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On the evening of June 20^th, Ryerson architectural science and interior design students will have their work displayed alongside the city’s top design firms at The Stop’s inaugural Night Market, held in iconic Honest Ed’s alleyway.  Three student teams from the School of Interior Design and the Department of Architectural Science have designed and created carts for the street festival that highlights Toronto’s multicultural fabric while raising funds to support The Stop’s anti-hunger campaign.

The Night Market, hosted by The Stop Community Food Centre, brings together the city’s best art and food in an event inspired by street markets around the world.  The Night Market will transform the alley into a market alive with many sights, sounds and smells. Thirty design teams from across the city will be participating in the event by creating a food cart; each will be paired with a food vendor who will use the cart to sell their wares.

The Design Change = Exchange Studio, led by Ryerson Interior Design professor Lorella Di Cintio, has been designing fundraising items for The Stop Food Community Centre since 2009.   Di Cintio offered her students the opportunity to participate in the Night Market with the studio’s directive that the carts must be created using reclaimed materials, two groups of students stepped forward.  The first group designed a food cart made from reclaimed lath, thin strips of wood used with plaster to construct walls. Lath is not only historically related to the interior design profession, but makes use of a material that would otherwise be disposed of.

“The issues surrounding food security are a global and local issue,” says Di Cintio.  “The studios promote collaborative design exchanges by uniquely employing experiential and service learning methods.  Projects like this one teach our students that design can be both aesthetically driven and serve a diverse socio-economic community.”

The second studio group has designed a cart that will sell student designed and crafted kitchen utensils. Employing used dresser drawers, the cart will display the utensils at various heights. According to the student designers, elevating the items in this way creates a sense of preciousness that is not normally associated with kitchen utensils or reclaimed furniture. Both carts have been designed for future use at The Stop Food Community Centre.

The Department of Architectural Science will also represent Ryerson at the event, with two very different food carts. The [R]ed[U]x  Lab team is an extracurricular group at Ryerson, made up of students from various years and disciplines within the department of Architecture. Similar to the Design Change = Exchange Studio students, this group has created their cart entirely on their own time.

Led by professor Vincent Hui, they have created a wheeled cart with a canopy made almost entirely of curved plywood.  The team used LED lights in the lower portion of the cart to light the food surface from  below to showcase the food served.  According to Professor Hui, participation in city-wide projects such as the Night Market give Ryerson students first-hand experience with designing and creating pieces that they see through to fruition for use in real-world applications.

“Our students not only learn how to create amazing designs but they are actually able to fabricate it to make it a reality. That manifestation into reality is pivotal, and it’s quite unique to our program,” says Hui. “This particular project gives the students sense of accomplishment in playing a larger role in the community. The end product will be of direct benefit to those in their community; the result is students who are not only great architects but also responsible members of our society.”

The second architecture team is comprised of the Master of Architecture intensive research studio class, led by professor Arthur Wrigglesworth. The Rhombic D team includes thirteen masters students who have been at work on the project since the beginning of the semester. The objective of creating something to benefit their local community drove the conceptualization and design of the collaborative project.

“We had discussions about the social, cultural and political issues that The Stop deals with. It was not new to our students but we were able to have a much more adult, mature conversation. Much more so then I have ever been able to have in this course” says Wrigglesworth. “A key part of this is the public nature of the project, as well as the self awareness of personal and professional responsibility to society.”

The Rhombic D team created a canopy, complete with a service window, that will lean against the alleyway at the Night Market.  The canopy itself is comprised of many rhombic dodecahedrons (twelve- sided shapes); visitors will be able to walk under the canopy and the multifaceted canopy will reflect and absorb the light from various angles.

Over 1,000 people are expected at The Stop’s inaugural Night Market this Wednesday, all proceeds support The Stop Community Food Centre’s anti-hunger campaigns.

Ryerson University is Canada's leader in innovative, career-oriented education and a university clearly on the move. With a mission to serve societal need, and a long-standing commitment to engaging its community, Ryerson offers more than 100 undergraduate and graduate programs. Distinctly urban, culturally diverse and inclusive, the university is home to more than 28,000 students, including 2,300 master's and PhD students, nearly 2,700 faculty and staff, and 140,000 alumni worldwide. Research at Ryerson is on a trajectory of success and growth: externally funded research has doubled in the past five years. The G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education is Canada's leading provider of university-based adult education. For more information, visit www.ryerson.ca

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