Dr. John Brown. Image courtesy of University of Calgary

The Deans List is an interview series with the leaders of architecture schools, worldwide. The series profiles the school’s programming, as defined by the dean — giving an invaluable perspective into the institution’s unique curriculum, faculty, and academic environment.

For this installment, Archinect spoke with Dr. John Brown, dean at the University of Calgary School of Architecture, Planning, and Landscape. A seasoned architect and academic, Brown's background has allowed him to explore how academia can not only teach students but foster a level of thinking. From running a practice filled with people-centric design, research, and entrepreneurial spunk, Brown expresses for students to "look at what it is they want to do and how they can do that most effectively without being constrained by conventional practice." 

A supporter of design innovation and entrepreneurship, Brown shares the challenges the program has faced and how the blending of research and multidisciplinary has led the University of Calgary to help prepare their students to not just be consultants of architecture but specialists.

What would you consider to be your own pedagogical stance on architectural education?

I think at its broadest, we need to be mindful since we’re educating people for a profession that “doesn't yet exist.” The architectural profession, construction, city building — it’s all changing so rapidly because of factors like technology, resilience building, and equity. We have to be mindful that in the shortest term, you may be educating to go get jobs in 2-3 years, but our main responsibility is to provide them with an intellectual context and strategies for learning that they can apply over the next 30-40 years in terms of pedagogy.

How would you characterize the program at the University of Calgary? What makes it unique?

On one level, we're an accredited Master's of Architecture program. We conform to the requirements of certification, so at a base level, we offer that. However, beyond that, we want to provide learning opportunities for our students to think out of the box. We have a strong entrepreneurial focus as well. We pose the question, “How can you think about taking these agents of change and students learn the type of impact they’re going to create?”

In response to what’s happening politically and globally, this is a moment in the world’s history where so many problems are directly related to each other, and solutions must come out of the built environment. 

With the politics that exist today and the changing of the licensure process, it seems like that practice is moving into education. Do you see this happening more? 

I don’t see that so much here [in Calgary]. What we're trying to do is empower our professional colleagues through the continuing education degrees, giving them alternate ways of thinking of how they can express and contribute. In response to what’s happening politically and globally, this is a moment in the world’s history where so many problems are directly related to each other, and solutions must come out of the built environment. Climate change and social equity is incumbent on us as a discipline, and we’re not going to lead that by putting in RFPs and enabling someone else’s dreams. We shouldn’t be waiting around for a client to approach us. The discipline is more engaged with solving impactful problems in the world. 

The idea that you can be more than just a hired person who does drawings is important for us to remember. We have to ask ourselves, how do we take control of that and bring it back? How do we sit at the leadership table that’s making a bigger difference? We need to make an entrepreneurial disruption of the status quo.

The idea that you can be more than just a hired person who does drawings is important for us to remember [...] We need to make an entrepreneurial disruption of the status quo.

What do you anticipate will be the biggest challenges you're going to be facing this year as dean?

It’s funny you ask this. We actually had a challenge last year with visibility and recognizability in the community. Before, we were called the “Faculty of Environmental Design,” and about six months ago, we changed our name to the “School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape.” That actually made a tremendous difference for us in the city. With a phrase like “environmental design,” people have this notion that it’s referring to sustainability and green design practices. 

With the size of our program, the visibility of what we do and our notion of impact was difficult. However, when we changed our name and opened the City Design Lab downtown, it allowed our students and faculty to become visible within the city. We are now able to work closely with the city and nonprofit organizations to help envision better possibilities for the city. 

So in the last eight months, our biggest problem was connecting to our community and to be seen. We wanted to activate the community around design in addition to its city buildings and services. Our campus is located in the suburbs surrounded by this amazing green landscape, but it had no relationship to being where we’re actually working, in the city. It’s an exciting thing for our students because they experience things first-hand and work on real-world design projects. Opening up the school to the city made a big change. We solved a really big problem. 

Every school year brings new and exciting changes. Is there anything you are looking forward to this term?

The most exciting pieces that are coming out are the research projects we're engaging with our students. We are a non-departmentalized faculty so between the architecture, architecture planning, and design, there's this amazing synergy between them. Students are able to work within these different disciplines, which allows for a strong integration of learning and research. 

We're excited about reinvigorating our approach to applied research. One project we're excited about is our Green Alleyway Project: TRANSFORMALLEY. It involves several members of our architecture and landscape architecture faculty in collaboration with Downtown Calgary. These groups came together to look at the transformation of a service alley and turn it into a vibrant living space that's also a storm water point source.

What do you think are the biggest challenges facing students today? What can school leadership and faculty do to help mediate that?

I think the challenge is that there’s been an explosion of the amount of skills and information that they need to develop on top of the things that they already need to understand and develop. As an architect in the year 2020, you have to learn all the stuff you used to learn in school like history and design basics, but then, the emergence of technology and digital computation has massively increased. 

There’s more information that people have to learn, and we haven't changed the graduation requirements. In fact, we’ve probably made the program shorter, so the expectations have gone up. On top of this, they're learning a lot, and we have an obligation to contextualize what all of those new things are. 

As an educator, how do you see the future of architecture changing? 

A passionate education has to be demonstrated. As an educator, I believe the goal is trying to provide a balance between all the things students have to learn and providing a set of experiences that help them to calibrate these things. We should help them contextualize everything within a broader context. 

We’re asking a lot from our students because of this new proliferation for technology. We're asking them to perform right at the edge of this growing entity while they're trying to understand it. 

Peter Eisenman once said: “The architecture program eats its young.” How do you describe the educational experience so they don’t give up or lose heart? How can we nurture this notion of entrepreneurial disruption through an internship? 

Peter Eisenman once said: “The architecture program eats its young.” How do you describe the educational experience so they don’t give up or lose heart? How can we nurture this notion of entrepreneurial disruption through an internship? 

I'm constantly thinking, “Where can they make a difference without losing their abilities to be critical and adventurous?” We're asking them to “shape a career/future that doesn't exist.” So our role as academic leaders is to foster this, not just present it. We need to contextualize it. 

What’s the best advice you’ve been given during your career in architecture and academia? Any advice for students? 

Off the top of my head, the best advice I've been given comes from a place of entrepreneurship. For me, it was during a time where reading widely and looking into notions of entrepreneurship and innovation helped shape how to think better. 

For students, the best thing is to be open-minded of what it is they're really doing and how they can best activate their passions [...] We need to remember how to empower students to do their own thing and elevate their awareness.

For students, the best thing is to be open-minded of what it is they're really doing and how they can best activate their passions. It’s not just what they design but the process of engaging others about the notion of design. We need to remember how to empower students to do their own thing and elevate their awareness.

It's important to look at what it is you want to do and how can you do that most effectively without being constrained by conventional practice. “You can’t wait for the phone to ring, where you hope that it’s a good idea.” That's such a passive way to think about things. Don’t just be a consultant, be a specialist.