Rethinking Urban Sprawl Panel, including Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek

Design Matters

Lecture Series

Design Matters is a thought-provoking lecture series, organized by the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, which seeks to inspire transformative change. The series brings to Calgary a range of designers, innovators, and thought leaders exploring the edge of design and city building.

Lectures are delivered from September to May, and feature provocative speakers who examine the latest ideas in architecture, regional and urban planning, and landscape architecture. The lectures challenge attendees to broaden their thinking on a myriad of issues related to design. Design Matters engages students, public officials, industry professionals and interested citizens — people who want to learn, understand and address design issues affecting our community.

The lectures spark conversations about societal issues by engaging with innovative thinkers. Attendees are encouraged to recognize the important role design plays in our daily lives.

Join industry professionals, faculty, students, alumni and people in the community who care about design and building a great city at an upcoming lecture!

This year’s Design Matters lecture series focuses on global citizenship and design in conjunction with the launch of the new Bachelor of Design in City Innovation (BDCI) undergraduate degree program. This year’s speakers will be addressing topics such as gender and planning, informal settlements, the missing middle, and urban architecture.

Unwalling Citizenship - Teddy Cruz (UCSD), San Diego
- Wednesday, November 29
Informal Settlements - Theresa Williamson (CatComm), Rio de Janiero
- Wednesday, January 10
Gillmor and Taylor Visiting Lectures - Trudy Watt (University of Wisconsin-Madison) , Isabel Ochao (University of Waterloo)
- Monday, February 12
Somerville Visiting Lecture - Johanna Hurme (5468796 Architecture), Winnipeg
- Wednesday, February 14
Urban Landscape - Sebastián Monsalve Gómez (CAUCE), Medellin
- Wednesday, March 13
Urban Architecture - Gabriela Carrillo (Taller Gabriela Carrillo), Mexico City
- Wednesday, April 3

Admission: Free

Location: City Building Design Lab (CBDLab), 616 Macleod Trail SE

Time: Reception at 5:00 PM, lecture begins at 6:00 PM

Unwalling Citizenship

Teddy Cruz, San Diego

The Tijuana-San Diego border region is a hotly politicized area representing some of North Americas most debated issues, including deepening social and economic inequality, dramatic migratory shifts, urban informality, and climate change.

Teddy Cruz will share the work of Estudio Teddy Cruz + Fonna Forman at the US-Mexico border region. He will discuss their work on “citizenship culture" and the network of civic spaces they have co-developed with border communities to cultivate regional and global solidarities.

Teddy Cruz is a Professor of Public Culture and Urbanization in the Department of Visual Arts at the University of California, San Diego, and a principal in Estudio Teddy Cruz + Fonna Forman, a research-based political and architectural practice investigating borders, informal urbanization, civic infrastructure and public culture. They exhibit widely across the world, and have published a new two-volume monograph with MIT Press and Hatje Cantz: Spatializing Justice: Building Blocks and Socializing Architecture: Top-Down / Bottom-Up. Recipient of the Rome Prize in Architecture in 1991, Cruz’s honors include the 2011 Ford Foundation Visionaries Award, the 2013 Architecture Award from the US Academy of Arts and Letters, and the 2018 Vilcek Prize in Architecture.

Gender Responsive Planning

Sara Candiracci, Milan

Gender responsive planning strategically considers the different needs and priorities of all genders by integrating the differing perspectives into all stages of planning. We welcomed Sara Candiracci, remotely from Shanghai, to discuss the importance of gender responsive planning in urban centres.

Sara Candiracci is an Associate Director in Arup's Cities, Planning and Design team in Milan, and the Global Leader for Social Value and Equity. She also leads Arup’s work on gender-responsive urban planning, and on child-friendly and playful cities.

With more than two decades of experience as an urban planner, researcher, and international development expert, Sara has been at the forefront of designing and leading projects and programs focused on creating more equitable, inclusive, healthy and resilient cities. Some examples of her work are the Proximity of Care Design Guide, the Playful Cities Design Guide, the Nature Based Play Report, and the Cities Alive Publication Designing Cities that work for Women.

Le Corbusier: Global Architect

Miquel Adria, Mexico City

The first lecture in SAPL’s 2023-24 Design Matters lecture series served as the opening night event for the LC150+ traveling exhibition, which was hosted by SAPL for the month of September at the CBDLab. The lecture built on themes of modern architecture, its legacy, colonial dynamics, and the global scale of its impact.

Miquel Adriá, an architect from the Higher Technical School of Architecture of Barcelona and a Doctor of Architecture from the European University of Madrid, was the Director of the Arquine architecture magazine (a review of architecture in Mexico and Latin America). He was a member of the National System of Creators of FONCA, a counselor of the Ministry of Culture of Mexico City, a member of the Casa Tapatía Luís Barragán Architecture Foundation, and the author of over 30 books on Latin American architecture.

Abolition Geographies of New York

Ashley Dawson

Ashley Dawson is Professor of English at the Graduate Center / City University of New York and the College of Staten Island. Recently published books of his focus on key topics in the Environmental Humanities, and include People’s Power: Reclaiming the Energy Commons (O/R, 2020), Extreme Cities: The Peril and Promise of Urban Life in the Age of Climate Change (Verso, 2017), and Extinction: A Radical History (O/R, 2016). Dawson is the author of a forthcoming book entitled Environmentalism from Below (Haymarket Press), and is co-editor of a volume of essays called Decolonize Conservation! (Common Notions Press).

Rethinking Urban Growth Panel Discussion

Panel Discussion: Rethinking Urban Growth

Jyoti Gondek, Mayor of Calgary; Joe Case, Vice President, Mattamy Homes; and June Williamson, Professor, Author, Architect, and Fellow at the Urban Design Forum, Alkarim Devani, president, RNDSQR; and Alex Ferguson, senior VP, sevelopment, Anthem Properties Group Ltd.

As a city, we have recognized the importance of taking action to combat climate change. As a result, city council has declared a climate change emergency, and leaders in our industry understand and support this decision. This panel addresses the big question, how will Calgary move from its past actions, and shift practice to enable more sustainable growth patterns?.

Preferred Futures, Indigenous Approaches to Planning

Steve DeRoy

Steve DeRoy is a thought leader, co-founder, director, and past president of The Firelight Group. On Nov. 30, he discussed the different approaches for integrating Indigenous mapping into planning exercises and how these can serve to support Indigenous rights and interests.

Design as an Ecology

Kristian Lars Ahlmark

Discover current methods and approaches to sustainable architecture and design with thought leader, Partner, and Design Director, Kristian Ahlmark from Danish architecture studio Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects. Hear him share unique design methods of sustainability processes that the studio has developed and implemented in their practice, covering topics including but not limited to adaptive transformation, material circularlity and the use of timber in high-rise structures exemplified through the recently ground-breaking project, “Rocket&Tigerli”.

Four Courtyards: Place and Identity in Italian Photography

Luca Nostri

How do the places we inhabit shape who we are? What stories emerge in the ways places and spaces intersect and relate to one another? Four Courtyards, a lecture presented by lauded Italian Photographer Luca Nostri, answers these questions through unique insight and inspiring photography. This thought-provoking lecture challenges spectators to broaden their perspectives and gain an increased awareness of the built environment and their place within it.

Design + Stewardship for the Next Civilization

Jenny Jones

Jones is a partner with California landscape architecture firm TERREMOTO. She visited the University of Calgary's School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape to discuss landscape and garden-making with an experimental, hands-on approach, and with an eye to strengthening land stewardship ethics and culture.

Design Matters is made possible through the partnership with generous sponsors who have shared aspirations. Sponsorship presents a wonderful opportunity for companies to not only heighten community profile, but also to engage with talented students who will be leaders and practitioners.

Looking forward to learning with you!