Mari is a designer and educator. Her research focuses on the spatial and cultural effects of globalism. Her design studios and seminars explore emergent forms of urbanism with a focus on Vancouver and other regions experiencing rapid growth or decline.

Mari maintains a design practice, Fubalabo, which has pursued diverse projects including gallery installations, interiors, building designs, and urbanproposals. She is also a partner in the product design practice Maiku Brando, which produces material studies and wearables. She has worked as an architect in both New York and Berlin.

Her writing has been published in the Journal of Architectural Education and Praxis Journal. Book chapters have been published in Shanghai new towns: Searching for identity and community in a sprawling metropolis (nai010, 2010), The emerging Asian city: Concomitant urbanities and urbanisms (Routledge, 2012), and Global Perspectives in Heritage Conservation, Expansive Scopes, Plural Boundaries & Empathetic Approaches (Routledge, 2019).

Mari received the ACSA/JAE 2010/11 Best Scholarship of Design Article Award for the article Foray into building identity: Kampung to Kampong in the Kuala Lumpur metropolitan area.

Education

M.Arch, Princeton University
BA, Columbia University