Recalibrating Infrastructure
This webinar is part of the RAIC 2023 Conference on Architecture, now available to stream!
Topics: Housing, Planning and Urbanism
Length: 1 hour | What's Included: Video, Quiz, and Certificate of Completion
Our cities have inherited an industrial past that includes a network of infrastructures engineered to efficiently move goods and people between spaces of production, manufacturing, and consumption. As the related industries and systems have slowly disappeared or been relocated, large and key areas within our cities have existed in a problematic condition that, while existing as a current liability, must be understood as spaces and places of opportunity for city-building and building community. This initiative explores the critical recalibration of infrastructures in cities towards constructing social and cultural agency within these spaces.
The session will explore transportation infrastructures including Calgary’s portfolio of underpasses that link the downtown area with the heavily populated Beltline community across the CP Rail lines. This problematic condition offers opportunities to weave the city together while celebrating this anomaly as an interesting place-specific condition which lends legibility to Calgary. The session will construct sensibilities and sensitivities around the complex but necessary recalibration of infrastructures as our cities evolve to become accessible, livable, and inclusive.
Learning Objectives:
By the completion of this session, participants will be able to:
- Identify opportunities for evolving transportation modes to enhance existing infrastructure
- Consider opportunities to incorporate accessible and safe public spaces
- Develop integrated teams to include artists and stakeholders to celebrate and connect communities
- Discern collaboration techniques to coordinate with authorities, municipalities
Subject Matter Expert:
Mr. Marc Boutin
Architect, AAA, FRAIC, RCA
Principal, the marc boutin architectural collaborative inc.
The marc boutin architectural collaborative inc. (MBAC) operates at the boundaries between design disciplines, seeking a density of meaning that emerges through the synthesis of art, architecture, urban design, and landscape design. This interdisciplinarity enriches the quality of the firm's work by virtue of the emphasis it places on the relationships between scales of design. MBAC's building commissions are informed by an understanding of how they relate to the public realm, with public space designs shaped by the influences of the buildings that border them. MBAC’s perseverant interest in a broad definition of the scope of architectural practice is a product and a reflection of the firm’s origins and continued engagement with the full spectrum of architecture as a discipline. Founded by Marc Boutin in 1997, MBAC is driven by a strong design research impulse as a mode of practice manifested in the firm’s building and public space commissions. Marc has produced a significant body of public realm and cultural work in Alberta, including the 4th Street SW Underpass Enhancement, the Memorial Drive Landscape of Memory projects, C-Square, Phase 1 of the Edmonton Valley Zoo Children’s Precinct, and the John Fry Sports Park Pavilion. He studied environmental design, architecture, and architectural history at the University of Manitoba, the University of Toronto, the University of British Columbia, and the University of Calgary. Marc was the Canadian Prix de Rome Winner in 2002, elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Art in 2013 and a Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada in 2014. Marc counts himself fortunate to have explored and created architecture in Vancouver, Calgary, and Toronto; lessons from Rome and Barcelona, cities with a rich design tradition, have instilled in Marc an understanding of the value of design, creating meaningful spaces and cities that are culturally relevant and socially generous. The experience of living and designing in these cities gave Marc evidence that the best architecture has the capacity for cultural, social, economic, and ecological resonance. As a full-time Associate Professor at the University of Calgary’s School of Architecture, Planning, and Landscape (SAPL), Marc has taught a wide range of studio, theory, and elective courses in addition to serving as director of the architecture program. During his tenure at SAPL, Marc's teaching has been recognized with five teaching awards.
Mr. Matthew Parks
Architect, AAA, MAA, LEED® AP
Partner, DIALOG
Matthew has 15 years of architectural experience working on cultural, community, healthcare and transportation projects. He is passionate about fostering a culture of creativity at DIALOG that challenges the status quo. He believes in an inclusive process where engaging clients and stakeholders in the discovery process is fundamental to achieving success and improving our communities and built environment through the work that we do. He is the graduate of the University of Calgary School of Architecture, Planning, and Landscape (formerly the Faculty of Environmental Design), Master of Architecture program and received his Bachelor of General Studies from the University of Calgary. He has provided design leadership as a project architect and project manager on several cultural projects including: a vision / concept / business case study for the Glenbow Museum, an expansion of Fort Calgary including renovation of the Deane House, historic rehabilitation of the Hunt House as well as the 1875 Fort Site Interpretive Installation. Matthew has an interest in community involvement and was partner in charge for the town of Canmore Downtown Master Plan as well as serving in a peer review role for the Canmore Cultural Master Plan. As DIALOG liaison for the School of Architecture, Planning, and Landscape, Laboratory for Integrative Design, Matthew provides leadership and coordinates multi-disciplinary feedback to students and faculty in the development of DigFab and performative participatory envelopes in this collaborative research.
Pricing A-La-Carte