Message from the Dean

At SAPL, we offer research-based degrees and professional course-based programs to equip students to utilize the built environment as a source for solutions to the political and global issues at hand. We want our students to make a difference; to engage others about the notion of design, without losing their abilities to be critical and adventurous. To that end, we have tasked ourselves with producing educational opportunities for students to think outside the box with a strong entrepreneurial lens.

Our recently launched City Building Design Lab elevates this mission to a new level. Located in the Castell building across the street from City Hall, this satellite location augments our on-campus facility and brings our teaching, research, and community outreach into the heart of downtown. The Lab is equipped with a public gallery, large event space, advanced digital fabrication lab, expansive design studio, and multiple classrooms and project workspaces. It equips us to host relevant practitioners and academics to lecture and work with students. The downtown location enables us to include the community in our ongoing exhibitions, allowing different groups of people to participate with us in our question-asking and solution-seeking. It also allows us to work closely with the City and nonprofit organization to help envision better possibilities for Calgary. 

We believe our exciting entrepreneurial approach to city building through the disciplines of architecture, planning, and landscape architecture helps us to provide students with an intellectual context and strategies for learning that they can utilize for the duration of their careers.

- Dr. John L. Brown, Dean, School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape