Master of Architecture, University of Waterloo
Victor Zagabe is a designer, organizer, researcher, and educator interested in the collaborative and transdisciplinary processes required in order to enact design justice, the designer’s role in enabling cultural sovereignty, and the nuanced relationship between politics and the built environment.
He has worked for architectural offices in Ottawa, Toronto, and New York. His writing and design work has been published in ARCHITECT Magazine, PLOT, Log, Galt, and exhibited at the Lisbon Architecture Triennale, Design at Riverside, and Nuit Blanche. He has spoken widely including at Dumbarton Oaks, Florida A&M University, the Design Justice Summit, the University of Waterloo, Toronto Metropolitan University, and Idea Exchange. He is an advocate for collective action, working as a core member within multiple collectives addressing design justice, including the Design as Protest Collective and Dark Matter U. He recently co-edited and co-designed The Dark Matter Issue for ARCHITECT Magazine, and co-led the pilot of a summer institute in the American South.
Prior to Syracuse, Zagabe was a Visiting Critic at Carleton University and served as a course consultant for SUNY at Buffalo. He has taught design studios and seminars that address design justice, material ecologies, and racial thinking. He has served as a guest critic for various schools of architecture including Columbia GSAPP, Cornell AAP, Pratt Institute, SUNY at Buffalo, the University of Colorado at Boulder, Laurentian University, and the University of Waterloo.
Victor earned his Master of Architecture at the University of Waterloo, where he was honored with the Dr. Daleep Singh Memorial Prize for his research on architecture in Africa and served as chair for the school’s Racial Equity and Environmental Justice Standing Committee. He holds a Bachelor of Architectural Studies (Honors) from the University of Waterloo.
