Vannesa Ahuactzin
Creative director
Vannesa Ahuactzin believes in the power of invention through multidisciplinary collaboration. She uses innovative design processes to synthesize, invent and produce projects of all scales that respond to twenty-first century challenges.
Her Masters thesis in Architecture researched the evolving relationship between twenty-first century societal challenges and the built environment, and proposed a transportable building as a response interface between the personal and the architectural.
Knowing that greater conversations and innovations were needed to affect change in urban centers throughout the world, she went on to form part of the inaugural team of the Institute without Boundaries. The IwB is a one-year multidisciplinary, educational entity created by Bruce Mau Design in Toronto whose ambition it is to produce a new breed of multi-disciplinary designer. As part of the Institute without Boundaries she collaborated to launch Massive Change – a discursive project on the future of global design.
Vannesa went on to join Bruce Mau Design and became the Design Manager for the Massive Change traveling exhibitions. She lead the creative direction and installation supervision of all three exhibitions, the first of which opened to critical acclaim in Vancouver at the Vancouver Art Gallery in the fall of 2004. Concurrently she redesigned the exhibition for the Art Gallery of Ontario in 2005 and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago in 2006.
Following the success of the Massive Change project, she continued to work at Bruce Mau Design and to apply massive change thinking through design tools to her work. Projects included – the development of a vision and communication strategy for Guatemala, the identity, conceptualization and design of an exhibition for the world-renowned architectural firm Skidmore Owings and Merrill and the creation of a Vision Workbook for the Indianapolis Museum of Art – a compilation of ambitious ideas, events, initiatives, proposals and programs, that served as the roadmap to guide the overall vision strategy of the IMA in 2008.
Late in 2007, Vannesa moved to Copenhagen to work for Innovation Lab as Head of Technology and Trends. Her synthesis of strategic design thinking and technological purpose lead her to collaborate on a project for Samsung on the future of mobile applications. She has also collaborated with Danish firms such as Social Action, 2+1, e-types, CIID, KaosPilots and the City of Copenhagen.
Vannesa Ahuactzin is currently working with the Irish based not-for-profit Design Twentyfirst Century as Creative Director on projects such as Designing Dublin – a design-led initiative that engages individuals through collaboration and entrepreneurship to find solutions to Dublin’s future challenges.
As part of Design Twentyfirst Century, Vannesa also collaborates with Dublin City Council on multiple projects geared towards moving Dublin to a Creative City model, including the structure and identity of the Creative Dublin Alliance.
Vannesa Ahuactzin obtained a combined Bachelors and Masters of Architecture from the Universidad de las Américas in Puebla, Mexico. She obtained a post-graduate diploma from the Institute without Boundaries in Toronto, Canada.
