Ideas Forum: Labour of Architecture

DesignTO is a registered charitable arts organization that believes design can create a sustainable, just, and joyful world. From January 23 – February 1, 2026, the DesignTO Festival features 100+ free events across Toronto, showcasing hundreds of artists and designers. Known as Canada’s largest annual design festival, DesignTO has welcomed over 1 million attendees, reached 2.6 billion people through media, supported 7+ creatives, and generated $120 million in tourism impact.“DesignTO isn’t just a festival; it’s an anti-loneliness machine,” co-founder Christina Zeidler remarked, underscoring the organization’s power to foster belonging and spark vital conversations about design’s role in shaping a better world.

DesignTO

This event features five fast-paced presentations exploring exploring the practice of architecture.

2025 DesignTO Festival

These are just some of the 100+ events happening in Toronto and online as part of the 15th annual DesignTO Festival, Jan 24-Feb 2, 2025. To see the full Festival schedule, visit https://designto.org/2025-festival-schedule/

Organized by DesignTO in partnership with the Toronto Society of Architects, ‘Ideas Forum: Labour in Architecture’ features five fast-paced presentations (20 slides shown for 20 seconds each) exploring the practice of architecture. Architecture is a team sport. Despite the long-standing and harmful trope of the architect as a lone genius, the work of building design is fundamentally collaborative, involving the talents and expertise of many individuals. This panel talk focuses on what happens inside the office. How these teams work together, and under what conditions, has been an area of increased attention over the past years, especially during and after the pandemic. Through presentations from 5 speakers representing diverse organizational structures, including co-operative, union, and employee-owned, this Ideas Forum considers the business of architecture as a project worthy of (re)design.–––A certificate for 1 hour of OAA ConEd will be issued to registered attendees who request it with their RSVP for the event and sign in to the event.–––

'Ideas Forum: Labour in Architecture' is organized by DesignTO in partnership with the Toronto Society of Architects, and supported by the Government of Ontario and City of Toronto, with media partner AZURE Magazine. <h4>About DesignTO</h4><a href="https://designto.org/" title="https://designto.org/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">DesignTO</a> is a non-profit arts organization celebrating 15 years of designing a sustainable, just, and joyful future. From January 24-February 2, 2025, the DesignTO Festival features 100+ free events across Toronto, showcasing hundreds of artists and designers. Known as Canada’s largest annual design festival, DesignTO has welcomed over 1 million attendees, reached 2.6 billion people through media, supported 6,500+ artists, and generated $120 million in tourism impact. “DesignTO isn’t just a festival; it’s an anti-loneliness machine,” co-founder Christina Zeidler remarked, underscoring the organization’s power to foster belonging and spark vital conversations about design’s role in shaping a better world.––Speakers

Johanna Hurme is an architect and co-founder of <a href="https://5468796.ca/" title="https://5468796.ca/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">5468796 Architecture</a>. Her practice has been awarded numerous national and international awards. She is also a design activist and a housing and urban design advocate. She is the President Elect of RAIC I Architecture Canada, a past Chair of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce, and has taught architecture at Cornell University, IIT in Chicago, and at universities across Canada. Johanna lectures extensively and is co-author of ‘Innovative Solutions for Creating Sustainable Cities’ (2018), and 'platform:MIDDLE', Architecture for Housing the 99%, (2023).

Hong Kong born and Vancouver raised, Yvonne Ip (OAA, MArch, BFA, BA) now makes Kitchener, Ontario home. In preparation for architecture, she studied sociology and visual arts, and worked as a construction labourer. Yvonne has been immersed in architecture for over two decades. She is the past chair of the Grand Valley Society of Architects and a founder of Ontario’s first architectural worker co-operative, <a href="https://arisearchitects.com/" title="https://arisearchitects.com/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Arise Architects Co-operative</a>.

Reza Nik is a Toronto-based licensed architect, artist, educator and founding director of <a href="https://sheeep.studio/" title="https://sheeep.studio/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">SHEEEP</a> – an experimental art and architecture studio. He is also a co-founder of SHEEEP.school, a collective initiative launched in 2024 with a focus on the exchange of knowledge outside the institution, an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design, and a co-founder of the Toronto chapter of the Architecture Lobby.

Je Siqueira – a registered architect with over 15 years of experience – was one of the leaders in the unionizing efforts at both SHoP Architects and at <a href="https://www.bernheimerarchitecture.com/" title="https://www.bernheimerarchitecture.com/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Bernheimer Architecture</a>, helping establish the first private-sector architectural union in the U.S. since the 1930s at the latter practice. As a practitioner, her current interests lie at the junction where fair labor and architectural practices come together. Je has undergraduate and graduate degrees in architecture from UC Berkeley, and has worked at various award-winning architecture firms in San Francisco, Miami, and New York, working on projects of various typologies and sizes, ranging from high-end single-family homes in Miami, affordable multi-family housing in New York City, to the US Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand.

Hazel York is an architect, behavioural scientist, and managing partner at <a href="https://www.hawkinsbrown.com/" title="https://www.hawkinsbrown.com/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Hawkins\Brown</a>. Having joined when it was a start-up, she has been instrumental in the growth of the practice, shaping the creative culture and its recent transition to employee ownership. Based in London, UK, she has led the design and delivery of a range of public and private sector projects seeking ways to create social value through good design.

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Ideas Forum: Labour of Architecture

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