Jeffrey Cook Memorial Lecture: A Measure of Architecture

The University of Toronto’s Daniels Faculty is an internationally recognized school of design offering professional and other programs in architecture, landscape architecture, forestry urban design and visual/curatorial studies, and is at the forefront of research in these fields. For more information, visit us atwww.daniels.utoronto.ca.

Daniels Faculty

Architect, engineer and craftsman present projects highlighting the sustainability, practicality &amp; inherent beauty of stone superstructures.

John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design

Winter 2025 Public Program

A dynamic series of lectures, book talks, discussions and a symposium, this semester’s program highlights the work of leading global thinkers and practitioners who are shaping the future of our built and natural environments.

“We have only just rediscovered what architects have known for 7,000 years,” says Amin Taha. “Stone is versatile, has strength and longevity, is plentiful and cheap, and, with zero embodied carbon, is well placed for a renaissance.” In this lecture, the London-based architect will be joined by engineer Steve Webb and stonemason Pierre Bidaud to discuss the inherent beauty, practicality and sustainability of stone, which they consider an ideal building material for the 21st century. Together, the trio has collaborated as designer, engineer and craftsman respectively on developing stone designs and technologies that repropose the material’s use in the creation of superstructures. Over the course of their presentation, Webb and Bidaud will introduce a brief history of stone use and types, how and where to use it as load bearing structure and the promise of new technologies, while Taha will discuss such finished projects as 15 Clerkenwell Close in London as well as a conceptual 30-storey office block with a stone exoskeleton. “If the quarry is in the same country [as a development],” the group’s research has found, “then the stone superstructure will have saved 95 percent of the embodied CO2 against its steel or concrete equivalent.” Through their collaboration, Taha, Webb and Bidaud are providing a model for how architects, engineers and craftspeople can work in tandem to develop innovative solutions to the climate crisis.Speaker BiosAmin Taha is a practicing architect and current chairperson at GROUPWORK, an employee ownership trust. Last year he taught at Harvard GSD and currently he has a permanent post at London’s Royal College of Art and at UCL’s Engineering Faculty. Steve Webb is a structural and civil engineer and founding partner of WebbYates and also teaches at UCL’s Engineering Faculty. Pierre Bidaud is highly trained stonemason and senior partner at The Stonemasonry Company and has been visiting critic at Harvard GSD, the RCA and UCL. Jeffrey Cook Memorial LectureThe Jeffrey Cook Memorial Lecture is presented in the name of architect Jeffrey Ross Cook. Born in Canada, Cook studied architecture at the University of Manitoba and was a member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and an elected member of the International Committee of Architectural Critics. Widely acknowledged as one of the pioneers of solar and bioclimatic design, he ran a Masters course in Solar Energy Design at Arizona State University that attracted students from countries around the world. The Faculty expresses its appreciation to the Jeffrey Cook Charitable Trust, which was established in 2005 to pay tribute to its namesake. In addition to advancing Cook’s lifework and legacy, the Trust has as its focus the opportunities of the built environment and its interaction with the natural environment in securing human sustainability and enhancement. This includes passive and low energy design, respect for indigenous cultures, and the wise use of local resources in the built environment. We are grateful to the Jeffrey Cook Charitable Trust for its philanthropic grants to the Faculty to support research, the annually recurring Memorial Lecture, and its support of student travel related to selected design studios.