Tackling society’s most pressing issues is what the first-ever bachelor’s degree offered by the University of Calgary’s School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape (SAPL) is designed to do.
The Bachelor of Design in City Innovation (BDCI), which will host its first students in the fall of 2023, applies a design-thinking lens and a hands-on multidisciplinary approach to finding solutions to society’s most urgent challenges, says Dr. John Brown, SAPL dean.
“If we look at the big problems and challenges in the world today — climate change and social injustice — they are grounded in the built environment, in the relation between people, and how they interact with the environment, their cities, their spaces and each other. This program came about because we identified that there’s a significant knowledge and skills gap to address these critical challenges,” says Brown.
The BDCI educates students to be literate in the relationship between people and the constructed environment of cities, buildings, and landscapes, and who can then apply those skills to address the social justice and climate change challenges that society is facing today.
“Now more than ever, our cities require bold leaders trained in 21st-century transdisciplinary urban design,” says Mary Rowe, president of the Canadian Urban Institute. “As governments, civil society, and private industry struggle to improve the vibrancy, livability, economic health, and sustainability of cities, these skills will be prerequisites for the success of Canada’s cities.”
The BDCI is the first undergraduate degree of its kind in Western Canada, and it’s one that’s badly needed, says Kate Thompson, president and CEO of the Calgary Municipal Land Corporation. The expanded thinking and interdisciplinary approach the BDCI will deliver is a critical educational option that is currently missing in Alberta, she adds.
“The wide-reaching inputs to city building (physical, social, political, economic, historical) must be studied so that together our city can emerge as a leader in the world of urban design,” she says.
