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Idea by

Daniela Leon, Alexander Cassini, Christopher Alton

Montreal, Canada
We are three multi-disciplinary Montreal-based designers who met while graduate students at Harvard GSD. Daniela Leon is an architect with SvN architects and planners in Toronto and lecturer at McGill School of Architecture. Alexander Cassini is a franco-american landscape architect whose practiced at several firms most recently at Claude Cormier’s office in Montreal. Christopher Alton is a planner and PhD candidate who teaches design at Ryerson and Waterloo.

Call for ideas 2021

The Woods Fellowship


Community engagement through wood urbanism

The Woods Fellowship


Community engagement through wood urbanism
A design framework where wood is operative at multiple scales.
File under
Type of project
  • Site-specific cases

The Woods Fellowship is a shortlisted entry to the Sudbury 2050 Urban Design Ideas Competition that re-positions Sudbury, Canada, from a city defined by nickel mining to a global center for research into the potential of wood. Our scheme is scalable with three major components: A Fellowship Program invites experts from various fields to lead applied studio courses alongside members of the public. Fellows develop their program at test sites located around Sudbury, working with wood as they relate to the themes of Civics, Craft, Nature, Home, Technology, and Time. Finally, a hub in the form of a Publishing House will publicize findings and recommendations, to be delivered to City Council with the intention of informing policy. We understand change as a collective process and are influenced by wood for its open-ended and place-based qualities. This follows from a tradition that has demonstrated urban resiliency and equity is enhanced when impacted communities lead in the design process.



Woods Fellowship Course and Publishing Calendar

Architectural Press and Publishing House

Test Site Location Map

An Open-ended Matrix of Interventions

Elevation of Test Sites through Time

The Woods Fellowship


Community engagement through wood urbanism

The Woods Fellowship


Community engagement through wood urbanism
A design framework where wood is operative at multiple scales.
File under
Type of project
  • Site-specific cases

The Woods Fellowship is a shortlisted entry to the Sudbury 2050 Urban Design Ideas Competition that re-positions Sudbury, Canada, from a city defined by nickel mining to a global center for research into the potential of wood. Our scheme is scalable with three major components: A Fellowship Program invites experts from various fields to lead applied studio courses alongside members of the public. Fellows develop their program at test sites located around Sudbury, working with wood as they relate to the themes of Civics, Craft, Nature, Home, Technology, and Time. Finally, a hub in the form of a Publishing House will publicize findings and recommendations, to be delivered to City Council with the intention of informing policy. We understand change as a collective process and are influenced by wood for its open-ended and place-based qualities. This follows from a tradition that has demonstrated urban resiliency and equity is enhanced when impacted communities lead in the design process.



Woods Fellowship Course and Publishing Calendar

Architectural Press and Publishing House

Test Site Location Map

An Open-ended Matrix of Interventions

Elevation of Test Sites through Time


Idea by

Daniela Leon, Alexander Cassini, Christopher Alton
Montreal
Canada
We are three multi-disciplinary Montreal-based designers who met while graduate students at Harvard GSD. Daniela Leon is an architect with SvN architects and planners in Toronto and lecturer at McGill School of Architecture. Alexander Cassini is a franco-american landscape architect whose practiced at several firms most recently at Claude Cormier’s office in Montreal. Christopher Alton is a planner and PhD candidate who teaches design at Ryerson and Waterloo.