Chi Nguyen

Chi Nguyen is a graphic designer and visual communicator about architecture and urbanism. Spanning 20 years, she has designed books, exhibitions, environmental graphics, digital experiences and analog interactions, including work for some of Toronto’s top architecture studios as well as for clients such as the UCL Urban Laboratory and community organizations navigating neighbourhood revitalization. At Gow Hastings, she leads our graphic visual communication and engagement initiatives, focusing on how to better involve users, client groups and the wider public in the design process and making of spaces.

Chi holds degrees in architecture, graphic communication design (graduating with distinction), and a doctorate in graphic design and urbanism, in addition to other art and new media design training from OCAD University and the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design. Educated in and having practiced across Europe and Canada, Chi brings an international perspective to her work, which has been exhibited in London, UK and Hong Kong and Shenzhen, China. She was a contributor to the book ‘Engaged Urbanism, Cities & Methodologies’ from UCL UrbanLab and a writer and editorial designer for ‘Unknown Quantities,’ University of the Arts London’s interdisciplinary journal on art, design, and criticism. Chi’s PhD project at The Bartlett School of Architecture examined the public’s role in shaping cities. It explored the relationship between urban change and different concepts of ‘public’: publication, public space, and public consultation. As a designer and design researcher, she looks to find creative and non-conventional ways to communicate about the built environment and give diverse voices to its transformation.

– 2023 Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), The Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, London UK
– 2014 MA Graphic Communication Design (with Distinction), Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, London UK
– 2004 Bachelor of Architectural Studies, Carleton University, Ottawa Canada