Roman Romanov

As an internationally experienced architect with a disability, Roman brings a wealth of lived experience to his work as a designer. Fluent in French, Spanish, Russian, Hebrew, and English, Roman has worked with clients and projects in the US, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, as well as most provinces and territories of Canada. He has worked as an architectural designer and accessibility specialist for global architectural firms such as KPF (New York, USA), MP Architects (Tel Aviv, Israel) as well as HPA (Toronto, Canada), before launching his practice, Linear Nonlinear Inclusive Practices. He is passionate about helping people attain equitable access as he works at the intersection of empathy, design excellence, and usability.

Passionate about education, Roman is sessional faculty at OCAD University, leading undergraduate and graduate design studios, inclusive design seminars, and more. He has previously co-taught at the University of Toronto seven courses on architectural theory and history, design, professional practice, and visual representation. He is a member of the RHF instructional team, offering the Rick Hansen Foundation Accessibility Certification course to students at Laurentian University.

Alongside two other faculty members, Roman co-founded Creative Research Practices (CRIP) Lab, an inclusive practices research centre at OCAD University. As a leadership co-director, he leads and facilitates initiatives to advance inclusion and anti-ableist practices in research, art production and exhibition, university hiring, organizational policy, pedagogy, professional mentorship for workers with a disability, events, symposia, consulting, and more.

Roman conducted academic research and published papers and articles related to reimagining Toronto's public art policy (2017), History of pandemics (2020), Adaptive reuse of churches in rural Newfoundland (expected early 2024), and post-COVID inclusive teaching practices in postsecondary art education (expected early 2024).