Architecture, Landscape, and Strategy.

Access to cultivable urban land is a rare commodity, as a result productive landscapes are taking over our streets, roofs, walls and undergrounds. These productive urban landscapes can have an impact on people that goes far beyond sustenance, from the creation of new economic opportunities, to the forging of social bonds and the rediscovery of one’s natural and cultural setting. A new type of city is emerging, one where every space and surface can have a different productive potential. In this new continuously productive city (an “agropolis”), production should only be seen as one part of a closed loop that also includes consumption and disposal / decomposition.

Office Ou has been engaged to developed a program brief and pre-design report for a new banquet hall and cultural centre in Mississauga, Ontario.

Belgrade’s identity, ecosystems and history are defined by its relationship to the Danube and Sava rivers.

Ada Park will set a new precedent for sustainable and resilient development along Belgrade’s rivers, embracing old and new ways to engage with its landscapes in day-to-day life.

Beyond the water, a forest of tall trees stands out even from a distance. Below these trees, twinkling lights, and a solemn space to gather and commemorate the tragedy of the Sewol Ferry. This is the first scenery that people who visit 416 park will encounter.

Office Ou has completed the renovation of 415 Roncesvalles Ave in Toronto. The building is home to 4 residential units, built to be affordable yet retain some of the character of the existing brick building. The building has a commercial unit at grade, which also has access to basement storage and retail space.

Office Ou has been selected as a finalist in an invited RFP by Sidewalk Labs, for the design of the company’s new headquarters on Toronto’s waterfront. Housed in a repurposed industrial building, this will be a workspace and testing ground for new urban design proposals and technologies for the next 3 to 5 years, until the building is demolished to make way for Sidewalk Labs’ Quayside development.

京都の町において、人々の生活や信仰の場として自然は常に身近で神聖なものであり、町を包み込む温かい布のようなものとして大切に扱われてきた。そしてすべての自然は平等に貴重であり、自然の要素である木や石、水、土すべてにそれぞれのSpiritが宿っているという人々の自然に対する愛がこの町を自然と美しく共生する日本の文化の中心地として形作ってきたであろう。

To bring warmth to a Winnipeg winter, we propose a simple and evocative set of curving walls made of undyed industial felt.

No. 9 is a Toronto-based arts organization with a mission to educate youths about environmental concerns through art and design. Following several years of delivering educational workshops with school boards and arts institutions, No. 9 is now taking the leap to develop its own educational camp, that will not only teach, but also test and develop the latest practices in sustainable building and agriculture.

The client is interested in creating a winery that provides visitors a unique experience, a way to feel engaged in the wine-making process. This winery will not cater to large tour groups, but instead welcome smaller groups of visitors that would like to learn and even take part in the life of a vineyard.

The winery will also include a small inn to provide accommodation to visitors to allow them to dwell on site longer and properly experience the daily processes of the winery.

The clients acquired a 5 ha piece of land near Creemore with a dream of living on a site where they can grow their own food as well as processing it into different types of preserves, dry goods and cooked dishes. We designed their home as a flexible productive hub, a place whose identity changes with the seasons, and the agricultural and culinary activities associated with different times of the year.

Many of climate change’s threats — floods, droughts, loss of biodiversity and food systems — disproportionately affect cities as urban populations rise. How a city like Seoul is designed in relation to social and natural systems has tremendous consequences for urban resilience, the capacity to feed populations, and the ability to prevent, survive, mitigate, and adapt to climactic and environmental change. The biophilic housing matrix tackles issues of urban resilience by intertwining productive natural systems and housing.

The condominium was outdated and flood- damaged. Years of neglect had left its walls and carpeting cigarette-stained. Yet we knew this place could once again become a comfortable homestead through the use of natural materials like untreated douglas fir, which was used as flooring material and for the construction of benches as well as headboards.

This full condominium renovation transformed a neglected interior into a simple and contemporary canvas for the owners to exhibit their art and antiquities collections.

The First Prize winning entry of the OISTAT Theatre Architecture Competition 2015. This ideas competition asked designers to conceive a floating theatre on the river Spree, at a location known as Holzmarkt. Like much of east Berlin, this area has supported a thriving independent culture for many years, although this too now faces commercial development pressure. The theatre is designed for performance of Judith Thompson’s The Crackwalker, a play with four principal actors, typically staged for small audiences, which focuses on people living on the margins of society. While climaxing in an event of unmitigated, tragic suffering, the play also reveals the innermost dreams, loves and affection of its subjects.

The Takeshita House of Music is located between a centre of youth pop culture on Takeshita-Dori, the high-street shopping of Meiji-Dori (connecting Takeshita to Omotesando), and the traditional landscape of the Togo Shrine. This context presents an opportunity to create a place of exchange between these different worlds, attracting a wider range of audiences and performers, fluidly accommodating the contrasting identities of adjacent neighborhoods.