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A culinary school reimagined with chefs, chefs-in-training, and administrators.

The Fulmer Family Centre for Childhood Studies at Capilano University is a living classroom where 74 children, future educators, and a coastal forest learn from one another. Integrating licensed child care spaces with Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) teaching areas, the Centre addresses a regional shortage of child care while advancing early childhood pedagogy, campus life, and low-carbon design. Rooted in the Reggio Emilia Approach and biophilic principles, the project demonstrates how mass-timber architecture, carefully tuned to site and climate, supports deep engagement with nature and community while achieving Step Code 4 performance and LEED Gold certification.

Project Description

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Nature, children, and future educators reimagine early-childhood education together in a mass-timber centre. 

Taking cues from local basalt formations and the composite geometry of a ski, Public Architecture’s design for this transit shelter creates a first impression for visitors arriving in Whistler. The canopy uses a fractal arrangement of spruce-pine glulam beams and CLT panels, supported by a minimal steel structure with concealed HSK connections. To meet a two-month construction window between Labour Day and the first snowfall, the design prioritized off-site prefabrication. The resulting form avoids vertical screens to promote safety and seamless pedestrian flow, while integrated lighting creates “snowflakes” of warmth during winter twilight. Robust enough to manage heavy alpine snow loads without shedding at the perimeter, the shelter serves as both a high-performance transit hub and a versatile space for community markets.

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Whistler Gateway Loop   /   PUBLIC

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A canopy shaped by the mountains themselves.

Public Architecture, in collaboration with Francl Architecture and the University Neighbourhood Association, designed this multi-purpose hub that balances high-performance recreational facilities—including a gymnasium, dance studio, and fitness center—with dedicated zones for the arts. The project’s success lies in its deep-rooted consultation process, ensuring the building achieves an intersection of social, environmental, and economic health. More than just a collection of program spaces, the centre is a welcoming, light-filled environment that fosters connection and well-being for the entire community.

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Where recreation and the arts share the same roof, built on a foundation of genuine community input.

Vienna House is a seven-storey, 123-unit multi-family pilot project that advances innovative housing solutions to affordability, climate change, and social resilience. Designed during the 2021 heat dome, the design prioritizes social resilience as a public health necessity, supporting an emotional ecosystem where residents are more naturally connected. To ensure long-term stability, the mix of studios to four-bedroom homes allows families to expand and contract without leaving their community. The project is on track to achieve Passive House certification, through the use of mass timber, extremely low embodied and operational carbon, and passive cooling—driven by adjustable exterior shading and cross-ventilation.

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Vienna House Process

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A multi-family pilot for more affordable, resilient, climate-ready housing.

Developed through a phased, strategic partnership with the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre (VHEC), this project transformed a constrained footprint into a high-performance environment for education and archival preservation. Moving beyond traditional “rent-and-tour” models, PUBLIC navigated a multi-stage process—from feasibility studies to final tenant improvements—to create a clear separation between public programming and sensitive in-house operations. With a future building renovation in view, the design utilizes high-end, flexible display cases engineered for eventual relocation. These mobile elements serve as a sophisticated framework for rotating exhibitions centered on survivor-donated artifacts. The result is a resilient, forward-thinking space that honors its role as a living archive, ensuring the Centre’s vital mission remains adaptable and impactful within its evolving urban context.

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A phased, strategic renovation for education, exhibition, and preservation.

Defining the edge of an emerging campus, this child care navigates its sloped site through four distinct terraces. This innovative layout provides seamless, level access to indoor and outdoor play areas for each cohort without the need for stairs or ramps. To protect against the elements, a generous, oversized roof creates sheltered porches for year-round play and gathering during pick-up and drop-off. Driven by a commitment to true inclusivity, the facility is designed for users of all sizes and mobility capacities. Because the BC Building Code had not previously addressed accessibility for child-sized bodies, our design pioneers new standards for universal access.

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75 child care spaces to address the needs of the community.

Taking a cue from the neighboring woods, the LEED Platinum–certified c̓əsnaʔəm leləm̓ residence uses irregularly patterned and colored brickwork to evoke a stand of Douglas Fir. Public Architecture designed the six-storey, 350-bed building to balance the immediate needs of students with long-term site viability, supporting year-round use through both student housing and summer conference programming. Community is at the heart of the design, with social spaces and kitchens scaled for individuals, floor-wide gatherings, and the entire residence. The building prioritizes inclusivity with universally accessible rooms and all-gender washrooms. Large windows and strategic vantage points optimize passive surveillance across the ground level and social hubs.

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UTC Totem Park / PUBLIC

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A 350-bed residence built to echo the forest it sits beside.

The concrete structure of the Arthur Erickson-designed library at UBC provides a disciplined backdrop for the Offices of the Vice-President, Research &#038; Innovation. To balance the need for departmental cohesion with the requirement for private tasks, Public Architecture introduced an arrangement of acoustically absorptive volumes. These “spatial sponges” create an environment that feels simultaneously open and protected, managing sound while defining the office geography. The integration of warm wooden casework for private offices offers a tactile contrast to the original institutional concrete. By nesting these quieter, introspective zones within the larger collective space, the design fosters a sense of warmth and intimacy without sacrificing the library’s ordered character. The result is a sophisticated workspace that honors Erickson’s architecture while providing the modern functionality and acoustic comfort necessary for high-level research administration.

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Erickson's structure lends order and weight to UBC's research offices.

One of several public realm pieces designed for UBC, this series of transit shelters along University Boulevard responds to and reflects the surrounding tree canopy, paving, and trolley poles. The shelters form an integral part of the street’s morphology and leave room for future development of adjacent sites. Meant to conceptually extend the Katsura boulevard trees: the wood, cell-like structure aligns with the underside of the mature tree canopy and produces dappled light and shadow. Practically, the durable design provides clear sightlines and wide benches to face the sun or the street.

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Extending UBC's architectural thread down to the bus stop.

Situated on the unceded territory of the Musqueam, the renewal of this modernist student hub transforms a standard lobby into a “living museum.” In a highly consultative process guided by Musqueam Living Culture guidelines, the design integrates traditional color palettes and cedar plank facades with large-scale graphic histories. By weaving Indigenous teachings directly into the fabric of student life, the architecture creates a powerful place for non-traditional learning. As Musqueam Elder Larry Grant suggests, this exchange of resources allows for profound personal growth: “Your life gets transformed into something else, something you never even thought of.” Through this reversal of the typical exhibition experience, the project fosters a deeper sense of place, ensuring the Musqueam story is told in their own voice and approach.

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Where thousands of students leave knowing whose land they’re on.

The Stewart Blusson Quantum Matter Institute (QMI) at UBC is a gateway for atomic-scale research. Public Architecture designed this LEED Gold addition to unite researchers, wrapping the building in a brick skin that mirrors the YBCO crystal lattices fundamental to their work. In a nod to the facility’s high-powered magnets, every brick is aligned north-to-south. To protect sensitive experiments, the structure is decoupled from the site with isolation pads to eliminate vibrations. Inside, the design laminates precise laboratories with spontaneous social hubs, using light-filled stairwells to encourage the cross-pollination of ideas. Technical innovations, including a pioneering helium recycling system, ensure that this high-performance facility supports the groundbreaking future of quantum science.

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A research facility designed from the atomic scale up.

Used for rugby functions and special events, the UBC Gerald McGavin Rugby Club’s floor-to-ceiling glass doors offer bright southern views of the Thunderbird Athletic Commons and open onto outdoor seating for up to 300 spectators. The building contains a lounge, meeting spaces, changerooms, washrooms, and wet bar, the backdrop of which is dedicated to a timeline recording milestones in the history of rugby at UBC. The building’s north face takes advantage of a two-metre, cross slope for at-grade entrances to team change rooms. Its location in the UBC athletic precinct offers proximity to university ice rinks, tennis bubbles, and gymnasia.

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A sunlit design that puts the field, and the action in it, front and centre.

As the first Passive House-certified student residence in Canada, Skeena Residence at UBCO is a high-performance living lab. The six-storey building completes the campus ensemble encircling Commons Field, acting as a pedestrian-oriented street wall that prioritizes both energy efficiency and human connection. On the ground level, social hubs like lounges and activity rooms foster happenstance gatherings, while upper floors offer quiet study areas accessed by light-filled, extroverted stairs. To achieve rigorous Passive House standards, the design utilizes a simplified form and deep-recessed windows to manage solar gain seasonally. Beyond housing 220 students, Skeena serves as an industry accelerator, equipped with integrated sensors to monitor real-time energy performance and occupant comfort.

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Skeena House

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Housing 220 students in Canada’s first Passive House residence.

This typographic gesture identifies the eastern-most gateway to the UBC campus and is intended as a simple and direct extension of the brand voice of the University. Various typographic options were explored in order to capture the most appropriate and timeless tone. It was designed to encourage posing in front of, on top, around, and behind as a physical expression of academic pride of place and achievement.

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This 3D sign announces the edge of campus and pride of place.

Public Architecture developed the design and curation of major permanent exhibits at UBC for the UNESCO-recognized Wallace B. Chung and Madeline H. Chung Collection and the Phil Lind Klondike Gold Rush Collection. An achievement in visual storytelling, the new space and exhibitions reveal a broader range of stories that have shaped the history of BC.

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Giving the untold stories of BC a permanent home at UBC.

As UBC’s primary comparative-medicine facility, this state-of-the-art centre establishes a new benchmark for cohesive urban development within the Bio Sciences Reserve. The design skillfully navigates the boundary between public transparency and private research. A cluster of single-storey volumes, linearly organized to enable all research functions on one level, is unified under a singular, expressive folded roof. This high-performance canopy serves as a functional engine for the building, providing flexible servicing, natural light harvesting, passive heating &#038; cooling, and stormwater collection. While security protocols require carefully controlled at-grade transparency, social and training spaces are strategically oriented to the south, offering researchers a restorative connection to the existing forest.

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