MDR Research Projects and Opportunities

Working with The City of Calgary and the WAVE Centre, you will develop full-scale prototypes using robotic concrete 3D printing alongside timber and hybrid material processes. The focus is not on tools, but on how fabrication reshapes design, authorship, and the role of architecture in the city.

Through iterative prototyping, computer vision, digital design and robotic fabrication, the work will explore new forms of urban elements and spatial systems—testing how advanced fabrication can enable more responsive, inclusive, and distributed ways of building.

This research - driven program is for those interested in pushing beyond representation into 1:1 experimentation, where design is inseparable from how and why it is made.

Researcher: Dr. Alicia Nahmad Vazquez

Areas of interest include wildfire, water systems, and energy landscapes, often explored through place-based case studies in Alberta and the broader Canadian Mountain West.

MDR students typically engage in design-research projects that combine fieldwork, mapping, and visual representation to investigate how environmental change is experienced, communicated, and addressed through design. Projects may also involve collaboration with public and institutional partners, depending on scope and alignment.

This research supports students interested in exploring environmental change through design-led inquiry, with opportunities to develop critical skills in landscape analysis, visualization, and research-driven design practice.

Researcher: Dr. Douglas Robb

Led by the Building Construction Innovation Group (BCI Group), the project brings together architecture, engineering, social sciences, industry, and housing organizations to develop new housing strategies across Canada and Germany.

Graduate research assistants will contribute to:
• Comparative analysis of housing systems (policy, design, and delivery)
• Design and prototyping of modular, prefabricated, and biogenic housing systems
• Participation in international workshops and collaborative studios
• Engagement with municipal housing providers and industry partners

This is a design-driven and research-intensive opportunity that combines applied design, policy thinking, and real-world collaboration, offering students direct involvement in an international research network shaping the future of housing.

Researcher: Dr. Mauricio Soto-Rubio

The goal is to improve quality of life by raising the quality of design.  The project is intersectoral and transdisciplinary, bringing diverse people and organizations together to converse and creatively consider how better design contributes to health, happiness and improved quality of life. Researchers on the project are involved in many types of activities, including case studies, community roundtables, focused design explorations, and so forth.

Researcher: Dr. Brian Robert Sinclair

The student will work on developing computational methods that generate spatial layouts based on programmatic constraints, spatial relationships, and performance criteria. The research will explore rule-based systems, optimization techniques, and learning-based approaches to generate and evaluate alternative layout configurations. The outcome will be a prototype system capable of producing residential floorplan variations while maintaining functional and spatial coherence.

Researcher: Dr. Jinmo Rhee

Building on recent research demonstrating that urban morphology can encode signals associated with financial performance, the student will analyze how spatial configurations of buildings and parcels relate to economic indicators such as return on investment. The project will involve computational analysis of urban form data, AI models, and visualization of morphological patterns. The research will contribute to an ongoing collaboration with municipalities in Western Canada—including Calgary, Airdrie, and Regina—to develop tools that help planners understand how development patterns relate to economic outcomes. 

Researcher: Dr. Jinmo Rhee

The project examines how classical generative systems—such as rule-based design, parametric modelling, and agent-based systems—connect with recent advances in machine learning and generative AI. Students will contribute to research that reinterprets the history of generative design and investigates how AI reshapes design methodologies, creative processes, and design agency. The project is connected to an ongoing exhibition and research initiative titled Reimagining Generative Design, which brings together historical precedents and emerging AI-driven design approaches.

Researcher: Dr. Jinmo Rhee

The student will analyze aerial imagery, urban form data, and mobility patterns to identify spatial indicators associated with active and inactive urban environments. Using machine learning and computer vision techniques, the research will detect patterns related to pedestrian movement, spatial accessibility, building frontage conditions, and the use of public spaces. The project will also explore design interventions that could enhance urban vitality by proposing spatial and architectural strategies based on the analytical findings.

Researcher: Dr. Jinmo Rhee