Earlier this year, TAS launched the Circular Living Lab, Toronto’s first classroom and exhibition space dedicated to material reuse in the built environment. It builds on our work at The Yards, the upcoming masterplanned community where we’re salvaging 21,000 tonnes of demolition waste from the existing abattoir for reuse in the landscape.  

The Circular Living Lab’s inaugural exhibition was launched at this year’s DesignTO festival, with partners Ouroboros Deconstruction, Ha/f Climate Design, Haley Anderson Consulting and Giaimo Architects. We’re thrilled to announce that the exhibition won the DesignTO Founder’s Award, which recognizes the jury’s selection for the project that best aligns with DesignTO’s purpose to bring people together to design a better future. 

The exhibition had over 500 visitors and brought together practitioners, researchers, designers and city builders from across the city who are interested material reuse and circularity.   

As part of the exhibition, Ouroboros Deconstruction, Ha/f Climate Design, & Haley Anderson Consulting told the story of a house they deconstructed in Erin ON, sorting salvaged materials for selling and tracking of waste streams to prevent waste and test feasibility of a large-scale deconstruction project. Douglas fir beams from the house were provided to local artisans to become custom furniture pieces, with one piece by Maxwell Perry winning a Juror’s Choice Award. A sculptural installation by Giaimo Architects provided further commentary on the architectural opportunities of reuse, featuring salvaged brick, terra cotta, and other materials from Arcana Materials Co. 

TAS plans to host more exhibitions, panel talks, workshops, and networking events at the Circular Living Lab to incubate and promote circular economy research, with our partners at the Toronto Circularity Network.