How UCalgary is designing future-focused city builders

As today’s world become more unpredictable, changing and interconnected, the opportunity to equip young people with the skills to thrive has never been more important. With full course loads, squeezing in more content often isn’t possible, so the moment calls for a more creative approach — one that the University of Calgary’s Bachelor of Design in City Innovation (BDCI) program met with gusto. 

Launched in 2023, BDCI is a transdisciplinary program in the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape (SAPL) focused on preparing students to address complex challenges facing cities, societies and civilization. While developing the program, the SAPL team made the bold decision to incorporate Future Skills into the curriculum. 

Future Skills are open-access modules developed by the Future Skills Innovation Network (FUSION) — a collective of universities across Canada — that teach students human-centred skills, like communication, collaboration, metacognition and creativity. As of fall 2025, all 12 modules were being offered to every BDCI student in their first two years of the program. 

“Our goal is not simply to prepare students for a particular profession, but to prepare them for a future in which adaptability, creativity and lifelong learning will be essential,” says Alberto de Salvatierra, associate dean (undergraduate) and associate professor in SAPL. 

Working with the Future Skills team in the Office of Signature Learning Experiences, de Salvatierra saw the potential for the modules to address skills that are becoming more important regardless of discipline and the unique opportunity to design them into a brand-new curriculum. 

“Rather than viewing them as supplementary content, I saw them as reinforcing and extending the learning that was already taking place in our studios, seminars and project-based courses,” de Salvatierra says.

Sarah Ha, BComm’09, BA’09, a former UCalgary undergraduate program specialist who helped build the BDCI program, saw the same potential from working with students. After a successful student pilot that gave extensive positive feedback, Ha brought the proposal forward to leadership for implementation. 

“Our students are learning so many different things, but they aren’t learning life skills in their classes. Everyone aligned on their necessity and relevance throughout the program,” she says. 

Working with students, for students

A key aspect of the BDCI implementation was the intentional inclusion of students as partners. From the pilot course, to how to roll it out to students, to the actual leadership of the modules in classes, students have been deeply involved. 

Tina Valerte is a third-year BDCI student from Latvia interested in architecture and loved how the BDCI program teaches concepts beyond the discipline of architecture, such as city planning, as not all architecture programs offer studies in that field. 

When she saw the opportunity to participate as a module leader, she stepped up in one of her classes to teach her peers about metacognition, or the act of thinking about your own thinking. 

“When students are involved, it opens them up more. My role was helping my professor think of activities and how to engage the students better with the module,” she says. 

Every week, Valerte would connect an activity to the specific theme, using videos or tools like Kahoot! to encourage participation and connections to the content. 

“I wanted to keep trying new things,” says Valerte. “It also helped me develop my own speaking skills, introducing the work to the class.”

For Ha, having students as partners was critical to the success of the implementation. 

“It’s the foundation of all the things we do. If we are doing it for students, we need to work with them to ensure that what we roll out is attuned to their needs and how they would embrace it,” she says. “Students are our greatest allies — nothing is as powerful as peer-to-peer connections.”

Real impact for the future

De Salvatierra has seen many encouraging outcomes from the work already as the first cohort of BDCI students head into their graduating year in 2027. 

“Students often arrive at university focused primarily on acquiring technical knowledge. The Future Skills modules help make visible a different set of capabilities that are equally important, but often less explicitly discussed,” he says. “They encourage students to reflect on how they learn, collaborate, communicate, adapt and lead.”

Beyond the student learning, faculty members also take something away from the modules. De Salvatierra has noticed a growth in shared language around the skills — ones that may have been valued in the past, but not clearly articulated — strengthening conversations about student development beyond course content. 

“There is something powerful about creating educational environments where expertise flows in multiple directions,” he says. “Faculty contribute experience and disciplinary knowledge. Students contribute lived experience, peer insight and fresh perspectives. The strongest learning environments are often those where both groups are learning alongside one another.”

The secret sauce? Collaboration

Ha knows the amount of work it takes to chart a new path forward, undertaking the building of a program while simultaneously incorporating the Future Skills modules. But she is the first to say that it’s worth the effort. 

“To make this work, it requires a lot of collaboration. The scope would not have been possible without multiple parties willing to work together,” she says. “It’s important to know that you need to work with others to make it successful, but it’s so rewarding to see what comes out of it.”

De Salvatierra sees the BDCI program as a strong example of what’s possible when students, educators and partners work together for a common goal. 

“The BDCI program was founded on the belief that innovation emerges when diverse perspectives come together around a shared challenge,” he says. “In many ways, the Future Skills partnership exemplifies that same principle.”