Editor’s Note: This listing was updated on October 19, 2022
Overview
Comprised of six concurrent streams (Communications, Design Dynamics, History of Art and Design, Interior Design, Professional Practice and Technology), Toronto Metropolitan University’s studio-centred curriculum challenges students from day one. Small class sizes afford students one-on-one mentorship opportunities with faculty. In addition to studio, core subjects are supplemented by specialty courses including PSY 217: Psychology and Design, which examines the impact of spatial environments on human behaviour, and IDE 501: Africa and Beyond: The Decolonization of Design Culture, a course added in response to student criticism of the school’s Eurocentric focus at the height of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020. Outside of the classroom, students have access to the Design Fabrication Zone (an interdisciplinary hub and incubator) and a comprehensive fabrication workshop.
Up to 20 upper-year students are offered the unique opportunity to complete a studio course or Intro to Design Thinking in Cortona, Italy on an application basis. At the school’s new international facility, students spend 4 weeks of the summer semester immersed in Tuscan culture, reimagining the 14th-century Girifalco Fortress and other local sites through experimental design.
Throughout the program, students gain hands-on experience that allows them to put theory into practice. During the summer between third and fourth year, students complete a minimum of 400 mandatory practicum hours at firms of all sizes, both domestically and abroad. As a result, TMU alumni are highly employable: 92 per cent of 2020 grads are currently working in the industry in disciplines as diverse as hospitality design, corporate office design, retail design, residential design, institutional design, fabrication, set design and healthcare design. The school also places a heavy focus on community-building both in and out of the classroom: Students must fulfill 20 hours of community service — 10 each with a charitable organization and within the School of Interior Design — and TMU regularly calls on its robust industry network for annual Portfolio Critiques and Careers Nights.
Notable alumni
George Yabu and Glenn Pushelberg (Yabu Pushelberg), Diego Burdi and Paul Filek (Burdifilek), Elaine Cecconi (Cecconi Simone), Ashley Rumsey and Stanley Sun (Mason Studio), Alessandro Munge (Studio Munge)
Notable faculty
Contract Lecturers include Arancha González Bernardo of Odami and Christine Leu and Alan Webb of LeuWebb Projects
