Design Research Internship Program (@ Daniels UofT)
JRS has proudly participated in the University of Toronto’s Design Research Internship Program (DRIP) since 2024, welcoming talented undergraduate students from the Daniels Faculty into our Studio Research Lab (SRL), each of whom has contributed to projects that have helped inform its founding. DRIP interns are embedded directly into live research initiatives, playing key roles in the development of the SRL Toolkit, the early phases of our Sustainability Action Plan, and other high-impact internal projects. The program has become a meaningful part of our research culture, providing students with deep, hands-on experience in research and learning within a professional practice setting while advancing critical studio research priorities.
Project Statistics
- Years Participated – 2024 & 2025
- DRIP Interns Hosted – 2
- Total Internship Duration – 6 weeks (192 hours) per year
- SRL Project Contribution – the SRL Toolkit (2024) & the JRS Sustainability Action Plan (2025)
- Institutional Partner – John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, University of Toronto
- Design Research Internship Program – Daniels Faculty
The Design Research Internship Program (DRIP) is an initiative led by the University of Toronto’s John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design. It invites third and fourth-year undergraduate students to participate in a six-week, full-time summer internship with Toronto’s leading design firms, where they can explore the intersection of design, research, and practice. DRIP aims to provide students with exposure to the nuances of professional design environments while contributing to the intellectual life of the host offices.
Since 2024, JRS has proudly participated in DRIP as part of our growing commitment to research-based practice. Each summer, we integrate a student intern into our Studio Research Lab (SRL) team to support active internal research initiatives that are hands-on, collaborative, and intellectually rigorous. Interns are embedded directly into the workflows of our design and research teams, contributing to projects that have lasting value to the studio.
In 2024, our DRIP intern Yuxin (Rain) Shen played a foundational role in the development of the SRL Toolkit, assisting in the automation of site documentation workflows and contributing to early explorations of how visual, spatial, and environmental data could be integrated into iterative design processes. The insights and prototypes developed during this first internship helped define the scope and ambition of what is now one of our core research streams.
In 2025, our intern Songzi Zhou turned her focus to the emerging JRS Sustainability Action Plan (SAP). Her work included precedent research, the design of internal staff engagement materials, and co-facilitation of an all-studio workshop. She also took the lead on organizing, synthesizing, and analyzing “what we heard” data from surveys and discussions, helping the firm clarify priority areas and refine its initial targets. This work was instrumental in setting the groundwork for one of JRS’s most important long-term initiatives.
Across both years, the DRIP interns have brought curiosity, discipline, and a thoughtful design perspective to each task. The program has been a powerful catalyst for cultivating a culture of design research within the studio, while providing emerging designers with a platform to contribute meaningfully to real-world projects. As we continue to build out the SRL, we see DRIP not only as a valuable partnership but as a vital bridge between academic inquiry and the evolving demands of professional practice.
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