QUAN THAI
Never Only Architecture Inc
SAY IT LOUD - Toronto
Toronto Based Designer
Who or what inspires you professionally?
The ever-changing nature of one's identity and how it can adapt or shape itself within the built environment. Also the family, friends, and community that are actively living their life as loudly and proudly as possible.
QUAN THAI
Bio:
Quan Thai is a great licensed architect (OAA), founder of Never Only Architecture, and Assistant Professor at Lawrence Technological University. His research explores queer space, housing, and community, with a mission of disseminating lived experience between community and practice. His exhibition TO·BE·LONGING: Portraits of Queer Living won the Founders' Award at DesignTO 2026. He was the inaugural Emerging Practitioner Teaching Fellow at the University of Waterloo School of Architecture.
How did you first learn about architecture and when did you decide that built environment profession was an area of interest for you?
My father had gotten into renovation work for family and friends after arriving in Canada. Whenever I was able, I would help him with those, and small DIY projects. My first design and construction project was a birdhouse for our backyard friends.
What do you do?
I'm a practitioner by training, now expanding my practice within the queer community and the classroom. I advocate for underrepresented queer voices and continue to explore the built environment through the lens of inclusivity and multiplicity.
What excites you in the work you do?
Learning about the ways in which various identities have found manners (discreetly or unapologetically) to subvert normative expectations in the homes that they have shaped for themselves.
Who or what inspires you professionally?
The ever-changing nature of one's identity and how it can adapt or shape itself within the built environment. Also the family, friends, and community that are actively living their life as loudly and proudly as possible.
What is your proudest professional accomplishment or achievement?
Representing my identities and creating the space for others to share their stories. TO·BE·LONGING: Portraits of Queer Living winning the DesignTO Founders' Award reinforces the power in collective voice, breaking spatial norms and the status quo.
Featured Project Name:
TO·BE·LONGING: Portraits of Queer Living
Featured Project Location:
Toronto, ON
Featured Project Completion Date:
2026
Role in Featured Project:
Lead Designer and Curator
Featured Project Description:
TO·BE·LONGING: Portraits of Queer Living, featured at Ace Hotel Toronto for DesignTO 2026 and Design at Riverside Gallery (Waterloo Architecture), challenges heteronormative domesticity by reimagining the one-bedroom condo as a fluid, community-authored space. Featuring 40 intimate artifacts from queer homes across North America, the exhibition was designed to celebrate the resilience, multiplicity, and nuance of queer living: a living archive inviting visitors to engage, reshape, and rethink what “home” can be and who it can truly belong to.
