Tura Cousins Wilson
An interview with the Co-founder and Principal Architect of Studio of Contemporary Architecture.
What is your job title and description?
I am a co-founder and principal architect at the Studio of Contemporary Architecture (SOCA), an architecture practice dedicated to crafting spaces rooted in historic, cultural and community context. We collaborate with clients and other creatives in the institutional, non-profit, residential, arts, commercial and municipal sectors, working on projects that include new construction, adaptive reuse, renovations, additions and interior design. Our work also extends from exhibition design and public art to building feasibility studies. I am also an educator and currently a sessional instructor at the University of Toronto and Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU).
What does a typical day look like for you?
We have projects at various stages of design and construction, so a typical day or week is moving back and forth between them. Architecture is a very collaborative profession and much of my time is spent working with consultants like structural, mechanical and electrical engineers, along with our clients and SOCA team. A client meeting could entail reviewing design decisions like material finishes, construction costs or functional program. Working with various consultants like engineers, planners and interior designers involves lots of coordination meetings at each stage of a project. We have many projects under construction and I attend biweekly site visits to review the progress. As mentioned, I also teach. I currently lead a fourth-year undergraduate design studio at TMU, so I am on campus two afternoons each week.
What career/educational path did you take to get here?
I knew I wanted to be an architect from a young age so my career path is rather linear. I received my undergraduate degree from Toronto Metropolitan University in architectural science, and upon graduating, my first job was at a small-sized architecture firm run by my professor where I worked on large-scale institutional projects. Following this, I worked for Johnson Chou, a minimalist design studio where I gained experience working in boutique retail, hospitality and high-end custom home renovations.
Eager to become a licensed architect, I went back to school after working in the field for a couple of years to earn my master’s in architecture, urbanism and building science at the Technical University of Delft in the Netherlands. After graduating, I moved back home to Toronto and started working for Diamond Schmitt Architects where I worked on a wide variety of project types and scales for seven years before starting SOCA.
What is the most exciting part of your work?
One of my favourite stages in the design process is what I refer to as the “what if?” stage. I’m a big ideas guy and excited by the early conceptualization of what a building can be. Additionally, I enjoy working with community organizations in creating uplifting spaces that support their needs. I also really enjoy being on site and working through problems with various trades and crafts people.
What is your biggest challenge?
My biggest challenge is probably managing the balance between work and family time. I’m a father and have a one-year-old and a three-year-old.
Tell us a brief story about an object you have worked with.
Our studio recently designed the Gardiner Museum’s exhibition Magdalene Odundo, A Dialogue with Objects. This is the largest exhibition of the celebrated Kenyan-British ceramicist in North America. The installation features more than 20 works spanning Dame Magdalene Odundo’s career, displayed alongside objects selected by the artist from the Gardiner Museum’s permanent collection, and works on loan from major Toronto museums and private collections. These objects span geographies, time periods and media, bringing her work into conversation with objects as diverse as an ancient Cycladic marble figurine, a Ndebele apron from South Africa, and a painting by the late Trinidadian-Canadian artist Denyse Thomasos.
Chief curator Sequoia Miller requested an atmosphere that would dramatically showcase Odundo’s work but not upstage it. As a British and Kenyan woman, Odundo has deep roots in both modern and traditional, and European and African ceramic practices. We took her ambiguities as a starting point, transforming the Gardiner’s “white cube” into a “clay cube.”
Treating the walls with a textured limewash paint and creating broken circular plinths from dark plaster, we picked up on the forms, textures, warmth and even the metallic quality of Odundo’s carbonized vessels to establish a rich ambiance. The plinths obscure a chronological trajectory through the space, and the low lighting encourages each visitor to pursue their own quiet journey of close examination and contemplation.
Anything to add (especially for artists/makers/craftspeople whose work you work with)?
Working and being near artists and craftspeople is foundational to my approach as an architect. There is so much to learn from others working in close proximity to architecture who are also exploring questions of form, materiality, light and space.
Tura Cousins Wilson is an architect, educator, and cofounder of the Studio of Contemporary Architecture (SOCA), based in Toronto, Ontario. He is inspired by creating uplifting spaces of beauty and contends that architecture’s power lies in its ability to transform collective imaginations and narratives into reality.
This article was published in the Spring/Summer 2024 issue of Studio Magazine.
