RESUME
EDUCATION
M aster of Architecture (M.Arch)
The University of British Columbia | 09/2020 - 12/2022
+ Royal Architectural Institute of Canada Student Medal
+ Werner Forster Memorial Scholarship in Architecture
+ Arthur Hullah & Dorothy Cleveland Memorial Scholarship
+ DIALOG Scholarship in Urban Design
+ 1st Place, Fast + Epp 2020 UBC Arch/Eng Competition
B achelor of Science in Architecture (B.Sc.Arch)
McGill University | 09/2012 - 04/2015
+ Sheila Baillie Scholarship in Architecture
+ Principal’s Student-Athlete Honour Roll
RESEARCH
G raduate Academic Assistant
The University of British Columbia | 06/2022 - 04/2023
+ Planning of workshops with residents of UBC’s student-family housing to understand qualitative aspects of housing and neighborhood that contribute to wellbeing
+ Precedent analysis for innovative, community-oriented, and environmentally-sustainable housing projects
R esearch Assistant
McGill University | 05/2015 - 08/2015
+ Archival research in architecture and urban planning to support book project
+ Collaboration with the Urban Planning Department of the City of Montreal
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Architectural intern and project coordinator
VIA Architecture, Vancouver | Transit and housing projects | 09/2017 - 01/2022
+ Stakeholder engagement, conceptual design, reference drawings, and procurement documents for future 16-kilometer SkyTrain line extension including 8 new stations and 3 bus exchanges
+ Conceptual design, detailing, and construction drawings for 5-storey Passive House affordable housing project
+ Modular façade design and construction drawings for 40-storey residential tower
Architectural intern
JYW Architecture, Vancouver | Senior care and planning projects | 10/2016 - 09/2017
+ Construction drawings and interior design for 10-storey senior care home in Vancouver’s Chinatown
+ Master planning and conceptual design for 50-acre oceanfront community on British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast
Architectural intern
JYW Architecture, Vancouver | Commercial and office projects | 09/2015 - 10/2016
+ Design proposal for adaptive reuse of heritage building into offices
+ Tenant improvement and interior design drawings for various healthcare and commercial projects
+ Communications and marketing: responses to RFPs and written content for firm’s new website
Revit, Rhinoceros 3D, SketchUp, AutoCAD, Enscape, InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, Premiere Pro
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WORK EXPERIENCE SOFTWARE PROFICIENCIES
RETHINKING SUPPORTIVE HOUSING
TOWARDS A CONTINUUM OF INCLUSIVE MILIEUS
Current responses to homelessness are often centered on housing and treating people, without acknowledging the human need to be and feel socially included. How can housing be more than shelter, and foster community and social inclusion?
This project proposes an alternative housing model using urban farming as a social binder, connecting residents to their neighbors and to the wider city through collective food production.
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2022 | M.Arch Graduating Project Advisory Committee: Inge Roecker (Chair), Sean McEwen, Alina McKay
1-person units
Small self contained units for formerly unhoused persons who prefer living alone
Camp areas
Areas kept open for anyone to lay a blanket or pitch a tent
Co-living units
Units where formerly unhoused persons live together in groups of 2, 4, 6, or 8
Shelters
Beds in shared room
Parti diagram
The various residential typologies make this project inclusive to residents with a greater diversity of needs and life circumstances. No matter where they sleep, all residents have equal access to the community farming areas.
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Involving future residents in the design process is key to achieve greater inclusion, especially for marginalized people whose voices are so often ignored. This being an academic project, I created fictional characters in lieu of residents and used their particular needs to guide me through the design process.
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Jess 37 years old Shelter resident Zach 20 years old Tent resident Max 4 years old Zach’s dog
Cheryl 62 years old Co-living unit resident
Tim 49 years old 1-person unit resident
The residents
Pair of typical residential levels
Units, shelter spaces, and camp areas open up directly to community farming areas, which also act as circulation and social spaces where neighbors can interact.
Units
Shelter and camp area
Shared by “families”: kitchens
Shared by neighbors: community farming areas
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10 Section through main atrium
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Entry sequence
The street-level program includes covered public outdoor space, modular micro-businesses, and a laundry-cafe located at the base of the building’s main atrium. This succession of public and casual spaces intends to create a gradual entry sequence that allows a person experiencing anxiety to see what lies ahead and make sure they feel comfortable before going further.
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Massing and site context
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Life in a greenhouse
The following vignettes show the residents – Zach, Cheryl, Jess, and Tim – going about their day and interacting with each other within the building’s various social spaces.
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APPROPRIATED VILLAGE
CO-LIVING IN A POST-CAPITALIST AGE
2020 | M.Arch Design Studio Project
Professor Chris Macdonald
Developed in collaboration with Guillermo Bourget Morales and Chloe Moss
Set in a speculative post-capitalist future, this project imagines an architectural prototype able to support an incremental transition from the tipping point of unsustainable economic growth, towards a self-sufficient community model.
We approached the design task by asking ourselves: how can architecture outlive its initial function? How can an abandoned industrial building, designed to accommodate specific manufacturing processes, invite the possibility of providing a home for a thriving new community?
The design response proposes to adapt the existing building by creating a variety of coliving and co-working spaces, and to improve its environmental performance with a doubleskin façade. This is achieved through a series of interventions that are inexpensive and nonintrusive, allowing the community to inhabit the building during its transformation and even to participate to the construction processes.
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Double-skin façade: Construction process
Existing structure
Existing envelope
Mass timber structure
Inner envelope wood framing
Outer envelope wood framing
Steel rod tensile supports
Metal grate flooring
Outer envelope built from reclaimed building materials
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Preserve existing building (2 storeys)
Main design ideas
Increase density (4 storeys)
Improve environmental performance with double-skin façade
Elevation: Possible result after building adaptation
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atrium to bring air and daylight through deep floor plates
of atrium to create visual
façade interstitial space to grow food and enhance community life
Create
Stagger extents
connections between floors Use
North façade interstitial space: Extension of living spaces
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South façade interstitial space: Vertical farming
(Next page) New atrium space: Supporting community life
BRITANNIA BEACH BATHHOUSE
COMMUNITY HEALING THROUGH ENGAGING WITH WATER
2021 | M.Arch Comprehensive Design Studio Project
Adjunct Professor Peeroj Thakre
Developed in collaboration with Robyn Thomson
Streaming down a sloped metal roof, cascading through stepped outdoor pools, flowing across a concrete wall, or lapping against the edges of an interior basin: water finds multiple ways to engage with visitors in this proposal for a new bathhouse and community hall in Britannia Beach, British Columbia.
Bordering the project site and flowing into the Howe Sound is a creek that once was the most polluted watercourse in North America, due to acid rock drainage from the abandoned Britannia Beach copper mine. Drawing from a local history of community resilience in the face of human and environmental tragedy, this project seeks to create a space for community healing through a process of continuous interaction with water and the site.
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Main design ideas
27 Natural water collection and filtration Views and solar orientation Roofs with overhangs Site access Water as a community resource Program arrangement across site A A B C D Restaurant Hotel Community hall Bathhouse D B C
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Ground floor plan
Main entrance and lobby
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Mineral baths
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Water systems
Rainwater is harvested from the roof, filtered, and stored in an underground cistern before being pumped to the various pools and baths to replace water lost by evaporation.
The outdoor natural pool is heated to 26°C. After exiting through surge gutters, pool water is circulated by gravity through a gravel filter bed, then released into a regeneration pond where harmful bacteria are converted into nutrients for plant growth.
Clean water from the regeneration pond is mixed with rainwater intake and either heated or cooled before being released into the pools and baths. A heat recovery system uses exhaust heat from the kitchen to heat water.
Hot water exiting the hot baths is recirculated through a radiant floor heating system before being released into the regeneration pond.
A rinse water reclamation system diverts the dishwashing and laundry rinse water to a storage tank for later use as wash water.
Greywater from showers, handwash sinks, and laundry is filtered, stored, and UV-treated before being used for toilets, cleaning, and irrigation.
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1 1 2 3 4 5 6 6
50mm concrete pavers on self-leveling plastic pedestals Filter fabric
2 x 66mm polyisocyanurate rigid foam insulation
13mm drainage mat
2-ply SBS roofing membrane
13mm fibreboard protection board
Min. 50mm expanded polystyrene rigid insulation, tapered for 2% slope to drain
245mm 5-ply CLT panels
Wide flange steel beam bolted to continuous steel L angles, fastened to CLT slab
13mm charred wood vertical siding
20mm air space (rainscreen) with galvanized steel horizontal hat tracks
2 x 76mm expanded polystyrene rigid insulation w/ intermittent fiberglass clips
Air-sealing self-adhered membrane (air and vapour barrier)
191mm 5-ply CLT panels
191mm by 690mm glulam beam
Wood slat drop ceiling held by 38mm by 286mm sawn wood joists
Curtain wall system w/ thermally broken frame & operable awning window infill
Window sill with PMMA membrane strip lapped over concrete curb waterproofing membrane, with plywood and structural foam below
50mm cast-in-place concrete topping
Sheet-applied waterproofing membrane
150mm cast-in-place concrete slab
2 x 102mm extruded polystyrene rigid insulation with staggered joints
Min. 150mm drain free crushed gravel
32 South elevation Enclosure detail 1 2 4 5 6 7 3 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Outdoor Indoor
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Cross section through outdoor pool
Outdoor pool
SKEENA TERRACE HOUSING + URBAN DESIGN
TRANSFORMING SPACES FOR CARS INTO SPACES FOR PEOPLE
2021 | M.Arch Design Studio Project
Professor Chris Macdonald
This design studio called for envisioning the future of one of Vancouver’s largest social housing estate: Skeena Terrace, built by the CMHC during the 1960s. In the context of climate change and a housing crisis, how can the future site accommodate a higher residential density while preserving livability and becoming more inclusive to seniors, families, and persons with disabilities?
A site analysis identified accessibility and pedestrian mobility as some of the most pressing challenges given Skeena Terrace’s location within an area designed for cars, with large arterial roads, big-box stores, and single-family houses. The design response strives to create a pedestrianoriented, mixed-use hub where residents can access transit, retail, and community amenities within less than a 5-minute walk.
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SkyTrain Millenium Line
Site context and pedestrian mobility analysis
The urban fabric surrounding the site makes for longer and unpleasant trips for pedestrians or people using mobility devices. To go to a grocery store, for example, one has to take busy arterial roads where pedestrian crossings are few and far between, resulting in indirect and longer routes.
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Grocery store School / Daycare Community center
SkyTrain Project site Park
Lougheed Highway
BoundaryRoad
3-storey unit (corridor access)
1-storey unit (exterior access)
2-storey unit (corridor access)
1-storey unit (corridor access)
1-storey unit (corridor access)
2-storey unit (corridor access)
2-storey unit (exterior access)
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Commercial space
Section through car-free street and mixed-use hub
Proposed car-free street and mixed-use hub, day view
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Proposed car-free street and mixed-use hub, elevation view
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Proposed site redevelopment, aerial view looking west
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Bus loop, car-free street, and mixed-use hub, twilight view
604-202-3546 caroline.pfister@mail.mcgill.ca
