Shannon Bassett

Biography

Shannon Bassett is a Canadian-American architectural and urban designer. Her research, teaching, writing and practice operate at the intersection(s) of architecture, urban design and landscape ecology. She holds a MAUD from the Harvard Graduate School of Design and a BArch with Distinction from Carleton University. Her design and research work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally, including at the Hong Kong Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism and Architecture (2012) and was featured in the ensuing book publication, “Learning from Tri-ciprocal Cities: The time, the place, the people”, published by ORO Editions. Her work has also been displayed at the BUGAIK International Architectural Exhibition with the Busan Chapter of Architectural Institute of Korea. She was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) grant for (Re)Stitch Tampa. Ensuing from this research platform was the publication, “(Re)Stitch Tampa: Designing the Post-War Coastal American City through Ecologies”, published by ACTAR. She has practiced architecture and urban design at award-winning firms in both Boston and Ottawa, in addition to working as a Junior Architect at the National Capital Commission in Ottawa. She serves as: an Advisor to the City of Ottawa Planning Advisory Committee an Elected Board Member of the Building Technology Educator’s Society, and an appointed member on the Sustainable Built Environment Committee (SBEC) with the OAA. In 2011 she was awarded the Pullara Award by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) for her demonstrated leadership and service to both the profession and the community. She is fully bilingual – English and French – (Ontario Secondary School French Immersion Diploma) and speaks rudimentary Mandarin.

Research

Shannon Bassett is a Canadian-American architectural and urban designer. Her research, teaching, writing and practice operate at the intersection of architecture, urban design and landscape ecology.

Her design research and work has been exhibited both nationally, as well as internationally, including at the Hong Kong Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism and Architecture (2012) and was featured in the ensuing book publication, “Learning from Tri-ciprocal Cities: The time, the place, the people”. It has also been displayed at the BUGAIK International Architectural Exhibition (Busan Ulsan Gyeongnam Chapter of Architectural Institute of Korea). She was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts grant for (Re)Stitch Tampa. Ensuing from this research platform was the publication, “(Re)Stitch Tampa: Designing the Post-War Coastal American City through Ecologies“, published by ACTAR.

She has lectured extensively and internationally, including in China, India and South Korea. She has run design research studios in China, collaborating with the Tongji College of Architecture and Urban Planning, the Tianjin School of Architecture, and the College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, Peking University/Turenscape Academy in Beijing and Anhui province, with a focus on rural urbanism of Village planning or “rurbanism”. She is an Invited Professor every summer to the Busan, South Korea, International Architectural Design Workshop (BIADW) CAMPUS – Asia Program, Department of Architecture, Pusan National University. This is funded by the Korean Government as a Korea UNESCP ESD (Education for Sustainable Development) Official Project assigned by the Korean National Commission of UNESCO.

Her writing on both China’s explosive urbanization and its changing landscape, as well as shrinking cities and the post-industrial landscape in North America, has been published in Canadian Architect Topos, Urban Flux and Landscape Architecture Frontiers Magazine (LAF).

She serves as an elected Board Member of the Building Technology Educators Society (BTES) and on the steering committee for the CCUSA / RAIC Academic Papers Summit 2021.

Work and Practice

Shannon Bassett is Director of Atelier Urban ‘Scapes and Shannon Bassett Urban Design and Strategic Planning, based in Sudbury and Ottawa, Ontario.

Her architecture and urban design practice operates at the intersection of permormatice landscape(s) and ecology(ies) and includes the design for an urban design masterplan and study for an urban artist colony on a 42-acre site, the Village of the Arts in Bradenton, Florida, as well as a series of speculative design studies for the City of Tampa Riverwalk for the City of Tampa.

She was appointed by the Mayor of Ottawa and Ottawa City Council to serve as an Advisor to the City of Ottawa Planning Advisory Committee. Shannon is specifically advocating for the implementation of green infrastructure, low impact design strategies (LID) and design excellence in the proposed future Masterplan 2031 for the City of Ottawa.

She served as an elected two-term board member of the International Association of China Planning (IACP) from 2011 to 2015. While on the IACP Board of Directors, served as a Delegate of Foreign Experts as part of IACP who visited Tenchong, Yunnan, China and presented advisory and ecological urbanism recommendations to sustainable development to government officials for an ecological tourism master planning strategy.

She has practiced architecture at award-winning practices in Boston and Ottawa. With the National Capital Commission in Ottawa she was also a junior architect for the Official Residences Section and a junior urban planner for the Long-Range Planning Division for community outreach on several high-profile urban design projects, including the LeBreton Flats Redevelopment.

Publications

• Bassett, Shannon, “Urban and Suburban Ecosystems”, in The Palgrave Handbook of Global Sustainability, Edited by Robert Brinkmann, Forthcoming
• Bassett, Shannon, “Sustainability in Asia”, in The Palgrave Handbook of Global Sustainability, Edited by Robert Brinkmann, Forthcoming
• Bassett, Shannon, Author and Editor, “(Re) Stitch Tampa – Designing the Post-WardCoastal City through Ecologies, ACTAR, Barcelona and New York, July 1, 2017, 200p.
• Triciprocal CitiesLearning from Tri-ciprocal Cities: The time, the place, the people”. Hong Kong-Shenzhen Biennalle, 2012

Awards

• Pullara Award, 2011, American Institute of Architects (AIA)