Master of Architecture Design Thesis · University of Manitoba ·
Advised by Shawn Bailey · Supported by SSHRC Canadian Graduate Scholarship

Making Stories — Facilitating Spatial Agency through Democratized Design

Rooted in personal experience working at a community makerspace in Vancouver, the research investigates "democratized design" — the idea that sharing the tools, knowledge, and process of design with communities generates lasting empowerment and self-reliance.

The thesis locates this theory within a real and urgent context: the ongoing housing crisis facing Canada's First Nation communities. Through a partnership with the University of Manitoba and Tech-Access Canada, the work focused specifically on Pinaymootang First Nation in Manitoba, where overcrowding, deteriorating housing stock, and the lasting effects of a 2011 man-made flooding disaster continue to strain the community. Rather than proposing a housing prototype — a "band-aid" solution — the thesis pivots toward capacity building as the more meaningful, lasting intervention.

The design outcome is an imagined Pinaymootang Community Workshop: a facility designed to give the community access to tools, digital fabrication equipment, and shared knowledge. The building is split into an "active shop" for high-demand fabrication and a "passive shop" for social, craft-based activities, knit together by a central gathering space and sited adjacent to the community school. Construction strategies deliberately favour off-the-shelf materials and participatory assembly — so that the act of building the workshop itself becomes part of the capacity-building process.

The thesis reframes the architect's role from author of space to facilitator of spatial agency, measuring success not in formal terms but in ownership, comfort, belonging, and the stories that emerge from building something together.