ADFF Toronto 2025: We The Others with Panel Discussion

Ranee Lee is an industrial designer and Associate Professor at OCAD University. She is the founder of DESIGNwith, a design lab focused on the circular economy and social innovation. She holds an MA in Participatory Design from the University of Toronto and is engaged in ongoing research on alternative economies in marginalized communities. Her work also focuses on care and culture projects aimed at advancing the concept of Form Follows Care. Most recently, she was awarded the Faculty Mobility for Partnership Building Program grant by the Canadian federal government, which took her to São Paulo, Brazil, for a short-term research project on biomaterials.

Ute is an urbanist with more than 24 years of experience with a background in architecture and land use planning. Ute is a Principal at O2 Planning and Design and manages the firm’s Toronto Urban Design Studio.

As an urban designer and planner, Ute approaches her work with the understanding that design can be a vehicle for creating healthy places and communities while being aware of the complexities of urban spaces and the potential of infrastructure to transform the vitality of a place. Integral to all her management and design work is her commitment to the integration of social, economic, and environmentally sustainable practices from the early stages of the process.

Ute’s experience in Canada, the United States, Russia and China include site, master and community planning developments ranging in size from 10 to 8,000 acres, working for private and public clientsUte is an active member of several design and urbanism organizations. She is the President of the Council for Canadian Urbanism (CanU), a member of the City of Vaughan Design Review Panel, the Chair of Toronto’s Design Industry Advisory Committee (DIAC), and a member of the Province of Ontario provincially appointed AODA Design of Public Spaces Standards Development committee.

Other previous volunteerism includes the establishment of the first Canadian chapter (Ontario Chapter) for the Congress for New Urbanism, (CNU), being an occasional University of Guelph, Seneca and Sheridan College’s lecturer, a past member of the City of Hamilton Design Review Panel, a past member of the PISG group at OPPI, and the past-chair of the Women’s Leadership Initiative (WLI) Allies in Action sub-committee at the Urban Land Institute (ULI).

Ute is a member of the Ontario Professional Planners Institute and the Canadian Institute of Planners.

As a Senior Editor at AZURE, Eric reports on contemporary design. After studying architecture in university, he developed a lasting enthusiasm for sharing the stories behind the built environment. Over the course of his media career, he has interviewed industry titans like Frank Gehry, covered new trends and emerging talents at international design fairs, and cast a spotlight on the sustainable thinking that is moving the world forward. His past roles have included positions at Sharp and Designlines, and he has also volunteered as a tour guide for the Toronto Society of Architects.