Study
Site survey, sun-path modelling, and a seasonal light study. Weeks of looking before a single line — the site sets the rules we design by.
Studio
We draw the light first,
then the building around it.
Philosophy
Architecture is the slowest of the arts — a drawing you live inside for fifty years. So we are deliberate about what earns a line.
The studio works across residential, cultural, and civic projects from a converted printing house in Toronto’s east end. Every commission moves through the same discipline: study the site until it tells you the geometry; resolve the structure until it disappears; draw the details until nothing is left to chance on paper. What survives that process is a building with a reason for everything.
We stay a small practice on purpose. Principals draw. Nothing leaves the studio that hasn’t been through the same four hands.
Toronto — home ground.
Process
Draw
Plan and section evolve together, tested in physical models and daylight simulation. The scheme isn’t approved until the light behaves.
Resolve
Structure and services are engineered into the geometry — spans, transfers, and thresholds resolved with our engineers at 1:5.
Deliver
Full documentation and architect-led review through to occupancy — the drawings stay authoritative from first sketch to final light.
People
Elin Verrow
Founding Principal — OAA, FRAIC
Founded the studio in 2012 after a decade in Copenhagen. Leads design on every project; draws every morning before email.
Mateo Okafor
Principal, Technical Director — OAA
The structure-whisperer. Owns the 1:5 details, the transfer spans, and the envelope science that lets the design read effortless.
Sana Leung
Associate — Heritage & Cultural
Led The Foundry. Believes old buildings are drawings you inherit — and that every intervention should be reversible.
Team members are illustrative — this is a demonstration website.
Recognition
- 2025OAA Design Excellence — Ravine House
- 2024Heritage Toronto Award of Merit — The Foundry
- 2024Azure AZ Awards, finalist — Bayfront Pavilion
- 2023Canadian Architect Award — Lakefield Retreat
Awards shown are illustrative demo content.