PARTISANS

Our practice is an intrepid team of young architects, designers, and collaborators all united by the same drive: to think bigger and always deliver more than has been promised. Co-founded in 2011 by three recent architecture graduates, our studio upends traditional architectural practices not only by pushing aesthetic, conceptual, and technological boundaries, but also telling new architectural stories and reinventing the tools required to design and fabricate beautiful and sustainable objects and structures. Importantly, the unblinking enthusiasm that fuels our resolve to build better cities finds a crucial correlative in our commitment to city building initiatives. True to our name, we believe that the relevance and success of our architectural practice is inextricably linked to building disruptive ideas, dialogues, narratives, collaborations, culture, and community that will productively challenge the status quo and maximize political and cultural impact.

From lights, benches, and graphic novels, to saunas, bars, and train stations, the sheer scope of our project defies categorization and clichés. We are committed to remaining nimble and known for tackling intellectually challenging and creatively diverse projects of all magnitudes.

Nurturing and soliciting partnerships. The path forward for emerging practices is uncharted. Established architectural firms epitomize a business model that in many ways no longer squares with what’s attainable or suitable for next-generation firms: Yet, collaborations with established firms is a means of ensuring ongoing growth and gaining experience on large-scale projects. We were retained for the interior fit-out of Union Station, which would be an unthinkable scale for an emerging practice, because of our core expertise, experimental ethos and desire to collaborate with incumbent corporate architecture practices; in turn, we are building capacity, honing our skills, and developing greater professional acuity.

Architecture can be a luxury, but it’s always a necessity. The literal and metaphorical cornerstone of family, community, government, business, and culture, architecture is the mainspring of all that is possible. In collaboration with Toronto speaker series After School and the driving force behind the nascent Art & Architecture Residency of Toronto (AART), Our practice will continue to bring an architectural acumen to all things arts and culture in this city.

Innovating in design using cutting-edge technology, such as 3D scanning, modeling, and printing, and developing brand new software tools to tackle unique building challenges in an effort to make the improbable viable and, moreover, spectacular.

Comprised of a technologically curious and agile team, our team not only adopts new technologies as soon as they become available, but also adapts them to offer clients innovative resources tailored to the unique needs of a given project. When we were approached to build the Grotto Sauna, we were confronted with a number of design and logistical challenges that literally required us to rewrite the script—that is, the digital scripting technology. In order to prefabricate the sculptural wood components that would tell the story and create the experience of a “grotto”—a partially hidden retreat built directly into the Precambrian landscape—we found ourselves rewriting the software code Mastercam would eventually adopt to mill the pieces.

In 2014, we moved our offices into Make Works, a coworking space for startups, makers, and designers in Toronto’s west end. As such, we have ready access to highly specialized facilities, including 3D printing, woodworking, laser cutting, and prototyping, which means that team members can easily prepare materials for meetings and presentations as well as generate updated materials for clients on a moment’s notice. Moreover, our proximity to such facilities means that we can experiment on an ongoing basis with developing and tweaking novel fabrication techniques, thereby enhancing our acuity and know-how so we are poised to troubleshoot unforeseen challenges. As a member of ACADIA, we also send our employees to workshops and conferences focused on training architects and designers to better deploy cutting-edge technologies and embrace interdisciplinarity to become more holistic practices.

Ultimately, however, clients come to us because we offer a singular service: we tell stories through design and architecture. Clients yearn to be part of an architectural experience, and moreover, to participate in the journey of building that experience with us—of creating something extraordinary and leaving behind a legacy for their families, businesses, or communities. For example, one of Toronto’s premier chefs, Grant van Gameren (Bar Isabel and previously Black Hoof), hired us to design the interior of the hotly anticipated Bar Raval after he saw images of the Grotto. Enamored with the look and feel of sculptural wood, of architecture as sensuous installation art, van Gameren is invested in creating spaces that will become Toronto institutions—meeting places that fly in the face of trends and inspire civic pride. Destined to open at the end of January 2015, Bar Raval is already the story of legacy. A documentary film crew approached van Gameren and us to film the collaborative process of designing and building the bar. Because we are committed to demystifying and popularizing the architectural process, we welcomed the opportunity to be a part of this film, which will also serve as a platform for people to learn about our practices, expertise, and brand.

Our studio’s active involvement in Toronto’s cultural and political landscape has earned its members recognition. Our founders were awarded the Globe and Mail Catalyst Award (2013) and were recently featured in the same newspaper as a 2015 architectural tastemaker; they are also the only Canadians to have ever been awarded the New York Prize Fellowship from the Van Alen Institute for Architecture. Our work has been featured in Wallpaper, Fast Company, Azure, Toronto Life, and The Globe and Mail, among many others. We recently won the Interior Design Magazine Award (US), the Ontario Wood Award, and an AIA International Honor Award, and have been shortlisted for the World Architecture News Awards.

As a result of the international attention garnered by the Grotto, our studio has been commissioned to build a spa in Warsaw, Poland, and has several other projects under negotiation for 2015. Bar Raval has already been on international food and design blogs as one of the most anticipated bar openings in the world; we anticipate that will bring additional attention to the firm.

2015 Shortlisted for World Architecture News Award (in progress) - ‘Grotto’
2014 Best of Year Award, Interior Design Magazine Award (US) - ‘Grotto’
2014 AIA International Award - ‘Grotto’
2014 Ontario Wood Award - ‘Grotto’
2013 Globe and Mail Catalysts Award for emerging designer
2012 Azure Magazine People's Choice Award: New Mecca Masterplan
2011 Azure Award: Temporary Mosque and Thesis on Islamic Architecture
2010 20 + Change Canadian Architecture Biennial
2009 Van Alen Institute for Architecture, New York Prize Fellowship