Buildner is proud to announce the jury list for the Toronto Affordable Housing Challenge Competition!
Nicky Bruun-Meyer, The Site Magazine
Persis Lam, Diamond Schmitt Architects
Maya Mahgoub-Desai, OCAD University
Mauricio Quirós Pacheco, John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, University of Toronto
Fotini Pitoglou, FORREC
Mark Sterling, Acronym Urban Design and Planning
Andreas Tjeldflaat, Framlab
Jeremy Withers, Department of Geography and Planning at the University of Toronto
Dan Wu, Immuta 
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.
Persis Lam is an associate at Diamond Schmitt Architects, based in Toronto. She loves architecture for the constant strive for balance between art and science. Her drive for better design solutions to solve real problems stems from a technical design sense. Persis is also an executive member of Building Equality in Architecture Toronto (BEAT). She continues to champion collaboration across different professional industries, enjoys spending time with her two young children and plays in the office rock band.
Maya Mahgoub-Desai is the Chair of Environmental Design at OCAD University and a practicing Urban Designer and Planner with Moriyama Teshima Architects. Her interdisciplinary research interests focus on public health, socio-ecological models of urban development, and decolonization of design pedagogy. Her current SSHRC-funded research projects investigate environmental health, public realm design, and inclusive approaches to community collaboration.
Mauricio Quirós Pacheco is a Costa Rican-born architect and Assistant Professor at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture at the University of Toronto. Mauricio was part of the Office of the Director at the Canadian Centre for Architecture and practiced architecture in America and Europe before joining the faculty. He holds a master with distinction from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Architecture from Universidad del Diseño.
Fotini Pitoglou is a licensed architect in Ontario, Canada, the UK and Greece. She is a lead architect on hospitality projects at Toronto-based FORREC. She holds master's degrees from the University of Waterloo and the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, where she conducted extensive research on tourism, and community building. Fotini is an executive member of BEAT - Building Equality in Architecture Toronto, the former chair of RAIC Emerging Practitioners Committee, and a member of FORREC's Diversity Equality and Inclusion Task Force. 
Mark Sterling is an architect, urban designer and professional land use planner in Toronto, principal of Acronym Urban Design and Planning. He was the director of the Master of Urban Design program at the University of Toronto’s John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design between 2014 and 2020. 
Andreas Tjeldflaat is the founder of Framlab, a New York and Bergen-based design studio. He is an advisor for Antler and member of the Real Estate Market advisory group for UNECE. In addition, Andreas has held teaching positions at institutions such as Columbia University and Cornell University. 
Jeremy Withers is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Geography and Planning at the University of Toronto. His research focuses on housing policy, the economics of residential development, and access to affordable housing in Canada. He is currently writing a dissertation about the production of affordable rental housing in Toronto. 
Dan Wu is a product manager at Immuta, whose mission is legal and ethical data operations. He’s advocated for data ethics, inclusive urban innovation, and diversity in TechCrunch, Harvard Business Review, and Fast Company. He's helped Fortune 500 companies, governments, and startups with ethical & agile data strategies. He holds a Harvard J.D. & Ph.D and has been a legal engineer, privacy counsel, and startup lawyer.
The Toronto 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 Toronto. Winning projects will be featured in ARCHHIVE BOOKS’ second edition of its publication, What is Affordable Housing?
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