{"id":90149,"date":"2026-10-04T12:54:03","date_gmt":"2026-10-04T04:54:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=90149"},"modified":"2026-10-04T12:54:03","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T04:54:03","slug":"how-an-architect-is-using-art-and-technology-to-preserve-toronto-chinatowns-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=90149","title":{"rendered":"How an architect is using art and technology to preserve Toronto Chinatown\u2019s history"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.i-scmp.com\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/1280x720\/public\/d8\/images\/canvas\/2026\/10\/03\/f75683d1-d643-496f-bd2e-b0c519a2aff1_e127d2eb.jpg?itok=gPmctYXc&amp;v=1791017972\" \/><\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Opened in the 1950s, Sai Woo was a two-storey restaurant in Toronto\u2019s Chinatown, with a traditional Chinese banquet hall on the upper floor. Designed for wedding celebrations, the space featured a canopy with two columns, a golden dragon entwined on one and a phoenix on the other. Lazy Susans sat atop the round banquet tables.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Chinatown was also home to Charlie\u2019s Meat and Seafood, a white-tiled butcher shop that opened in 1971. Inside was a glass display case filled with cuts of meat. On the counter stood a weighing scale and a roll of plastic bags, ready for customers.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">These are two of seven much-loved Chinatown businesses and restaurants meticulously recreated by 14 architecture students from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. Drawing on archival records and oral histories shared by community elders, the students built detailed miniature models of the vanished establishments.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The models help fill gaps in Toronto\u2019s Chinatown history, much of which remains undocumented. They are on display at the City of Toronto Archives until February 2027, as part of an exhibition titled \u201cLet\u2019s Build a Collective Memory of Chinatown!\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/lifestyle\/arts\/article\/3369543\/how-architect-using-art-and-technology-preserve-toronto-chinatowns-history?utm_source=rss_feed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Opened in the 1950s, Sai Woo was a two-storey restaurant in Toronto\u2019s Chinatown, with a traditional Chinese banquet hall on the upper floor. Designed for&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":90150,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[23021,1501,16558,2284,15716,4192,22627],"class_list":["post-90149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bored-interesting","tag-architect","tag-art","tag-chinatowns","tag-history","tag-preserve","tag-technology","tag-toronto","wpcat-33-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=90149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/90150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=90149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=90149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=90149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}