Episode 3: Is universal design for everyone?

How do we design for a broader range of people? This episode examines pitfalls that can be unconsciously made by the able-bodied designer. It covers topics such as the current perception of disabilities in the built environment, designer age factor bias, and where are these principals needed most.

Guests: Russell Copley (M.Geography Student), Hashim (M. Environmental Design Student), Darby Lee Young (Principal of Level Playing Field), Tracy Liu (Associate, Architect at Dialog)

Episode 2: How can we design Canadian homes for the externally displaced?

Discussions about cultural displacement, refugees, and cultural adoption. This episode asks questions such as what are some examples of designs that have healed and helped to bring people together to create a sense of inclusion? How can we fight isolation? How do find common design qualities for an ethnic group?

Guests: Jamie Enachescu (Former Program Manager at the United Way of Calgary) , Srimal Ranasinghe (Community Lead at Sustainable Calgary), Hal Eagletail (Cultural Consultant and member of the Northern Dene TsuuT’ina Nation)

Episode 1: How can we overcome design biases in western education?

What are some assumptions we make as designers? Is there bias in design? How has architecture served western values and what western values do they serve? This episode looks at dissecting the relationships between social and environmental inequities in design found in our education and workplace environments.

Guests: Bushra Hashim (M. Environmental Design Student), Vivian Ton (Founding member of AEDE and M. Architecture Student), María del Sol Galdón (Landscape Architect of Planta| Galdón Landscape Studio), Martha Schwartz (Senior Partner at Martha Schwartz Partners)

Episode 3: Walker Mckinley

Walker Mckinley is a founding partner of the firm Mckinley Burkart. Along with Mark Burkhart, the firm has made a name for themselves with their designs in the public sector, including numerous restaurants, breweries, and other public spaces. With offices in both Calgary and Vancouver, the firm is globally known and have won numerous awards for their local and international designs. The traditional practice of architecture has increasingly separated into opposing models: the rarified world of the Starchitect, and at the other end the increasing commodification and specialization of the more common practitioner. For most of the industry, this has led to a loss of influence and an inability to bring true value to projects. In reaction to this, McKinley Burkart has been seeking to develop a new model of practice, based less in hourly effort and a narrow understanding of the appropriate scope of the architect’s role, and more in the collaborative, multi-disciplinary mode of an intelligence agency. This ongoing process has lead Mckinley Burkhart to the establishment of numerous entities within the firm - Black Chamber Think Tank, Little Sister Branding, Tableau Procurement, Mosquito Agency Art Consultancy, Fat Frames, and Tone Deaf, just to name a few. What you are about to hear is a conversation we had with Walker Mckinley before his Design Matters Lecture. Please Enjoy.

Episode 2: Jean Verville

Jean Verville is a Canadian architect and artist whose choice of medium is housing. His works exhibit a wide range of experimentation with powerful contrasts, playfulness, and ideas of what a place to live in could be. He is also a professor of architecture at Laval University and recipient of several awards including the Award of Excellence in Architecture in 2017, Azure’s Best Architecture in 2016, Winner of the 2016 Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Installation Competition, Interiors Fredie Award in 2010, and the list goes on and on. More recently, Jean completed an art installation tilled ‘B15’ that his students took part in. The piece was inspired by the musical artist KROY, which became a source of inspiration for this installation, resulting in a multidisciplinary experiment combining music, architecture, video and photography, What you are about to hear is a conversation we had with Jean before his Design Matters Lecture Series. Please Enjoy.

Episode 1: Chip Sullivan and Elizabeth Boults

Chip Sullivan and Elizabeth Boults are the Landscape Architects who co-author the book “Illustrated History of Landscape Design”, which uses a combination of timelines and storyboards to visually narrate Landscape Architecture History. Elizabeth Boults has been teaching at UC Davis since 2004. Her teachings encompass landscape representation, site design, theory, and the history of the built environment. Her various professional projects include landscape revitalization, drought-tolerant planting design for large-scale estates, and landscape renovation of historically-significant properties. Chips Sullivan is a professor at UC Berkeley and has devoted his career to promoting landscape architecture as an art. He lectures on the philosophy and application of sustainable design using art and ecology. Chip has lectured and exhibited his work around the world. What you are about to hear is a conversation with had with Chip and Liz before their Design Matters Lecture Series. Please enjoy.