News

The Miistakis Institute for the Rockies, a research institute affiliated with the Faculty of Environmental Design (EVDS), is embarking on a 3-year project led by the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring (ABMI) Institute to understand how Alberta can mange for biodiversity in the face of a changing climate.

"My settling/unsettling story begins with a knock on my door in the middle of the afternoon by a police officer shortly after moving to Calgary from Los Angeles in 2008.

It came to my attention that a group of thugs had broken into the apartment below me by first breaking into the apartment next to it and then blowing a whole through the party wall. That architecture made that act possible, that architecture itself is a body that participates in the dynamic landscapes that are our cities became of critical importance in this story.

The Cenovus TRTL on display last year at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon competition in Washington, D.C. Photo courtesy of the University of Calgary Solar Decathlon team

The University of Calgary’s student-designed net-zero home aimed at addressing the needs of First Nations communities received an Emerald Award in Calgary on June 6. The Cenovus TRTL (Technological Residence Traditional Living) was the winner in the Education category and the team received a trophy and a $5,000 cash prize.

Architecture student Megan Fritzler, in the Faculty of Environmental Design (EVDS), wins the Steel Structures Education Foundation (SSEF) Award of Merit for Ad Space.

The SSEF Architectural Design Competition was established to provide students enrolled in professional programs in architecture in Canada a unique opportunity - to enter into a design process that brings together the concept and reality of exposed steel systems.

It was the summer of 1881 when 25 men led by U.S. Cavalry Lt. Adolphus Greely arrived on the northern tip of Ellesmere Island and built a wood and tarpaper hut that served as base camp for the first Arctic scientific expedition during the inaugural International Polar Year. Greely gave the ramshackle shoreline settlement the lofty name of Fort Conger before his team moved on to an ill-fated expedition that saw their ship crushed in the ice and all but seven of the team perish before they were rescued three years later in what is now Nunavut Territory.

Environment Minister Peter Kent announced Wednesday the establishment of a federal panel to determine whether Vancouver-based Taseko Mines Ltd.'s proposed gold-copper mine in the B.C. interior will cause unjustified environmental harm.

A previous federal panel in 2010 rejected Taseko's proposal to build a gold-copper mine 125 kilometres southwest of Williams Lake.

EVDS Professor Dr. Brian R. Sinclair earns campus wide recognition for his excellence in teaching from the Graduate Students’ Association (GSA).

Although they are oceans and landmasses apart, sustainable urban design experts at the University of Calgary are lending their expertise to government leaders from one of the fastest-growing cities in Australia.

The university's environmental design faculty met last week with a delegation of five Australian MPs from Melbourne who visited Calgary to learn how the city is managing rapid urban growth.

EVDS architecture professor and associate dean (research and international), John Brown, says too many people live in badly designed houses. Too many houses have rooms that don’t get used, kitchens that are hard to work in, living rooms that are difficult to furnish, and front entry spaces with no closets. There are supersized houses and those that, in spite of their actual size, feel too small and cramped.

The dean of the environmental design faculty (EVDS), Nancy Pollock-Ellwand is meeting with a state parliamentary committee from Australia today.

The Outer Suburban/Interface Services and Development Committee (OSISDC) from the Parliament of Victoria in Melbourne, is on an international study tour to learn more about sustainable urban design as it conducts an inquiry into the liveability and growth of Melbourne's outer suburbs.