During Orientation Week, the IwB students were given the task of creating a ‘Timeline of Division.’ The students choose to make a 15-foot model that traced the major developments and shifts in human communication, transportation, and building systems.

By showing the emergence of new technology and social organization, the students were able to showcase how division is an intricate part of social development.

In October 2014, the IwB students participated in the Scotiabank Nuit Blanche. The students created an interactive exhibition in St. James Park called “Gazebo Confessional.” 

Gazebo Confessional transformed the St. James Park gazebo into a type of ‘interactive confessional.’ Here visitors could read, write, and contribute their stories of Toronto. The exhibit played with the idea of self-reflection as a means of connection and community-building.

The project was the result of a collaboration with Exhibit Change, a local Toronto organization dedicated to design-driven community engagement.

In October 2014, the IwB students and staff travelled to Detroit to conduct a charrette with the City of Eastpointe (MI), exploring Eastpointe’s future growth and regional connectedness.

One of the biggest challenges for Eastpointe’s city government is to make better use of the resources that already exist in the community. Towards this goal, the theme of ‘the commons’ was chosen for the charrette.

To find out more about the charrette and view the teams’ proposals see the Eastpointe Charrette page.

For their Systems & Services Module, the students made a proposal for a future autonomous transit system called SHIFT supersystem. The students started with the base assumption that in a few years time the autonomous vehicle will enter the general market and it will radically influence not only the transportation system, but a multitude of other systems.

The project used trend research and analysis to provide detailed user scenarios and environmental predictions in order to depict the ways in which autonomous vehicles will actually work in the future.

The SHIFT supersystem proposed by the students goes beyond the interaction between passengers cars and roads, to include forecasts of how artificial intelligence will communicate with the user and regulate traffic. The students predict that by 2050 the autonomous vehicle system will become a hyper-integrated communication network.

More about this project in the students’ forthcoming Atlas!

For their Communication Module, the students worked on better connecting Torontonians to the electoral process.

The students proposed the “IM project,” a communication campaign that addresses issues of identity in Canadian municipal politics. It focuses on promoting the presence and engagement of immigrants and permanent residents in the electoral process.

The IM campaign empowers permanent residents and newcomers by promoting their presence as contributing members of Toronto. The proposal has many features, including the IM App, a means for creating personal connections and providing access to information about politics for new Canadians.

More about this project in the students’ forthcoming Atlas!

In their Environment Module, the students made a proposal for “Opportunity Hub,” an inclusive space designed to bring people together through creative social and recreational use of underutilized land at the corner of Gratiot and 8 Mile in Eastpointe, MI.

The hub provides flexible space and programming for a range of activities, including retail, recreational, social and cultural, with the intention of building a new identity for Eastpointe as a gateway to Macomb County. 

The students envisioned the Opportunity Hub as a space to harness ‘social mobility.’ A place that could help eliminate the gap that currently exists for students in the Detroit region, between graduating high school and continuing on to a college. 

More about this project in the students’ forthcoming Atlas!

In February 2015, the IwB students participated in the Toronto Design Offsite Festival 2015 (TO DO). The festival is an annual city-wide exhibit of independent design in Toronto, showcasing prototypes, installations, and unique programming.

The IwB exhibit for TO DO 2015 was called “The Imperative Divide,” which drew attention to the causes, outcomes and necessities of divides that enable societies to exist.  The exhibition was showcased in the School of Design Gallery at 230 Richmond St. East. It was shortlisted as the “Best of Design Week” by Designlines.

To find out more see our TO DO Festival page.

In March 2015, designers Nik Baerten and Daniel Rossi, from Pantopicon, and Virginia Tassinari from MAD Faculty, LUCA School of the Arts, travelled to the IwB to hold a special week-long design workshop with the IwB students called “Future Fragments.” 

Future Fragments introduced the students to storytelling and forecasting. Baerten, Rossi, and Tassinari challenged the students to design four different worlds. Students then explored, discussed and detailed these worlds, asking themselves what kinds of people live there? What are the values of these societies? And how do its citizens live their daily lives?

Based on this exploration the students then designed artifacts for these ‘new futures.’ They presented them in a ‘wunderkamer’ or cabinet of future fragments, made up of a wall of boxes that displayed the artifacts.

Through this process, the students learned about an old exhibition technique and products and services forecasting.

The Future Fragments workshop courtesy of:
Nik Baerten and Daniel Rossi, Pantopicon
Virginia Tassinari from MAD Faculty, LUCA School of the Arts

Each year the IwB runs an international charrette bringing together local and international design students and design professionals.

The 2015 international charrette,”Our City within a Park: Designing social infrastructure for Toronto’s urban ravines,” broadly looked at Toronto’s urban ravines, asking: How can we design new social infrastructure to connect the City of Toronto through its urban ravine system?

The charrette was highly successful. The teams’ project proposals were synthesized and turned into a toolkit and a video document called “RavineLine.” RavineLine aims to influence municipal officials and community leaders and provide them with strategies to connect and engage the different neighbourhoods along Toronto’s ravines. It is a forthcoming document that broadly proposes the creation of one integrated path from the many ravines in Toronto.

To find out more about the event and to view the charrette teams’ design proposals see the Our City within a Park project page.

The IwB has been working with the City of Chicago since 2013. In April 2015, the IwB students and staff travelled to Chicago to conduct a 5-day charrette called “Resilient Routes,” looking at the divisions in Chicago’s neighbourhoods, principally in Pilsen and Little Village.

Charrette teams were asked to think about how the city’s common spaces and public routes could be used to improve neighbourhood resiliency.

To find out more about the charrette and the teams’ design proposals see the Resilient Routes project page.

In June 2015, the IwB students created an exhibition called “Access Granted” that summarized the objectives and results of the Connecting Divided Places Project.

The exhibit included excerpts from the students’ research in the field, their project work, their theoretical insights as well as several interactive games the students made that played with the concept of division.

Access Granted was presented at the ARUP office in Toronto. The Exhibition was a great opportunity for IwB students to showcase their work through the ARUP network and gain valuable industry feedback.

The exhibit was later moved to the School of Design Gallery. Feedback from the exhibition will be incorporated in the students’ forthcoming Atlas publication.