JOHN DUNHAM
Architect AIBC, BA, B Ed, B Arch
John is the Principal of Archeus Architecture + Design Inc, and graduated from the architecture program at the University of British Columbia in 1992. He became a Registered Architect with the Architectural Institute of BC in 1996. He has practiced mainly in British Columbia but has worked as far afield as Qatar in the Middle East. Currently, John is located on Salt Spring Island in the southern Gulf Islands, just off the coast of Vancouver Island, between Vancouver and Victoria.
John’s architectural practice builds upon his extensive construction and project management background, and draws upon his experience as a licensed carpenter, his training as a shop teacher, and his considerable field work as an architect.
As an architect John has worked on a variety of building types from libraries to university laboratories, and from schools to airports, but his passion has always been with houses.
He became a carpenter because he wanted to learn how to build a house, and quickly realized that knowing how to build a house didn't necessarily mean he could design a nice one. That passion drew him away from carpentry into the world of architectural design and still inspires him to this day.
Lately that passion has expanded to focus on Passive Houses, and he is currently working towards certification as a Passive House Designer from the Passive House Institute in Germany.
ARCHEUS ARCHITECTURE + DESIGN
Archeus roughly translates as ‘the vital spirit or principle responsible for life’, and ‘the spirit that dwells in and presides over all living things.' It reflects the underlying motivation for me as a designer and is what draws me to the places and buildings that I like…
Architecture is nothing if it doesn’t support life but it can be so much more; when architecture goes beyond just supporting life to transforming it, magic happens and we, as well as the spaces around us, can all be transmuted…
The ancients saw the archeus as the link between the material and the immaterial, the world above and the world below...good design embodies this, and can become that link...finding that link is what inspires and informs my practice.