Originally trained as an architect, I now work with cities, mostly on housing, and more often than not with the question of who gets to stay and who is excluded.

My work brings together urban planning, GIS, and data analysis to understand what policies and spaces that are shaped by them mean for people: who can afford to live where, how neighbourhoods change, and whose needs are reflected in planning decisions. My experience spans architecture and urban planning and everything in between: from small-scale infill, rehabilitation and adaptation to policy analysis and development, including zoning and official plan reviews; from basic demographic analysis to complex housing needs assessments; from post-industrial redevelopment to climate resilience work in Canada’s Arctic communities.

I am currently completing an M.Sc. in Urban Planning, Policy and Design at McGill University, where my thesis focuses on comparative studies of cooperative housing movements in Montréal and Barcelona. I am interested in how individualization of society during late modernity and neoliberal agenda brought us to where we are now, how communities organize to keep housing outside the speculative market and how neoliberal systems push back.

I have worked with NGOs and public- and private-sector clients across Canada and Ukraine. At the centre of my work is a belief that planning and architecture are not neutral: they can reinforce inequality, but they can also help advance the right to housing, climate justice, and create cities where more people can remain, belong, and shape their surroundings.

designed & built by masha vakula