Our Motiv

Based in Vancouver, we're a collaborative group of thoughtful and compassionate people using our collective design, communication, and facilitation skills to help communities thrive.

As an architectural practice, we strive to always work on projects that lie at the heart of a community, identifying meaningful opportunities for connection — with each other and the land we live on — for a full and healthy life.

Our multi-talented team brings an authentic and unique perspective to each problem we tackle. With roots in farming and agriculture, we're inspired by projects that connect cities with rural landscapes, and celebrate the links between food systems and our collective future. We're also drawn to work that involves housing and education, which we believe are critical components of thriving communities.

These pillars often overlap and collide, and this is where the greatest opportunity for innovation lies — when interdependence, synergy, and leveraging impact create real positive results.

Agriculture

Our shared background in living and working on farms means that we recognize agriculture as a crucial part of every community, whether visible or invisible. We draw on deep expertise in agriculture, food security, and the intersection of urban and rural across our projects.

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Learning

We work to expand how we traditionally view education to incorporate alternative modes, lifelong learning, immersive learning experiences, farming academies, and more. We seek out projects that integrate educational spaces, including colleges, schools, children's spaces, community buildings, and landscapes.

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Housing

Stable and accessible housing enables communities to thrive. We explore alternative modes of living, affordable housing, supportive housing, and multi-generational housing solutions — across urban and rural contexts.

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Community

A strong sense of community allows us to thrive as human beings. We use a collaborative design process to create spaces that cultivate connection, belonging, and a sense of place.

Through a contemporary lens, we interrogate the context of a project to understand the culture and history of a site and its occupants – creating designs that are at once reflective of a community’s past but also forward looking and innovative.

Creating a sense of place and belonging requires a more intuitive and intimate relationship with our neighbours and with nature. We seek to create spaces for people to come together, to grow, and to foster a deeper connection with the land, the sky and sea.

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Sustainability

Our approach to sustainability is holistic, embracing the idea that social, economic and cultural sustainability must be joined with environmentally sustainable practices to create truly lasting impact within community.

Social sustainability includes consideration for people based connections, creating space for education and fostering a sense of belonging and place.

Economic sustainability invests in local capacity building and in diversifying the financial dependency of a community.

Cultural sustainability makes space for ceremony and tradition - in the process of consultation, design, construction and beyond.

Environmental sustainability will capitalize on local resources and climate conditions to harvest the structural materials, sun, wind and rain for a project. Orientation will maximize passive strategies to reduce heating and cooling loads. Water provision will be designed as a precious resource. Materials will be chosen with full consideration for embodied carbon, durability and their impact on occupant health.

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Our People

MOTIV Architects is a collaborative, people-centred architecture practice working on the unceded Coast Salish territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), səlil̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), and Skwxwú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish) peoples known as Vancouver, British Columbia.

Longtime friends and colleagues, Tracey Mactavish and Asher deGroot established their respective careers before reconnecting to create a shared design studio in 2017. They founded MOTIV as an architecture practice with a unique perspective - one centred around the power of architecture to foster community. 

  • PRINCIPAL, Architect AIBC, FRAIC

    Tracey has been practicing architecture for over 20 years. She began her early career working with indigenous communities both in Canada’s far north and in British Columbia to develop education and community facilities. Arriving in Vancouver in 2001, her experience has broadened to encompass civic and residential design.

    Tracey is deeply invested in issues that affect our city including affordability and the provision of shelter as a human right. She has a strong passion for agricultural-focused projects at MOTIV that bridge the perceived urban and rural divide, and allow for aspects of agriculture and rural life to be integrated within the city.

    Tracey grew up in rural Alberta with a profound respect for the land, and the strength and resilience of small communities. She now calls East Vancouver home with her husband Kelvin and cats Max and Ruby. Within the big city context, she brings skills of hand-making through sewing, building, and cooking to her life and creative practice.

  • PRINCIPAL, Architect AIBC, MRAIC, RHFAC Professional

    A graduate of Dalhousie University, Asher brings over 15 years of architectural, construction, and furniture building experience to the practice. Prior to co-founding MOTIV, Asher established his expertise at various recognized firms. He’s won awards in wood innovation, and is at the forefront of conversations on sustainable use of wood, engineered wood products, and modular construction.

    Growing up on a hobby farm in the Fraser Valley led to a deep love for the west coast of British Columbia. His personal background on a farm has evolved into deep career expertise in agriculture-oriented projects at MOTIV, and a passion for work that connects people and place, integrates food security, and fosters community.

    Beyond his work at MOTIV, Asher is a father, husband, bread baker, furniture builder, and lover of football (soccer). In everything that he does, Asher loves building and making things for people to enjoy.

  • As an Intern Architect, Kristina brings her determination, persistence, and passion for affordable housing to projects at MOTIV. She is detail-oriented, and excels at research projects and writing. Originally from Edmonton and a graduate of Carleton University, Kristina loves to bike, paint, cook Vietnamese food, and relax with her cat, Sambu, in her spare time.

  • Jackie is from Chicago, Illinois and received her Bachelor of Architecture from Auburn University where she completed her final year at Auburn’s Rural Studio. Between her time at Rural Studio and previous employment opportunities, she gained experience in millwork and furniture fabrication, watercolor, small scale farming, and varying construction techniques. Jackie was drawn to MOTIV’s work that questions how we currently interact with our food system as well as how design can empower communities by paying close attention to the resources that already exist in a place. When not at work, you might find Jackie in a garden, learning a new song on bass, or enjoying nature via trail or kayak.

Our Creative Process

  • Principled

    We work to be part of the solution. Our design responses are always rooted in both the local environment and the larger global context. We seek out passive environmental design strategies, advocate for exceeding Net Zero, remain mindful of the embodied energy of new materials, and examine our own footprint at MOTIV. We always question how a project impacts our climate, reconciliation, globalization, and more —incorporating strategies to ensure our work is part of a better future.

  • Context

    We take the time to fully understand a project in context. In every project, we take an individualized, site-specific approach that evaluates the terrain and microclimate of a site resulting in designs that belong and are of the place. To achieve this we capture views, retain and enhance existing flora and fauna, and carefully consider movement patterns on and off site, including the sense of arrival and flow, solar and wind orientation, and daily seasonal cycles.

  • Connected

    We look for synergies beyond the property line. Through historical research, interviews, and collaboration, we’re able to identify opportunities and envision spaces that maximize project potential. We expand our point of view to look at the community it will impact, considering the local economy, resources, culture, and storytelling opportunity.

  • Engaged

    We work to incorporate community to every step. We design spaces that foster human connection, creating opportunities to live, learn and grow together. By incorporating the community in our design and the decision-making process, we aim to build a sense of ownership of projects into the future. We rely on meaningful engagement to do our best work.