About
Accreditation
CACB
In Canada, the Canadian Architectural Certification Board (CACB) is the sole agency authorized by the Regulatory Organization of Architecture in Canada (ROAC) to accredit Canadian professional degree programs in architecture for the purposes of architectural licensure. Source: CACB
In 2017, the CACB granted the Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism a full 6-year renewal of accreditation for the M.Arch program. The School’s next accreditation review will be in 2023-2024.
For more information on CACB accreditation, see CACB Conditions for Accreditation.
History
The Azrieli School of Architecture & Urbanism
The School of Architecture opened in fall 1968 with 12 students and four faculty under the directorship of Douglas Shadbolt. The purpose-built architecture building followed four years later as the program grew in size and significance. A pivotal period in the school’s history took place under the directorship of Alberto Perez-Gomez (1983-86); it defined an era for the school’s pedagogy and left a lasting legacy of design thinking and production. These ideas have left a tangible layer onto the otherwise brut concrete walls.
Program History
The School offered a five-year undergraduate professional degree, accredited, from the outset in 1968, by the Ontario Association of Architects. The first degree was awarded in 1973. During the first few years, faculty ranks increased annually as the student body grew. By 1983, there were 300 students and 24 faculty members.
In 1997, the School developed a proposal to restructure its 5-year Bachelor of Architecture to a 4-year, preprofessional Bachelor of Architectural Studies (BAS) followed by a 2-year professional Masters of Architecture (M.Arch).
In 2009, the school instituted 3-year M.Arch (Professional) degree, and undergraduate BAS students could major in Design, Conservation & Sustainability, or Urbanism.
Read more about ASAU’s program history here.
Our Building
Building 22 at Carleton University is much more than a fine example of the late-1960s Brutalist architecture. Its strict tartan grid contains dynamic spatial relationships that display a clear commitment to the exchange of ideas, the vitality of community, and democratic ideals. As a purpose-built architecture school, it acts both as a pedagogical tool and a model environment for creative learning.
The central Pit, two perpendicular “streets” on different levels, and complex visual transparencies lend an urban quality to the interior. These spaces host both formal and informal events. Small transformations over time have honoured the architects’ original vision of “building as laboratory.” Now 50 years old, the school and university are exploring renovation strategies to prepare the building for its next half-century.
The Lightroom Gallery
The Lightroom Gallery is the main dedicated gallery space in the Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism. The space is a secure gallery space for exhibition of travelling exhibits, thesis work, alumni shows, and other special exhibitions.
View our events and learn more about our Lecture Series here.
Barbara A Humphreys Reading Room
Barbara A. Humphreys Memorial Reading Room is a notable resource for architecture and urbanism-related research. This room houses approximately 2000 volumes including journals and books focusing mainly on architecture and urbanism. This collection is available to the students for consultation and the room is staffed by student monitors. This space is used as a reading room, group workspace, and personal study space.
Our City
Ottawa – Our Nation’s Capital
The Azrieli School of Architecture & Urbanism continues to increase its profile and strengthen ties with Canada’s National Capital Region, home to 1.4 million people. Community interaction, essential to the school’s mission, occurs in many ways. The school’s Local Advisory Board (LAB), not only provides advice and advocacy but also keeps us informed about community-based initiatives to which the school can contribute. Interaction with the broader community occurs through collaborative projects, sponsorships, research, an expanding array of continuing education programs, and public programming, including the school’s Forum Lecture Series and exhibitions in its Lightroom Gallery.
The school uses the Ottawa region as a design laboratory, working with community associations, developers, design professionals, and local governments to promote design excellence and advocate on behalf of the built environment.
As many architects practicing in the region are Carleton alumni, good community relations are also good alumni relations. Alumni, and other design professionals, play an important role in the ongoing review of student work, which occurs in a very public forum.
Capital Advantage
Ottawa is home to national institutions of art and culture. As Canada’s capital, it also possesses a wealth of significant Canadian architecture, historical and contemporary.
Research Labs
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Director of the Action Lab: Menna Agha
The school’s Architecture Action Lab is a public-interest experimental studio. It aims to be an ‘imaginarium’ for community change and impact by positioning architects as activists who provide architectural, planning, and housing services to community groups.
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Director of CSALT: Sheryl Boyle
The CSALT Laboratory at the Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism is focused on the study of materiality in architecture. The goal of this research lab is to effect and contribute to the understanding, application and invention of the material nature of architecture, construction and design. Of particular interest in the lab are the secondary properties of materials, the combination of organic and inorganic materials and the reassessment of traditional materials and methods within the context of our contemporary condition. The Facility is located in the Architecture Building.
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Director of CIMS: Stephen Fai
Carleton Immersive Media Studio (CIMS) is a Carleton University research centre dedicated to the advanced study of innovative, hybrid forms of representation that can both reveal the invisible measures of architecture and animate the visible world of construction. As part of the Carleton University’s Azrieli School of Architecture, we are committed to exploring and developing innovative symbiotic relationships between the digital and fabricated 2D and 3D modes of representation. Our mandate includes the advancement and development of the tools, processes and techniques involved in the transformation of data into tangible and meaningful artifacts that impact the way we see, think, and work in the world.
CIMS was established as an Organized Research Unit, within the Azrieli School of Architecture and the Faculty of Engineering at Carleton University, through a “New Opportunities” Canadian Foundation for Innovation grant awarded in 2002.
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The Directors of the Carleton Urban Research Lab are: Catherine Bonier and Ozayr Saloojee
The Carleton Urban Research Lab (c-url) at the Azrieli School of Architecture & Urbanism promotes design thinking — seeking ways to expand research, teaching, and engagement around the Lab’s three central themes: water, cities, and equity. C-URL was founded by Saloojee and Bonier in January of 2017 to support grounded, ethical research engagement and to foster local and international interdisciplinary collaborations.
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The Director of the Carleton Research | Practice of Teaching | Collaborative is Federica Goffi
C R | P T | Collaborative | is formed by PhD Candidates, PhD students, Post-Professional Master students and faculty of the Azrieli School of Architecture & Urbanism at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. The Collaborative pursues research in the humanities with a diverse research agenda that reflects the interests of the collaborators through the Practice of Teaching in academic settings in architecture.
C R | P T | C activities | are collaborative in nature and include research, publications, symposia, and exhibits.
C R | P T | C works | transmediate between the written word and epistemic constructions.
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Director of the CLIFF: Zachary Colbert
The Carleton Climate Futures Design Laboratory combines design and scholarly research in an interdisciplinary setting to explore, anticipate and prototype climate futures in the built environment. This work elucidates productive linkages between architecture and politics toward elevating architecture’s capacity for political engagement both in the classroom and in the field. Through the lens of ‘atmospheres,’ our research weaves together the technical, ethical and post-humanist challenges of our time at the scales of the building and the city. These endeavours intersect with preexisting extensive and international efforts spanning disciplines, ideologies and geographies to re-imagine the North American way of life to address the impacts of climate change and societal climate change adaptation. We seek to unite disparate conversations across disciplines and to examine the interdependent scales of the individual, the community, the city and the region through public consultation, symposia, design charrettes, publications and speculative architectures. Climate change is a planetary phenomenon and while the potential for climate change to impact low-lying, coastal cities is clear; the potential of climate change to adversely impact energy and housing market fluctuations, human migration patterns, regional ecosystem stability, and severe weather events will be felt in inland cities as well. This research provides an opportunity to examine and redefine 21st century practices and paradigms related to North American multi-family housing, urban design, and building construction practices. Additionally, we seek to identify and define civic architectural practice strategies, proactive approaches from within the architecture profession that engage stakeholders in laying the groundwork for climate change adaptation at community and municipal levels.