Join us on Thursday, June 18 at 7pm for the public lecture “Wooden Building Pathology” by Gregory MacNeil, presented by the South Shore Network of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada.

"Buildings, like people, can develop problems as they age. “Building pathology” is the study of what goes wrong in buildings, why it happens, and how to fix it. It looks at leaks, cracks, decay, and other issues by examining how materials, structure, and people interact with weather and daily use. This lecture will compare building pathology with “forensic architecture”—the investigation of what happened in a building after something has gone wrong. Focusing on wood as a building material, it will draw on key references to help building professionals spot early warning signs of damage and choose sensible, lasting repair options instead of turning too quickly to demolition."

Gregory MacNeil is a licensed architect with dual membership in the Nova Scotia Association of Architects and the Ontario Association of Architects. He is also a qualified Maritime Lumber Bureau Grader and FireSmart™ Canada Advanced Assessor, giving

him practical, hands-on knowledge of wood and fire safety. Gregory is the principal architect of Scaled Architecture Inc.

His education includes a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Relations from Acadia University, a Bachelor of Environmental Design Studies, and a Master of Architecture degree from the Technical University of Nova Scotia.

He has been published and conducted historic building conservation in Canada, Germany, and the United States and presented papers in Canada, Norway, the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Czech Republic.

Gregory is a member of several committees, including the National Research Council Canadian Commission on Construction Materials Evaluation and the ICOMOS International Wood Committee Bureau and BIM4Heritage in the UK. He chairs the Nova Scotia Advisory Council on Heritage Property.

His firm, Scaled Architecture Inc., is rooted in a family tradition of conservation-focused design and critical thinking about growth. It promotes prosperity through stewardship, integrating conservation, building pathology, and resilience to support well-being. Rather than defaulting to new construction, it advocates restraint or strategic degrowth—favouring adaptive reuse, repair, and thoughtful interventions over resource-intensive, shiny new projects that consume Earth’s resources at scale.