Visualizing change and adaptation: Integration of design practices and ecological realities

Our general objective is to develop a design language for mitigating and adapting to rapid environmental and ecological changes in built environments. This will come about through rigorous review of existing theory and practice in ecologically-motivated design, testing of new ideas, and application to built designs made possible by Christine Lintott Architects and colleagues in other design firms and the building industry. We propose to do this through the capacities of a Mitacs-based research program that will initially support two PhD students who will arrive at the University of Victoria in September 2021. They are trained internationally as architects and landscape architects, and bring diverse knowledge and new thinking to our work. We hope to expand this research collaboration with several additional graduate students over the next five years. We propose four subobjectives: 1) Produce a definitive synthesis of regenerative and ecological design ideas, precedents and practices under conditions of rapid change; 2) Developing visualization tools for citizen engagement (including repeat photography and oblique image analysis); 3) Test models of landscape resilience for urbanized and urbanizing regions; and, 4) Examine the lessons of decolonization for ecological restoration and regenerative design.

Faculty Supervisor:

Eric Higgs

Student:

Partner:

Christine Lintott Architects

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

University of Victoria

Program: