Location: Laurentian Main Campus, room C-114

1.5 ConEd Learning Hours

1.5 AIA LU

1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.

This session showcases three Sudbury-focused M.Arch thesis projects by class of 2023 graduates from the McEwen School of Architecture (MSoA) that centre the issues of health and dignity in innovative ways. The first 20-minute presentation explores how the built environment may be (re)designed to support improved health outcomes by developing a bioethical and epigenetic-based design framework for healthy lifestyle change that is applied to parts of Sudbury where socio-spatial divisions are most acute.

The second presentation foregrounds an intensive research-creation methodology that rethinks standard design practices to cultivate multispecies collaboration and the ecological recovery of the city’s barren rocky outcroppings.

The third presentation focuses on education, storytelling, and regenerative design for the remediation of the industrially polluted land around Sudbury’s SuperStack, thus addressing cultural and environmental sustainability, which are interconnected preconditions of healthy communities.

This session is complemented by an exhibition of student work at the McEwen School of Architecture.

Learning Objectives

1. Benefit from a concise but rigorous overview of the history and current issues bearing on Sudbury’s natural and built environment.
2. Gain insight into current architectural pedagogy through exposure to M.Arch thesis research and design work that prioritizes sustainability, health, and equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI).
3. Learn about Canada’s newest School of Architecture, which is the only one in the country with a tricultural mandate and bilingual culture.
4. Engage recent graduates and emerging Intern Architects in discussion about common interests of concern and the current stakes of the profession as we work toward building a more sustainable, healthy, and inclusive world.

Aliki Economides is an assistant professor at the McEwen School of Architecture at Laurentian University; she serves as M.Arch thesis Coordinator, and has also taught graduate seminars and undergraduate studios, including coordinating the fourth-year integrated design studio. Aliki holds a professional B.Arch (University of Toronto), a post-professional M.Arch in architectural history and theory (McGill University), an MA in the history of science (Harvard University), and a PhD in architectural and urban history (Harvard University). Her research focuses primarily on: the roles played by the built and natural environment in the construction of identity; the profound and mutually reinforcing relationships between social and spatial injustices; and the history, theory, and contemporary practice of ornament in architecture. With filmmaker Paul Carvalho, she collaborated on a documentary film for Radio-Canada titled, Une Tour sur la montagne : l’architecture d’Ernest Cormier et sa vie avec Clorinthe Perron. Current projects include the book manuscript, Constructing Identity: Ernest Cormier and the Project of Modernity, a publication on the architecture of jurisprudence, and co-editing the Urban History Review’s special issue on capital cities.

Brett Walter is a recent graduate of Laurentian University’s McEwen School of Architecture M.Arch program. He has served as a graduate teaching assistant for the fourth-year integrated design studio for two years, and been the recipient of a number of other school and community awards and scholarships, including the Rob and Cheryl McEwen Graduate Scholarship for excellence in design. Brett holds a B.Sc. Kin (Queen's University) and worked for several years as a licensed kinesiologist in the province of Ontario before beginning his architectural education at McEwen. His research focuses primarily on the relationship between the built environment and human health. Specifically, he explores how designers might better leverage the vast body of research in the medical, neuroscience, and environmental-psychology fields to inform designs at a variety of scales—both architectural and urban—to elicit healthier lifestyle choices and improve community health. Developing a new architectural framework, his thesis then proposes a series of design interventions for improved community health in Sudbury.

Catherine Daigle is a recent graduate of Laurentian University's McEwen School of Architecture M.Arch program, where they also completed their bachelor of architectural studies (BAS) with a minor in ancient studies. They have served as a graduate teaching assistant for the Architectural Communications course, the MSoA Fabrication Lab, the MSoA Website and Communications, Building Systems 2, and Design Studio 1, in addition to teaching as a part-time professor at Collège Boréal (Rédaction de rapport technique). They are the recipient of various scholarly awards, and their thesis has been supported in part by funding from the Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS) program. Their research focuses on the relationship between the built environment and ecological succession, integrating non-human species into the forefront of architectural design.

Sydney Sheppard is a recent graduate of Laurentian University’s McEwen School of Architecture M.Arch Program. Since 2021, she has served as a graduate teaching assistant for numerous undergraduate courses, and has been the recipient of multiple school and community awards and scholarships, including the Rob and Cheryl McEwen Graduate Scholarship for excellence in design and the Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS). She has also served as a graduate research assistant involving a publication with professor Shannon Bassett titled, Recovering the Public Spaces of Shahjahanabad through Participatory Conservation and Ecological Urbanism, and for a SSHRC Partnership Grant titled, Quality in Canada’s Built Environment: Roadmaps to Equity, Social Value and Sustainability. Her research focuses primarily on the role of the built environment in the regeneration of the natural environment. Her thesis takes principles of education, storytelling, and regenerative design to contribute to an overall narrative of ecological remediation through the industrially polluted landscape of Sudbury. Addressing the realms of both environmental and cultural sustainability, her design interests also include biophilia, art, and the intersection of science and building performance.