Profiles

Karen Zwart Hielema is an architect with over 17 years in the industry working across a variety of both public and private sectors including Healthcare, Arts & Exhibition, Transit, Airports & Aviation, Commercial/Retail, Corporate/Office, Education, and Warehouse/Light Industrial. Throughout her career she has intuitively taken on leadership roles on large and complex architectural projects, guiding teams to seek out opportunities to collaborate across disciplines. A special interest for integrated arts and exhibitions brings her fresh perspective and insights towards alternate ways of design thinking, conveying information, and achieving vibrant and purposeful public space. She approaches projects from the perspective of one’s journey and experience, involving meaningful engagement with users, stakeholders, clients and consultant groups to bring a project to fruition. Through this process, projects emerge with fulfilling results made possible when a broader cross-disciplinary team offers the best possible outcome.