Dr. Colin Ripley

For Colin Ripley, architecture isn’t so much about making buildings; it’s about trying to understand the way we build the world and the structures that organize our lives. “This is the one theme that has been constant in my work,” he says. “Whether I’m writing about queer theory in architecture or teaching an undergraduate studio, I’m trying to come to grips with the deep conceptual systems that we live in.”

Recently, for example, Ripley asked his fourth-year architecture studio students to imagine a future based on scenarios set out by Peter Frase in his book, Four Futures. Do we face a world of plenty or scarcity? Of equality or hierarchy? The students designed a community—to be built in 2037—on the current site of Queen’s Park in Toronto. The results were impressive. From a floating enclave for the wealthy with its own food production system, to an education centre for the masses, their conceptual designs raised many questions. “I want them to understand that as architects, they won’t just be making buildings,” Ripley says. “They will be making ethical and moral decisions that impact all of us.”