Notice Board

Aptness, Plasticity + Design: Necessitating Agility in Environments

The pursuit of the extraordinary in Architecture is daunting, demanding and elusive. The needs of society increasingly shift and blur, with an allied expectation that landscapes, buildings, spaces and places will accordingly transform, mutate and accommodate. Development is vibrant, intense and forceful, often operating at unforeseen scales, through unfathomable complexities and with unpredictable consequences. Countering the call for heightened production and additional products are realities around resources, efficiencies and responsibilities. On one hand technology, in its broad definition and rich manifestations, proffers tools and techniques to advance the cause; yet on the other precautions warrant a tempering of unbridled subscription. Plato’s Pharmacon is apropos. Into the mix comes an emergent hope that cultural plurality can be addressed, contextual nuance can be measured, individual difference can be celebrated, buildings can be dynamic and cities can be smart. As we reconsider design in this ever-changing milieu it is constructive to contemplate new ways of seeing, thinking and acting, including the questioning of convention, the managing of expectation and the cultivating of invention. To this end such notions as agility, open building, fitness, balance, the quest for perfection and an acceptance of imperfection loom as potentially valuable possibilities.

Dr. Brian R. Sinclair is an award-winning Professor of Architecture + Environmental Design, and former Dean, in the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Environmental Design. He has served as Presidential Advisor on Design + Sustainability, a demanding and creative role unique in the landscape of higher education. Brian is president of sinclairstudio inc., a Canadian-based multi-disciplinary design|research corporation engaged in a broad array of global projects. Prior to his deanship, Sinclair was Chair of the renowned Architecture school at Ball State University in Indiana. Brian holds postgraduate degrees in architecture and psychology. An educator and practitioner, Sinclair`s expertise reaches from science to art and his explorations span the space between. His newest book (2009, CaGBC) is entitled “Context, Culture and the Pursuit of Sustainability”.