Building Canada’s largest community woodshop to empower city dwellers to tap into dormant creativity and build with their hands.
Using our hands and learning new skills is a critical part of being a well-rounded human, yet for many city dwellers woodworking is intimidating, inaccessible, and impractical.
Ottawa was once a lumber town and home to one of the world's largest lumber operations. We saw an opportunity to reconnect that history with a new generation of urban makers—making woodworking approachable, accessible, and relevant to city life.
With the Ottawa City Woodshop, we set out to rediscover Ottawa’s history while making woodworking approachable, and accessible to its urban population. We launched the Ottawa City Woodshop in 2015, and watched it quickly become Canada’s largest community woodshop having now welcomed thousands of students and members through its doors to learn new skills, and experience lifelong changes to their confidence in creating with their hands.
Role
Co-Founder, Brand Development, and Instructor
Impact
Co-founded and launched Ottawa City Woodshop from the ground up, developing the concept, brand, customer experience, and operating model.
Designed the customer experience and learning model, creating classes and membership experiences that helped beginners build skills and confidence.
Taught woodworking and worked directly with customers, bringing firsthand customer insight back into the evolution of the business.
References
Woodwork in a lumber town: Carpentry connoisseurs rekindle Ottawa’s logging history