The DesignTO festival, which is taking place from now until February 2, 2025, features over 100 free events, installations, tours, talks and exhibitions by more than 300 designers and artists.DesignTO supports a vision of design that is more than aesthetics, but that rather aims to be a tool for problem-solving, solution-building, organized change, experimenting, innovating and evolving toward a better future. This years festival will put a spotlight on how design impacts joy, justice, and sustainability.Here are a few must-see programs at this years festival.Amazon Sucks. Image credit: DesignTOAmazon SucksThis project highlights how discounted prices and convenience come at a great cost, and that the public must no longer turn a blind eye to these consequences.Take Amazon as an example. It is notorious for its deplorable working conditions and unfair wages for its warehouse employees, ongoing lawsuits, tax evasion, and the cumulative effect that their shipping model has on our environment is catastrophic, reads DesignTOs website. Yet, it has soared into a new level of market dominance since the onset of the global pandemic. Amazon now has a market cap over $1.9 trillion. Its CEO Jeff Bezos, one of the wealthiest humans on the planet, has a net worth over $204 billion. This level of wealth hoarding is dangerous and unsustainable.BIPOC Portfolio Collaboration 2025. Image credit: DesignTOBIPOC Portfolio Collaboration 2025Join Gensler, along with leading Canadian architects and designers, for a collaborative review of resumes and portfolios to assist BIPOC Students in the design industry with the next steps in their careers. In the 4th annual BIPOC Portfolio Collaboration, students access a half-hour review session with two professionals within the fields of Architecture, Interior Design, Landscape Architecture, Architectural Technology, and Experiential Design (Signage & Wayfinding and Environmental Graphic Design).City Blocks. Image credit: DesignTOCity BlocksCity Blocks is a project that builds on the tradition of patchwork and quilting and presents a vocabulary that is informed by the built environment around us. The installation is made up of two textile panels featuring quilt blocks made of scrap and recycled fabric. The shapes and forms of the quilt blocks relate to real places, as they are distilled from familiar elements we encounter every day, reflecting this place and the changing landscapes of this city.Deconstructing TOD: Transit Roots DesignTO. Image credit: DesignTODeconstructing TOD: Transit RootsSvNs Deconstructing TOD: Transit Roots exhibition aims to showcase how transit can be delivered in a way that supports healthy, thriving communities. Transit is a powerful force for shaping cities, spurring the creation of new housing, public spaces, jobs, and space for local businesses. These projects also have their challenges, displacing property owners or tenants, and can be costly to construct.Using a combination of 3D models, exhibits, and digital representations, and interactive components, the exhibition showcases an approach for delivering positive social change through major transit projects and how communities, designers, landowners, developers, decision-makers, and governments maximize these projects positive benefits. It focuses on five core principles.Delirious Facade. Image credit: DesignTODelirious FacadeDelirious Facade is a design project that uses image processing artificial intelligence (AI) as a generator for architectural form and ornament. The project takes existing Toronto facades and uses their visual signatures or patterns as the material for the generation of hybrid facades. The primary objective of the investigation that led to this project was to gain insights into the transformative impact of recent AI advancements on architectural design and the implications for production.CommunityStreets: A Youth Lens on the Future of Urban Housing. Image credit: DesignTOCommunityStreets: A Youth Lens on the Future of Urban HousingCommunityStreets is a panel discussion/open forum on the critical topic of housing and youth. This panel brings together civic leaders, community activists, and design and economic thinkers at OCAD University to explore a youth lens on affordability, access, equity and the future of housing in urban Toronto.Homes That Care. Image credit: DesignTOHomes That CareNEUF architect(e)s displays an architectural installation showcasing typical residential spaces in Toronto within their storefront window that directly faces St. Lawrence Market. This display showcases design interventions that Torontonians can do to improve their homes for multi-generational use.Under Construction: Cozy Edition. Image credit: DesignTOUnder Construction: Cozy EditionThe work originates from photographs documenting the construction of a 48-story condominium in midtown Toronto, captured from the window of the artists first residence in Canada. Positioned directly opposite the site, I witnessed a process often dismissed as emblematic of overdevelopment and dehumanization. Yet, I was drawn to the choreography of labor, the rapid stacking of floors, and the architectural grandeur. Embracing a vernacular glance (Brian ODoherty) over the decisive moment, I captured fleeting, uncomposed views that revealed details relegated to the peripherytangled wires, leaning beams, and plastic wraps, reads DesignTOs website.Berczy Park. Photo by Industryous Photography, courtesy of CCxA.The Legacy of Claude Cormier: Screening & Panel DiscussionA special screening of a 45-minute directors cut of the The Cultural Landscape Foundations (TCLF)Claude Cormier Oral History Project, which highlights Cormiers Toronto projects, will be taking place on January 30. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion reflecting on his legacy and how the community can carry it forward when shaping future public spaces.DesignTO Talks: Net Positive. Image credit: DesignTODesignTO Talks: Net PositiveDesignTO Talk: Net Positive contributes to DesignTOs 15-year legacy of showcasing designs capacity to drive positive change in Toronto and beyond. The half-day event will bring together 10 multidisciplinary experts to explore innovative responses to the climate crisis from a perspective of abundance. Speakers include Aaron Budd (SvN Architects + Planners), April Barrett, Deepikah RB, Juan Erazo (Culturans), Judith van den Boom (Central Saint Martins), Netami Stuart (Waterfront Toronto), Reza Nik (SHEEEP), and Tura Cousins Wilson (SOCA), covering such topics as regenerative design, urban infrastructure, more than human kinships, carbon positive initiatives, and more.The post Must-See programs at this years DesignTO festival appeared first on Canadian Architect.