I am an interdisciplinary designer, educator, and researcher living and working on the ancestral and traditional territories of the Coast Salish peoples—Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh), and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations—in Vancouver, Canada. My practice is anchored in Industrial Design and spans Communication Design, Architecture, and Art. I am an Assistant Professor in Industrial Design at Emily Carr University of Art and Design.
A profound regard for materiality, process, and technique informs my research, teaching and design practice. Making-based design research, iterative methods, and site specificity are foundational to my design work, which emphasizes materiality, ecological practices, design for more-than-humans, and for public space. Past research collaborations include the Design for Biodiversity project (a DESIS project lead by Dr. Louise St Pierre), and Designing for Public Space at Emily Carr University of Art and Design; and Making Space in partnership with Arts Assembly, which explored alternative approaches to site specificity, intuitive responses to space, and the democratization of design. Currently, I am a research associate with Emily Carr’s DESIS lab, and continuing to centre design for biodiversity and for more-than-humans in new research endeavours.
Since 2010, I have collaborated with renowned visual artists in the development and delivery of large-scale public art commissions. As a designer, project manager, technical consultant, and collaborator, I draw on my experience in the building industry and contemporary art to bring complex public art projects to fruition.
At the core of my practice are iterative, making-based design processes and sustainable acts of care for community and ecology, grounded in the semantics of form and materials. Designing becomes a tangible vehicle for connection and experience; fostering relationships between people, materials, and environment. I hold a Master of Architecture from the University of British Columbia and a Bachelor of Design from the University of Alberta.