Vancouver Affordable Housing Challenge Jury Panel

Buildner is proud to announce the jury list for the Vancouver Affordable Housing Challenge Competition!

Marianne Amodio, Marianne Amodio Architecture Studio
Alex Boston, Renewable Cities
Nicky Bruun-Meyer, The Site Magazine
Avi Friedman, McGill University
Bryan He, Gair Williamson Architects
Melissa Higgs, HCMA Architecture + Design
Ulduz Maschaykh, author and architecture historian
Tom Schroeder, Patkau Architects
Surabhi Shakkarwar,  Boniface Oleksiuk Politano Architects

Marianne Amodio Marianne is Principal of Vancouver-based MA+HG. She holds a Masters Degree of Architecture (honours) from the University of Manitoba, is a registered Architect with the Architectural Institute of British Columbia and a LEED Accredited Professional. She is currently the Chair of The City of Vancouver's Creative Advisory Panel for Housing Innovation and a member of the City of Vancouver Mayor's Advisory Committee for Housing and the Mayors' Advisory Committee for Permitting and Process. 

Alex Boston is the Executive Director of Renewable Cities, a global program of the SFU Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue in Vancouver, Canada. Alex has two decades of policy and planning experience focused on community climate action with unique expertise in land use and multi-criteria analysis, engagement and knowledge mobilization. His work on local, provincial and national scale projects includes: supporting the BC Ministry of Environment to generate community energy and emission inventories for all BC municipalities; developing Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ best practice guide for GHG target setting, serving as principal advisor on Climate Protection Program Renewal; advising Prime Minister Martin’s Task Force on Cities on the federal role in urban climate action; and designing community energy planning tools for Natural Resources Canada and the BC Ministry of Municipal Affairs. Before taking the helm at Renewable Cities, Alex ran his own consultancy for several years, led community climate and energy services for HB Lanarc and Golder Associates, and served as a senior policy advisor at the David Suzuki Foundation. He earned his MSc at Oxford’s Environmental Change Institute. 

Nicky Bruun-Meyer is a Toronto-based Architect and a Co-Founder and Co-Publisher of The Site Magazine, a leading independent journal of contemporary architecture, landscape, urbanism, and design in Canada.  She has worked in Canada and the UK, on both new build and adaptive reuse projects, including cultural, commercial, and residential buildings. 

Avi Friedman is a professor of architecture at McGill University Peter Guo-hua Fu School of Architecture, a visiting professor at Lancaster University, UK, and president of Avi Friedman Consultants, Inc., a design firm with a focus on affordable and sustainable residential environments. He has written twenty eight books and his design work and projects have been cited in magazines, newspapers and TV shows, including Good Morning America, Dream Builders and Stewart Brand's How Buildings Learn. In 2000, Wallpaper* included him in their list of ten people 'most likely to change the way we live'. 

Bryan He is an Intern Architect with Gair Williamson Architects with 7+ years of professional experience in small to medium size residential, commercial, and institutional projects in Vancouver. With a Bachelor of Technology Degree in Building Science from BCIT, he completed his M.Arch from University of Manitoba and received a 2018 AIA Henry Adam's Medal for his graduate thesis. 

Melissa Higgs, Principal of Vancouver-based HCMA Architecture + Design is passionate about creating innovative public buildings where communities come together, and is a believer in the power of architecture and design as a catalyst for positive change in the world. She enjoys working closely with clients to find creative solutions to their unique design challenges. Her expertise in recreation facilities, arts and culture, and long-range vision plans are demonstrated by the success of the Clayton Community Centre – on track to be the first Passive House certified community centre in North America – and the award-winning Grandview Heights Aquatic Centre and West Vancouver Community Centre. Her work on long range strategies include Granville Island 2040, and the Vancouver Aquatic Strategy. Melissa plays a key role in managing and developing the cross-disciplinary aspects of HCMA, including communication design, sustainability, and community and stakeholder engagement to augment our architecture practice, enhancing our reach and impact. She believes that true collaboration and transdisciplinary design has the power to improve creative outcomes across all project types and scales.  Melissa is the Vice Chair of the Board of Directors for the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association (DVBIA). She is past Chair of UBC’s Advisory Urban Design Panel (AUDP), and a past member of AIBC’s Diverse Membership Group and the City of Surrey’s Advisory Design Panel. Melissa is also an Adjunct at UBC’s School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture and has taught a course and several architectural design studios. 

Tom Schroeder is a senior architect with Patkau Architects and a guest critic / adjunct faculty at the University of British Columbia.  Tom has led teams of architects on a broad range of projects including some of the most distinguished and innovative academic, cultural, civic and residential projects in Canada. 

Ulduz Maschaykh is an architecture historian with an interest in architecture, design and the impact of cities on people’s lives. She is the author of the book, “The Changing Image of Affordable Housing – Design, Gentrification and Community in Canada and Europe.” 

Surabhi Shakkarwar is an Urban Planner/Intern Architect with Boniface Oleksiuk Politano Architects focusing on the design and delivery of complex residential mixed-use projects, while navigating conversations with developers, consultants and municipalities across Metro Vancouver. With over 5 years of combined experience in India and Canada, she worked with organizations like Happy City in Vancouver, Campus and Community Planning at UBC, and a provincial planning department in Mumbai, addressing a population of 114 million people. 

The Vancouver Affordable Housing Challenge is part of Buildner’ Affordable Housing series, in partnership with ARCHHIVE BOOKS, showcasing projects that invent new means for driving down housing prices. Designers are tasked with proposing a flexible, innovative, pilot-phase concept for affordable housing within Greater Berlin. Winning projects will be featured in ARCHHIVE BOOKS’ second edition of its publication, What is Affordable Housing?