Architecture, Sustainability, and Local Identity - the future of architecture, suburbia, and urban development

Panel Discussion                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Local Identity and Regional Responses to Sustainable Architecture                                                        Balancing environmental, social and sustainable design has the potential to transform everyday life and is already reshaping the fields of architecture and product design. This panel discussion will explore such topics as the role architecture plays in defining humanity’s relationship to its physical and cultural context, nationally and with a local focus on the City of London. Among the issues discussed will be contemporary and future urban design, sustainability, the development of green buildings and the protection of heritage streetscapes.

Discussion Participants - Moderator: John Nicholson, principal architect with the award-winning firm Malhotra, Nicholson and Sheffield Architects Inc.  Panelists: Brian Dust is an associate architect with the award-winning Vancouver firm Neale Staniszkis Doll and Adams Architects.  John McMinn is an associate professor at the University of Waterloo’s School of Architecture. In 1992 he was awarded the Canada Council for the Arts Prix de Rome in Architecture.  His professional interests include architectural and environmental design, poetic tectonics, contemporary urbanism and vernacular landscapes.  Marco Polo is an assistant professor at Ryerson University and is the editor of The Prix de Rome in Architecture: A Retrospective, published by Coach House Books (2006). Polo’s areas of specialization include Canadian architecture since 1945, regionalism in Canadian architecture and the cultural dimensions of sustainability. Together Polo and McMinn curated the exhibition 41 to 66: Regional Responses to Sustainable Architecture, organized by Cambridge Galleries. A version of this exhibition will represent Canada at the prestigious Venice Biennale in Architecture from September 14 to November 23, 2008.