Video Credits to Lisa Landrum, and 2019 Steering Committee
Video Credits to Lisa Landrum, and 2019 Steering Committee
Video Credits to Lisa Landrum, and 2019 Steering Committee
CAFÉ
The Canadian Architecture Forums on Education (CAFÉs) are part of an ongoing outreach project launched in 2019 to discuss and debate the role of architectural education and research in shaping Canada’s future. The initiative involves all 12 Canadian schools of architecture and their extended communities. Knowledge and ideas mobilized through these forums are informing the development of an architecture policy for Canada. The forums enable students, educators, and academic researchers to play meaningful roles in shaping a policy framework and its priorities, ambition, and depth of vision. Between October 2019 and March 2020, five universities across Canada hosted in-person forums. Key outcomes of these forums, an online survey, and student manifestos were published in the CAFÉ Summary Report (Sept. 2020). A series of workshops and CAFÉ Capital events focused on social justice issues occurred in 2022.
CAFE forums facilitated conversations towards an architecture policy for Canada via exchange between key stakeholders: the Canadian Council of University Schools of Architecture (CCUSA), representing the 12 accredited schools in Canada; the Canadian Architecture Students Association (CASA), representing students leaders at each school; the Regulatory Organizations of Architecture in Canada (ROAC), representing each provincial/territorial professional jurisdiction; and the Royal Architecture Institute of Canada (RAIC), the national advocacy body, including members of its Indigenous Task Force. These activities extend to Becoming Architects Canada (BAC-DAC), representing individuals on the path to licensure.
CAFÉ continues to initiate a major mobilization event, which includes presentations by students and guests, roundtable discussions, open forums, exhibitions, and tours. Each CAFE hosts local communities, students, and professors from other institutions to share knowledge and exchange ideas. The forums involve students and academic researchers in important national initiatives, providing a platform for them to present their research, engage in discussions, and network with other stakeholders in the field.
HISTORY OF CAFÉ
In 2019, Lisa Landrum launched and led the Canadian Architecture Forums on Education (CAFE), a project that is shaping the future of architecture in Canada. As the lead researcher for SSHRC-supported grants in 2019-2020 and CAFÉ Capital in 2022, Lisa shared a framework that promotes a visionary outlook and collective purpose in the built environment. Her discussions across Canada provide meaningful involvement in the academic sector to discuss architecture policy through current research and ideas relevant to future architects.
Her vision facilitated conversations beyond the traditional confines of architectural practice and education to collaborate between architects, educators, and students. CAFÉ forums serve as a method to explore new ways of thinking. The forums cultivated a more engaged student body that could critically assess their environments and actively shape architectural education.
From 2019 - 2022, two grants resulted in the Rise for Architecture publication (http://riseforarchitecture.com/) and mobilizing resources on equity, diversity, and inclusion. Continuous outreach was possible through surveys, manifestos, and social media publishing. To see the full collection of previous CAFÉ events, manifestos, and resources available on architecture policy, equity, diversity, and inclusion, visit the following website for more information previously led by Lisa Landrum:
Through close collaboration with Lisa Landrum, CASA-ACÉA and BAC-DAC are continuing the research endeavour that started in 2019 by promoting students, interns, and recent graduates as major participants in future architecture forums. These discussions will expand beyond policy, equity, diversity, and inclusion to dissect practice and academia nationally. As a result, a CAFÉ Task Force, composed of members from both organizations, will continue to mobilize knowledge on national issues to elevate student and intern voices across Canada.
WHAT IS AN ARCHITECTURE POLICY?
A national architecture policy is an aspirational document. Whereas a building code sets minimum standards, an architecture policy sets forth ambitious goals and calls to action with compelling arguments, images, quotes and case studies. It shows how well-designed settings can enhance social, cultural and environmental well-being, and provides guidance to politicians, professionals and the public on how to achieve more sustainable, equitable and engaging communities. An architecture policy empowers people to pursue positive change and sustainable growth. It would inform public debate, influence legislation and inspire Canadians to create more meaningful and resilient cities and rural development in view of climate change, rapid urbanization, vulnerable lands, threatened heritage and other 21st century challenges. More than thirty countries have already adopted or are in the process of developing a national architecture policy. To learn more about architecture policies, see RESOURCES.
CAFÉ CAUSE – WHY THESE FORUMS MATTER
The Canadian Architecture Forums on Education are bringing vigour, rigour and long-term relevance to the process of creating an architecture policy for Canada. Meaningful involvement of the academic sector is crucial to ensuring that any future policy is informed by current research, robust with fresh ideas and relevant for future generations of architects.Educators and students are key stakeholders in the future of architecture. University schools of architecture are where the next generations of designers are trained to envision, evaluate and tackle new and persistent challenges. Schools do more than prepare capable graduates; they are where future professionals become inspired to think in new and interconnected ways about the built, natural and social world. Through experimentation, collaboration and open-ended questioning, schools approach design more optimistically, imaginatively and interrogatively than many practitioners and policy makers can afford to do. Pedagogical projects balance real-world challenges with creative license, critical distance and historical perspective, and can have significant regional impact through community engagement. Architecture schools are uniquely positioned to support visionary, experimental and even controversial design research, and to discover new possibilities for the discipline by holistically rethinking how sustainable, just and inspiring environments might be conceived and collaboratively manifested.By facilitating exchange between all Canadian architecture schools and regional partners, this CAFÉ initiative mobilizes knowledge, while building mutual understanding of how diverse pedagogies and research can impact communities, reimagine the role of architects and architecture, and enable students to thrive in a changing world.
PARTICIPATING SCHOOLS
Dalhousie University, School of Architecture
Université Laval, École d’architecture
Université de Montréal, École d’architecture
McGill University, Peter Guo-hua Fu School of Architecture
Carleton University, Azrieli School of Architecture & Urbanism
Toronto Metropolitan University, Department of Architectural Science
University of Toronto, John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design
University of Waterloo, School of Architecture
Laurentian University, McEwen School of Architecture
University of Manitoba, Faculty of Architecture
University of Calgary, School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape
University of British Columbia, School of Architecture + Landscape Architecture
Collaborators
Regulatory Organizations of Architecture in Canada (ROAC)
Canadian Council of University Schools of Architecture (CCUSA)
Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC)
Canadian Architecture Students Association (CASA)
To see a collection of past CAFÉ Forums: click the link here