2023
The University of Waterloo School of Architecture presents Masterworks 2023, an annual showcase of exemplary graduate student thesis projects.
This year’s exhibition is curated by alum Kurt Kraler around the themes explored in his graduate thesis “The Generic Spectacle” and his recently released book “The Signs That Define Toronto”, published by ERA Architects and Spacing.
Masterworks 2023 is entitled “The Signs That Define: Finding Meaning in Architectures of Exchange” and features the work of four MArch graduates including, David Ogbe’s design for a renewed Temple of Afrobeats in Nigeria, Weeney Lin’s exploration of the evolution of Chinatowns in North America, Emilie O’Neill’s design for Vancouver’s sex worker population, and Kelsey Malott’s revitalization of Los Angeles’ historic Sunset Strip. Each project thoughtfully documents, analyzes, and responds to an existing community. Since signage is a reflection of the community it advertises to, it can be one of many cultural artifacts that architects can document and observe during the design process. The various communities that each project explores not only focuses on the exchange of goods and services but the exchange of culture, music, and knowledge.
Come explore how each thesis project engages with existing communities and proposes a meaningful architectural expression.
Opening Reception:
Join us to celebrate the opening of the Masterworks exhibition.
Thursday, June 29, 2023, 7pm
Riverside Gallery
Refreshments will be provided.
Closing Reception + Discussion:
Monday, September 18, 2023, 6:30 pm
ERA Architects presents a discussion on "The Signs That Define"
More details tba
Riverside Gallery
Refreshments and closing remarks to follow.
The Shared Spaces
The Shared Spaces - ARC 393 Studio Final Projects Show
December 14 - 18, 2022
Design at Riverside, Main Gallery
The goal of this mixed-media studio is to explore a methodological framework for creative processes at the intersection of art and architecture through research discussion, experimentation, and project development in response to our complex and shared social realities Students "distill methodologies" from the work of selected representative contemporary artists, and conduct research on pressing topics such as migration experience, environmental injustice, and social isolation in the pandemic, all of which are linked to local and universal contemporary conditions. The methodological and topical research contributes to the major component: the individual projects that combine a variety of media chosen from video, image, installation, sound, and performance.
Projects Review 2022
Projects Review 2022
November 1 - December 2, 2022
Design at Riverside, Main Gallery
Online exhibition
Projects Review is an annual exhibition of undergraduate and graduate projects from the University of Waterloo School of Architecture. The exhibition celebrates student works that critically engage a wide variety of architectural discourses. The projects on display were produced between May 2021 and April 2022.
Undergraduate studios take on contemporary issues facing the practice of architecture, from post-pandemic music venues to urban growth strategies for sustainable communities. Electives and core coursework engage new design methodologies, such as utilizing computational workflows or living organisms to redefine landscapes. Graduate projects are defined by self-directed theses that explore pertinent territories of architecture in the 21st century.
SPONSORS
This exhibition is generously sponsored by Cornerstone Architecture Incorporated and SvN Architects + Planners.
EXHIBITION CREDITS
Faculty Support
Maya Przybylski
David Correa
Curator
James Clarke-Hicks
Prototypica
Prototypica_
June 20 - July 22, 2022
Design at Riverside, Main Gallery
This exhibition shows the work of Alexander Gontarz, Jessica Hanzelkova, Nathanael Scheffler and Ye Sul E. Cho.
Prototypica_ is a four-person group proposal focused on the themes of digital fabrication, collective making, process-based prototyping, and tactile interaction. The exhibit will centre on a series of physical prototypes pulled from each thesis, with supporting material in the form of drawings, displayed artifacts, interactive activities, and short videos.
The exhibit offers a reflection on prototyping as a means to test, prove, and explore ideas (those three things but not in any particular order). It is a marked alternative to the common mode of working with prototypes, which typically uses them to craft a singular object or refine a production process. Their prototypes are instead a glimpse into several simultaneous thoughts, each one building on the curiosities of the other.
They imagine futures of connection. Human to machine, human to human, and human to material synergies that feed communality, agency based in making, open-source knowledge, and inclusionary design. Unmaking. Redoing. Unlearning. Reimagining. Repairing. Remixing. In times like these, what better way to spend an afternoon? They’ve missed building things together.
Masterworks 2022 : Another Way Through | Material Memories
Masterworks 2022 : Another Way Through | Material Memories
Another Way Through
May 9 - June 10, 2022
Design at Riverside, Main Gallery
Another Way Through highlights the paths in which master’s theses travel; not a straight line but one full of exploration and process, often hidden between the lines of the final work. Bringing together the thesis work of two recent graduates from the Master of Architecture at the University of Waterloo, this exhibit showcases two distinct and alternative approaches to expanding architectural research. Both Brenda and Vic’s work embody what unconventional theses, engaged in alternative methodologies of research and production, can look like: sitting in-between and beyond the traditional thesis format.
Brenda’s Care As Architectural Practice exemplifies the role of craft, mixed-media, and community engagement as a method of creation. Vic’s The Witch’s House delves into the practice of drawing and writing as a method of research, design and critical thinking. They come together in this exhibit as a celebration of the friendship and collaboration that flourished throughout the production of their work and continues to impact their success as emerging artists and researchers. Through physical artifacts and accompanying interpretive text, the exhibition invites people behind the scenes of the master’s thesis and presents a glimpse into the relational process of design integral to the work of architecture and art alike.
Both Brenda and Vic offer reflections on this thesis work and draw connections to their current work as artists, researchers and educators.
Material Memories
May 9 - July 22, 2022
Design at Riverside, Window Gallery
Material Memories explores the identity of place embedded in the harvest, craft and experience of material through three thesis projects: Clay Shapes the Hand by Kelsey Rose Dawson, More Than a “Thing-In-Itself” by Elizabeth Lenny, and Within the Ruin is Colour by Jade Manbodh. The first focuses on understanding site through finding, digging, and processing wild clay, displaying material tests from all stages of clay’s lifecycle and the resulting sculptural work from the artist's ongoing research. The second traces the life of wood from a tree to a chair. It includes a selection of five seats. Along with each seat, there are maps that trace the becoming of the work from the source material through to the place the wood was made into a seat. The third illuminates the colour of post-industrial material. Twenty-eight extracted pigments are displayed in the form of rubbings on paper. They are accompanied by the artist’s field note reflections, sketches, and maps.
The exhibition uses site as a starting point. Each artist then explores an intimate relationship with the land by harvesting their materials, giving time and labour to these places. Each installation reflects upon site and recognizes how it has influenced their work and lives.
Projects Review 2021
Projects Review 2021
Online Exhibition
The University of Waterloo School of Architecture Projects Review 2021 features graduate and undergraduate projects from the past year.
The exhibition showcases the creativity, craft and commitment to architectural excellence that are internationally recognized qualities of the School.
Undergraduate projects are immersed in a full range of contemporary issues that span from the nuances of building design to the sustainability of urban precincts. Graduate projects are distinguished by self directed thesis work that examines the ever changing cultural, technical, poetic, and political conditions confronting architectural practice in the 21st century.
Special thank you to:
Amy Townsend
Jonathan Enns
Simon Eustace
Maulshree Gupta
Madeline Joo Sun Kim
Projects Review 2020
Projects Review 2020
Online Exhibition
See the featured work celebrating work from Winter, Spring and Fall 2019.
The annual Projects Review Exhibition features a collection of graduate and undergraduate student work. The undergraduate work demonstrates a range of projects from contemporary issues, use of computation, inclusivity and sustainability, while critically examining the environment we live in. The graduate projects showcase self-directed thesis research, examining the cultural, digital poetic and political conditions confronting architectural practice in the 21st century.
We would like to thank the OAA for the gracious sponsorship of the 2020 Projects Review Exhibition.
Masterworks 2019 : Remembering What is to Come
Masterworks 2019 - Remember What is to Come
October 7 – November 2, 2019
Design at Riverside, Main Gallery
Opening: Monday, October 7 at 6:30pm
From the unrealized promises of modernity to contemplating the notion of home post-migration, the works presented by recent graduate students Daniel Abad and Haneen Dalla-Ali explore a memory unbound to the past. This memory exists in simultaneity, where the past, the present, and the future are seamed to answer the question of what we had, what we have, and what we long for.
Celebrating it’s 10th year in 2019, Master Works is a showcase for exceptional thesis projects by recent Masters of Architecture graduates of Waterloo Architecture. It provides an opportunity to extend the audience for this work beyond academia and for the graduates to plan and execute a dedicated exhibition in a professional gallery.
Projects Review 2019 - Sources
Projects Review 2019 - Sources
April 15 – June 1, 2019
Design at Riverside, Main Gallery
Projects Review 2019 features graduate and undergraduate projects from the University of Waterloo School of Architecture. The exhibition showcases the creativity, craft and commitment to architectural excellence that are internationally recognized qualities of the School. Undergraduate projects are immersed in a full range of contemporary issues that span from the nuances of building design to the sustainability of urban precincts. Graduate projects are distinguished by self-directed thesis work that examines the ever changing cultural, digital, poetic and political conditions confronting architectural practice in the 21st century.
Our theme this year, 'Sources' questions the traditional project exhibition format. Inspired by the recent development of 'open' and 'crowd' digital communication methods that turn viewers into collaborators, this year we look for ways in which gallery visitors can engage more deeply with student work.
Masterworks 2018 - Traces
Masterworks 2018 - Traces
October 22, 2018 - January 13, 2019.
Design at Riverside , Main Gallery
As architecture students we are taught to draw, to distill information into lines concisely and abstractly. We diagram the relations between events and spaces over time. We zoom out. We make abstract to understand the scope of questions we seek to tackle. We find relationships. We highlight them. The aim is to zoom back in when we design, to touch the everyday. At times, however, the abstraction causes us to forget the human.
Photographs capture the quotidian. They are literal traces of light in a moment, proof for the details the abstracted maps and time-lines leave behind. They make the affects of larger spatial phenomena tangible. They capture the human. The six graduate theses on display all seek to document the traces of spatial phenomena on the everyday. The themes explored are complex, caused and sustained through the affects of politics, religions, and economics on spaces, people, and landscapes for years. With these photographs, the authors aim to translate the big data back into the architectural scale, the scale in which individuals experience their surroundings. The photographs show the haunting truths of contested questions without judgement. They are a tool for empathy. They are evidence.
At first glance, all the photographs capture mundane movement through everyday life. Yet they have embedded within them great questions about the apartheid separation of the Holy Land, the affects of the Chinese Cultural Revolution on individuals, the pragmatic brutality of cremation, the heritage of placeless exile in Iran’s LGBTI+ community, the inflicted wounds of roads and towers on the Great Plains, and the legacy of the Belgian colonization of the Congo. The pictures on display aim to capture the truth of individuals, moments, and places ignored or misunderstood.
Master Works is an annual juried exhibition that provides an opportunity for recent graduates of the Master of Architecture program at the University of Waterloo to submit proposals for solo and/or group exhibitions based on their graduate theses. Master Works encourages applicants to expand their research into a new three dimensional form and to experience developing, designing and presenting an exhibition in a professional gallery.
Projects Review 2018 - Questioning the _
Projects Review 2018 - Questionning the _
April 16 - June 2, 2018
Design at Riverside, Main Gallery.
To mark Waterloo Architecture’s 50th Anniversary, our annual Projects Review will be integrated with the Questioning the Canon exhibition at Design at Riverside, with additional simultaneous displays and events throughout the architecture school and off-site at Bridge. Featuring graduate and undergraduate projects from the University of Waterloo School of Architecture, the exhibition demonstrates the stimulating projects that address contemporary issues, critically questioning the environment we live in. Undergraduate projects address issues that range from the use of computation to the inclusivity and sustainability of our cities. Graduate projects showcase self-directed thesis work that examines the cultural, digital, poetic, and political conditions confronting architectural practice in the 21st century.
Projects Review 2016 - Bearing
Projects Review 2016 - Bearing
April 18 - May 21, 2016
An annual exhibition showcasing outstanding student projects from each undergraduate studio program at Waterloo Architecture in the 2015 - 2016 academic year. Significant projects chosen from Masters Students.
The exhibition features graduate and undergraduate projects from the University of Waterloo School of Architecture. The exhibition showcases the creativity, craft and commitment to architectural excellence reflecting the internationally recognized qualities of the school. Undergraduate projects are immersed in a full range of contemporary issues that span from the poetics of building to the sustainability of urban precincts. Graduate projects are distinguished by self-directed thesis work that examines the ever-changing cultural, digital, poetic, and political conditions confronting architectural practice in the 21st century.
Opening: Monday April 18, 6:30pm
Masterworks 2016
Masterworks 2016
3 - 23 October, 2016
Design at Riverside, Main Gallery
Master Works at Design at Riverside is back after two years! The Master Works Exhibition provides recent graduates of the UW Masters of Architecture program the opportunity to exhibit their work solo or in a group. It gives students the opportunity to take their thesis beyond a book to explore it as a larger exhibition.
This year, in reflection of the diversity of relevant topics covered in the graduate program, the exhibition will showcase three proposals:
Narratives of Urban Identity / Medellín + Jerusalem by Kyle Brill and Taylor Davey
Manufacturing a Cycle City by Stephen Wenzel and Sonia Yuan
A House that Inhabits the Earth by Shu Yin Wu
Projects Review 2015 - Form and Flux
Projects Review 2015 - Form and Flux
April 20 - May 16, 2015
The exhibition features graduate and undergraduate projects from the University of Waterloo School of Architecture. The exhibition showcases the infectious creativity, craft and commitment to architectural excellence that are internationally recognized qualities of the School. Undergraduate projects are immersed in a full range of contemporary issues that span the poetics of building to the sustainability of urban precincts. Graduate projects are distinguished by self-directed thesis work that examine the ever changing cultural, digital, poetic, and political conditions confronting architecture practice in the 21st century.
Opening Reception: Monday April 20, 6:30pm
Projects Review 2014 - New Realities
Projects Review 2014 - New Realities
April 21 - May 18, 2014
Welcome to the University of Waterloo School of Architecture student exhibition: Future Realities. This annual exhibition showcases the school’s long-standing fusion of imaginative studio culture and co-op work experience for which the schools is internationally recognized. What links all of the projects is a passion to explore, expand and understand the potential for architecture to positively impact our world.
The projects on display feature work from both Undergraduate and Graduate programs of the school. The undergraduate projects are drawn from studio based assignments that guide students through an increasingly complex, experimental and comprehensive cycle of architectural investigations that range in scale from the single house to the urban precinct. Graduate projects are distinguished by self- directed thesis work that brings a depth of research and design based insight to a wide array of contemporary architectural issues.
This exhibition highlights the schools commitment to bringing resilient and creative architectural voices to the difficult challenges of our time. To build sustainably and poetically, to harness the vast power of new technologies and to understand how cities can flourish in the 21st century; these are our new realities.
Masterworks 2014 - Second Skin : Painting Architecture
Master Works 2014 - Second Skin: Painting Architecture
September 30 – October 26, 2014
Opening: Tuesday, September 30, 6:30pm
Each fall Design at Riverside presents Master Works, an annual juried exhibition selected from proposals for solo and/or group exhibitions by students or recent graduates of the Masters of Architecture program at the University of Waterloo School of Architecture. This year Stephanie Boutari was selected for a solo exhibition for her thesis work entitled Second Skin: Painting Architecture.
Masterworks 2013
Masterworks 2013
September 17 – October 6, 2013
MasterWorks 2013 is an annual juried exhibition selected from proposals for solo and/or group exhibitions by graduates of the Masters of Architecture program at the University of Waterloo, School of Architecture.
Vernacular and Anonymous Architecture: Beijing Courtyards & Toronto Chinatown
Vernacular architecture is a form of building fabric, indigenous to a specific place that evolves over generations according to the needs of a particular cultural group. It is built by its users, without the input of architects. The social and cultural traditions, construction methods, locally available materials and unique local conditions dictate the character of its built form. The architecture grows and changes over time, incrementally adapting to the specific needs of its inhabitants, evolving as an expression of the collective, rendering the individual builder anonymous.
Vernacular and Anonymous Architecture brings together two theses: one titled “Towards a Sustainable Future: Courtyard in Contemporary Beijing” by Ningxin (Sophia) Zhu, investigates the evolution, essences and sustainable offerings of the traditional courtyard house (siheyuan) in Beijing and its relationship with the city at large; the other titled “Learning from Chinatown” by Li Ting (Nora) Guan, examines the unique fabric of Toronto’s Chinatown, documenting the activities and social bonds of the adapted Chinese culture within a foreign context. While being distinct research projects, they share a parallel dialogue in reflecting the changes in social, economic, political and environmental structures over time, which in turn challenged the nature, usefulness and relevance of the existing building fabric. Both developed design proposals to update the vernacular typology based on contemporary needs, yet maintaining its own uniqueness rather than assimilating into a homogeneous global culture.
– Li Ting (Nora) Guan & Ningxin (Sophia) Zhu