evds - university of calgary in alberta · 2005-03-14 · evds today’s world is rich, complex,...

evdsToday’s world is rich, complex, interconnected and full of potential.Technology is developing at a rapid pace, ushering in advancementsin building products, communication networks, and transportationsystems. Science is bringing us increased understanding, newprocedures, better medicine, and useful tools that heighten the qualityof our daily lives. Education is raising literacy levels across the planetand helping to build and strengthen nations. Countries are workingtogether, sharing and cooperating at unprecedented levels.

Despite all our technology, science, education and collaboration,our true progress remains questionable. Our very definitions ofprogress and development are open to debate. The potential of ourmodern world is countered with an increasing array and severityof problems. Urbanization introduces its share of dilemmas. Foodproduction capabilities erode. The rich-poor divide widens. Thenorth-south imbalance heightens. Poverty is visible. Illiteracyremains. Disease flourishes. Pollution escalates. The coin has twofaces. The sword is double-edged.

What role can designers, and design students, play in this picture?What difference can individuals make? Is there hope? My answersare: MANY roles, a SIGNIFICANT difference, and GREAT hope.

In September 2003 I assumed a new appointment as Dean of theFaculty of Environmental Design at the University of Calgary inAlberta, Canada. Over the period 1998-2003, I served as Chairof the nationally-ranked school of Architecture at Ball StateUniversity in Indiana and before that as the director of a researchcenter focused on high technology in design & planning. Overthe past several decades, I have worked hard to gain a betterunderstanding of the promise of design to impact positive change,and have remained committed in my belief that design is a potentvehicle to address contemporary problems and to advance ourindividual and collective well-being.

By way of background I am educated and versed in both scienceand art. My research and practice experience runs the gambit fromenvironmental psychology & brain research (hippocampal formationand spatial mapping) to interior & building design and city & regionalplanning. I have consciously tackled both ends of the telos:technespectrum in an effort to understand, bridge, and manage, the moderndivide. My scholarship in recent years has been directed atprofessional practice (and the professional model as one particularmode of occupational control), globalization, and the gap betweenscience and spirituality. In my roles as a practitioner, educator andadministrator, it has become apparent that design holds a uniqueand important place in modern culture. Design, by virtue of innovativemethodologies, inclusive approaches, and praxis orientation, holdsthe keys to many possibilities. Design can and must make a difference.

Why my move to a college of Environmental Design and why theUniversity of Calgary? The answers to these questions reside, in part,in my understanding of design education and the modern world.My own education and experiences have been intentionally andstrategically broad. It has become increasingly apparent to me thatmany problems today, and especially the big ones, cannot easily beaddressed using a unidisciplinary approach. Neither can their solutionbe passed off as something to be tackled by technology alone. Infact, many of our globe’s biggest crises have been made possibleonly because of the presence of advanced technology. I havewritten elsewhere of this paradox, which I have compared to Plato’sPharmakon (i.e., medicine rendered as remedy or poison dependingon application). New problems demand new approaches. It is mycontention that such problems evade investigation, characterizationand solution using the tools of a single field of study. Quite simplysuch problems fly under the radar of individual disciplines - disciplineswhose boundaries in many cases, and arguably, seem outdated andwhose continued existence seems more related to managing theacademy than to handling current problems or realizing significantchange in the market. ...CONTINUED

This year, the EVDS Students’ Association has made significant

progress in establishing (re-establishing) itself as a voice and a

presence for students within the Faculty of Environmental Design

and the University of Calgary. With more students than ever before

contributing to the efforts of the EVDS SA, great strides have been

made in creating a momentum of student actions and initiatives that

we hope continues for years to come. The SA is striving to foster a

creative and critical culture within the faculty and student body and

raise awareness within the community and industries related to our

programs. Already this year we have promoted a number of student

social activities to develop the interdisciplinary culture within the

faculty, as well as starting to reach out within the rest of the University

to establish new links and relationships.

The Students’ Association’s efforts will continue in 2004, aimed at

showcasing the students and student work within the Faculty, University

and community. While the slogan for the EVDS SA continues to be

‘Socialization and Representation’ of and for current students within

the faculty, we are also promoting events such as the upcoming

‘Visioning Alberta 5-10-15 Years’ Symposium, Brown Bag Lunch

Series and the ‘Prairie Deans Talks’, as ways to facilitate important

critical discussion about our own education, professions, and

environmental design.

In the new era of EVDS with a new Dean at the helm, the EVDS SA

is focused this year on establishing itself as a group committed to

building a student culture based on strong connections between all

faculty programs, the university and the community as a whole and

building up a legacy of events and initiatives to carry on a sense of

tradition and culture within the Faculty of Environmental Design.

In keeping with the University of Calgary’s academic plan commitmentto ‘Return to Community’, EVDS has assumed a leadership role inestablishing a design centre in the city’s urban core. Located in thehistoric Customs Building in the Beltline area of downtown, theUC/EVDS Downtown Centre occupies over 4400 square feet ofuseable area. The realization of a downtown design centre is partof a comprehensive plan for the Faculty of Environmental Design.When the new Dean, Professor Brian R. Sinclair, came to interviewat the University of Calgary in Spring 2003, he underscored theimportance of a downtown presence. EVDS, as a professional Faculty,is closely tied into the community. This connection manifests throughprofessional associations, industry partners, city planning activities,service-learning, praxis and community-based projects. Dr. HarveyWeingarten, President of the University of Calgary, fortunately sharedEVDS’s desire to be downtown. Weingarten and Sinclair enjoy acommon vision that will eventually see the UC realize a strongpresence, visibility and impact in the city’s downtown.

During the Winter 2004 semester, EVDS is engaged in multiplestudies examining Calgary’s urban area and exploring the potentialfor a new University downtown mixed-use complex. Current design& planning efforts include a senior Architecture studio led byProfessor Marc Boutin (Prix de Rome recipient) and an in-depthanalysis and best-use study being conducted by the EVDS UrbanLab (directed by Professor Bev Sandalack).

The UC/EVDS Downtown Centre represents a significant first step inthe University’s commitment to partnership in the urban core. Usingthe EVDS facility in the Beltline as a beachhead into the urban core,the university plans to hold workshops and community discussions

concerning the downtown, architecture, development, urban design,planning, sustainability and livability. The centre will provide aconvenient venue for engaged conversation, teaching & learning,research & scholarship, creative work, public presentations &exhibitions, and institutional outreach. First and foremost, the UC/EVDSDowntown Centre is a think-tank focused on quality of the builtenvironment and the spaces + places where we live and work.

While EVDS is assuming a lead on this vital project, the long termgoal is to see a rich and broad range of UC Faculties and disciplinesactive in a new downtown complex. A key question informingthe exploration of such a precedent-setting mixed-use centre is,“How does being located in the downtown permit academicdepartments and programs, and sub-units therein, to better deliverservices and to strengthen the town-gown relationship?” The ideaof the university being physically downtown is crucial to ourinstitution’s visibility + credibility as a responsible, committedand engaged community partner.

UofC/EVDS Downtown Centre

View from theStudent’s AssociationColby Brygidyr,EVDS SA PresidentM.Arch student

Values and ideologies, science and spirit, environmentalconsciousness and globalization. Sounds more like an agenda fora global summit rather than the process of architecture. But takingthe science of construction beyond the confines of a project siteand into the heart and soul of a community is exactly what BrianR. Sinclair, the new dean of the Faculty of Environmental Design isout to accomplish. “Architecture, as a profession, is a complex blendof art and science,” he says. “Historically, design schools have foundit difficult to fit in with the world of empirically-based, quantitativelyfocused academics. The difficult fit is in large part due to design'sunorthodox mixture of hard and soft sciences, coupled with criticalaspects of fine and applied arts.”

Sinclair, former chair of Ball State University in Indiana and pastdirector of CAD LAB (high-tech applications in design), and pastprofessor at the University of Manitoba, now takes on the role inpromoting the multidisciplinary approach to environmental designat U of C. His first step is to cultivate and promote the notion thatdesign education is as much about establishing well-consideredand strongly grounded self and world views as it is about securingtechnical competency.

“Years ago, architects were master builders ...(and) there wasincreasing specialization and separation of art and science,” hesays. “Architects tended to move toward art, while engineers assumedthe jurisdiction of science. What they failed to see ...was that designdepends on art and science in the creation of spaces and placesthat touch our imagination as well as our senses.”

Sinclair says environmental design is first and foremost concernedwith human beings and the world they inhabit. The Faculty ofEnvironmental Design covers the gambit of design, including formalbuilding schemes and communal living spaces, ergonomicallyfriendly devices, 3-D animation, regional planning and ecologicalmanagement. EVDS offers programs in architecture, industrial design,environmental science, planning, urban and environmental design.According to Sinclair, the expansive latitude of today's urban designtakes into account more than eye candy. Each aspect of aproduct/building design or environmental intervention is carefullyconsidered before implementation begins.“

Each project requires creativity and a real strong foundation of facts.Research is essential,” he says. “You've got to look at the biological,physical and ecological dimensions of a project, as well as thesocial, geographical and cultural contexts.”

Faculty members are optimistic Sinclair will bring a higher profileto EVDS. “Among the many challenges that the new dean ...willface is the issue of public relations,” says Denis Gadbois, professorof industrial design in EVDS. “I am looking forward to having adean who will spread the word, reassure us that we will grow andsecure financing for the next generation.”

Michael Quinn, director of the U of C's Miistakis Institute of theRockies, agrees.“EVDS has a long history of active communityengagement,” Quinn says. “I sense that under the leadership of thenew dean, EVDS will be better understood and recognized both oncampus and beyond.”

Internationalization of environmental design is high on Sinclair'sagenda. One example of such global outreach is the tri-lateralproject with the U.S.A. and Mexico that EVDS is embarking on.This innovative exchange will see U of C students travel to consortiumpartner schools in America and Mexico, as part of a studio-based,NAFTA-oriented effort. The end users who ultimately utilize theprojects may only appreciate the aesthetic and practical aspectsthat come out of environmental design, but Sinclair says that theimpact of mindful planning lasts longer than we think.

“Environmental designers have the requisite knowledge, skills andvalues to be capable professionals, ethical citizens, bold leadersand compassionate human beings,” Sinclair says. “We need tocelebrate the rich extremes of science and art, of knowledge andinnovation that define design practice, while seeking wisdom andbalance, commodity and delight.”

Where Science Meets ArtDonna Gray

Faculty of Environmental Design,University of Calgary,2500 University Drive NW,Calgary, Alberta, CanadaT2N 1N4

View from the DeanDesign Education:A Complex Collaborative Interdisciplinary MilieuProfessor Brian R. Sinclair, DeanFaculty of Environmental DesignUniversity of Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.(William Butler Yeats)

2004 Winter/SpringFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN

evds T: (403) 220-6601F: (403) 284-4399

E: [email protected]/evds

evds T: (403) 220-6601F: (403) 284-4399

The Faculty of Environmental Design (EVDS) at the University ofCalgary is primarily a graduate level college. Housed within neitherEngineering nor Fine Arts, but friends to each, EVDS is anautonomous college comprised of programs in Architecture,Planning, Industrial Design, Environmental Design, EnvironmentalScience, and Urban Design. Primary degree offerings include theMaster of Architecture (M.Arch.), the Master of EnvironmentalDesign (M.E.Des.), and the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.). Thecollege also offers a very popular Minor in Architectural Studies(ARST), realized in conjunction with the Faculty of Communication& Culture and with the Faculty of Fine Arts.

While EVDS is a small college within the collection of 16 collegeson campus, it has proven over the years to be a vital contributorto the community of scholars and an innovator in pedagogy andprofessional education. Our areas of prominence include 1.Environmental Sustainability, 2. Environmental Design Theory &Practice, and, 3. Innovation and Creativity in the Arts.

Founded in 1971, the Faculty of Environmental Design has at itscore, tenets of interdisciplinarity and praxis. While many voicesin higher education today tout the value of multidisciplinarycooperation, EVDS has, since its arrival, realized the importanceof both multi and interdisciplinary approaches to environmentalintervention. Spanning the spectrum from art to science, the teachingmethods and curricular content at EVDS underscore the benefit ofdisciplines working collectively under the same roof.

An interdisciplinary core provides a shared experience for studentsand faculty from all disciplines - together individuals discover andapply knowledge in the quest for appropriate and effective designsolutions. The notion of praxis looms large. Theory is coupled withpractice as design teams tackle real world problems. This servicelearning, or experiential learning, is commonly studio-based andfield-applied.

One of the core courses, Advanced Environmental Design Practice,sees highly engaged interdisciplinary teams involved in community-based projects ranging from the industrial design of medical productsin Calgary, to the redesign of a central business district of a smalltown in Alberta, to the master planning of a large housing developmentin Europe, to the development of international environmentalmanagement strategies.

Although the EVDS PhD program is only eight years old, students inthe program and alumni are making their mark on the world. Dr.Marco Musiani, who just graduated, held a Killam Scholarship, oneof Canada’s most prestigious graduate awards, for his work onmanagement of conflicts between people and wolves. Marco iscontinuing his research as a post-doctoral fellow. Ramona Maraj wona scholarship from the Canon National Parks Science Scholars Programfor the Americas, of which only eight are provided annually in thewestern hemisphere. This will support her research on managementof conflicts between people and bears. Hugh Gibbins has receiveda Social Sciences and Humanities Research Scholarship for his workon rebuilding bison herds to foster economic development foraboriginal groups. All of these students are supervised by Dr. CormackGates, a testament to his ability to attract top notch graduate students.

Among other current students, Mohamed Kassab is the holder of aNatural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of CanadaIndustrial Post-graduate Scholarship. Mohamed’s research will addressdaylight harvesting to reduce fossil fuel demands in buildings.Alumnus Dr. Stephen Hill is now teaching in the Environment andResources Studies Program at Trent University. Among continuingstudents, Susan Ryan is on the staff of the California University ofPennsylvania and Jan Cowan has been appointed to the staff of theConstruction Technology Department of Indiana University-PurdueUniversity of Indiana. Jan was almost immediately made an “SBCFellow” through an IUPUI program that promotes and showcasesinnovation in teaching and learning as facilitated through technology,which is the subject of Jan’s dissertation. One of the outcomes ofDr. Rocio Rangel Ruiz’ dissertation on sustainable school designwas the first school in Alberta to meet the requirements of NaturalResources Canada’s Commercial Buildings Incentive Program, agrant program to encourage energy-efficient design. Rocio nowconsults to Natural Resources Canada and Keen Engineering, amongothers (her web site is www.enermod.com). Drs. Christine Schuhand Mel Wilson are involved in consulting on environmentalmanagement. Drs. Sharon Stroick and Jose Zorilla are also engagedin consulting. Future columns will tell you more about theaccomplishments of the PhD students and alumni.

As our world confronts more difficulties, and our troubles becomemore egregious, design practitioners must be increasingly adept atunderstanding the situation, assessing the problems, and inventing& implementing effective solutions. To this end, I believe that anideal design schooling marries a liberal arts undergraduate foundationwith graduate level, interdisciplinary, professional education.

Another increasingly critical dimension of design education isinternationalization. Environmental designers need to be equippedwith the knowledge, skills and values to compete and engage globally.Design students must learn firsthand how to work across culturesand in foreign jurisdictions in order to realize sensitive, valuableand exceptional projects. When it comes to internationalization,book reading is no substitute for cultural immersion and studyabroad. I have personally taken students into other countries, suchas Thailand, Nepal and India in an effort to open eyes, minds andhearts. Study abroad works!

As a result of such experiences, I remain steadfastly committed tointernational education as a vital component in the education ofenvironmental design professionals. In EVDS we offer a range ofinternational opportunities to our students, including a well-supportedsemester abroad in Barcelona, Spain.

We live in uncertain yet exciting times. On the upside: buildingcommunities, rapid transportation, improved technology, bettereducation, improved health care, environmental consciousness. Onthe downside: uncontrolled urbanization, unbridled globalization,growing bureaucracy, escalating environmental degradation. Thechallenges are profound in scale and the problems staggering inscope. Never before has there been a more urgent need for gooddesign. Knowledge, skills and values must be carefully developedand wisely applied in an effort to make our spaces and places better.Art must join science. Heads must join hearts. Balance must besought. Success must be achieved. Education is key. Given the stakes,it’s worth the effort to get it right.

If there is one word that characterizes EVDS I would suggest that

it is ‘synthesis’. The designer is, of course, expected to possess the

basic skills of his or her profession – this is a matter of training; and

it is important to gain essential knowledge of the keys areas of the

discipline – much of which can be acquired through readings; but

the particular art of the designer is based in a process in which skills

and knowledge are brought together during the creative activity of

‘designing’. Engagement in this process, which we enable through

the design studio, is fundamentally an act of synthesizing and it is

this process that is crucial for the education of the designer.

Yet, within EVDS we do more than graduate competent designers;

we endeavour to graduate critically aware, interdisciplinary designers.

To achieve this, we enrich our individual program offerings with a

Faculty-wide core curriculum that includes philosophy, that raises

questions of meaning and the relationship between thought and

action, that asks interdisciplinary teams of students to work with

representatives of the public and private-sectors to tackle real-world

design projects; and that offers students the opportunity to study forextended periods in Europe.

Synthesizing a host of different issues, including stakeholder views,budget constraints and environmental concerns to produce a creativeand inspiring design outcome is a highly complex, multi-layeredactivity. It is a challenge we have taken on since the Faculty’sinception over thirty years ago. Since its beginnings, we have addedto and enlarged our offerings. The initial programs of Architecture,Environmental Science and Planning were later supplemented withIndustrial Design. A few years ago we added an undergraduateminor in Architecture, through collaboration with the Faculties ofCommunication and Culture and Fine Arts; a Master’s degree inEnvironmental Design, to allow students to tailor their studies andexplore interdisciplinary issues outside the regular program curricula;and a PhD program that enables us to expand our research capacity.Most recently we have added an Urban Design program to specificallyaddress the three-dimensional design of the urban environment.The teaching and learning environment is indeed rich, multifacetedand effective.

These changes have enabled us to develop our activities, to increaseour student numbers and to enrich our capabilities. However, theinitial vision for EVDS still holds true; we continue to be a professional,graduate-level, interdisciplinary, design faculty. This vision is aspertinent today as it was in 1971 - and it will continue to inspireus as we develop our activities to address the many pressingcontemporary design challenges that face our society.

Scale Weighs In...Joel Tobman, Scale EditorM.E.Des. (Industrial Design) student

View from theAssociate Dean (Academic)Dr. Stuart Walker, Associate DeanFaculty of Environmental Design

Another consideration in my move north to assume the Deanship atthe University of Calgary pertains to my beliefs concerning highereducation and professional education. Given the complexity, severityand implications of modern problems, it is important to criticallyexamine the education of design professionals. In particular, I havebeen concerned with students gaining the requisite foundations inthe liberal arts and being able to think outside of the borders of their‘home’ disciplines. Perhaps over the latter half of the last century,many design disciplines erred on the side of increasing specializationand technical focus. Looking way back to the industrial era and thesplit of engineers (Ecole Polytechnique) from architects (Ecole desBeaux Arts), western society has increasingly been obsessed withdualism, classification, and neatly packaged, disciplinary-basedknowledge. With the arrival of professions as self-regulating bodiesestablished to guard and protect public health, safety and welfare,the education of such professionals became increasingly prescriptiveand debatably rigid. Often the gains in technical content andspecialized courses within design education have come at the expenseof liberal arts content and general knowledge.

Earlier I referred to the pressing need for solving problems from aninterdisciplinary vantage point. Coupled with the need for sharedknowledge is the need for a solid grounding across the expansivelandscape of knowledge. Architects, for example, need to have anawareness of politics, economics, art, culture, psychology andsociology, to name but a sampling. It is exceeding difficult, althoughnot impossible, to gain such as base given current accreditationparameters and curricular regimes. From my perspective, requiringstudents to have a baccalaureate degree prior to embarking on adesign education makes tremendous sense. Not only do studentsarrive to design education with more maturity (which is very helpful),they enjoy the benefit of a cache of knowledge about the world,how it works, and what role they might personally play to realizepositive change. ...CONTINUED

View from theAssociate Dean (Research)Dr. James Love, Associate DeanFaculty of Environmental Design

International dimensions are crucial to the educational and scholarly

paths of the Faculty of Environmental Design. Increasingly the globe

is at our doorstep. Cultures collide. Nations compete. Mobility

escalates. Accountability builds. In an unfathomably complex world,

students graduating from EVDS must be equipped with the knowledge,

skills and values that will permit them to be competitive, effective

and responsible.

An EVDS Architecture alumnus might be designing a building in

Shanghai, China. A Planning graduate might be addressing growth

management in Santiago, Chile. An Environmental Science student

might be consulting on a global warming task force spearheaded by

a United Nations team based in Europe. Undeniably, we all must

cope with the tensions arising when globalization confronts localization.

In the education of Environmental Designers, we need to include

internationalization as a primary concern and realize curricular content

experiences that construct cultural awareness, build sensitivity, and

instill sensibility as pertains to transborder consulting. EVDS is

successfully tackling the challenges of international education. For

over a decade we have operated a highly potent Barcelona study

abroad semester program. The BCN-CDN program affords EVDS

students, from various disciplines, a unique in-depth opportunity

to study in the rich Catalonian area of Spain. ...CONTINUED

As teaching and learning institutions, our schools, colleges, universities and technical institutes have a captive audience of thousands ofyoung minds. And we have a daunting responsibility not just to teach them facts and information, but to open doors to ideas, to shape theirviews, and instill values that enable them to be positive and contributing members of our society.

Dr. Harvey P. Weingarten, President – University of CalgaryIn: Community Values in an Age of Globalization (2002)

With field trips into the continent, to destinations such as Berlin,Paris and Rome, the BCN semester sojourn proves remarkable. Otherprograms take students into Mexico, Thailand, India and the USA,to name but a few global destinations. We also host visiting studentsand scholars from around the world, including semester and academicyear residencies at the University of Calgary. Global issues arepervasive. Global thinking is promoted. Global action is necessary.Information is required. Knowledge is needed. Wisdom is essential.

In terms of EVDS strategic planning, international geographic focalareas include Europe, Asia and Latin America. All three of these

broad regions proffer different, yet interlinked possibilities for EVDS

teaching, research and creative work. We have been successful in

securing endowments, grants and bilateral agreements that foster

student + faculty mobility. We are, of course, actively seeking more

support to continue to develop exceptional foreign study programs

and to further cultivate our potential + profile in the international

arena. In a challenging world, where environmental problems

cascade, social justice crises multiply, and design knowledge is in

desperately short supply, EVDS is at the forefront of educational

exploration and leadership. The world truly is our stage.

EVDS & Internationalization:Journeys in Environmental Design EducationProfessor Brian R. Sinclair, DeanFaculty of Environmental Design

“So it is that individual raindrops eventually fill the empty vessel”

...Tibetan Wisdom

EVDS has a long history of exceptional student work and eachyear’s new Master’s Design Projects, courses and studios addsignificantly to this already impressive catalogue. However,broadcasting of the outstanding student work that permeatesEVDS seldom passes beyond the faculty’s hallowed walls. Thissituation is about to change – in a major way!

I am pleased to announce that, building from the vision andsupport of Dean Brian R. Sinclair, Fall 2004 will see thepublication of Scale, the inaugural EVDS student journal. Theconcept of ‘scale’ is common to all of the disciplines withinEVDS – Scale will provide a showcase for the best student workfrom all of the EVDS disciplines. Importantly, the journal willalso feature interdisciplinary work and realize a widerdissemination of student creativity and scholarly output. Theeditorial staff, leading an energetic and dedicated volunteerteam of students and alumni, view the new EVDS journal (thefirst Faculty-wide student journal in our history) as cause forgreat commitment, support and celebration. Stay tuned. Stayconnected. Watch your local bookstand.

and responsible.

...Tibetan Wisdom

and responsible.

...Tibetan Wisdom

and responsible.

...Tibetan Wisdom

evds T: (403) 220-6601F: (403) 284-4399

The term ‘sustainable development’ has become very familiar to usover the last decade or so. It was popularized by the so-calledBrundtland Report of 1987 and it is a term that is now liberally usedby politicians, business leaders and educators to refer to a seemingly,generally understood and generally agreed direction for future planning.

However, when we begin to look more closely at the meaning ofthe term and start to explore its implications, we find that there aremany layers of unanticipated complexity that are neither clearlyunderstood nor well appreciated. Furthermore, many of the toolswe have at our disposal to understand sustainable development are,naturally, the tools generated by a scientifically and technologicallyadvanced society. Consequently, they tend to be analytical,reductionist and linear in nature. Using these tools, we identify theproblems, analyse the data, calculate solutions and attempt to adjustour activities accordingly. We have developed impact assessmenttools, life cycle analysis tools and other environmental accountabilitytools which allow us to investigate, improve and implement change.The application of such methods is assumed to contribute tosustainable development, or even, in large part, to constitutesustainable development.

In EVDS many of us take a quite different approach – an approachthat emerges from an understanding of a unique (but also littleunderstood) process of exploring, conceptualizing and synthesizing.It is an approach that is undefined, perhaps un-definable, dynamic,complex and multilayered. It is a process used to help envision andcreate products, buildings, and cities – it is a fascinating and strangelycompelling, creative activity. It is design and it is what we do inEVDS. And when we begin to apply this process to ‘sustainabledevelopment’, we start to generate quite different solutions fromthose that emerge from the application of the scientific method andthe analytical technique. The divergent, conceptual, exploratory,creative and synthesizing facets of the design process start to generateripples upon ripples that spread out and reveal unexpected possibilitiesand unanticipated ramifications. Uncomfortable questions are raisedand potential solutions are created. The process is inherentlyinterdisciplinary. ...CONTINUED

It can also be inherently disconcerting – especially for those newto the field. To be a designer, one has to become comfortable withuncertainty – because to design one must consciously and activelyseek out uncertain ground. To remain with the familiar is to resortto what has been done before and, perhaps especially when itcomes to sustainable development, what has been done before isneither a creative solution nor a viable option.

Sustainable design embraces the scientific and the technological asimportant aspects of human knowledge, but it also includes a hostof other considerations such as the social, the cultural, thepsychological, the functional and the aesthetic. We work as teams,or individually. We work with community groups and in designpractice. We contemplate, discuss, visualize and synthesize. Wewrite, and draw and make, and often we play – because seriousplay is one of the most creative activities we know – where ideasare thrown out, bounced around, built on and taken forward.Consequently, our sustainable solutions emerge not so much fromanalytical technique, but from visualizing, by asking what if, bypositing potential solutions and then playing with them, changingthem and honing them until they begin to take on a shape thatbrings together diverse and complex views and understandings.

The potential and implications of both ‘design’ and ‘sustainabledevelopment’ are little understood – but when they are broughttogether they form an exciting and potent combination for envisioningfuture scenarios and future solutions. Across the globe, sustainabledesign is taking many forms with quite diverse emphases – from thescientific to the environmental, and from the developmental to thesociological. In EVDS we look especially at the nature and characterof human interventions in the environment – from the ways weunderstand and interact with landscapes to the ways we createplaces, from development of urban form to the nature of community,from innovative professional practice to the definition of buildingsand space, from the systems of mass-production to the visualizationof individual functional products. The common thread in thisapparently vast range of human activity is the nature of intervention,the role of the creative act and ultimately their relationship to howwe ought to live – which lies at the heart of our ethical consciousnessand is the crux of sustainable design.

Sustainable DesignDr. Stuart Walker, Associate DeanFaculty of Environmental Design

The Architecture Program at the University of Calgary has completedanother outstanding year. Members of the program have receivedsignificant national awards and have been well represented in thenational media. Our Architecture Program has also been recognizedin the University of Calgary’s Academic Plan for its strengths indesign and sustainable design.

Recent Faculty accomplishments include: Marc Boutin completedhis Prix de Rome residency in Italy, and his firm received a 2002Canadian Architect Award of Merit for the “Truss House”; JohnBrown and his firm House Brand, received an Innovation inArchitecture Award at the 2003 RAIC Festival in Toronto, the workof his firm has been profiled a wide range of national media; LoraineDearstyne-Fowlow had an interview with Frank Gehry featured inthe May 2003 issue of Canadian Architect; Catherine Hamel had asolo exhibition entitled “displace/graft/retrace” at the Nickle ArtsMuseum at the University of Calgary that ran from Nov. 7 – Dec.20, 2003; Tang Lee consults for the Alberta Government on matterspertaining to the indoor air quality in the Calgary Court of AppealsBuilding; Graham Livesey currently has two books in press with theUniversity of Calgary Press and his firm Down + Livesey Architectshad a project published in the April 2003 issue of Canadian Architect;James Love is the Associate Dean (Research) and is establishing alaboratory for developing and testing systems for reducing the useof fossil fuels in buildings; Dr. Michael McMordie was the recipientof a Golden Jubilee Medal of Queen Elizabeth II on March 25, 2003for his work on preserving Canadian architectural heritage.

In addition to Faculty achievements, we are pleased to acknowledge:

Adjunct Professor Andrew King was the recipient of the Canada

Council’s Prix de Rome in Architecture for 2003-2004; Peter Busby,

FRAIC (Busby + Associates Architects, Vancouver and Calgary) and

Allan Partridge, AAA (HIP Architects, Edmonton) have joined our

Faculty as Adjunct Professors; alumnus David Edmunds (1980) was

made a Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada in May

2003; alumnus David Down (1987) is currently the President of the

Alberta Association of Architects.

It has become popular for architecture programs in North America

to offer “design-build” projects for their students. In the educational

context this means that students are involved in the design and

construction of real projects. The most ambitious project to date has

been the design and construction a Visitor's Center for the Rothney

Astrophysical Observatory near Priddis, Alberta. It is an addition to

the existing facility and it is a collaboration between the Architecture

Program, the Department of Physics and Astronomy (Faculty of

Science) and Campus Infrastructure. The project has been coordinated

by Prof. John Brown and his company House Brand. Funding for

the project has been provided by an Alberta Innovation and Science

2001 grant. The project is a 220 square metre single storey wood

frame building with display areas and a large classroom space. Four

students (Rob Copeland, Alejandro Henry, Matthew Parks and Angela

Rout) worked full time on the project over the 2003 summer to get

the building foundation, wood frame and innovative metal wall and

roof cladding system constructed. Over the 2003 Fall term, first year

students have installed the wood cladding. It has been a very

successful learning experience for all the students involved.

One of the significant enrichment opportunities for our students is

the comprehensive program of visiting lecturers and critics that

come to Calgary each year. During the past academic year, we had

an outstanding group of visiting lecturers including Prof. Herb Enns

(University of Manitoba) as the 2003 Douglas Gillmor Visiting

Lecturer and Cedric Price (London) as the 2003 William Lyon

Somerville Visiting Lecturer. The 2004 William Lyon Somerville

Visiting lecturer was Jacques Rousseau (Montreal).

The Urban Design Program was formally approved by the Universityof Calgary late in 2002 and welcomed its first intake of students inthe fall of 2003. To celebrate the inception of the program and tocreate a record and a resource of thirty years of faculty research,the publication ‘Making Better Civic Places: Urban Design at theUniversity of Calgary’ was produced and mailed to over 700 schools,professional offices and individuals in Calgary, the western provinces,and internationally as a way to help promote the program. Additionalcopies are available from the faculty. The project ‘High River OpenSpace Plan,’ by the research team of Professor Bev Sandalack, AndreiNicolai MEDes, Research Associate, and graduate research assistantsJulio Marce Santa MEDes (UD) and Jinwei Zhang MEDes, receiveda Regional Merit Award from the Canadian Society of LandscapeArchitects 2003 Professional Awards Program, and will be presentedto High River Town Council in January for adoption as part of theirtown planning documents.

The Introductory Urban Design Studio taught by Dr. Bev Sandalackand Sessional Instructor Andrei Nicolai concentrated their studieson Calgary’s 1st Street SW area. The class of twenty was comprisedof first year students from both the Urban Design and the Planningprograms, with visiting students Francisco Alaniz from UniversidadIberoamericana in Mexico City, and Lindsey Mulkins from YorkUniversity. This studio provides an interdisciplinary foundation inurban morphology and conceptual planning and design in the urbancontext. Students are now finishing up their work in the module onecological planning with Dr. Mike Quinn, and next term they willparticipate in the Sustainable Urban Design studio with ProfessorRobert Kirby. The convocating classes of 2003 included the first twograduates in Urban Design: Julio Marce Santa (‘The Use of UrbanMorphology as a Tool for Urban Design Interventions: The BeltlineCase Study’) and Geoff Dyer (‘South City Centre: An Urban Plan’).

The Urban Design program is active in community outreach anda number of civic affairs, and EVDS recently hosted the GeneralMeeting of the Alberta Association of Landscape Architects, throughthe efforts of Program Director Bev Sandalack, who is currentlyAALA President. Bev was also invited to deliver the wrap up addressat the Alberta Association of the Canadian Institute of PlannersOctober Conference in Jasper.

Promotion of this new program in EVDS will be one of the prioritiesover the next years, and we anticipate admitting up to ten studentseach year. Faculty are also currently developing a proposal for aCertificate in Urban Design that will be of interest to practitionerslooking for continuing education opportunities.

The Planning Program is now offering a half-time degree option,allowing practicing professionals working half-time to completethe program in four years. We have also been adding courseofferings in the field of real estate development by Jim Dewaldand Glen Lyons, and are moving to offer this area as a concentration.

Dr. Sasha Tsenkova continues her work on housing in Central andEastern Europe, with the publication of a book edited with S. Lowein 2003: Housing Change in Central and Eastern Europe, whichexplores the rapid privatization of state rental housing, and thedramatic changes in the structure of post-socialist cities in sevencountries. She is currently in Europe on sabbatical leave.

In March 2003 Dr. Walter Jamieson received the Golden JubileeMedal of Queen Elizabeth II for his work in heritage preservation.In July of 2003, Dr. Jamieson accepted an offer from the Universityof Hawaii at Manoa to become Dean of the School of TourismIndustry Management. Dr. Jamieson continues his association withour Faculty as both the Director of The Historical Resource InternProgram and as an adjunct Professor in Planning.

Dr. Stan Stein and Prof. Tom Harper’s book Dialogical Planning ina Fragmented Society: Critically Liberal, Pragmatic and Incrementalis being published by the Center for Urban Policy Research atRutgers University in 2004. A recent article by T. B. Jamal, S.M.Stein, T.L. Harper Beyond labels: Pragmatic planning in multi-stakeholder tourism-environmental conflicts published in theJournal of Planning Education and Research in 2003 has beenselected by a Association of Canadian University Planning Programsjury as the best article published by Canadian planning academicsin the past two years, and will be included in the book Global BestPapers in Planning, being published in 2004 by Taylor and Francis.

As Past-President of the Association of Canadian University PlanningPrograms, Prof. Harper is representing Canada on the CoordinatingCommittee of the Global Planning Education Associations Network.

Dr. Richard M. Levy working in conjunction with Prof. Peter Dawson,Dept. of Archaeology, Dr. Charles Arnold, Director, Prince of WalesNorthern Heritage Centre, Yellowknife and Trevor van Gorp, M.E.Des.(Industrial Design) student, has completed a virtual reconstructionof an Inuit Sod House. This virtual environment features videos,animations, virtual objects, and virtual worlds created by Prof.Richard Levy and Prof. Denis Gadbois and is part of an exhibit onthe Inuvialuit of the Canadian Arctic at the Canadian Museum ofCivilization from Nov 6, 2003, to Jan 9, 2005. Dr. Levy, along withDr. Ruth Morey-Sorrentino, (Kinesiology), Dr. Larry Katz (Kinesiology)& Xiufeng Peng (EVDS) have been selected as finalists for the SIRC(Sports Information Resource Centre) award for their work on VirtualVisualization: Preparation for the Olympic Games.

urban design architecture planning

ATTN: Office of the DeanFaculty of Environm

ental DesignUniversity of Calgary2500 University Drive N.W

.Calgary, Alberta, CanadaT2N 1N4

One of the values of having the ED Program within the Faculty ofEnvironmental Design is that it permits students to pursue a flexiblebut truly interdisciplinary Program of Study (PoS) that does not fitwithin the other five Programs or other academic units on campus.The ED Program facilitates students with a diverse background whowish to pursue a complimentary area of study rather than continuingwithin their discipline at a graduate level.

The ED Program is also strategically positioned to accommodateinternational students who already have professional qualificationsbut wish to pursue further studies at a graduate level. Anotherprofessional degree would not necessarily be as much of an assetto their career. But the opportunity to focus on a particular subjectat a higher level of inquiry and rigour is desirable. The flexibilitywithin the ED Program is particularly suited for customizing theireducational Program.

With the ability to customize their Program of Study (PoS), our EDstudents pursue topics that may not be suited for a traditionalacademic program. Some interesting examples of topics includespirituality and sustainability, universal design, sustainable tourism,green housing, building science and archaeology, curriculum forbuilding institute for Bhutan and alternative officing. The graduateshave found employment consistent with their topic in all levels ofgovernment, NGOs’, and in consulting. The graduates include thosewho pursue academic careers as researchers, in extended professionalpractice, in politics and senior administration. Of interest is thatsome ED graduates have to not only redefine the scope of consultingbut to establish a new area of consultancy. These include those whobecome advisors to corporations and government, and those whohelp clients and designers achieve sustainability in their businessesand projects.

As Gro Brundtland so eloquently stated “The environment is wherewe live; development is what we do. The two are inseparable.”Designing sustainable development policy, implementing it, andstaying on course, are as challenging today as at the time of theBrundtland Commission in early 1980s.

Global markets and royalty dependency are driving forces in today’seconomy and are often associated with a world view that equatessustainable growth with human wellbeing. In contrast, the conceptof sustainable development embraces conservation of ecologicalvalues and environmental services such as functional watersheds,biodiversity, and esthetic and recreational enjoyment of naturallandscapes, while providing for planned growth and productionin relation to environmental capacity. Failure to manage forsustainability can lead to environmental degradation, poverty, andreduced quality of human life.

The Environmental Science Program engages in research and providesgraduate education in support of improving the ways in whichindividuals, communities, governments, and corporations managethe environmental effects of their activities. Necessarily, the theoreticalfoundations and scope of research and professional practiceencompassed by the Program are broad and interdisciplinary innature, and functional cross-linkages with other Programs in theFaculty are evident. The goal of the Environmental Science Programis to advance scholarship and professional practice in the publicinterest by defining effective interventions through a design processlinking science with policy and management.

Through courses, team-based studio projects, and individual research,graduate students are prepared for professional practice or furtheradvanced studies in environmental science in the fields of ecosystemand natural resource sciences and planning, environmental impactassessment and management, and corporate and governmentenvironmental management systems. Alumni are employed inprofessional practice fields including environmental consulting,parks and protected areas management, range management, wildlifemanagement, environmental dispute settlement, stakeholderparticipation in resource management, environmental planning,corporate environmental management, and environmental auditing.Education received through the program provides a foundation forcareer advancement from technical and analytical level opportunitiesthrough to senior executive levels in government agencies, industry,and consulting firms. Others may choose an academic career pathand go on for a Ph.D. or Post-Doctoral Fellowships. Graduates ofthe Environmental Science Program teach at educational institutionsaround the world.

One exciting new research initiative exemplifies the contributions ofthe Environmental Science Program and the Faculty to interdisciplinaryscholarship in the public interest. The Southern Foothills SustainabilityProject was commissioned by Alberta Environment in recognition ofthe unique abilities of the Faculty of Environmental Design to conductapplied interdisciplinary research on designing solutions to resourceuse and development demands in one of Alberta’s most sceniclandscapes. The Foothills of the Rocky Mountains near Calgary is thecentre of the oldest wealth generating industry in the province – cattleranching, and is home to some of Alberta’s earliest settler families.Over time, the density of human settlement has increased as havepressures on the capacity of the Foothills to provide a range ofecological services to its human residents.

This area serves as the natural water tower for the largest concentrationof urban residents in Alberta – the City of Calgary. The supply andquality of water produced from these lands is an important asset thatneeds to be considered as human activities and growth-relateddisturbances increase in Calgary’s hinterland.

Other ecological values include the rich diversity of native plants andanimals that inhabit the Foothills, such as Foothills fescue, the officialemblematic grass of Alberta. The oil and gas industry is an importantcontributor to the wealth of the province and desires to continuedeveloping the potential of the Foothills while meeting corporatesocial and environmental responsibilities. The recreational and scenicvalues of the Foothills and nearby Rocky Mountains are well understoodby southern Alberta residents and the area is promoted internationallyas a tourism destination. To expect that a landscape can satisfy alldemands at all times in all locations is unrealistic. Defining land andresource management options that balance social expectations andeconomic needs within the capacity of resources to sustain demandis the central challenge of sustainable development.

The Southern Foothills Sustainability Project involves researchcombining theory and methods from the fields of environmentalimpact assessment and management, ecological and economicmodeling, urban design, land use planning, and environmentalmanagement systems. The project is collaborative and circumscribesthe core research and professional interests of several faculty andresearch partners. The aim is to advance the interdisciplinary practiceof integrated resource management by applying science and designprinciples to define sustainable development alternatives.

Over the fall term, the Faculty has undertaken a self examinationin the process of producing a strategy statement for the University.In preparing the ID program response to that strategy developmentexercise, a number of very positive things have come to light.

Although it has been suspected that the faculty and students in theprogram perform at a high level, that assumption has never beenexplicitly tested. The self examination has provided an opportunityto do that with pleasing results. In fact, there is so much good newsthat it can not all be covered in a single newsletter. As a result, thefocus in this newsletter will be on student performance and programdevelopments during the 2002 - 2003 period. Later newsletters willprovide updates with a focus on the equally extraordinaryaccomplishments of alumni and faculty.

As in the past, ID students continue to show well in competitionsand reviews. In 2002, Phil Postolek won an Honorable Mention inthe ID Magazine Student Design Review for his MDP project; thedesign of a steering device for Kite-boarding. That was followed in2003 by Ernest McCrank, who also won Honorable Mention in theID Magazine Student Design Review for his design of a SkiableSnowshoe. Adding to that record was the Honourable Mention thatMark Griffiths won in the 2002 Dupont Life by Design Competitionfor his design for a life sciences work station.

ID students have also competed very well in the 'As Prime MinisterAwards' that are sponsored by the Magna for Canada ScholarshipFund. In that competition, which is intended to evaluate the potentialfor leadership and vision, Steve McIlvenna was a finalist in 2002and Trevor van Gorp was a semifinalist in 2003.

Paper presentations at conferences and symposia are becoming anincreasingly important avenue for demonstrating the quality of theID program. In 2003, Cagla Dogan, who is the first PhD student inthe ID program, presented papers in Hanover at the ICSID conferenceand in Sweden at the Towards Sustainable Design 04 Conference.Hans Wissner presented a paper in New York in 2003 at the IDSAEducators Conference. In 2002, at the IDSA Educators Conferencein San Jose, both Hans and Darren Jakal presented papers.

Capping these recent accomplishments is the establishment inCalgary of the first IDSA chapter to be situated outside the UnitedStates. ID alumnus Dedre Toker was the energetic instigator of thisinitiative and is the Chapter President. These accomplishments reflectand reinforce many past decisions made in the ID program directedto the development and maintenance of a vigorous, challengingprogram. In sum it can be said that the ID program in EVDS is'punching well above its weight'.

InterdisciplinarityProfessor Lorraine FowlowFaculty of Environmental Design

Interdisciplinarity, in the practice of environmental design, is botha process and a conceptual framework. It encompasses the philosophyof the interconnectedness of disciplines, which have been artificiallyseparated into realms of expertise accessible only to their practitioners.It is only in the modern age that "disciplines" have developed inrelative isolation from each other, effectively creating boundariesthat separate both the knowledge and the application of these areas.In the Faculty of Environmental Design, we believe that the areasinvolved in environmental design are inherently and intrinsicallyconnected, and cannot be effectively pursued in isolation from eachother. But we also believe that in order to be a good interdisciplinarian,one must, as a precondition, first be a sound disciplinarian.

The education in the Faculty of Environmental Design offers studentsa solid grounding within their individual disciplines, set against theframework of interdisciplinarity. This framework occurs within theFaculty's core courses, a series of three courses that begin byintroducing issues common across the disciplines. As the coursesprogress, and as the students gain skills and insight from within theirdisciplinary studies, they are ultimately challenged to forminterdisciplinary teams with the goal of completing a professionalproject for a client. Each member of the team functions in essentiallytwo capacities. First, each student is challenged to examine andanalyze the project as a team member conceptually without discipline.Meaning, they are asked to effectively take off their disciplinary "hat"and approach the problem as an environmental designer. This placeseach team member on an equal footing, without the hierarchy oftenassigned to disciplines. This is also the distinction betweeninterdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary. Rather than working side byside as individual disciplinarians, those involved in an interdisciplinaryprocess are able to cross the boundaries of their area and contributeto the project as professional environmental designers.

This process also precludes the linearity inherent in the separationof disciplines. When the process is discipline-specific, each part ofthe project may proceed in a linear progression, which negates thepossibility of each discipline informing the other at each stage ofdevelopment. It also minimizes the potential for "eureka" moments.These are the moments of inspiration and insight which literally canmake the whole greater than the sum of the parts. For example, anenvironmental psychologist may provide the insight into anarchitectural design that the architect had not previously considered.It is this process of bringing together disciplinarians in the examinationof a project that allows the sharing of cross-disciplinary ideas simplynot possible in a linear, assembly-line process. But this process isiterative, as group work must alternate with individual, disciplinarywork. Throughout the process, the project must be informed by soliddisciplinary knowledge and skills.

Therefore, there is no interdisciplinary work without disciplines.This may appear to be an obvious statement, but within it lies aphilosophy of pursuing both simultaneously.

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evds T: (403) 220-6601F: (403) 284-4399

evds - university of calgary in alberta · 2005-03-14 · evds today’s world is rich, complex,...

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