2025 | THE WEDGE LECTURE
Stephen Burks in Conversation with SOCA Studio
What role can design play in a world marked by climate crisis, displacement, and inequality?
Join award-winning designer Stephen Burks in conversation with acclaimed architects Shane Laptiste and Tura Cousins Wilson of SOCA (Studio of Contemporary Architecture) as they explore how art, architecture, and design can challenge dominant narratives, reclaim identity, and imagine new futures.
ABOUT the speakers
Stephen Burks is an industrial designer and artist, whose innovative approach to making synthesizes craft, community, and industry. He has collaborated with artisans and craftspeople in over ten countries on six continents. His socially engaged practice seeks to broaden the limits of design consciousness by challenging who benefits from and participates in contemporary making. Burks’ work bridges global traditions and contemporary design, integrating handcraft and cultural heritage into collaborations with leading international brands. His last local appearance, Man Made Toronto in 2012, was also presented by Wedge Curatorial Projects following its debut at the Studio Museum in Harlem.
Studio of Contemporary Architecture (SOCA) is a Toronto-based architecture and urban design studio dedicated to inclusive city building and the creation of beautiful spaces. Founded on the belief that architecture both shapes and is shaped by the contemporary condition, the studio is deeply engaged in research and the broader discourse of architecture's impact on culture, the environment and the shaping of cities. Laptiste and Cousins Wilson bring a justice-driven approach to urban design. As recipients of the 2023 Canadian Council for the Arts Prix de Rome in Architecture, their practice rethinks the built environment: who it's for, how it's made, and how it can serve more people, more equitably.
