My name is David Mehta. I’m currently a fifth-year student at the University of Waterloo School of Architecture in Cambridge, Canada. I grew up in Whistler, Canada, and have been working and studying throughout North America and Europe for the last 4 years.
Through my first few years of my undergraduate degree I have worked on a range of projects, in the professional and academic setting, from regional master plans, to construction details, and interiors. I have a large interest in adaptive re-use work, and have chosen to mainly focus on this topic throughout my studies
Beyond design, I love spending time outside with friends and family. Whether its, biking, hiking, or skiing, I always appreciate a new adventure.
Please enjoy this collection of my personal, and academic work!
e: david.mehta@uwaterloo.ca
t: +45 91 97 89 61
education
University of Waterloo School of Architecture | 2020 - Present Bachelor of Architecture Candidate | Honour’s Co-op Program | Excellent Academic Standing
Whistler Secondary School | 2015 - 2020
Class of 2020 Valedictorian | Top Grade Point Average
skills
Digital | Rhino 7 | Revit | Grasshopper Analog | Welding | Wood Working | Model Making | Painting | Lacquer app. | Finishing
3D Printing | CNC | Laser Cutting | Sketchup | Enscape | Blue Beam | Rhino CAM | Adobe Suite | Microsoft Office
Received the highest performance evaluation of “Outstanding” | Worked in Rhino, SketchUp, Enscape, and Grasshopper | Lead and participated in competition work
Received the highest perfomance evaluation of “Outstanding” | Sanded, sprayed, painted and finished high end homes | Operated within workshop and site settings | Completed highly detailed finishings work
Research Intern | La Biennale di Venezia, Canadian Pavilion | Venice | September 2023-June 2024
Curated and created exhibition work | Worked in a large team setting | Completed well rounded academic research in a professional setting | Engaged in community meetings
Junior Landscape Architect | MASU Planning | Copenhagen | February 2024-August 2024
Worked on landscape projects ranging from courtyards and greenrooves, to regional masterplans | Worked with GIS, Rhino, Enscpae, Adobe Suite
distinctions
President’s Research Award | University of Waterloo | 2024
President’s International Experience Award | University of Waterloo | 2024
Coop Student of the Year | Nominated x 2 | University of Waterloo | 2022 + 2023
Awarded to a University of Waterloo co-op student for “making exceptional contributions to their employer on one or more work terms”
Class of 2020 Valedictorian | Whistler Secondary School | 2020
On the site that was once the Hamilton Brick Works, Displays of Community aims to bring communities together through art, events, and exhibitions. The project encourages community initiative through a large maker-space and artist studio, indoor and outdoor exhibition space and archives, open gardening plots, and a café. The indoor exhibition space acts as large multi-purpose room able to be modified depending on the needs of the community. Book, display, and archive cases sit on the original tracks in the large building, which were once used to move brick throughout the space. For large events, they can all be pushed to one end, creating an almost uninterrupted floor. Archives can be moved out of the way for exhibitions. The space can be adjusted to fit any ratio of exhibition, archives, and community events, while most of the time being all three.
The adaptive re-use strategy leaves almost all the existing structure of the site in-tact using existing conditions to its advantage to re-display the site’s history. The new building’s footprint is slightly skewed from the original building to create these moments and to maximize light into the building. For example, framing on the exterior is often used to highlight found objects from the site, while the interior framing defines more intimate spaces in the building. The water path on the directs patrons through these conditions, channeling people into the entrances and exits, while also working as a guide through the art and gardens displayed outside. The project works to exhibit the history of the site while providing space for communities to come in and make it their own.
Located in the civil district of Kitchener, the Pull Theatre and Cultural Center aims to bring communities together through creative expression. The project transforms the old Kitchener police station by pulling back existing floors and walls to expose structural members. The original structure remains almost entirely intact. The theaters are placed strategically to use the existing structure to their advantage. The incubation theatre caps off the left side of the building from street level. This is a multilevel theatre designed to allow for the performers to create their own set up. The existing structure provides a template for set design. The audience spirals up from the floor, around the outer edges of the theatre, all the way from the basement to the third floor. It is also imagined that the audience and performers could switch places; with the audience lining the three main floors, and performers lining the spiral stands. The main theatre serves two main purposes; in colder months it can be used as a standard theatre, in warmer months, three large garage doors open up on the facade. What would normally be the stands for the theatre becomes the stage. The courtyard at the back of the theatre becomes a massive space for audiences. The studio spaces dot the courtyard around the theatre. When the outdoor theatre is in use, they would act as concession, raised seating, and covered seating.
First Floor
Basement
Unfolded Elevation
New theatre spaces with original structure.
Original form, plan
Pull away original cladding + roof, leave structure
Cap with theaters
circular blockline
social housing + energy production + community farming
Circular Blockline proposes an adaptive reuse strategy for the existing post-war tower at 1100 Courtland Avenue. This project explores the ways in which the existing housing stock present in Kitchener can be improved and enhanced in order to create more affordable and equitable housing. Drawing inspiration from Lacaton & Vassal’s transformation of 530 dwellings in Bordeaux, the approach to the existing building was to create a mass timber layer wrapping around the existing concrete structure. This would then extend the units outwards, increasing the amount of bedrooms each unit could hold, as well as giving each unit a generous balcony/semi conditioned space. A second tower was then added, made out of mass timber with a concrete core. Program within the building focuses on creating circular dialogues between industries in the community, allowing for almost closed life cycles of materials. For example, the large greenhouse on the top would create food sovereignty for the building’s residents, while the compost would be biomass for the gasification and energy production in the basement of the building.
Our site strategy aimed to combine Kitchener’s rich history of manufacturing and production with innovative technology to allow for industrial programming to re-integrate into the urban fabric of the city. The Blockline Ion stop is situated between two major industrial park areas in the city of Kitchener, as well as a rail corridor and a natural heritage conservation area. The proximity of the industrial zones to Schneider Creek (and the surrounding wetlands) raised the question of what could happen if these industries could move into the city, and allow for the park land to expand? Our site strategy proposes re-locating five existing businesses within Trillium industrial park, and creating a system in which these industries are able to manage and share resources, while collectively mitigating their impacts on the environment. Floor 0 - Vocational school
Greenhouse + amenity floor
2 greenhouse industrial zone
3 renovated pool
fire pit
wood working | 2019
The platform, built from cedar, has two holes cut out of it. The first is for an odd square hammock, and the second is for the fire. All around is loosely programmed seating space for people to occupy however they chose. This was built during my junior year with an electric hand saw and drill.
coffee table
wood working, metal working | 2019
Built from a welded frame a birch plywood top. This was a first attempt at furniture design, as well as an introduction to welding.
in her own arms
blender, enscape, photoshop collaboration with Eric Duplessis 2022
This is a multi-media image of a drag queen watching old and inauthentic identities die as she embraces her own queerness and place in the drag community. The image is a modern play on the painting Death of Leonardo da Vinci in arms of Francis I by JeanAuguste-Dominique Ingres. The dress references that of Pepper LaBeija from the film Paris is Burning.
Almost every part of the image has been created through rendering and modeling software. The people in the image are 3D scans of myself, which were then manipulated to be placed in these positions. Myself, as well as the dress, and all the fabric was modeled in Blender, while all the furniture and the room were modeled in Rhino. The texturing and rendering were split between Blender, Enscape, and Photoshop.
