Visions and Master Plans - Award

Laneway Architecture and Urbanism
Address: Laneways throughout Toronto
Architect: Professor Brigitte Shim with Donald Chong
Masters Students: Steffanie Adams, Ali Abir, Kiran Chhiba, Laragh Halldorson, Jane Hutton, Al Kably, Adam Kanza, Selena Kwok, Christopher Routley, Kirsten Thomson, Seyedeh-zahra-de Yekrangian, Jingpi Zhuang, Karen Zwart-Hielema
Owner/Developer: Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design, University of Toronto

Pat Bollenberghe
Long overdue. This design studio recognizes and explores the unique opportunity the existing laneway network provides as a resource for the City, defining a new and important built form and open space framework within the existing fabric of Toronto.

Alex Krieger
This was the one exception to an otherwise uninspiring group of student projects, and it is remarkable. For one thing it is clearly a more research and problem-identifying/problem-solving endeavor than an example of form-making virtuosity. The interaction between faculty and students is apparent, as is the collaborative approach taken by the studio overall. The effort is full of insights about how to take fuller advantage of the laneways of the city and the benefits this might have on neighborhood infill in general. Specific sites are investigated as well as systems of laneway development. There are urban design lessons on display, as well as implications for public policy. A very impressive bit of urban design research indeed!

Bruce Kuwabara
This is an extensive body of research about laneway intensification and development in Toronto. Rigorous and well-presented, the body of work is groundwork for the real thesis which is about changing the City's policies regarding laneway architecture. The award also recognizes the research capability of a school of architecture as a generator of intellectual capital and creative equity for a city.

Lisa Rochon
About two million newcomers are expected to join Toronto over the next 20 years - but where to put them? One option is to house people in suburban developments on the agricultural fringes of the city. Another is to transform the city's brownfields and extensive laneways into sites for innovative and sensitive housing. Professor Brigitte Shim has taken the backlane house - a building type made iconic when she and her partner Howard Sutcliffe designed one of the city's first backlane houses - and asked her graduate students to imagine its larger implications for Toronto. The resulting study of laneway architecture and urbanism is exhaustive, inspiring and necessary if the city is serious about evolving its urban depth.