Office Ou

Based in Toronto, Canada, but with projects around the world, Office Ou is an award-winning architecture, landscape, and strategy practice established around the values of collaboration, social impact and environmental sustainability. Our projects are a product of their natural and cultural context. From concept to detailing, we work to create experiences that connect people to the places they inhabit and to each other. Some of our key projects have included the 20ha new National Museum Complex of South Korea, whose character is derived from the specificity of local ecosystems, and Skola Smichov, a school in which the creative works and ecological stewardship of students compose the facade to the city. We’ve also designed homes and housing communities that strengthen the bonds of local communities through their connection to local landscapes. We believe that the formal and aesthetic characteristics of a project are at best a small subset of broader, more fundamental, human values like kindness, care, empowerment, and diversity. When we design we must listen, and when we put forth a vision, do so with the hope of inviting counter-visions. Office Ou is a Passive House certified practice, and has been awarded the Canadian Architect Award of Excellence as well as the Ontario Association of Architect’s best emerging practice Award. Office Ou is a bilingual office, offering services in French and English.