Together with her partner Georg Rafailidis, Stephanie Davidson (BEDS’02,MArch’04) continues to secure accolades for her firm’s work, focused on adaptive reuse. The duo formed Davidson Rafailidis after they met studying at the Architectural Association in London. They collaborated while teaching at RWTH Aachen University in Germany, followed by a move to New York State and have had an active decade spent in practice, teaching, and establishing their family. They have recently relocated to southern Ontario from Buffalo, a homecoming for Davidson, after a teaching opportunity arose at Ryerson University. Davidson and Rafailidis have since developed a cross-border practice and continue to attract recognition internationally including the following awards and publications:

Big Space, Little Space

Davidson Rafailidis was chosen as part of Canadian Architect “Twenty + Change” emerging design practice 2021, published in the August 2021 issue of Canadian Architect. Selected both for their approach to practice and for the strength of their projects, this recognition is a significant milestone for the practice. “We aim to make spaces that look specific and don’t immediately reveal themselves—spaces that are charged with an atmosphere that keeps radiating over time,” says Davidson. Davidson joins fellow Dalhousie Architecture alumni Shallyn Murray of Nine Yards Studio, Charlottetown, PEI and Peter Braithwaite Studio, Halifax, Nova Scotia in the 20 recognized practices.

Big Space, Little Space as featured in Re:Habiliter

This project, a masonry garage built in the 1920s transformed into an apartment dwelling and workshop, tucked away in the middle of a residential block in Buffalo, New York, has also been featured in a selection of international publications including: Re:Habiliter, Reutiliser, Transformer, Experimenter (French publication) by Olivier Darmon, Editions Gallimard, Paris, 2021; as well as in Habiter autrement: Quand l’architecture libere la maison (French publication) by Maryse Quinton with a preface by Andre Tavares, Editions de La Martiniere, France, 2021.

Buckminster’s cat café, Buffalo, NY

Another project, Buckminster’s Cat Café in Buffalo, was featured as Commended project in Architectural Review’s “Old into New” annual open international competition for adaptive re-use and renovation projects. The article written by Raymund Ryan, was published in the July/August 2021 issue of The Architectural Review, London, England.

On the teaching side, Davidson’s drawings were included in Pan Scroll Zoom: Teaching Architecture Under Lockdown: 20 Studios Worldwide That Went Online, published by Drawing Matter, London England, 2021.

Her drawing series, which document her experience of working from home with children, was included as part of The Architectural League of New York’s “Shifting Ground” series. “These drawings were made to try to both express and reconcile the demands on caretakers like me, working-at-home”, reflects Davidson.

Drawing Featured in Pan Scroll Zoom, Stephanie Davidson

Drawing Featured in “Shifting Ground”, Stephanie Davidson