Craig Applegath

Founding Partner, DIALOG Toronto

Craig Applegath is an architect, urban designer and biologist practicing at the intersection of the built environment and natural ecosystems.

Craig plans and designs buildings, campuses, and communities that are zero-carbon and climate adapted and is an international expert on climate mitigation and adaptation through sustainable and resilient design strategies. Craig’s recent work integrates mass timber in the design of sustainable college and universities, and affordable modular housing. Craig’s commitment to the potential of mass timber has led him to Chair the Mass Timber Institute (MTI) based at the University of Toronto, and co-host MTI’s Mass Timber Today podcast.

Craig is the Founding Partner of DIALOG’s Toronto studio, a North American integrated-design firm. Craig earned a Bachelor of Science in biology from the University of Toronto (UofT), a Bachelor of Architecture from Dalhousie University, and a Master of Architecture in Urban Design from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. Ongoing university teaching work includes a Climate Change Adaptation Seminar at the UofT’s Daniels Faculty of Architecture.

Craig speaks internationally about his research and design explorations. Recent conferences and workshops include the AIA 2022 National Conference, the 2022 Mass Timber Conference in Portland, and the Council for Tall Building and Urban Habitat Hybrid Conference in 2022, where the focus has been on DIALOG’s design for a patent-pending Hybrid Timber Floor System incorporated into a zero-carbon Hybrid Wood Tower prototype (awarded Fast Company’s 2021 World Changing Idea in the architecture category). 

In all his work, Craig is driven by a passion for design that addresses the challenges of climate change and its environmental and human impacts.