Zainab Wakil Portfolio 2024

CONTACT

zainabwakil55@gmail.com 672-514-3435 3731 W 11th Ave, Vancouver BC, V6R 2K7

EDUCATION

University of British Columbia Master of Architecture 2021- 2024

University of Toronto Bachelor of Arts in Architecture 2017-2021

EXPERIENCE

Studio Teaching Assistant (September - December 2021/2023) University of British Columbia

Guided a group of 15 undergraduate students through studio projects Created lesson plans and graded assignments Provided mentorship and guidance to students new to architecture

Program Facilitator + Designer (May - August 2021) Chicago Mobile Makers

Produced and directed videos for the Chicago Architecture Biennial Participated in design development for an education facility Co-led design workshops oin schools, libraries, and museums

Studio Technologist (February - April 2021) University of Toronto

Helped design the Daniels Virtual Studio using the platform Gathertown

Developed programming/activities to take place in the Virtual Studios

Moderated the virtual studio help desk to answer questions or troubleshoot

Coopers Green Centre

Type: Collaboration with Anais Trembling Studio: ARCH521 - Joanne Gates Year: 2022 Duration: 3 months

Cooper’s Green Centre takes in consideration the design of a systemless building, choosing the material of rammed earth due to its low carbon impact and locally obtainable materials. The massive rammed earth walls of our building act as thermal mass in order to regulate heating and cooling. The project requires body heat, equipment heat, and solar heat to function. The heat produced on the ground floor is able to use the stack effect to draw out hot air. The heat from the kitchen can rise up to the main hall through the staircase and escape through the large openable windows within that corridor.

Drawing by Zainab Wakil

Drawing by Zainab Wakil

Drawing by Zainab Wakil

Art House Vancouver

Type: Collaboration with Emily Chee Studio: ARCH540 - Matthew Soules Year: 2023 Duration: 2 months

Art House Vancouver is a speculative project meant to act in collaboration with the York Theatre Community Land Trust. It will act as an artistic hub for the neighbourhood and will house artists working in the performing arts. By creating a communal living and working environment, we hope to combat alienation by fostering an environment of mutual aid and income-generation. The housing project will feature 120 non-market bedrooms for low and modest income artists and their families.

Diagram by Zainab Wakil

Drawing by Zainab Wakil

Drawing by Zainab Wakil

Hyper-bia

Type: Individual project Studio: ARCH62 - DIna Sarhane Year: 2020 Duration: 2 months

Hyper-Bia is a multi-unit student housing proposal for the university of Toronto. The intention of the project is to provide the comfort of suburban nostalgia for students moving away from home into the city. Through a series of studies of suburban neighbourhood plans, a design was created in which each student will occupy their own “lot” consisting of a one bedroom unit and a shared “porch” or social pathway. Living in Hyper-Bia will give the opportunity to find solitude in your unit, while being surrounded by social and spatial comforts familiar to you.

building axonometric

How To Save Your Local Mini Mall

Type: Graduate Project Studio: ARCH542 - Rana Abughannum  Year: 2024 Duration: 4 months

How To Save Your Local Mini Mall proposes an adaptive reuse strategy that celebrates the mall’s heritage while addressing contemporary challenges. By reimagining the existing economic model and spatial configurations, I envisioned the transformation of Newin Centre Mall (located in Mississauga, ON) into a thriving mixed-use community hub, integrating housing with its commercial fabric. This project challengers the pattern of developers coming into a community and changing the sociocultural fabric of a neighbourhood. Mini malls all over Canada are being demolished in order to make room for large luxury condo developments. How can we preserve the existing communities that thrive in spaces such as these malls and claim that cultural sustainability is in fact architectural conservation?

Re-imagined ground floor plan

Re-imagined second floor plan

Existing second floor plan

Existing ground floor plan

The Mobilizer

Type: Design Build (20 students) Studio: ARC399 - Reza Nik  Year: 2019 Duration: 2 weeks

Over the course of two weeks, my class and I designed and built a mobile structure that could be rolled out and set up in the public spaces in Parkdale Toronto. The goal: to create a mobile platform, to spark discussion, participate in engaging learning activity, in order to cause positive action in their own neighbourhood. Inspired in part by tourist information kiosks, The Mobilizer made its debut outside the Toronto Public Library’s Parkdale branch.

Photograph by Harry Choi

Diagram by Zainab Wakil

2 Ideation + Experimenting

4 Community Outreach

Collages by Zainab Wakil

We had the opportunity to speak with members of the community in order to understand their fight against gentrification and advication for equity and social justice.

photo: pnlt.ca

Left: illustrations by Sam Shahsavani

Right: illustrations by Zainab Wakil

Photographs by Harry Choi

Keats Camps Welcome House

Type: Design Build (15 students) Studio: ARCH541 - Greg Johnson Year: 2023 Duration: 6 weeks

Working with the community of Keats Island, our design build class built a waiting area dock meant to store water sports equipment as well as serve as a covered waiting area. The structure serves as a beacon for the camp - signifying its presence on the water and signage for the Camp’s main access point. We replaced a dilapidated boat house but re-used the foundations. The main feature of the structure includes the curved glulam beams which give the building it’s formal expression. The use of polycarbonate also provides an enclosure that allows the structure to glow at night - providing a lantern effect on the water.

Photographs by Chloe Boisvert

Photographs by Zainab Wakil

Diagrams by Zainab Wakil