The SSHRC Partnership initiative, Quality in Canada's Built Environment, engages citizens, decision-makers and researchers across the country in collaborative efforts to reimagine how Canadians consider, create and inhabit urban spaces, buildings and landscapes. It responds to the growing expectations for more democratic, equitable and sustainable built environments.

Building upon the success of community mobilization and engagement showcased at the Montreal 2022 convention, where ‘Barriers to Quality in the Build Environment’ were collectively addressed, the second annual gathering, held in Calgary, focuses on lived experiences in interacting with the built environment and related insights, which will inform the development of a vision for reimagined quality, as well as the roadmaps for getting there.

Through keynote presentations, site-specific updates, and critical reflection, together with moderated roundtable dialogues, participants will be inspired by the imaginative ideas and practices, learn from the initiatives championed by the teams across the country, and assert their experiences and ideas for change.

Yet our personal experience of architecture, landscape and the city is what constitutes meaning, what shapes who we are and what weaves into our memory. How might we give an account of a lived experience? What words could be used to describe it? What images would be the most appropriate to take us beyond the clichés of travel to and leisure in quality places? In the end, what matters most about the environments we build and occupy?

Leading up to, and during, the Calgary convention at the University of Calgary on May 1-2, 2023, we invite you to reflect on your experience of quality in the built environment, and explore many important questions on how best to proceed. We also ask you to begin to share your ideas that extend the current  conceptualization of quality, and that might effectively inform the strategies and processes that will facilitate positive change.

Our search must move beyond the formal and aesthetic aspects of our spaces and places. We are called to heighten awareness – to celebrate our senses, emotions, thoughts, aspirations, and actions – as we design and dwell. We are pleased to have you in Calgary for important explorations and conversations addressing quality through the lens of lived experience!