ACSA 2007: City/Campus October 19, 2007

The School of Architecture at the University of Waterloo has recently relocated from the main suburban campus to a renovated former silk mill on the west bank of the Grand River in the historic core of Cambridge, Ontario, Canada. The move resulted from complementary and acute needs: the School desperately required new facilities and the community, blessed with a splendid urban landscape and extraordinary economic prosperity, was unable to reverse the deterioration of its urban core. A unique collaboration developed between the community and the School of Architecture, radically transforming and enhancing each party to the partnership.

In this conference we seek to expose and discuss the ample evidence that architecture schools have become active and successful builders of communities. We will share the experiences of schools of architecture and the universities of which they are part as agents of urban transformation. We wish to examine all aspects of the presence and influence of architecture schools in their communities:

• school and university buildings as agents of urban change
• direct intervention projects, community design and development work, community based curriculum
• partnerships with municipalities and other organizations
• involvement in creative nodes, research collaborations and networks, cultural development initiatives, community capacity building, design awareness, outreach programmes
• economic infl uence, festivals, Doors Open, architecture in the media, political presence and leadership

Official Website: http://www.architecture.uwaterloo.ca/acsa_2007/