The Faculty of Environmental Design at the University of Calgary has appointed Dr. David Monteyne as Associate Dean of Architecture.

Trained at the University of British Columbia and the University of Minnesota, Monteyne has been teaching in the Faculty of Environmental Design since 2005. Prior to his academic career, he worked several years as a heritage consultant in Vancouver. He has held fellowships at the Canadian Centre for Architecture and Cambridge University. As an architectural historian, has recently authored Fallout Shelter: Designing for Civil Defense in the Cold War.

As one of two Canadian teams chosen to compete in the U.S. Department of Energy’s bi-annual solar house design/build competition, Team Alberta is preparing to ship to California their entry in the 2013 Solar Decathlon competition. Faculty Advisor Loraine Fowlow has been working for almost two years with students in Architecture, Interior Design, Engineering, and Business from the UofC and Mount Royal University to design Borealis, a 900 square foot house comprised of three prefabricated modules designed to accommodate working professionals in remote regions of Alberta. Designed to be entirely net zero and powered solely by a 10kW PV and solar thermal tube arrays, Borealis provides private, comfortable and sustainable housing for an under served population.  Borealis is currently deemed to qualify for LEED Platinum. 

Branko Kolarevic and Vera Parlac organized and co-chaired the “Building Dynamics: Exploring Architecture of Change” international symposium, which was held on April 26 and 27, 2013, at the Banff Centre (www.buildingdynamics.org). Over 120 participants, mostly from North America, joined 16 invited speakers for presentations and discussions related to the broad symposium themes of change, building dynamics and dynamic buildings. Speakers included Sir Peter Cook from the Bartlett School of Architecture in London, Chuck Hoberman from New York, Enric Ruiz Geli from Barcelona, Kas Oosterhuis from Rotterdam, among others. The symposium was sponsored by Oldcastle Building Envelope, DIRTT, Haworth, EVDS, and Laboratory for Integrative Design (LID).

Branko Kolarevic has completed on June 30, 2013 his three-year term appointment as Associate Dean (Academic) for the architecture program.

Branko Kolarevic delivered an invited presentation at the symposium on design research which was held on May 14 and 15 at Holmsbu in Norway. The symposium was organized by the Oslo School of Architecture and Design (AHO). On May 22 he delivered a research seminar on “Performative Architecture” for MPhil and PhD students at the University of Hong Kong Faculty of Architecture. He was one of the invited speakers at the “Intersections” symposium in New York, which was held on May 31 at the City College of New York (CCNY). He was also one of the keynote speakers at the “Sustainable Intelligent Manufacturing (SIM)” Conference held from June 26 to 29 in Lisbon and organized by the Faculty of Architecture at the Technical University of Lisbon.

“The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada selected the University of Calgary’s Child Development Centre (CDC) as one of about 15 Canadian case studies for its 2030 Challenge web area (http://2030.raic.org/index_e.htm. The CDC achieved a 77% reduction in energy use on the 2030 Challenge rating scale, tied with Manitoba Hydro Place  for the best for any project outside the relatively mild regions of British Columbia.

Dr. Love was the energy systems consultant. He is the only energy systems advisor to have more than one project selected by the RAIC, the other being Lawrence Grassi School.”

Dr. Brian R. Sinclair, in April 2013, was an invited speaker at the international symposium “Building Dynamics: Architecture of Change” held in Banff Canada.  His talk centered on agility in architecture, open buildings and systems of flexibility in design & construction.

Dr. Brian R. Sinclair, in June 2013, was conferred the prestigious “Rev. Dr. Chief John Snow Sr. Award for Excellence in Teaching + Research” in recognition of his dedication to and work with Canada’s First Nations communities.

Dr. Brian R. Sinclair, in August 2013, delivered the opening lecture of the 2013-2014 academic year at the School of Architecture, University of Hawaii at Manoa.  His talk, entitled “Devising Design”, explored critical qualities of design appropriate for our complex and demanding times.

Dr. Brian R. Sinclair, in July 2013, was inducted into Lambda Alpha International, the Honorary Society for the Advancement of Land Economics.  Membership in LAI is reserved for those who have demonstrated leadership in, and built a compelling reputation of significant contributions to, the field of land economics.

Assistant Professor Jason Johnson and Professor John Brown are part of a team in the Faculty of Environmental Design to receive a 2013 Mayor’s Urban Design Award from the city of Calgary.  On September 29, 2012, more than 75 students from the University of Calgary Faculty of Environmental Design (EVDS) volunteered to put their stamp on a pop-up park in Victoria Park. The park began as an effort to take a derelict construction site and turn it into a public asset. The EVDS volunteers added six custom-designed benches designed by Guy Gardner and Assistant Professor Jason Johnson. Their work took place as part of the first annual Green Apple Day of Service.