Patricia Patkau is Professor Emiritus at the University of British Columbia School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture. She has taught advanced architectural design studios at the University of California, Los Angeles, the University of Calgary, the University of Pennslyvania and the Harvard Graduate School of Design.
Patricia is a partner in the Vancouver practice of Patkau Architects. Her practice has established an international design reputation resulting in widespread publication (including three books) and in 20 solo exhibitions in Canada, the United States and Europe. Patkau Architects provides a model for engaged critical practice with over 25 years of innovative projects in Canada and the United States. The practice focuses its research in evolving new relationships between global influence and local condition. It is specifically engaged with interdisciplinary research into issues of sustainability as situated within the broader cultural, economic and social agendas of contemporary architecture. Current work includes the Beaty Biodiversity Museum and Research Center at UBC and a series of nationally and internationally situated private commissions.
The firm has won national and international design competitions for a wide variety of building types: a major addition and renovation to the central branch of the Winnipeg Public Library, the Nursing and Biomedical Sciences Facility for the University of Texas, Houston, College Housing for the University of Pennsylvania, the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery in Waterloo, Ontario and the Bibliothèque Nationale du Québec, a new central library for the province of Québec.
Since its founding, Patkau Architects has received numerous national and international design awards for a wide variety of building types, including twelve Governor General’s Medals, four Progressive Architecture Awards, fifteen Canadian Architect Awards of Excellence, seven Lieutenant Governor’s Awards and an RAIC Innovation in Architecture Award of Excellence.