Message from Director Anne Bordeleau
February 29, 2024
Welcome to the Azrieli School of Architecture & Urbanism (ASAU)!
We are proud to be an inspiring community of learning that provides students with a supportive environment in which to nurture their sense of purpose.
The ASAU’s long-standing engagement in speculative thinking and material craft, coupled with our commitment to addressing critical societal issues, offers students a range of perspectives on the discipline and the profession.
Our inclusive and diverse approach to education is reflected in the unique paths available at the ASAU. We are the only architecture school in Canada to offer three undergraduate majors — Conservation & Sustainability, Design, and Urbanism. With expertise in these areas, we are ready to respond to urgent questions of climate change, rapid urbanization, and the public realm.
At the graduate level, we offer a wide array of options (MArch, MAS, GDAC, PhD) and we continue to forge relationships across campus to expand opportunities for architecture students. We have joined a collaborative PhD in African Studies, and our Master of Architecture students can participate in a Collaborative Specialization in Climate Change, and soon, in Accessibility.
The number of partnerships and community-engagement projects is substantial — even unparalleled across schools of architecture in Canada — with activities that extend internationally through global studios, research partnerships, and scholarly networks.
In our research labs, we are conducting exciting and impactful work on materials and fabrication (CSALT); new and emerging digital technologies, from heritage to biomedicine (CIMS); anti-racist housing and public-interest architecture (Action Lab); climate (CLIFF); cities (C-URL), and contemporary issues in architecture (C R | P T | C).
In Ottawa, the ASAU has developed ongoing relationships with numerous local and national organizations, including Ottawa Community Housing, Gignul Non-Profit Housing, the 613-819 Black Hub, the National Capital Commission, the Canada Lands Company, and more.
Globally, we have emerging and continuing international collaborations with local partners in Ghana and Peru, and our faculty are engaged in significant collaborative ventures. The topics include housing (e.g. with UN-Habitat, most recently as part of the ICCCASU5 conference in Kenya), pedagogy (e.g. Dark Matter University, Journal of Architectural Education), fabrication (e.g. ETH Zurich DFAB lab), and heritage and conservation (e.g. International Council on Monuments and Sites, United Nations Development Programme, and UNESCO.)
Our position
The school occupies unceded non-Treaty, Algonquin Anishinaabeg territory. Acknowledging the legacies and atrocities that this occupation implies, we are committed to transforming our spaces, programs, and practices through honourable and respectful engagement with Indigenous peoples, land-based knowledges, and holistic approaches to architectural and urban design.
We take seriously our responsibilities as architectural educators, historians, practitioners, and students. Therefore, we seek to engage with social, political, and environmental concerns critically and inventively through our programs, community-engagement studios, research labs, design-build projects, and funded Directed Studies Abroad opportunities. Our conversations encompass ecological care and collective well-being, with sustainability and social justice at the forefront.
Through collaborative learning and research, we work earnestly to serve and build trust with diverse communities, near and far. Our aspiration is to cultivate creativity, hope, and resilience together.
Looking ahead
We have important work underway to consolidate our Bachelor of Architectural Studies (BAS) degrees, with two expected outcomes: All undergraduates will benefit from the full breadth of expertise across Conservation & Sustainability, Design, and Urbanism and all BAS students will be equally prepared for advanced placement in graduate programs.
We are also working to instill in our future designers a lively awareness of a shared planet. To that end, we are transitioning our curriculum, so that it begins with land and building relationships, and moves through broad ecosystems, the public realm, and existing built environments. Throughout, our teachings consider adaptive architecture, urbanism, and climate as integral to any design interventions.
The objective is for students to:
- embrace both their responsibility and agency as designers and architects;
- learn to confidently use their disciplinary expertise to work collaboratively with various stakeholders;
- acquire a holistic view of the broader social, technological, and ecological context within which they intervene.
Join us!
The ASAU offers a solid professional educational experience in which students can develop their passion for working in the public interest with confidence and a vital sense of a shared aim.
Our outstanding team of faculty, instructors, and staff is here to support students and successfully guide them through an exciting and challenging curriculum that fosters their agency as designers. We look forward to welcoming you.
Warmly,
Anne
Anne Bordeleau, PhD, OAQ, MRAIC
Professor and Director, Azrieli School of Architecture & Urbanism