Dr. Shelagh McCartney is a licenced architect and urbanist using collaborative methods to create solutions to housing issues for marginalized communities globally. She received her Bachelor of Environmental Studies and Bachelor of Professional Architecture from the University of Waterloo, and as a Fulbright scholar, her Master of Design Studies and Doctorate of Design from Harvard Graduate School of Design. She is an Associate Professor at the School of Urban and Regional Planning at Toronto Metropolitan University. She has taught at Harvard University, University of Toronto, University of Waterloo, and Carleton University. Dr. McCartney has practiced privately globally, leading teams in projects requiring extensive community consultation, and securing wins in four international competitions and over twenty Canadian design awards in ten years. Dr. McCartney is committed to innovative teaching, developing within students a sense of responsibility and social-awareness, encouraging students to explore creative design solutions to the problems facing their world.
She is Director of Together Design Lab, an innovative research and design lab exploring platforms that focus on contemporary, interdisciplinary approaches to community and open territory design. She was named a Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada for her professional excellence and distinctive service to the profession and community at large.
Experience
2019–present
Associate Professor, Toronto Metropolitan University
2013–2019
Assistant Professor, Toronto Metropolitan University
2010–2013
Assistant Professor, Carleton University
2007–2010
Teaching Fellow, Harvard University
2009–2010
Instructor, University of Toronto
2008–2009
Adjunct assistant professor, University of Waterloo
2004–2006
Adjunct assistant professor, University of Waterloo
Education
2012
Harvard University, Doctor of Design
2007
Harvard University , Master of Design Studies - Urbanization and Housing
2000
University of Waterloo, Bachelor of Professional Architecture
1997
University of Waterloo, Bachelor of Environmental Studies - Pre-Professional Architecture
Publications
2023
Affordability is king–with private bedroom: Exploring the mismatch of students’ housing preferences in constrained housing markets, Housing Studies
2023
Not your parents’ dorm room: Changes in universities’ residential housing privacy levels and impacts on student success, SAGE Open
2022
New Student Residence Unit Typologies: Introducing Housing Unit Classification (HUC), a tool for understanding student housing facilities and privacy, Journal of Housing and the Built Environment
2022
Privacy Territories in Student University Housing Design: Introduction of the Hierarchy of Isolation and Privacy in Architecture Tool (HIPAT, SAGE Open
2022
When students are house-poor: Universities, student marginality and housing struggles in an aspiring global city, Cities