University of British Columbia
Design Centre for Sustainability
The Mission of the DCS is: "To be a centre for excellence in the design of sustainable natural and built environments".
The DCS provides an interdisciplinary research umbrella which fosters and supports the development, synthesis, and dissemination of innovative, world-class research related to sustainable built and natural environments. Through the lens of collaborative design, the DCS undertakes, encourages, and applies leading-edge holistic and synergistic approaches to sustainability.
Among the unique strengths of the DCS is its integration of academically based research and teaching expertise with practical application in real world projects. This integration of knowledge and application is founded on the innovative, intensively visual, highly interactive pedagogical models and methods customary to design education.
- to create a centre for excellence in sustainable design education at UBC, across Canada, and around the world;
- to foster leading-edge research related to all areas and scales of sustainable landscapes and buildings;
- to maximize the dissemination and uptake of this research and information ;
- to create a bridge between academic research and the practical
world, advancing sustainability theory and practice in all areas of the
design profession;
- to integrate and deliver multi-disciplinary sustainability research across different faculties and schools;
- to reach out to communities, assisting in translating sustainability into policy, planning and design
Collaborative for Advanced Landscape Planning, Faculty of Forestry
-Applying sustainability concepts to the development of land,
cities, and community; shifting community-based planning and design
toward an on-going consideration of sustainability as a matter of
course rather than exception.
- The DCS has a strong reputation for
facilitating collaborative stakeholder-driven processes that give form
to more sustainable forms of development (“charrettes”).
- Achieving sustainability requires the
development, application and testing of integrative and holistic
planning, management and design knowledge. The DCS supports the
development of scholarly applications among a community of researchers
within and outside the University, and identifies important areas of
study for future research.
- As urban planning and design problems have become more
complex, and the level of public consultation and participation has
become greater, the tools of planning and design have also become more
complex and sophisticated. Among the most effective have
been those that are able to link criteria and measures of environmental
performance to participatory planning processes and to the full range
of spatial scales at which planning policies are established and
implemented. The DCS integrates technological innovation
and interactive research through providing a tool development and
decision support arena to stimulate and support continuing innovation
for the planning and design of sustainable communities.
Research related to the link between urban form and carbon
Visualizations
Green buildings within a sustainable community
Executive Director: Elisa Campbell
Academic Director: Professor Ray Cole
Faculty participants: Professors Ray Cole, Cynthia Girling, Patrick Condon, Ron Kellett, Stephen Sheppard, Doug Paterson, Daniel Roehr
Fields of Research: land use planning, urban sprawl, smart growth, urban sustainability, green buildings, carbon, green streets, green roofs / living walls, brownfield development, stormwater management
Smart Growth on the Ground www.sgog.bc.ca
Sustainability by Design www.sxd.sala.ubc.ca
The Affordability Index: The Brookings Institution
-measures the true affordability of a housing choice
Density effects calculator: http://www.sflcv.org/density
-how neighborhood density impacts the environment (land, materials, energy and driving)
CMHC: Tool for Costing Sustainable Community Planning- Guide
ICSC: International Centre for Sustainable Cities: www.icsc.ca
The Sheltair Group www.sheltair.com
Smart Growth B.C www.smartgrowth.bc.ca
Statistics Canada - Portrait of the Canadian Population in 2006
SmartGrowth America - www.smartgrowthamerica.org/gcindex.html
East Clayton: The Headwaters Project
-Vancouver region's first sustainable neighbourhood
The Arbutus Lands Project: www.arbutuslands.ca
-a community-generated Vision in progress to develop sustainable uses of the Arbutus Lands in Vancouver, B.C.
Vancouver EcoDensity Initiative: http://www.vancouver-ecodensity.ca/
- building communities in Vancouver that are green … livable and affordable
Coordonnées
394-2357 Main Mall
Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z4
394-2357 Main Mall
Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z4
rcabrera@interchange.ubc.ca (Racheal Cabrera, Office Coordinator)
elisa.campbell@ubc.ca (Elisa Campbell, Executive Director)
