An incomplete manifesto of sorts, the culmination of our 40th anniversary journal looks forward to the barriers that architects, urbanists and designers of all disciplines must confront in the years ahead. And it highlights those doing the good work.

1

Tariff Tyranny…

Suddenly, the line dividing Canada and the United States has grown very thick indeed. Since January, Trump has turned cross-border policy into an unpredictable nightmare — taxing Canadian imports one minute, then putting levies on hold the next, all before reintroducing them with a vengeance. Along the way, the U.S. president has been explicit about his desire to absorb the country as America’s “51st state.” The chaos (amplified by Canada’s own countermeasures) has launched major economic uncertainty, as Canadian brands and suppliers who depend on business from their southern neighbours grapple with being priced out of the market.

…Local Loops

The fractured dynamic between the two nations is already fuelling a robust “Buy Canadian” movement, both as a form of symbolic retaliation and as a financial reality. As people from St. John’s to Victoria work to keep their money in the national economy, homegrown brands and firms are becoming a more visible part of our social fabric. This shift may be underscored by a recent move by Prime Minister (at press time, at least) Mark Carney to rename the Minister of Heritage position as the Minister of Canadian Culture and Identity, Parks Canada and Quebec Lieutenant — and by a newfound determination to remove interprovincial trade barriers. Rather than weakening Canada, Trump might just inspire the country to develop a stronger sense of self.

2

Broken Environmental Promises…

How quickly progress can be undone. At home, the Residential Construction Council of Ontario filed a lawsuit against the Toronto Green Standard, which sets mandatory requirements across greenhouse gas emissions, energy and water consumption. South of the border, meanwhile, Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency has rolled back nearly every climate protection in the book — and even considered renouncing the 2009 finding that greenhouse gases pose a threat to human health, taking aim at now-universal scientific truths.

…Profession-Led Reforms

In 2025 and beyond, the roles of architect and advocate will inevitably become intertwined, and designers and developers alike need to be more committed to protecting our planet than ever. Firms like Bplus.xyz and LGA Architectural Partners are leading the charge, driving policy changes that enable widespread adaptive re-use and multiplex development, respectively. The latter firm, together with Michael Green Architecture, created the new Housing Design Catalogue for Canada’s Housing Plan, stressing sustainability in each of its 50 standardized designs. If the rules aren’t serving us, it’s time to make our own.

3

Threatened Public Fora…

A good public space is a vehicle for protest. From the Plateia Syntagmatos in Athens to the National Mall in Washington, DC, democracies are designed for dissent. While the righteous fury of 2020’s Black Lives Matter movement (which began on the streets of Minneapolis and spread across North America) already feels dispiritingly far in the rearview mirror, civic assembly remains a lifeline during times of escalating trouble. In 2025, student activists for Palestine increasingly face arrest, sometimes even deportation, for speaking up; and protestors and entire campuses — from New York’s Columbia University to Montreal’s Dawson College — face tightening restrictions.

…Renewed Commitment to the Commons

For architects, it is a stirring paean to the power of design and a reminder of its limitations. Spaces may nurture or even facilitate justice, but they cannot conjure it. It is also a rallying call to practise design as a civic service and to fight for the public realm as a political cause. To do that, all of us — designers or not — find our higher purpose as voices in the crowds and bodies in the streets.

4

Healthcare Crises…

To state the obvious, the healthcare system is overstretched and underfunded. In Ontario alone, over 2.5 million people don’t have a doctor, and emergency room wait times across Canada are higher than ever. In both Canada and the U.S., unprecedented numbers of nurses have left the profession in the wake of COVID-19. Across the board, we need new models for hiring, retaining and protecting healthcare staff from burnout. We also need to address the numerous public health alarm bells ringing all at once — from an aging population to the mental health crisis to waning trust in institutional medicine. A systemic approach is needed to keep Canada’s healthcare system, still one of the most revered in the world, working well into the future.

…Community-Driven Models

What can design do? At the systemic level, we need new design thinking. Encouraging bright spots can provide paragons: University Health Network’s Gattuso Centre for Social Medicine is responding to the dire needs of the unhoused by providing patients with permanent homes. This kind of critically important work is also at the heart of the Indigenous Hub, a mixed-use assortment of residential and commercial buildings designed by BDP Quadrangle, Stantec and Two Row — working with Anishnawbe Health Toronto and a consortium of developers — that positions a healthcare centre and a childcare facility at its core. We need more vital signs of a healthcare system adapting to the times like these.

5

Right-Wing Rising

Around the world, voters are opting for authoritarian regimes (some run by unelected technocrats — proving that “move fast and break things” is now a praxis in the political arena), which poses a threat to the collective good. We are seeing the resurgence of fascism, the fraying of civil rights and the undoing of social safety nets. For members of marginalized communities and anyone who wasn’t born into privilege, the promise that they can prosper in a meritocracy seems to be more and more elusive.

…Rebuilt Public Institutions

Artists, designers and urbanists need to fight the rightward trend. We need to be vigilant in communicating the importance of democracy and democratic ideals — and fighting mis- and disinformation along the way. We need to keep our public spaces — online and IRL — safe for groups under increasing attack. Stronger community engagement, allying with marginalized groups and leaning into making design accessible and universal will be more important than ever going forward.