Kai Mah

Associate Professor




Sudbury Campus

Kai Wood Mah is a registered architect with the Ordre des architectes du Québec and a design historian.  His current research and design project investigates spaces of education especially as these spaces relate to the history and wellbeing of children since the nineteenth century.  He has lectured on this subject as an invited speaker and as a presenter at national and international conferences.  His writing on educational spaces has appeared in peer-reviewed journals, edited volumes, and will appear in his book Object Lessons:  Architecture and Education in Cape Town and Toronto, 1850-1917.

Before joining LAL, Mah taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the Department of Art History, Theory and Criticism, from 2007 to 2013.  From 1997 to 2003, Mah led community-based design projects in Northern Quebec with the Montreal office Rubin and Rotman Architects and indigenous communities, most notably the Whapmagoostui Gathering Space in Whapmagoostui and the Fire Hall in Chisasibi. This experience inspired his interest in community-based design and northern projects.

Mah is also co-founder of the Social Urban Design Studies (SUDS) collective exploring the dynamics texturing politics and architecture. SUDS recently completed a study of a post-apartheid community in Cape Town and its transition from an informal to a formal housing settlement.  This research was presented at the Cities on the Move:  Mobilities and Sensibilities conference hosted by the University of the Western Cape and published in the journal African Identities.