On the Boards | Andrea McLean & Imu Chan – 2024.09.23
September 23, 2024 from 5:00–7:00pm
Local Speaker Series
Presented by the West Coast Modern League
Hosted by Inform Interiors | 50 Water Street, Vancouver, BC
Part of Design Vancouver Festival
The West Coast Modern League brought its popular “On the Boards” series to the relaunched Design Vancouver Festival, a city-wide, community-driven celebration of Vancouver’s thriving design community.
On September 23rd, the West Coast Modern League, with Inform Interiors, presented the next instalment of the League’s popular On the Boards speaker series, during the Design Vancouver Festival. Bridging the disciplines of architecture, interior design, and art in the public realm, we were joined by Andrea McLean and Imu Chan, each presenting projects recently completed or currently underway. On the Boards is an ongoing speaker series that aims to immerse us in the creative works of our local design talent, with those who are carrying forward the fertile culture of creativity and experimentation on Canada’s west coast.
Meet the Speakers
Andrea McLean
Andrea holds two distinctions, Intern Architect, AIBC, and Registered Interior Designer, IDIBC. Her design practice focuses on residential building design, interior design, and landscape design. Andrea holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Interior Design from Kwantlen Polytechnic University (1994), as well as a Master of Architecture from the University of British Columbia (2008).
Andrea credits her time living in Japan, five years total, following interior design school, as pivotal in shaping her sense of place and understanding it’s relationship to design and architecture. During this time, Andrea became intimately familiar with Japanese life, art, culture, and language, which started her curiosity in looking deeper into how people live, and why. Since graduating from Architecture school in 2008, Andrea has been simultaneously engaged in her busy design practice and raising her two daughters, Pilar and Hana. Andrea’s projects have been frequently published and have won numerous awards including an Architizer Jury Award in 2018, and the Robert Ledingham Award at the IDIBC Shine Awards in 2022.
Andrea’s projects currently span the lower Mainland and up to Squamish. In keeping with Andrea’s keen desire to root her work in it’s context, she is currently exploring West Vancouver’s rugged terrain for her Rockend Project, a full house renovation. In addition to understanding the home’s local roots, Andrea has also made an interesting connection to Japanese traditional house design at this project. At a recent new build in Mount Pleasant, zoning rules annoyingly dictated the house’s final form, but Andrea carefully scrutinized one variable at her disposal that could make or break the project.
Photo by Kyrani Kanavaros
Imu Chan
Imu Chan is a Vancouver-based architect practicing at the confluence of art and architecture. His portfolio spans personal sanctuaries, gathering places and public art. His works are marked by their simplicity, purposefulness and emotional affinity with us, often achieved by humble means and with affecting imagination.
Rejecting conventional approach to design, Imu draws inspiration from diverse sources beyond the realm of architecture, particularly films and literature. Recently completed projects include a private residence paying homage to Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse, a laneway home designed from a feline perspective, and Cups – part of a group exhibit at Museum of Vancouver – that celebrates humanitarian design using mahogany harvested in Guatemala and Nicaragua.
Aside from his creative practice, Imu acts as an art advisor for government entities, private developers and Indigenous Nations, bridging the gap between art, architecture and culture. His current curatorial work includes public art at fourteen transit stations throughout the lower mainland, the Sen?á?w Development and other urban enterprises.
Imu’s interdisciplinary practice takes on a small collection of projects each year so that the team can devote to each creation, with the same mindful intent regardless of their types and scales.
On the Boards Local Speaker Series
On the Boards is the West Coast Modern League’s ongoing speaker series that turns focus on our local designers, to those who are carrying forward the strong traditions of design on Canada’s west coast. These events provide an opportunity for the community to come together in celebration of design, to share in recent works being undertaken right here in our own backyard, and to offer inspiration to us all.
Design Vancouver Festival
Design Vancouver Festival is a citywide festival featuring exhibitions, lectures, networking events, walking tours, open studios and more, all hosted by Vancouver’s thriving design community. You may remember this event from before when it was known as Vancouver Design Week. We are going to carry on this beautiful community-driven festival. Design Vancouver Festival brings together designers of all disciplines, design enthusiasts, and friends and patrons of the design community.
September 19–29 • 2024
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The West Coast Modern League gratefully acknowledges the partnership and generous support of Inform Interiors.
