A space for learning and unlearning.
A place for academics, students, practitioners, and community to come together.
An environment to challenge how we learn and to acknowledge the uniqueness and value of diverse knowledge systems.
All lectures and workshops are free and open to all.
upcoming events.
2023
May
10 May - Architecture IS Climate a conversation with Jeremy Till - 9am MDT (UTC -6)
February
22 February - Establishing a Communication Practice for a Site Assessment’s Introductory Phase Through the Making of ‘Alexandra: A Backstory’ - A Collaborative Workshop around a graphic novel about how Johannesburg became what it is - Edmonton 9am MST (UTC -7) / Johannesburg 6pm (UTC +2).
January
25 January Local Code - 3,659 Proposals about Data, Design and the Nature of Cities with Nicholas de Monchaux - 9am MST (UTC -7)
see full event descriptions and register below
all past events are available on our “theatre” page
10 May 2023
Architecture IS Climate a conversation with Jeremy Till
9am MDT (UTC -6)
Architecture IS Climate (and so is urban planning and landscape) a presentation of a project being conducted by the research collective MOULD. The project suggests that, far from being the solution to the problem climate breakdown, architecture and design are deeply entangled within the causes of climate breakdown. Unable to stand outside and deal with climate through technocratic interventions, applying superficial patches to the wounds of climate, architecture and design become part of a febrile and disrupted world, vulnerable to its contingencies. The phrase Architecture IS Climate therefore suggests a radical reconstruction of disciplines as part of the systemic change that climate breakdown demands. This is turn means that the tenets and protocols of architectural, urban planning and landscape education have to be reconsidered.
Jeremy Till is an educator, writer and recovering architect. As an architect, he worked with Sarah Wigglesworth Architects on their pioneering building, 9 Stock Orchard Street, which is seen as an innovator in climate-informed design. As an educator, Till was Head of Central Saint Martins, Pro Vice-Chancellor at the University of Arts London from 2012-22. He is now Professor of Architecture at the University, and a member of the research collective MOULD. As a writer, Till’s extensive work includes the books Flexible Housing, Architecture Depends and Spatial Agency, all three of which won the RIBA President’s Award for Research. His most recent research project Architecture after Architecture, investigates the future of spatial practice in the face of climate breakdown.
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Cover drawing by Hiten Bawa, photography by Solam Mkhabela, and book mock-up by Fred Swart.
22 February 2023
Edmonton 9am MST (UTC -7) / Johannesburg 6pm (UTC +2)
Establishing a Communication Practice for a Site Assessment’s Introductory Phase Through the Making of ‘Alexandra: A Backstory’
A Collaborative Workshop around a graphic novel about how Johannesburg, South Africa became what it is
with Solam Mkhabela and Hiten Bawa
Theorizing a Collaborative Workshop
The Making of… explores how Alexandra: A Backstory came to be. The graphic novel forms part of Urban Scripting, a study project that unearths voices to retell the city of gold, eGoli. Retelling eGoli combines modern audio-visual storytelling techniques with traditional spatial mapping culture. The African oral system of the narrative explores how Othered and discounted Nguni knowledges can be used as a foundation for site assessment within urban planning/design practice in South Africa. In the workshop, three teams will explore the structure of an image-making approach that contributes to the understanding of everyday life in a complex local context.
Essentially, the workshop develops a tripartite storytelling model and finds applicable terms which appropriately describe the actions explored by the teams. To simulate an understanding of a person's lived experience, a stretch of a street in Orange Grove, Johannesburg, acts as a site for the participants to engage with the context and concept of the approach actively.
§ Team one looks for evidence of past events and why they happened.
§ Team two looks at what happens in the present and why it might be happening.
§ Team three looks at what could happen if changes occur in the (near) future.
Teams are reading the site, listening to contextual realities, and writing local possibilities with purposefully restricted access to information within a short time. Details will be communicated in the session. All participants need access to Google Earth.
The site is Louis Botha Avenue, Johannesburg, South Africa between 6th St and Garden Rd/Dunottar St. Latitude: 26° 9'45.36"S, Longitude: 28° 5'6.25"E. https://www.google.com/maps/@-26.1626,28.08507,4005m/data=!3m1!1e3
Solam Mkhabela teaches at the University of the Witwatersrand, School of Architecture and Planning, Johannesburg. My work focuses on the intersection between urban design and film, and the role of audio-visual narratives in understanding city street dynamics forms a research interest. In understanding street dynamics, the work connects social, economic, cultural, political, and ecological issues to aid in making city spaces more accessible to the many. Through a transnational lens, creative and intellectual thinking blends art, history, and activism. The aim is to create a hybrid storytelling approach that makes and represents an alternative city image.
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Join us for our next Global Studio lecture
Local Code - 3,659 Proposals about Data, Design and the Nature of Cities
Nicholas de Monchaux
25 January 2023 9am MST (UTC -6)
Local Code by Dr. Nicholas de Monchaux is a critical and essential, data-driven analysis of the built environment. As noted by Princeton Architectural Press, “Local Code is a collection of data-driven tools and design prototypes for understanding and transforming the physical, social, and ecological resilience of cities . . . In text and image, Local Code presents a digitally prolific, open-ended approach to urban resilience and social and environmental justice; At once analytic and visionary, it pioneers a new field of enquiry and action at the meeting of big data and the expanding city.”
Nicholas de Monchaux is Professor and Head of Architecture at MIT. Until 2020 he was Professor of Architecture and Urban Design, and Craigslist Distinguished Chair in New Media at UC Berkeley, where he also served as Director of the Berkeley Center for New Media. His design work has been exhibited widely, including at the Biennial of the Americas, the Venice Architecture Biennale, The Lisbon Architecture Triennial, SFMOMA, the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the Storefront for Art and Architecture and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. His work has been supported by the MacDowell Colony, the Santa Fe Institute, the Smithsonian Institution, the Hellman Fund, and the Bakar Fellows Program. He is a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome.
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Imagining a way forward: Minecraft as a community design tool?
19 December at 9am MST (UTC -7)
This panel discussion critically considers the use of gaming as a community design tool. Using the active case study of their skatepark design in Kliptown, Soweto, South Africa, community leader Thabang Nkwanyana moderates the conversation exploring the role of Minecraft technology in his own neighbourhood which he describes as both a ghetto and a beautiful place to be.
Panel:
Thabang Nkwanyana is a passionate photographer, visual creative, filmmaker, graffiti and stencil artist and art installer based in Kliptown, Soweto, South Africa. He a community leader and the Director and co-founder of 1955 Creative Collaboration, a grassroots Kliptown social enterprise addressing today’s socio-spatial issues through creativity, innovation and collaboration. He has ten years of experience installing fine art and single and multimedia art installations at some of the finest galleries and museums across Gauteng. Most recently he was Head Installer at the Javett Art Centre at University of Pretoria, with other highlights including the Apartheid Museum, Johannesburg Art Gallery, the Origin Centre among others. He believes that it was through art that he found himself and became a voice or inspiration of positivity within Kliptown’s poverty and neglected heritage.
James Delaney is the founder and Managing Director of BlockWorks, a collective of designers, artists, and developers from around the world with a shared passion for Minecraft. BlockWorks has grown from an informal group to a global design studio that has pioneered the use of Minecraft as a design tool with film studios, marketing firms, and educational institutions. James graduated with a degree in Architecture from Cambridge University and pursues a particular interest in the correlation between architecture and video games. He is an elected fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and has given talks at the International Spatial Development Forum, The Bartlett School of Architecture, and the British Library, among others. James enjoys traveling; when in new cities he looks for hidden public spaces to explore.
Veronica Madonna is the founding Pricipal of Studio VMA and Assistant Professor at the RAIC Centre for Architecture. Before joining Athabasca University, Veronica was a Principal at Moriyama & Teshima Architects, leading award-winning, highly sustainable designs for Universities and Colleges across Canada. She was the Principal Architect on The Arbour, a ten-storey, mass timber, net-zero carbon building for George Brown College and the Honey Bee Research Centre for the Ontario Agricultural College at the University of Guelph. As an educator, researcher and practitioner, Veronica's focus in architecture includes; sustainable design strategies in the built environment, advancements in mass timber construction, and equity in architectural practice and education.
Kristen Kornienko is a co-founder of 1955 Creative Collaboration, an experimental collaborative in Kliptown, Soweto, South Africa. Activism has become central to her work as a creative practitioner of transformative socio-spatial justice through design and education. She is a faculty member in architecture and landscape architecture as well as the coordinator of the Global Studio at the RAIC Centre for Architecture at Athabasca University in Canada, a Fulbright Fellow South Africa, and a Visiting Researcher at the Centre for Built Environment Studies, Wits University, Johannesburg. Her work and self-reflection on the power dynamics within our white social constructs focuses on their violence and impact on cultural and racial identities, everyday lives, and the spaces we inhabit. It has grown out of years of relationship building with fellow human beings and the land. This collaborative work takes action towards decolonizing our minds, institutions, and design processes.
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Global Trends in Architecture for Health & Wellbeing
Panel Session
Date & Time: November 30, 2022 at 19:00-21:00 EST (Canada & USA)
December 1, 2022 at 9:00-11:00 JST (Japan)
INTRO
The world is just readjusting itself at the wake of a global pandemic that has affected everyone’s physical and mental health. To this effect, the International Union of Architects (UIA) designated 2022 as the year of Design for Health, highlighting the importance of the role of architecture in maintaining good health as well as contributing to the healing process. It states that “architecture for well-being goes beyond access to hospitals and health care facilities. It extends to improving the quality of the architectural spaces in which we live and work. From technical innovations which can improve thermal comfort, circulation and ventilation to subtler factors contributing to our psychological and social well-being such as public spaces, walkability, land use and daylight, we have realised that the quality of our built environment has profound implications for our quality of life, on the lives of those around us and on our natural environment.” This panel session will explore themes of “health” and “wellbeing” in a global context with speakers presenting case studies from the United States, Japan and Canada.
GUEST SPEAKERS
Dr. David Allison, Professor & Director of Graduate Studies in Architecture + Health, Clemson University, USA.
Dr. Ruka Kosuge, Associate Professor, School of Architecture, Graduate School of Engineering & Science, Shibaura Institute of Technology, Japan.
Dr. Henry Tsang, Assistant Professor, RAIC Centre for Architecture, Faculty of Science & Technology Athabasca University, Canada.
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Slowing Research: Reflecting on Theories of Change
8 November
1-2.30 pm MST
Please join us for a jointly hosted event from the FHSS Research Talks Seminar Series and the J-Series with speakers Alexis Shotwell, Denise Taliaferro Baszile, and Shaista Patel. The panel is a kickoff to this year’s FHSS Research Talks Seminar Series on the theme “Theories of Change in Research,” which invites faculty to ruminate on how theories of change are embedded in their work. The theme is drawn from a series of provocations offered by Unangax̂ scholar Dr. Eve Tuck, who writes about the settler colonial roots of the academy, damaged-centred research, and the imperatives of interrogating theories of change underpinning research. As a joint committee, we intentionally invited scholars whose work engages with questions of social and political action, thinking about the self as formed through both formal and informal education, and the challenges of collaborative research between communities and researchers.
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October 2022 – The Global Studio Virtual Mentoring Mixer
Hosted by - The Global Studio, RAIC Centre for Architecture at Athabasca University
Date: Saturday October 22nd , 2022
Time: 10:00 am – 12:00 pm Mountain Time
Join us for the Global Studio's first-ever Virtual Mixer. During this virtual event, you will have an opportunity to meet several professionals from Canada and Worldwide with various perspectives on architecture, urban planning, education, and design practices. This social event will provide opportunities for meaningful and inspired conversations between students, interns, emerging practitioners, and professionals on innovation, education, professional practice and allyship.
Mentorship is a critical part of the learning process even once academic training has concluded. Networking opportunities, forming relationships, and seeking guidance in the profession are essential to industry success and can benefit each stage of a design career. The Global Studio is building an international mentoring network of interdisciplinary professionals and researchers worldwide. Through the Global Studio Mentoring Network, we aim to provide a framework to seek meaningful mentorship opportunities and strengthen equity, diversity, and inclusivity in design practice.
Registration Link:
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUpduGhrTgrH9XXYEgxsE_VdbRjAu3mgEen
Registration Closes 18 October
Main St. overpass, Vancouver, BC