Vancouver BC, and Calgary AB yippermj@shaw.ca matthewyip.ca
I’m a fourth year architectural design student greatful to be learning alongside brilliant peers at UBC’s School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture. My work embraces constantly evolving curiosity that has developed with detail, and craft and still requires refinement; something onging and of course never quite complete. I believe that designers work best when we collaborate, and do so coming from a place of empathy, curiosity, and enthusiasm. My goal as a designer is to challenge hegemonic conceptions of space, and embrace interconnected, compassionate architectures that serve all - from humans to the greater than human.
Education
2021-Present
Experience
May - August, 2024
May - August, 2024
Volunteering
Aug. 2024
- Present
July - Sept. 2023
Skills
Achievements
2024
Bachelor of Design in Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Urbanism
University of British Columbia | Vancouver, BC
Deans Scholar
Co-op: Available for 16 months beginning May 2024
Co-op Student
Iredale Architecture | Vancouver BC.
Developed massing and schematic modelling in Revit for multiresidential feasability study, Reviewed bylaws and buidling codes for applicable components, and developed documents in InDesign to deliver to clients.
Net-Zero Buildings Research Intern [co-op]
Volta Research Inc. | Toronto ON.
Analyzed and synthesized strategies from National, Ontario, BC, and Energy Star building energy codes to assess targets and differences for single-family dwellings. Critiqued disparities between provincial and national building codes using HOT2000 energy modeling. Received training on applying Python for building code component compliance.
BDES Representative
For A Feminist Architecture | Vancouver, BC
Elected representative for the undergraduate students to FAFA, a collective commited to challenging monocultural attitudes toward architectural education and practice.
Farm Assistant
Grow Calgary | Calgary, AB
Fostered caring and welcoming relationships with a variety of other volunteers and farm managers to care for, grow, and harvest produce.
Analog
Drafting
Sketching Painting
2022, 2023, 2024
Digital
Illustrator
Photoshop
InDesign
Rhino 7
AutoCAD
3D-Printing
Lasercutting
Revit
Grasshopper
Architectural Institute of BC Award:
Awarded to students with outstanding academic achievement and dedication to growth in design
Trek Excellence Award: Academic achievement for top 5% of students in program year
01
Gather + Grow
Generating a responsive housing typology connecting community through gardening and food / pg. 06 - 11
03
Root Collective
Cultivating synergies community, food and ecology / pg. 18-23
05
Go with the Flow Theatre
Finding form in an unconventional theatre / pg. 30 - 37
Beach Walk 02
Choreographing an experience at Wreck Beach / pg. 12 - 17
04
MONAD Case Study
Building understanding of wall assemblies, materials, and precedent projects / pg. 24 - 29
Miscellaneous
curricular and extracurricular work / pg. 38 - 47 06
Project 01 Grow + Gather
Developing a new horizon for combining living and urban agriculture on a residential site in Vancouver’s
Riley Park Neighbourhood
Year: 2023
Course: DES 301 - Building Scale
Synthesis
Instructor: Tania Gutiérrez-Monroy
This project challenged me to think within the context of the housing crisis in Vancouver in which rising costs of living have put immense pressure on individuals and families to meet their basic shelter and food needs. This project asked us to develop a set of demands that framed our intervention along a framework of creating equitable, responsive, and smart desnity. My manifesto took the form of the following points.
1) we must locate housing close to and integrate it into productive community-led food initiatives. This serves to create good quality affordable food for all, engagement opportunities for the community, and a more compassionate understanding of the land we exist on - especially how much space, energy, water, it takes to grow the food we often
take for granted.
2) These spaces will be open to the community, not just to residents, thus everyone is able to participate and benefit from the food grown together.
3) This housing will be non-market co-operative housing units that support a range of incomes and ages, they should be intimate but not overpopulated. The co-op aids in supporting the voices of residents, but also engages them in tight-knit shared cooking schedules, and orienting residents on managing the farm.
Matthew Yip
Project 02 Beach Walk
Developing a new horizon for combining living and urban agriculture on a residential site in Vancouver’s Riley Park Neighbourhood
Year: 2024
Course: DES 302 - Vancouver
Instructor: Divine Ndemeye Team: Meiji Pangsophon, Lon Tam
This design project aimed to connect with the enigmatic and hidden essence of Wreck Beach by employing dynamic, evolving, and transient materials. Through this approach, we intend to create a space that offers moments of tranquility, introspection, and contemplation. Our focal point will be the Douglas fir, serving as both a silent observer and a central element in our reflection space. This tree will act as a landmark, a sanctuary for confession, and an opportunity for individuals to harmonize with their surroundings. The overarching goal is to craft an immersive environment that invites visitors to feel and connect with past memories that exist around the site, fostering a sense of oneness and inner peace.
sitting stumps
amalgamated shell installation meandering pathway
Along the beach, naturalized resting space provide an opprotunity to engage with the environment
In the Marsh, stumps elevate walkers above the intertidal zone, protecting the sensative marsh and stabalizing the bank.
Out on the jetty, spaces for contemplation are combined with multisensory elements like local planting to enhance engagement with the surroundings and suppot healing.
Project 03
Rooted Living
Cultivating synergies between community through food and ecology.
Year: 2024
Course: DES 401 - Urbanism
Instructor: Mari Fujita
Site: Vancouver, BC.
Collaborators : Esha Sodhi
Throughout our urban studio we were asked to interrogate the existing infrastructure and zoning that shapes the UEL. We found an imbalance in accessibility and inclusion of different actors, from human to non-human. Between the history of how the zones came to be, the policies, and the physical infrastructures present, the neighbourhood is often hostile and exclusionary to those not embedded in its wealthy single family dwelling logic.
On a neighbourhood systems scale, we wanted
to introduce policy and rezoning that can start to orient people to make the connection between food and the environment, as the UBC FARM explains “Food is the most intimate way we consciously interact with the environment.” We takled growing system tackles densification by shaping FSR through habitat density and community farming initatives and needs. Our proposed hub embodies the core of our imagined framework; balancing the need for growth with ecological resiliance and acess to good food.
Situating the UEL
“Public” to Growing and Learning Lawns
Pedestrianized Bioswale
Project 04 MONAD case study
Understanding current models for dense urban living in Vancouver through a project by LWPAC
Year: 2023
Course: DES 301 - Building Scale
Synthesis
Instructor: Tania Gutiérrez-Monroy
Collaborators: Channing Ferguson
A studio project analysing the existing approaches to housing in Vancouver and around the world. My team got to study MONAD, a groundbreaking urban infill project constructed by LWPAC in 2011. Cindy Wilson and Oliver Lang sought to merge dense multifamily dwellings with comfortable, sustainable, and beautiful living spaces. Sitting on a 33’ wide lot on Waterloo St. and West 4th Ave, the structure combines adaptable, modular, scalable, and efficient generation of buildings, interrogating dissonant attitudes between neighbourhoods and density. Ultimately LWPAC and this building reflect
new ways of thinking about privacy, transparency, and community. They achieve this new vision by blurring what is common and individual; deconstructing hegemonic constructions of privacy in the way we live - person to person, neighbour to neighbour; and encouraging community through the subtle sightlines and joined spaces that can link dwellings together.
Project 05
Go with the Flow Theatre
Finding form for a non-conventional community theatre.
Year: 2023
Course: DES 202 - Form
Instructor: Young-Tack Oh
Site: 1820 Fir Street, Vancouver, BC.
An interstitial space hides in plain sight, masquerading as a parking lot, a corridor, or a gravel patch. But could it be more? Adjacent to the Arthur Erikson Waterfall Building, nestled along the Arbutus corridor, the culmination of my second studio course was a project that harnessed previous exercises to synthesize a new form, transforming the space into a vibrant performance venue for the community. Drawing inspiration from an analysis of human motion, enhanced by the interplay of wind patterns within the site context, the envisioned theater embodies the essence of oscillations in its sweeping, cradling, and flowing form. These broad, dramatic gestures both divide and unite the space, inviting dynamic interactions and openings.
The theatres design places emphasis on the programming of performance in the way that it both situates occupants and is situated in the site. The journey from the street-scape to the stage becomes a captivating procession, engaging not only the theater, the performers, and the audience but also the entire community. The act of performance transcends its traditional boundaries, transforming into an immersive experience shared by all.
Stairway leading to Stage
Refreshments
Washroom & Dressing Room
Social/ Community Seating
Accessibility Lift
MISCELLANEOUS
Kannikegården Case Study
Understanding building assembly by researching, analysing, and drafting a case study project by Lundgaard and Tranberg Arkitekter
Year: 2023
Course: DES 232 - Material Culture
Instructor: Timothy Wong
Matthew Yip
Shelter for Roman Ruins
Analytique Model
developing a schematic and tactile analysis of Peter Zumthors Shelter for Roman Ruins.
Year: 2023
Course: DES 421 - Design Theory
Instructor: Leslie Van Duzer
Team: Natalie Au, Damon Sabbadin
Wall House No.2
Dedicated term project for learning how to use, model, and draw in Autodesk Revit. This project used John Hejduks wall house as a precedent.
