News

Professors in the Faculty of Architecture and Planning are experts in their fields. They are frequently called upon by media to share research and commentary on pressing issues of our time. Many of our professors also run their own design practices, garnering national and international praise for their firms’ work. See below for a sample of the accolades our Faculty has received and other updates.

School of Architecture:

Sarah Bonnemaison

Sarah Bonnemaison is preparing an installation in the Schlemmer House at the Bauhaus in Dessau, Germany, exploring the biophilic aspects of modern kitchen design. It is part of the Haushaltsmesse 2015 [Householding Exhibition], which includes many other international architects and artists. The exhibition opens June 12, 2015.

Sarah has also written, in collaboration with Christine Macy, “The Dwelling-Garden Dyad in 20th c. Affordable Housing”, a contribution to BIOS: The Routledge Handbook of Biology in Art, Architecture, and Design, eds. Charissa Terranova and Meredith Tromble, to be published by Routledge in 2016.

Diogo Burnay and Cristina Verissimo

Diogo and Cristina gave two lectures on CVDB Arquitectos’ recent work, one at NSCAD and another at Lawrence Technological University in Detroit. CVDB Arquitectos won a international anonymous design competition in November 2014 for a Students Residence for the University of Lisbon. This project has been now commissioned to them. Their practice also came second place in an international anonymous design competition in October 2014 for the Faculty of Nursing for the University of Lisbon. They completed the Transforma Cultural and Performative Arts Centre in Torres Vedras in Portugal which was done in collaboration with Pedro Gadanho, the Contemporary Architecture curator for MOMa in New York. The secondary school they designed in Pontinha got the Archdaily Best Building of the Year award for education in 2014.

Ted Cavanagh

Ted Cavanagh and Coastal Studio continue to work on small but significant buildings that explore innovative methods of construction. New grants and funds from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council, the European Union, and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture have increased their annual operating budget ten-fold to three-quarter million dollars per year. This has broadened their design-build research into an exciting new area. They are now working with researchers at Dalhousie and the Universities of Alberta and Toronto to study communications during the design process with all their design collaborators and with the end users of the buildings. The increased scope of Coastal Studio extends to collaborations with the Universities of Arizona, North Carolina (Charlotte) and Louisiana (Lafayette) to work on a series of similar gridshell structures culminating in one that will involve all of us building together a structure for Cape Breton Highlands National Park in the summer of 2016.

Another initiative involves establishing a database of best practices to support a network of the schools of design build in North America and Europe. This will involve a “warts and all” set of case studies from the schools to help us all get better at what we do as architects, builders and educators. This initiative involves Dalhousie, the University of Manitoba, the Technische Universität Berlin, Oxford Brookes University, the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, and possibly l’Université de Montréal.

Ted was the conference organizer and chair of the 2014 ACSA Fall Conference in Halifax, which nearly two hundred people attended. Due to the efforts of many, Dalhousie is now well-recognized as a centre of design-build education.

James Forren

James is new to the Faculty as of January 1, 2015! Under the umbrella of Stilfragen Architecture, Art, and Design, James’s work encompasses topics at the intersection of art, design and technology. He has worked with various practices leading the design of large-scale institutional projects and directing the application of digital design and construction technologies to high performance building systems. His work has been exhibited at galleries and conferences throughout the United States. James is currently teaching Design Studio and Building Systems Integration in the B5 year and will run an M5 workshop in the Fall. He maintains a design practice in Boston, Massachusetts.

Photo (right): The Lantern (with Perkins+Will). Wood and steel atrium screen serving as guardrail, workstation, bench, and information desk for a campus center in Lowell, MA.

Susan Fitzgerald

Susan, also a principal at Halifax firm Fowler, Bauld and Mitchell, holds one of the new Professor of Practice positions in the Faculty. She was a speaker at Evolve Make Build – Saskatchewan Association of Architects Conference and AGM and on a panel discussion with Sasa Radulovic and Betsy Williamson in May 2015. Her recent project King Street Live Work Build won a Lieutenant Governor’s Design Award and has been published in Azure and Green Magazine (Australia). Susan is becoming a fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada at the RAIC festival in Calgary.

Brian Lilley

Over the past year, Brian Lilley has been working together with FBM Architects on a greenhouse project for the Hope Blooms garden. This project is funded in part by the generosity of the Dragon’s Den, and marks the culmination of a number of Dalhousie free labs including an art-fence, a parkour starter course, an outdoor kitchen, and raised planting beds — all designed in collaboration with local youth and contributing to the rejuvenation of the North End Halifax community.

Brian is also involved with several NSCAD colleagues in the Narratives in Time and Space Society. This is an interdisciplinary creative research group working on projects involving mobile media and walking. A series of investigative excursions has resulted in installations and digitally-informed walking experiences celebrating firstly the Hippodrome in Montreal and currently the 1917 explosion in Halifax.

Brian MacKay-Lyons | Talbot Sweetapple

MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects has continued to draw international acclaim for its buildings grounded in the design and construction traditions of Canada’s Atlantic provinces. We are proud to announce that Brian is the 2015 recipient of the RAIC Gold Medal (the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada’s highest honour), a year after MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects was awarded the RAIC Firm Award.

In 2014, Talbot Sweetapple’s multi-year free lab Refuge on the Bay of Fundy received a North American Wood Design Honor Award.

The Lean-to House was awarded a Lieutenant Governor’s Medal of Excellence.

Two Hulls House won the Architizer Awards People’s Choice Award.

And the Cliff House was an AZ Awards Winner for Best Residential Architecture. MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects was recently selected from six invited firms to design 50 cabins on Bigwin Island Golf Club in Muskoka, Ontario.

Brian recently celebrated the launch of his book Local Architecture: Building Place, Craft and Community (Princeton Architectural Press, 2015). Over 25 articles have been published in local, national, and international news sources on the design philosophies and work of Brian, Talbot and the MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple team. On the lecture circuit, Brian was keynote speaker and panel member at numerous events across the US. He gave several public lectures, one as far away as in Istanbul, Turkey, and served as a jury member for several provincial/state level and national design competitions. The firm’s work has been a feature in numerous local and national radio and television pieces including CBC’s Information Morning and Maritime Noon. (photo)

Talbot holds one of the new Professor of Practice positions in the Faculty.

Christine Macy

In 2013, Christine was appointed to a second five-year term as Dean of the Faculty. While her first term was oriented towards strengthening the financial resiliency of the Faculty, fostering strong relationships with alumni and the professions, and creating a more supportive studio culture, she is proudest of having led the Faculty through its first Strategic Plan, adopted in 2013. This process of reflection and goal-setting aims to balance the professional and scholarly mandates of a professional Faculty in a research-intensive university. It has led to the creation of new Professor of Practice positions and a simultaneous advancement of the Faculty’s research culture, with two successful CFI awards and the adoption of a framework to support research in the School of Architecture.

Last Fall, working with Frank Palermo’s Cities and Environment Unit, Christine hosted the Rosina Roundtable workshops to bring university and civic leaders together with national experts in architecture and development, in the development of a concept plan for the future of Sexton Campus. This assisted Dalhousie’s Board of Governors in their decision to purchase the empty lands adjacent to the New Central Library, which will secure the developmental future of Dalhousie’s downtown Campus. Christine is currently focused on supporting the IDEA Building, a student-centered facility shared with Engineering that will provide more studio space, state of the art workshops and design commons. She is also leading the development of a new Master in Landscape Architecture, and a renewal of Dalhousie Architectural Press with the introduction of a peer review process, an expanded advisory board and this summer, a new Director of the Press.

She continues to teach B1 Design studio and 20th c. architectural history and last year, she created a new graduate seminar on Urban Systems examining the infrastructure of the metropolis and its influence on urban form and development.

Roger Mullin

Last summer, Roger and ten Dalhousie students traveled to the remote Norwegian island of Sandhornøya to join a consortium of international students, designers and artists contributing to the design and construction of several beach shelters as part of SALT – the World’s First Arctic Arts Festival (Art, Music, Architecture and Food). The work has been widely published in national papers and magazines in North America and Europe. One of these shelters is currently shortlisted for an award with Azuremagazine.

Roger also has a number of other projects related to his research in coastal areas of the North Atlantic: in 2013 and 2014, he participated in two international exhibitions in Finnmark, Norway at the Sami Centre for Contemporary Art. This work extended projects completed during his Iver Jaks Artist Residency in Karasjok, Norway, for which he was selected out of 700 international applicants. His large format multi-media drawing 33 Chairs (co-authored with Elizabeth Shotten) was purchased as part of the exhibition Describing Architecture 2014 held at the City Assembly House and Powerscourt Townhouse in Dublin, Ireland. He also ran Building a Drawing, the first workshop held at the newly formed Luneburg School of Arts (photo). This summer, Roger is planning another trip with students to Iceland.

Steve Parcell

Steve continues to serve as undergraduate and graduate coordinator, serving a vital administrative role at the school. He also played a major role in the preparation of the School of Architecture accreditation visit that took place in March. His book chapter “An Architectural Creation Myth borrowed from the Phenomenology of Music” was published in Architecture’s Appeal: How Theory Informs Architectural Praxis, eds. Marc Neveu and Negin Djavaherian (Routledge, 2015).

Austin Parsons

Last year, Austin’s conference paper “The Need to Link the Tangible with the Intangible: the challenges of infinite design life and perpetual maintenance” was selected for publication in the International Journal of Sustainable Construction. He contributed articles to Scantlings (the Timber Framer’s Guild newsletter) and The Griffin (the Heritage Trust of Nova Scotia’s quarterly publication) and presented “Historic Framing in Nova Scotia 1700-1800” at the Timber Framers Guild regional gathering in Kentville. Parsons Lumber Company is developing specifications for correctly detailed period windows and doors for use on conservation projects.

Niall Savage

As of January 2015, Niall is a full time faculty member in the School of Architecture.

Catherine Venart

Early this year, Catherine’s essay “Art-Block or Mind-Gap: a re-Imaging or re-constructing, the space between measure and infinite grounds” was published in Diane Lewis: Open City: An Existential Approach (Charta, 2015).

Sessional Instructors

Last year, Lisa Tondino (houdinidesign architects) and Judy Obersi (OBERSIprojects) with alumnus Alexandra Bolen (MArch ’12) were awarded a Lieutenant Governor’s Citation in Architecture for their renovation of the Ritchie Gidney Residence. They are currently working on a second phase of this renovation. Photo by Bridget Havercroft Images.

School of Planning:

Jill Grant

Jill  returned from sabbatical July 1st. Jill spent her sabbatical catching up on writing and doing research in her various projects. Together with Kirk Brewer (MPlan 2014) she has a new article out in Planning Theory and Practice. The journal profiled the paper with a press release, and is making the paper available free on-line. The current issue of Plan Canada contains an article by Jill and MPlan graduate Amanda Taylor from the Coordinating Multiple Plans project. The article derives from Amanda’s senior independent project. And, Urban History Review has just published an article by Jill and Nathan Roth (MPlan 2013) on the history of commercial uses on Gottingen Street. Jill has several more articles in progress. Jill was recently appointed to the team of Editors for Planning Theory and Practice, and is also on the editorial boards ofInternational Planning Studies, and the Canadian Journal of Urban Research.

Ahsan Habib

Ahsan is successfully leading Dalhousie Transportation Collaboratory (DalTRAC). He is supervising fourteen graduate students, including three PhD Students. Two of his Master of Planning Studies (MPS) students graduated this year, revitalizing the research-based degree of the School of Planning. Ahsan holds a NSERC Discovery Grant as the Principal Investigator. Recently, he has received a SSHRC/Insight grant as a co-applicant (in collaboration with the Faculty of Management). Last year, he has received funding support from many government and non-government agencies, including the Nova Scotia Department of Energy, Department of Health and Wellness and the Bicycle Nova Scotia. Last year, he published three articles in peer-reviewed journals and over ten papers in peer-reviewed conference proceedings. Ahsan and his graduate students presented their research results in many international conferences, including Annual Meetings of Transportation Research Board, (Washington DC, USA), Regional Science (Bethesda, USA), International Choice Modelling Conference (Austin, USA), Annual Conference Canadian Transportation Research Forum (Windsor, Canada) and CSCE International Transportation Specialty Conference (Halifax). He is planning to present papers in the International Conference on Travel Behaviour Research (Windsor, UK) and International Conference on Mobility and Transport for Elderly and Disabled Persons (Lisbon, Portugal) this year. Ahsan is appointed as a member of a standing committee on “Transportation and Sustainability” in the Transportation Research Board (TRB) of the National Academies, USA. He is also serving as a member of the Climate Change Task Force of the Transportation Association of Canada.

Ahsan Habib and his graduate students at DalTRAC are working on a variety of transportation projects this summer, including travel data collection, emission studies and network modelling. Over the next few months, the team is developing a GIS-based web survey tool for the Nova Scotia Travel Activity (NovaTRAC) survey, sponsored by the Province of Nova Scotia. Ahsan recently published three articles in the Transportation Research Record: Journal of Transportation Research Board. He has four other articles under review in different journals. Ahsan has been traveling to many conferences presenting research from DalTRAC. In the spring he presented at the International Choice Modeling Conference in Austin, Texas, and the CTRF 50th Annual Conference, Montreal, Quebec. Later this summer he will be presenting at the International Travel Behaviour Research in Windsor, UK, July 19-23 and International Conference on Mobility and Transport for Elderly and Disabled Persons, Lisbon, Portugal, July 28-31. DalTRAC has launched a new website.

Patricia Manuel

In the past year, Patricia has been invited to lecture in the Faculty of Management and the Department of Community Health and Epidemiology, and has been an invited speaker to the Information without Borders Conference (of the School of Information Management) and the Flood Management Workshop (held by the Atlantic Climate Adaptation Solutions Association). She continues to work as a member of the National Coastal Assessment Advisory Committee (of Natural Resources Canada), writing a report on the implications of projected climate change impact scenarios for Canada’s coastal communities and regions.

Patricia is involved in a multi-disciplinary, multi-sector project to develop a web-based decision-making support tool for helping coastal communities in Atlantic Canada adapt to climate change. The project is funded by NRCan and ACASA and managed by the Climate Lab at UPEI. Our School of Planning is the lead on the land use planning adaptation component of the work. The project has supported the training of seven graduate students with this project (as RAs and on work-terms), five of them in the School of Planning.

Patricia has been traveling this spring and early summer. She was in Iceland in June for three weeks delivering her annual course on coastal planning at the University Centre of the Westfjords. She attended the CIP annual conference in Saskatoon late in June.

Eric Rapaport

Eric Rapaport is working with the Halifax Regional Municipality in an exchange between the city and Tallinn Estonia as part of the World Cities Project funded by the EU. The Estonia delegates are here in July. Eric is presenting his work on visualization and sea level rise as well as climate change and forest fire prediction modeling. In October he will be traveling to Estonia with HRM staff.

Patricia Manuel | Eric Rapaport

Patricia Manual and Eric Rapaport (with co-authors Janice Keefe and Tamara Krawchenko) recently had two papers accepted for publication developed from their work on aging coastal communities and the impacts of climate change; one paper will be published in the Canadian Geographer and the other in Canadian Public Policy. Eric and Patricia also recently completed two other projects in climate change impacts and adaptation: one mapping social vulnerability to climate change impacts in the Nova Scotia coastal flood zone, and the other a pilot on heat stress and adaptation in a rural Nova Scotia community.

 Jill Grant | Patricia Manuel | Eric Rapaport

Jill, Patricia, and Eric attended the Nova Scotia Planning Director’s Association Conference in Halifax in May, along with many students who volunteered at the conference. Patricia and Eric presented their work, “The first 10 metres – mapping the coastal flooding projections and social vulnerability along the coast of Nova Scotia”.

Mikiko Terashima

Mikiko Terashima and two MPlan students are working with HRM this summer to develop Halifax municipal districts indicators for analyzing socio-demographic characteristics and access to services. These indicators will be used as a set of tools to formulate evidence-based policies and programs and monitor the progress of these policies and programs. Mikiko is attending the International Medical Geography Symposium in Vancouver, July 6 to 12, where she is presenting a paper.