THE MASTER IN URBAN DESIGN AT THE SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE AND LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE : COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIP. CITY OF SURREY
The University of British Columbia (UBC), established in 1908, educates a student population of 50,000 on major campuses in two cities and holds an international reputation for excellence in advanced research and learning. UBC was ranked 30th in the Times Higher Education Supplement in 2012, and for the past five years has been among the top 40 institutes in the world, as ranked by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
The University of British Columbia creates an exceptional learning environment that fosters global citizenship, advances a civil and sustainable society, and supports outstanding research to serve the people of British Columbia, Canada and the world. In 2009, UBC created its Strategic Plan, Place and Promise, which rests its goals on three main pillars: Student Learning, Research Excellence, and Community Engagement. This third pillar aims to use UBC research and learning to enhance economic, social, and cultural wellbeing in all the communities UBC serves: local, provincial, national and global. We view ourselves as an integral part of these communities, and we aim to enter into relationships where decisions about means and ends are collaboratively made, costs and benefits are shared, and learning is reciprocal.
UBC in the Community
The School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, established in 1946, has a long history of community engagement. The School has for many years led a series of public lectures that facilitate dialogue and engagement around design and community development, in Vancouver and beyond. Further, the research and community partnerships of many of our faculty have made an indelible impact on Metro Vancouver — Professor Patrick Condon, for instance has been involved in several community projects that will make systemic changes in the way cities are built and operated, in Surrey, North Vancouver, Burnaby, Maple Ridge, and many other BC Communities.
The latest development in education from SALA is the Master of Urban Design. This field, which involves public policy, professional practice, and academic inquiry, is at its core the artful and purposeful shaping of cities and their conglomerate parts. Where this program diverges from others of its kind, however, is our commitment to community engagement — not only for UBC’s own vision, but to the betterment of our students and our communities. In each of the studios offered to our students, we want partnerships of real, growing cities to contribute the real sustainability problems that affect real people for our students to use as they learn and hone their skills as professional Urban Designers. Community partnerships play a central role in the MUD program in SALA. The studios that form the foundation of the MUD program will link the research foci of SALA to the concerns of our community partners. Each studio can examine a range of scales from region to block, such as surgical suburban retrofits in North America, informal community development in South America or the design of entirely new towns in China — and the partnership of real-world city planners, architects, and landscape architects, not to mention communities, will bring into sharp focus the wide range of issues that must be addressed for successful and sustainable urban design.
Forming strong partnership with a community is paramount to student success. By examining real-world scenarios, students engage in a distinctive, project-based curriculum that explores cutting-edge, real-world urban design concepts, while learning about the distinctly reciprocal and experiential learning environment that exists between professional architects and community stakeholders. This format allows students to gain real world exposure and forge both national and international connections before graduation. Moreover, the partnership feature of the MUD program presumes that projects may endure for more than one studio term and in some cases for more than one year. In a real world scenario, urban design and planning is not a problem that is addressed, solved, and forgotten; it is an ever evolving and changing scenario, as communities grow or shrink, or new demands are made on population, environment, or transportation, to name only a few. As such, the partnerships formed through this program are a great advantage not just to students, but to community partners, who will have continued discussion and input into on-going and evolving issues, both from up and coming students and from SALA’s renowned and experienced faculty members.
Each year, the work from the studios and with partners will culminate in an international design forum which features the work of the studios, part of which can take place within the community of our partners. This forum will bring top thinkers from around the world to join a dialogue with our students and prominent thinkers and practitioners from our region. Public lectures, seminars, presentations, and panel sessions provide a wide array of contact and conversation between students, academia government officials and practitioners. The School will also create a series of publications by the invited guests and students.