Creative minds with caring hearts set out to design healthier, sustainable, more resilient communities

Tackling society’s most pressing issues is what the first ever bachelor’s degree offered by the University of Calgary’s School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape (SAPL) is designed to do.

The Bachelor of Design in City Innovation (BDCI), which will welcome its first cohort in the fall of 2023, brings to bear design-thinking, a hands-on approach and a wheelbarrow-load of disciplines to tackle society’s most urgent challenges, said SAPL dean, Dr. John Brown.

“If we look at the big problems and challenges in the world today – climate change and social injustice – they are grounded in the built environment, in the relation between people, and how they interact with the environment, their cities, their spaces and each other,” said Brown, who is hopeful for the impact that the eventual hundreds of graduating students will have in terms of not just building bold structures and livable cities, but how their expertise in urban planning, wild space management, economic pressures and climate change will allow them to build a more just, equitable and sustainable future for all Canadians.

“This program came about because we identified that there’s a significant knowledge and skills gap to address these critical challenges.”

These social, economic and environmental challenges stem, according to Mary Rowe, President of the Canadian Urban Institute, from our current urban policies, which are gridlocking institutions in 20th century models of decision-making and impeding the innovation necessary to move forward.

In a letter enthusiastically throwing her support behind the program, Rowe said the BDCI has the capacity to buck this trend, adding the program can create future leaders and job-ready students well-positioned to take on these complex and wicked urban challenges head on.

“Now more than ever, our cities require bold leaders trained in 21st century trans-disciplinary urban design,” said Rowe. “As governments, civil society, and private industry struggle to improve the vibrancy, livability, economic health, and sustainability of cities, these skills will be prerequisites for the success of Canada’s cities.”

The BDCI is the first undergraduate degree of its kind in western Canada, and it’s one that’s badly needed, said Kate Thompson, president and CEO of the Calgary Municipal Land Corporation. The expanded thinking and approach the BDCI promises is a critical educational option that is currently missing in Alberta, she added.

“The wide-reaching inputs to city building (physical, social, political, economic, historical) must be studied so that together our city can emerge as a leader in the world of urban design,” she said.

Even Calgary Economic development sees the value that this brand new program brings to Calgary as a city and as an economic juggernaut.

That value comes from the potential that program graduates will have to make cities more livable, sustainable and prosperous, said Calgary Economic Development president and CEO Brad Parry in his personal endorsement of the program. He believes the BDCI will not only train innovative thinkers and leaders, but will also help shape a Calgary with more opportunity for home-grown talent and more attractive to external investment.

What sets the BDCI apart is a multi-disciplinary curriculum delivered through hands-on learning in design studios focused on city innovation. Students will also do deep dives into 2D and 3D visualization, history/theory, sustainability studies, entrepreneurship and data science.

”Students will apply in the studio the theory they learn in the classroom to real world problems,” explained the dean.

If you’re looking for a steppingstone to a career in architecture, planning or landscape architecture, the BDCI can be customized with a pre-professional concentration in architecture or landscape architecture, which will prepare you for admission into graduate degrees and eventual licensure as a professional in those fields.

But the flexible nature of the program also means that students can customize their education with a minor in public health, social work, business, or data science as well as certificates in sustainability and entrepreneurship. These graduates could go on to advanced degrees to become lawyers, social workers, public health specialists, and data scientists, or go straight into the public, private, or non-profit sectors in careers such as public art managers, market research analysts, social programs advisors, neighborhood resource coordinators, community development officers, policy analysts, sustainability specialists, and green building analysts, among others.

Application for fall 2023 is now open. More information on the BDCI can be found on the website.