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 is the Advisory Chair and Co-Founder of BEA(N) – Building Equality in Architecture North. She serves on the LU Presidential Advisory Committee on the Status of Gender Equity.

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 Topos, Urban Flux, Landscape Architecture Frontiers Magazine (LAF) and Canadian Architect. 

Her design work and research has been exhibited both nationally and internationally, including at the Hong Kong Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism and Architecture (2012) and 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 was appointed by the Mayor of Ottawa and Ottawa City Council to serve as an Advisor to the City of Ottawa Planning Advisory Committee. She served as an Elected Board Member of the Building Technology Educators Society and an appointed member on the Sustainable Built Environment Committee (SBEC) for the Ontario Association of Architects (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.

Shannon has lectured internationally, including in China, India, South Korea, and the US. She is an Invited Professor every summer to the Busan, South Korea,  International Architectural Design Workshop (BIAD) CAMPUS – Asia Program, Department of Architecture, Pusan National University. This annual International Summer Architecture and Urban Design Workshop is funded by the Korean Government. 

Shannon is currently collaborating with the Delhi School of Planning and Architecture (SPA) on design research is supported with an Insight Development grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. She also served as an Invited Critic to the Bhopal SPA for a landscape studio focussed on the preservation of Sacred Groves in India as protected cultural landscapes.

She is fully bilingual – English and French -and speaks rudimentary Mandarin.

Publications

Honors and Awards