UNDERGRADUATE
Saskia Scarce— Jason Fung Architect Diversity Award
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Saskia Scarce— Jason Fung Architect Diversity Award
About the Award
This award provides some financial support to students who identify as BIPOC and demonstrate commitment to promoting equity and diversity within architectural science or using architectural science to serve and represent BIPOC communities.
The Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Justice (EDIJ) Gallery Committee provides students with the opportunity to curate exhibitions centred around critical EDIJ topics. This year, I collaborated with Renee Christianson and Nicole Gabriel to investigate the concept of agency within public spaces, using Yonge and Dundas Square (YDS) as a case study due to TMU community's familiarity with this space.
Our project, "On the Ground + On the Walls," is a platform to foster meaningful dialogue and enhance our collective understanding. The exhibition was composed of vertical and horizontal elements. The horizontal and vertical elements symbolize the architectural dialogue between the ground and the walls and the flexibility within. ‘Stakeholders,’ posted on the vertical elements, refer to the groups and decision makers who impact the physical form of YDS and define its boundaries. ‘Actors,’ laying on the horizontal elements, impact the space daily, animating the ground through activity and movement. The horizontal elements on the wheels symbolize the agency of the actors and the flow of actors through the square.
This exhibition facilitates conversation on how designers can shift thinking to acknowledge the factors that influence public space and the diverse people it serves. As architects, it is crucial to understand the motivations of the actors and stakeholders of space, in particular, public space, because these dynamics are not isolated from the design process. This also promoted conversation about the degree of publicness of architecture because the exhibition attempts to reveal the dynamics between public and private, people and institutions, space and community.
This award provides some financial support to students who identify as BIPOC and demonstrate commitment to promoting equity and diversity within architectural science or using architectural science to serve and represent BIPOC communities.
The Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Justice (EDIJ) Gallery Committee provides students with the opportunity to curate exhibitions centred around critical EDIJ topics. This year, I collaborated with Renee Christianson and Nicole Gabriel to investigate the concept of agency within public spaces, using Yonge and Dundas Square (YDS) as a case study due to TMU community's familiarity with this space.
Our project, "On the Ground + On the Walls," is a platform to foster meaningful dialogue and enhance our collective understanding. The exhibition was composed of vertical and horizontal elements. The horizontal and vertical elements symbolize the architectural dialogue between the ground and the walls and the flexibility within. ‘Stakeholders,’ posted on the vertical elements, refer to the groups and decision makers who impact the physical form of YDS and define its boundaries. ‘Actors,’ laying on the horizontal elements, impact the space daily, animating the ground through activity and movement. The horizontal elements on the wheels symbolize the agency of the actors and the flow of actors through the square.
This exhibition facilitates conversation on how designers can shift thinking to acknowledge the factors that influence public space and the diverse people it serves. As architects, it is crucial to understand the motivations of the actors and stakeholders of space, in particular, public space, because these dynamics are not isolated from the design process. This also promoted conversation about the degree of publicness of architecture because the exhibition attempts to reveal the dynamics between public and private, people and institutions, space and community.
