Andrea Vorstermans-Zado
BFA, M.Arch., LEED AP, ARIDO Educator
Professor and Program Coordinator, Honours Bachelor of Interior Design
Biography
Andrea started her career in custom residential design, moving into corporate and institutional projects with a focus on educational design. She has experience in all stages of the design process, including programming, schematic design, design development, construction drawings, construction and proposal development. Andrea has experience leading the team, both as a project architect and as an architectural technologist directly involved in completing construction drawings. Previous projects include the University of Calgary’s large animal surgical suite, Airdrie main station firehall, St. Anthony’s School in Drumheller, and the request for proposal (RFP) package for Calgary’s Pumphouse Theatre.
As an educator, Andrea’s focus is on rounding the student’s education to consider the project as a whole. She encourages students to incorporate other disciples in the design process, and to work with all design fields to create a truly multi-disciplinary design. Projects focus on real-life exercises, while also pushing for an extended creative process and out-of-the-box thinking. Students are always encouraged to contribute their experiences and insight on the process to not only learn about design and our industry, but to understand themselves, their colleagues and, by extension, their clients on a deeper level.
I love the way everyone is so unique and that what each of us brings to the table is a different perspective. This is what makes the design process so interesting, and the classroom as well. The best designs develop within a collaborative process where everyone contributes and we design in a truly multidisciplinary way. In this way, I encourage students to bring themselves, their experiences and knowledge to the design process, and then to give equal value and respect to their teachers, peers and resources, to understand and see beyond their perspective, and to work compassionately to strive for innovation in design.
Andrea Vorstermans-Zado
- Master of Architecture (M.Arch.), University of Calgary, Calgary AB, 2006
- Bachelor of Theatrical Design (BFA), University of Victoria, Victoria BC, 2002
- Varied experience in residential, corporate and educational design
- Experience in all stages of the design process, including programming, schematic design, design development, construction drawings, and construction management
- Varied project experience, including working as a project architect and architectural technologist