Alfred Waugh

Alfred Waugh is a trailblazing figure in Canadian architecture, renowned for designs that harmonize cultural sensitivity and environmental responsibility. Born in Yellowknife to an English father and a Denesuline mother, Waugh spent formative summers hunting and fishing. This instilled in him a profound respect for land, shaping his creativity and commitment to bridging Indigenous ways of knowing with Western knowledge.

Waugh earned a Bachelor of Arts in Urban and Regional Analysis from the University of Lethbridge in 1989, followed by a Bachelor of Architecture with honours from the University of British Columbia in 1993, becoming the first status Indigenous graduate from UBC's program. Early in his career at Busby Perkins + Will, he designed the Nicola Valley Institute of Technology, which secured a Governor General’s Medal in Architecture in 2004. In 2012, Waugh founded Formline Architecture + Urbanism, an Indigenous-owned firm specializing in culturally sensitive projects, including the Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre at UBC (2018), which earned another Governor General’s Medal in 2022. Waugh's work inspires resilient spaces promoting healing and cultural revitalization.