Moriyama Teshima Architects

02/03/2026

Moriyama Teshima Architects is honoured to receive the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada’s () 2026 Architectural Practice Award, which recognizes a Canadian architectural practice that consistently produces distinguished architecture.

“We are deeply grateful for this recognition from our peers and from the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada. We carry a legacy of bold, passionate design from our founders, and we’re honoured to be recognized today, not for where we’ve come from, but for who we are now—a collective that continues to evolve and continues to push boundaries with courage in the pursuit of a more balanced and beautiful future.

We share this honour with every collaborator, from our clients and partners to the communities we work with, who believe, as we do, that purposeful design has agency to shape a better world for people and for planet.” - Carol Phillips, Partner

1. Multi-Faith Centre, University of Toronto
2. Ismaili Centre (with Charles Correa Associates)
3. Canada Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai
4. Government of Canada Visitor Welcoming Centre (with Arcadis)
5. Aga Khan Museum (with Maki and Associates)
6. Etihad Museum (with CH2M Hill)
7. Parks Canada Collections and Curatorial Centre (with NFOE Architects)
8. Limberlost Place, George Brown Polytechnic (with Acton Ostry Architects)

09/12/2025

Thank you to About Here for featuring MTA’s winning entry in the 2025 Urbanarium Decoding Timber Towers Competition—Timber Commons! This low-carbon housing project unites affordability, sustainability, and community through a flexible kit of prefabricated mass timber components, a renewable resource that reduces costs and accelerates construction. The project combines multiple construction methods, including concrete cores, mass timber circulation, modular units, and timber columns and panels, carefully coordinated to integrate utilities and maintain simplicity. Interior spaces are highly adaptable while being thoughtfully arranged for gathering, play, and performance. Timber Commons provides a site-specific solution and a replicable framework to address affordable housing and climate challenges with a unified approach.

Video link: https://youtu.be/gQ42KhybIUk?si=nUn78Y7ubaWPDKaE

I'm honoured to partner with Urbanarium to bring you this video. Purchase their Decoding Timber Towers competition book at https://vancouver-urbanarium-socie...

28/11/2025

An all-electric building powers everything — heat, hot water, cooling, and cooking — without burning fossil fuels on-site. We're celebrating the Toronto Green Standard, which has been guiding this shift over 15 years, helping create buildings that are cleaner, healthier, more efficient, and more affordable — bringing the real benefits of electrification into our built environment for a low-carbon, resilient city.

Going all-electric represents a commitment for institutions, campuses, and community buildings toward more responsible design and shaping a regenerative future. Beyond sustainability, here are some of the other benefits of our low-carbon, all-electric buildings:

🟢 Limberlost Place, George Brown College: Designed by Moriyama Teshima Architects with Acton Ostry Architects, featuring a natural ventilation system with two solar chimneys and operable windows throughout, the Limberlost Place operates comfortably in passive mode for four to five months of the year. Achieving a 54% savings in energy costs frees significant funding to go back to student-centered programs, activities, and amenities.

🟢 Rouge National Urban Park Visitor, Learning, and Community Centre: Through passive design strategies, including its distinctive canopy optimized for solar heat gain reduction, RNUP has achieved Zero Carbon Building - Design certification. Eliminating on-site fossil fuels improves air quality for visitors and surrounding communities, while celebrating the park's mission to connect Torontonians with nature.

🟢 Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation (OSSTF) Headquarters: The OSSTF Headquarters is conditioned by a geo-exchange system and topped with PV panels that generate 17% of its energy demand. With excess power fed back into the grid, it prioritizes community impact beyond wellness and occupant comfort.

11/11/2025

On Remembrance Day, we pause to honour those who served and sacrificed for our freedom. Their courage continues to inspire generations.

06/11/2025

“We don’t make a sustainable world by making buildings that are only demonstrative, but by showing what is possible for every building.” — Carol Phillips, Partner-in-Charge
 
Azure Magazine’s Climate Issue celebrates Limberlost Place as a pioneering display of climate-conscious design. The feature, “Timber Land,” spotlights how this groundbreaking George Brown College building (designed by Moriyama Teshima Architects with Acton Ostry Architects) sets a new precedent for low-carbon, code-shifting architecture in Canada.
 
Through open-source research, adaptive learning spaces, and visible structural systems, Limberlost Place is leading by example to help to build the future of Canada’s sustainable design industry.

04/11/2025

This November we pause together and remember. Join us at the Canadian War Museum on Nov 11 for a livestream of our ceremony in Memorial Hall and explore our remembrance program online. 🎖️

https://www.warmuseum.ca/events-and-programming/remembrance-day

03/11/2025

Mathematics 4 (M4) at the University of Waterloo has received a Rethinking The Future Award in the Institutional (Built) category, an international program celebrating innovation and excellence in architecture.

Designed by Moriyama Teshima Architects, M4 establishes a new heart for the Faculty of Mathematics, connecting research, teaching, and student life through light-filled commons and collaborative spaces. Its design weaves together mathematical theory and Indigenous values, expressed through fluid geometries, rhythmic façades, and a parabolic solar chimney that unites sustainability with symbolism.

Moriyama Teshima Architects Design Team:
Brian Rudy: Co-Partner-in-Charge
Carol Phillips: Co-Partner-in-Charge
Damineh Dehnadfar: Project Manager, Project Architect
Chris Ertsenian - Senior Technologist
Julio Fay – Construction Admin Lead
Louis Yan
Laura Wang
Sarah Ni
Jay Zhao
Corey Brown
Kathy Lishak
Janice Chan
Machiko Brissenden
Olivia Keung
Paul Aquilina
Sean Robbins
Serafima Korovina

Indigenous Design Consultant: Two Row Architect
Civil: WalterFedy
Structural: Blackwell Structural Engineers
Mechanical, Electrical and Sustainability: Introba
Costing: Turner & Townsend
Code: LMDG
Landscape: PLANT Architect Inc.
Elevator: Soberman Engineering
Building Envelope: RDH Building Science
Construction Management: Gillam Group Inc.
Acoustics: Thornton Tomasetti
IT / AV / Security: SpecTech

Learn more about the award and project using the link in our bio.

29/10/2025

MTA’s Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF/FEESO) Headquarters and Multi-Tenant Complex has received an Honourable Mention in the 2025 Metropolis Planet Positive Awards, recognized for its commitment to sustainability, wellness, and community-centred design.

This low-carbon, mass timber workplace is designed to meet LEED Platinum certification, integrating high-performance envelope strategies, daylight optimization, and biophilic design to enhance occupant wellbeing and environmental performance. Serving as both a headquarters and a multi-tenant hub, the building embodies the values of collaboration, equity, and long-term environmental stewardship.

22/10/2025

From early sketches to an internationally celebrated cultural institution, the Bata Shoe Museum has its roots in Raymond Moriyama’s visionary design.
A new documentary released by the museum highlights its history and evolution, alongside rarely seen animated drawings by Moriyama himself.

Check out the entire documentary here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XJlGRQ87TM

20/10/2025

A few weeks ago, our Toronto office team toured the construction progress at the De La Salle College Student Life Centre, a project that has been years in the making through Moriyama Teshima Architect’s ongoing collaboration with the Oaklands campus community.

The tour offered a first-hand look at how the former arena building is being revitalized into a new centre for student life, featuring a Student Commons, gymnasium, fitness studios, arts classrooms, and a multipurpose space for drama and culinary learning. The design brings light, activity, and community into the heart of the school, creating an environment where students can connect, learn, and thrive beyond the classroom.

16/10/2025

Celebrating Women’s History Month in Canada
Women Who Shaped Canadian Architecture

This October, we honour the trailblazing women who laid the foundation for Canadian architecture.
 
Alice Malhiot Ross (1889–1968)
The first Canadian woman to graduate from a school of architecture in 1910. She studied at the Rhode Island School of Design and later worked in Alberta, contributing to early prairie architecture.
 
Esther Marjorie Hill (1895–1985)
The first woman to graduate from a Canadian architecture school (University of Toronto, 1920) and become a registered architect in Canada in 1925. She overcame significant gender barriers to practice and advocate for women in the profession.
 
Phyllis Cook Carlisle (1912–1954)
A University of Toronto graduate and the first woman to win the RAIC’s student design competition in 1934. Her work in residential design and kitchen innovation was featured in national publications and on CBC.
 
Jean Wallbridge & Mary Imrie (1912–1979 & 1918–1988)
Canada’s first all-woman architectural partnership, established in Edmonton in 1950. Their collaborative practice established in the mid-20th century focused on thoughtful residential and civic design, and they were known for their mentorship of young women in architecture.
 
Blanche Lemco van Ginkel (1923–2022)
A visionary planner and architect who helped preserve Old Montreal and contributed to Expo 67. She was the first woman to lead a faculty of architecture in Canada and a champion of modernist urban planning.
 
Eva Matsuzaki
Elected as the first woman president of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) in 1998, known for her advocacy for equity and inclusion in the profession.

These women defied convention, challenged barriers, and helped shape the cities we live in today. Their legacies continue to inspire.
 

15/10/2025

◼️◼️◼️ THE PLAN 165 - Out now!

THE PLAN 165, the sixth issue of 2025, opens with the editorial “Architecture as Narrative” by Germane Barnes. The featured projects include institutes, campuses, corporate headquarters, residential complexes, and homes. The issue also includes Andrew Whalley’s tribute to Nicholas Grimshaw, who died in September 2025 / https://tinyurl.com/3p9rtwys

▶️ In this issue: Germane Barnes | Eduardo Souto de Moura | Eskew Dumez Ripple | ASA Andrea Steele Architecture | Studio Transit | Grimshaw Architects | Béchu & Associés | Tadao Ando Architect & Associates | Moriyama Teshima Architects | Acton Ostry Architects | MGA Partners | Práctica Arquitectura | VDGA | LEVER Architecture