Walter Francl and Stefan Aepli of Walter Francl Architects Inc. will speak at the discussion session after the screening of the film Building the Gherkin which features Foster and Partners' project. Walter Francl Architect Inc. is collaborating with Foster and Partners on the Jameson House project in Vancouver.

Walter Francl:

Walter Francl is a graduate of both the University of British Columbia and Harvard University with Bachelor and Master degrees in architecture. His early work experience was with Waisman Dewar Grout Carter and with James Cheng Architect, providing a broad exposure to institutional, commercial and residential building typologies.  

Walter has been in private practice since 1988 and his firm has been active in providing architectural services to a wide variety of Clients. A list of completed projects includes: community centres, academic and cultural buildings, transit related buildings as well as mixed use commercial and residential buildings. The firms’ work has been recognized with numerous awards, both provincially and nationally. 

Walter’s experience in sustainable design has developed over the past dozen years to include projects with increasingly sophisticated design. Beginning with building designs that featured high performance envelope designs and ground-source heating and cooling, the firm has progressed to embrace the full spectrum of sustainable design measures in their building design. Work currently in progress includes: a 36 storey mixed-use tower for Jameson Development in collaboration with Foster and Partners, a LEED gold ice arena for the city of Vancouver and a new LEED platinum community centre in the new Athletes Village in Vancouver. 

Walter is the principal of Walter Francl Architect Inc. and a registered Architect in British Columbia. He is also registered in BC as a structural engineer with a degree from the University of Alberta. Walter Francl has been a LEED accredited Professional since 2001. 

Stefan Aepli:

Stefan Aepli graduated from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich with a Master’s degree in Architecture. He worked with various progressive architectural firms in Zurich, Switzerland prior to relocating to Vancouver in 1991. Locally he has worked with a number of Architectural practices, including Bing Thom Architects, prior to joining Walter Francl Architecture in early 2005. 

Stefan’s experience with sustainability dates back to 1984, when he was first involved with geothermal heating systems and heat pumps in single family dwellings during his architectural internships. While working in Zurich, Stefan was involved with several progressive projects, where energy preservation and modeling, heating and cooling ceilings, passive and active building shading systems and solar power played major roles. 

Stefan is excited to be an integral part of Walter Francl Architect Inc. where sustainability is an increasingly important aspect of the overall practice of architecture. He is currently collaborating with Foster and Partners on Jameson House, in the role of Project Architect for Walter Francl Architects Inc. Stefan is an Associate with Walter Francl Architect Inc. in Vancouver, a registered Architect in Switzerland as well as in British Columbia and a LEED accredited Professional.