Rekha Ramachandran manages development, research and administration at the LASG. She oversees grant applications, project leads and proposals, LASG partner relations, and administrative affairs. Rekha holds a Master of Arts in Communication and Culture from the joint program at York and Toronto Metropolitan Universities, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Toronto Metropolitan University. Her previous roles include office manager at the interdisciplinary design firm Johnson Chou, and communications assistant at the Manitoba Arts Council. Rekha is a visual artist and co-owns the vintage shop Softhouse, in Toronto.
Role: Executive
Alison Thompson
Alison Thompson oversees the general operations at the LASG. She handles financial matters, partner and studentship relations, and administrative affairs. Prior to joining the LASG team, Alison worked as a legal assistant at a boutique law firm in Guelph. Alison holds a BA (Hons) with a Major in English and Minor in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph. She is currently pursuing a certificate in Publishing from Toronto Metropolitan University and is passionate about keeping the arts thriving.
Karen Zwart Hielema
Karen works on select PBSI/LASG interactive environments and exhibits. She is the lead client liaison, works with the studio team on overall creative direction and design progress, project management, and coordination of artwork and building systems. She leads creative extensions of the artwork including content development and design of interpretive exhibitry, educational programming and curriculum materials.
Her work with the PBSI/LASG provides unique opportunities to collaborate across disciplines, furthering her work in integrated arts and exhibitions and bringing fresh perspective and insights to her practice around innovative collaboration, design thinking, conveying information, and achieving vibrant and purposeful public space that starts with the user experience.
Karen is an architect with over 17 years in the industry working across a variety of both public and private sectors including Arts & Exhibition, Transit, Healthcare, Airports & Aviation, Commercial/Retail, Corporate/Office, Education, and Warehouse/Light Industrial. She currently works with ZWARTstudio & DEXD.
Stephen Ru
Stephen Ru is a Design Lead at the LASG, overseeing the staffing of large-scale sculptures and website projects. Stephen has led team members in the design of Meander in Cambridge, Threshold in San Jose, and a series of custom fabricated, parametrically-designed sculptures for a large luxury fashion brand. Stephen is interested in automation and creating technologies related to building construction and responsive architecture. He holds a BAS from the University of Waterloo School of Architecture.
Timothy Boll
As Design Director at the LASG, Timothy Boll has led teams in the design of Meander at Tapestry Hall, Cambridge, Amatria at Indiana University, and Nebula Prototype: Liminal Space for the travelling exhibition The Beauty Project. He has led workshops at the Delft University of Technology and the University of Manitoba, and his design work for Iris van Herpen collaborations has been featured in collections such as Sensory Seas. He has also been involved in speaker and sound design projects in collaboration with 4DSOUND. Timothy’s interests and expertise lie in computational design and interdisciplinary synthesis, especially in the crossover between engineering and design within the studio. Timothy holds a Master of Architecture from the University of Toronto and a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the State University of New York at Buffalo.
Michael Lancaster
Michael Lancaster leads the design, production, and installation of electronic and software systems in PBSI’s actuated sculptures. Michael is also responsible for directing research and development of hardware and software systems. Current development projects include compact embedded electronics for use within kits, and a modular software system supporting behaviour composition and simulation. He has worked on mechanical and electrical redesign for actuated components of large test-bed scaffolds including Meander, Amatria, and Futurium Noosphere. Michael holds a BASc in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Toronto.
Sascha Hastings
Sascha Hastings is responsible for curation and promotion related to the group and its work. Sascha maintains a long association with the LASG that includes work for the 2021 Venice Biennale, 2010 Venice Biennale, and a number of testbeds and exhibitions since 2018. She has worked previously as a national arts producer for CBC Radio, an architecture and design curator, and on several Canada Pavilion exhibitions at the Venice Architecture Biennale, including as RAIC Project Manager and Deputy Commissioner.
Hastings has a BA in Renaissance Studies and German Literature from the University of Toronto and an MA in German Literature from the University of Freiburg (Germany). In 2018, she completed a Masters Diploma in Business for Arts and Culture at IED (Istituto Europeo di Design) in Venice, Italy.
Sarah Bonnemaison
Sarah Bonnemaison is a professor at the School of Architecture, Dalhousie University. Prof. Bonnemaison’s passion lies in bringing history and theory to life through interactive exhibitions and installations.
Her current research project explores the aesthetic and politics of motion studies in the design of everyday spaces. To explore the full potential of her research on the body in motion, she collaborates with movement specialists and dancers.
Colin Ellard
Colin Ellard is a cognitive neuroscientist, author and design consultant, who works at the intersection of psychology and architectural and urban design. As a professor of cognitive neuroscience at the University of Waterloo, his research interests include how the organization and appearance of natural and built spaces affects movement, wayfinding, emotion and physiology. Ellard employs a mix of methodologies in his research, including both field-based approaches to psychogeographic experimentation using mobile physiological sensors and laboratory based approaches using immersive virtual reality.
He has a strong record of collaborative research and exhibition with museums, including the Guggenheim Museum (NY), the Museum of Vancouver, The Urbanspace Gallery in Toronto, and PioneerWorks in Brooklyn. He is the founder and Director of the Urban Realities Laboratory, where he leads cutting edge collaborative research efforts into the study of human behaviour in immersive virtual environments. Ellard leads research efforts in physiological, psychological studies of occupants in interactive environments.
Rob Gorbet
Rob Gorbet leads the Interdisciplinary Methods stream within the LASG. He contributes to the creation of Living Architecture Systems environments and leads the LASG’s STEAM education program. With LASG partners, the Toolbox Dialog Initiative, he is involved in the development of a Handbook of Living Architecture and the curriculum for Living Architecture 101.
Rob is a key member of Gorbet Design, a design firm and consultancy specializing in public interactive artwork and experiences, and also collaborates with other designers, artists, and architects including within the LASG. Gorbet’s LASG collaborations have been exhibited across the world and have won several awards, including the international FEIDAD and VIDA 11.0 first prize, and being selected to represent Canada at the 2010 Venice Architecture Biennale. His work has been featured in major print and online media, and on the Discovery Channel’s Daily Planet.
Rob’s teaching includes courses on microcontrollers, control systems, museum exhibit design, and technology art. Formally trained as an electrical engineer, Rob is an interdisciplinarian, a mechatronics specialist, an award-winning teacher and a technology artist. He loves words, art, design, teaching, travel, squash, and his friends and family.