What’s a design trend you’d like to end? It’s not strictly design, as much as a structural solution that architects need to push back on – but the corner column in residential units. With the continuing trend of smaller and smaller residential units, more care needs to be taken with maximizing the livability of small spaces. This includes utilizing party walls as structural elements rather than introducing extra columns that merely take up valuable space. Additionally, long and circuitous entrance hallways that eat up half the square footage, make these already tiny units unusable.

What’s a design trend you’d like to start? Caring about the end users, and the layouts of residential units. I saw a talk by Edge Architects who are designing various levels of affordable housing in the Waterloo Region. They brought up the fact that in supportive and transitional housing, it’s required to provide each bedroom with a real door as people need the sense of safety and privacy that a door provides. Noticeably, this is not a consideration for developers building “market” units – yet why shouldn’t it be? Everyone deserves safety and privacy in their own home.

How would you describe your approach to design? I like to approach every building I work on with two questions “would I want to live, work, or visit here,” and “If I lived across the street, would I like to look at this building every day?” One question delves into the functionality of the space, one into the presence within a community.