Philip Vandermey

Philip Vandermey is a Dutch-Canadian architect and Founding Partner, together with Jessie Andjelic, of the award-winning architecture office SPECTACLE Bureau for Architecture and Urbanism Inc. (SPECTACLE). He is also an Associate Professor at SAPL.

Vandermey studied architecture at SAPL and at the L’Escola Superior d’Arquitectura in Barcelona, Spain. Upon graduation from SAPL with a Master of Architecture, when it was formerly EVDS, he received the Canadian Architect Student Award of Excellence and the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) Student Medal. Vandermey has worked with prominent architecture offices in Calgary (MBAC), Montreal (Hal Ingberg, Melvin Charney), Barcelona (Corea Moran Arquitectos), and Rotterdam (STAR, Barcode Architects). He is a registered architect with the Stichting Bureau Architectenregister in The Netherlands and the Alberta Association of Architects in Canada. Vandermey is also a LEED Accredited Professional with the Canadian Green Building Council. In 2026 he was inducted into the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada’s College of Fellows.

In 2013, Vandermey co-founded SPECTACLE with Jessie Andjelic in Calgary. SPECTACLE seeks opportunities to create works of architecture that critically examine and influence our cities. The Museum of Aboriginal Peoples’ Art and Artifacts (MOAPAA) won a 2025 Canadian Architect Award of Excellence. Stepping Towards a Greener Tomorrow won a RAIC National Urban Design Award in 2024. Archinect listed SPECTACLE as one of 15 architecture firms that are defining the future of Canadian architecture in 2023. In 2017 the Tigers project won the Canadian Interiors Best of Canada Award and SPECTACLE was recognized with the Emerging Talent Award by Canadian Architect Magazine.

SPECTACLE is an internationally-oriented office working across the fields of architecture, urbanism, landscape, and object design. As generalists the team approaches diverse project types and scales with a balance of expert knowledge and innovational thinking, constantly re-evaluating the potential and manifestation of architectural types and hybridizations. They enthusiastically seek out the ambiguous gaps between the sublime and the everyday, strategic tactics and intuitive reactions, theory and execution, high and low culture, opportunistic maximization and long-term strategies, the study of history and the pursuit of progress, the discipline of architecture and its professional practice. Without differentiating between the playful and the professional, or seeing a contradiction between lateral architectural thinking and proficiency, SPECTACLE seeks opportunities to create works of architecture that critically examine and influence our cities towards a more sustainable, equitable, and beautiful future.

Vandermey also teaches at SAPL as an Associate Professor. His previous courses include Museum of the City, Projective Futures, Making Waves, Museum of Truth, Urban Mirror : Urban Myth, RED II, Military City, (Cross) Sectional Urbanism, and Hybrid Dwelling. Vandermey currently teaches and manages the Comprehensive Studio in Architecture (ARCH 616) and the Senior Research Studio in Architecture (Work-Integrated Learning, ARCH 700) in the Master of Architecture program.

In 2025, together with Andjelic, Vandermey opened the research lab Change Directive. Change Directive creates speculative visions of the cities and the cultures of tomorrow through a design methodology that tests potential future spatial scenarios. The team at Change Directive is especially interested in uncovering the systems that are implicit within architecture, revealing them, and thoughtfully altering or changing them. Rather than undertaking research that reflects on practice, Change Directive leads practice by investigating possible architectures before architecture is possible.

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