Since PhD students will be required to work closely with their advisors it is recommended that potential candidates clearly identify their own research interests as well as the individual(s) faculty members with whom they would like to work. It should be noted that only those faculty members who hold a PhD are eligible to act as advisors in the PhD in Design and Planning program. Currently there are twelve members of Faculty who hold a doctorate and another nine members actively pursuing doctoral studies. The following is a brief description of past and current research interests of our faculty that will be supporting (now and in the near future) the PhD in Design and Planning.
Department of Architecture
Department of City Planning
Department of Interior Design
Department of Landscape Architecture
DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE
In 2005, Professor Eduardo Aquino was invited by Professor Agnaldo Farias to join his Art + Architecture PhD research group at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, University of São Paulo, Brazil. Professor Aquino since then has initiated the process to enroll the PhD program of that institution as an opportunity to bring his interests on public space and the relationships between art and architecture into a critical scrutiny. In 2006, Professor Aquino successfully completed the course AUH5841 Metrópole e Vanguardas Artísticas (Metropolis and Artistic Vanguards), with Professor Ricardo Marques de Azevedo, as part of the credit requirements for the degree. At that opportunity Professor Aquino wrote the essay Dislocamentos: Procedimentos Sintáticos da Arte em Relação à Arquitetura (Displacements: Syntactic Artistic Procedures in Relation to Architecture), which presented a critical overview of art practices in urban spaces from 19th century (starting with Charles Baudelaire) to 21st century (Vito Acconci, Sophie Calle, and Francis Alÿs). The paper centered the discussion on the writings of Walter Benjamin and Piet Mondrian, presenting the passage from the studio to the street as a new territory of artistic action, where art is seen as a negotiator between the body and the city. Professor Aquino's present research groundwork on public space concentrates on the beach as a prototype for human interaction. By critically mapping the physical, social, spatial, political, and cultural conditions of this particular urban-landscape typology the project searches for a new model to understand and articulate public spaces in general.
Professor Patrick Harrop is currently working towards an interdisciplinary PhD in the Humanities at Concordia University. This PhD is covering three disciplines: Mathematics/Computer Science, Philosophy and Fine Art. His research is currently being housed in the Topological Media Lab at the Hexagram research facility at Concordia. Specifically they are developing work in gestural interpretation of interactivity and sensing media. As well they are currently developing a trajectory in the "architecture of enchantment" which will be carrying this research into the architectural realm. He is currently completing his course work in the program and will begin the comprehensive examinations in September 2008.
Dr. Lisa Landrum completed her PhD in the History and Theory of Architecture at McGill University in 2010. Her dissertation explores the mythic bases and poetic origins of architectural acts by interpreting two ancient Greek plays in which the protagonist—while directing a scheme of transformation for the common good—is emphatically called “architect”. These architect-protagonists and the plots they lead not only provide insight into the emergent role of architects in the fifth century BCE, but also vividly dramatize certain representative deeds and ethical dilemmas that remain (to this day) integral to an architect's performance.
Lisa’s research, more generally, encompasses topics in history, theory and design, including: architectural representation, especially dramatic modes of representation implicit in architectural work; representations of architects in drama (from Aristophanes to Ionesco); stories and myths about architectural beginnings; the reciprocity of theatre and architecture, as well as literature and architecture; the creative role of metaphor for architects; and phenomenological, hermeneutic and humanities-based approaches to interpreting contemporary architecture. Lisa has presented aspects of her research at various international conferences and is currently preparing writing for publication. She is a member of the Architectural Humanities Research Association (AHRA), the Society of Architectural Historians (SAH), and the International Association for Philosophy and Literature (IAPL).
Lisa’s creative research also involves devising ephemeral events, including a series of group costumes and pageantry devices that have been collaboratively constructed and performed in public parades. Lisa has exhibited this work, which explores the political and ritual dimensions of collective aesthetic experience, in New York, Berlin and Montreal. .
DEPARTMENT OF CITY PLANNING
Dr. Richard Milgrom’s research interests are in the areas of: the relationship of urban sustainability and urban form; urban environments for multicultural societies; social costs of infrastructure development; central city revitalization; redevelopment of public housing; neighbourhood planning and community participation; and the social and environmental impacts of mega-events. Dr. Milgrom’s attained his PhD in Environmental Studies at York University and his dissertation was titled Sustaining Diversity: Participatory Design and the Production of Urban Space.
Dr. Sheri Blake, D.Eng. (Arch), MCIP, Associate Professor, Department of City Planning, is currently working on a series of documentary film projects about participatory community design. The first film in the series, Detroit Collaborative Design Center...amplifying the diminished voice was completed in 2006 (Sou International Ltd., 62’). The film has been screened at the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, and CineUrbana, UN Habitat World Urban Forum (WUF3), Vancouver (2006), among others. It has been distributed widely. Several university libraries have purchased copies, including Harvard, Cornell, Illinois at Urbana Champagne, Texas at Arlington, Virginia Tech, Montreal, Calgary, UBC, Winnipeg, Manitoba, and Simon Fraser University. Detroit Collaborative Design Center...architecture as a political act, the second film in the series is in production. The DVD will include a short history of the design center and their social justice mission. A series of film clips on the “how-to” of several of the workshop processes will be provided. Several case studies have recently been completed for the third film, Participatory Community Design…building design and development literacy. This film will focus on how various designers build literacy about design and development as part of substantive participatory design processes. Two related book chapters are currently in progress. One chapter, “Defining/Redefining Community Design: A History of Community Design Centers,” will be published in a book about community design centers by Princeton Architectural Press, edited by Craig Wilkins and Dan Pitera. The other chapter, “Detroit Collaborative Design Center: Making The Film,” will be published in a book about planning and media by Springer, edited by Leonie Sandercock. A portion of this research/production work, Demystifying Expert Practice: Mutual Knowledge Sharing in Community Design is being funded by The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Research/Creation Grant in Fine Arts.
Dr. Rae Bridgman is a Professor in the Department of City Planning, Faculty of Architecture, University of Manitoba (Winnipeg, Manitoba). Her studies of chronic homelessness among women and men in Canada, youth homelessness, and innovative housing models for rehousing the homeless, as well as her research on child-friendly cities, have been published internationally. She is the author of StreetCities: Rehousing the Homeless (Broadview Press, 2006), Safe Haven: The Story of a Shelter for Homeless Women (University of Toronto Press, 2003), co-author of Braving the Street: The Anthropology of Homelessness (Berghahn Books, 1999), and co-editor of Feminist Fields: Ethnographic Insights (Broadview Press, 1999). She has been the recipient of several major research grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). In parallel with her scholarly research, she is a practicing visual artist with many arts grants and exhibitions to her name, and the author and illustrator of young adult fantasy novels, including The Serpent’s Spell (2006) and Amber Ambrosia (2007) and Fish & Sphinx (2008), all published by Great Plains Publications. Along with her husband, architect Wins Bridgman, she is also a founding member of Bridgman Collaborative Architecture—a Winnipeg architectural design and planning firm whose projects have specialized in new design and heritage buildings, green architecture, participatory design and planning, and community revitalization. The firm's Winnipeg projects have included the Dalnavert Visitors' Museum, Assiniboine Park Duck Pond Shelter, The Path of Full Citizenship accessibility ramp for the Manitoba Legislative Building, and SISTARS Community Hub and Daycare in North Point Douglas.
Dr. Ian Skelton's program of research focuses on processes mediating access to land and housing for marginalized populations. This has involved several publications on housing programs that have operated at the national level in Canada, and on comparisons between Canada and other nations. Addressing housing and community development in Winnipeg, Dr. Skelton has been principal investigator and lead author in several area-based studies examining processes of neighbourhood change, and is presently leading a collaborative research initiative on housing options for people living with mental health issues. Dr. Skelton’s interest in land issues extends to a current study of land titling practices in Brazil and the possible consequences of contemporary initiatives promoting owner occupation in First Nations in Canada. As founding editor of Canadian Planning and Policy – Aménagement et politique au Canada Dr. Skelton has a mandate of fostering peer-reviewed work on planning and policy in Canadian contexts.
Dr. David van Vliet’s research interests are in the study of the propositions, principles and practice of sustainable community planning and design. To ground this he documents innovative demonstration projects and tests for the diffusion of innovations and associated social learning. This work has developed a method of assessment and a record of built projects, which has facilitated inquiry into supporting consumer receptivity and means for visualising greater sustainability through graphic and digital representation. The case study work identifies more effective programs and lessons about improved delivery systems for sustainable community planning. For a recent example funded by the Manitoba Sustainable Development Innovation Fund, and staffed by MCP student Jessica Roder, click The Building Green, Education Project.
Dr. Ian Wight’s scholarship is mainly concerned with the interplay of place, place-making and planning, in the contexts of integral professional practice and city-region planning/governance, informed especially by the recent work by Ken Wilber and others on integral consciousness. He focuses on the planning and design professions, and their response to post-modernisation influences, with a particular interest in implications for continuing professional development. Another focus centres on city-regions, especially the provincial capital city-regions in Western Canada, and the possibilities for their planning and governance as 'common place-making on a regional scale'. His integral work was published in a special ‘integral ecology’ issue of World Futures, and he also recently completed a city-region governance think-piece for the City-Region Studies Centre at the University of Alberta. He is currently programming the CIP2008 national conference on the themes of: Planning by Design in Community - Making Great Places - Healthy Caring Inclusive and Green.
DEPARTMENT OF INTERIOR DESIGN
Dr. Susan Close is an Associate Professor in the Interior Design Department of the Faculty of Architecture and a visiting fellow at St. John’s College, both at the University of Manitoba. Her book, Framing Identity: Social Practices of Photography in Canada (1880-1920) was published by Arbeiter Ring Publishing in 2007. She has published articles and reviews on contemporary and historical photography in CV photo, Border Crossings, the Queens Quarterly, Archivaria and the Archivist. Her areas of interest include design culture, visual arts, literary theory, semiotics, feminist theory, cultural studies, postcolonial theory and globalization.
Dr. Close’s current research is based on an interdisciplinary perspective gained through her doctoral studies in cultural analysis with cultural critic and theorist Mieke Bal who founded the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis, Theory and Interpretation (ASCA) at the University of Amsterdam. Close presently focuses her research on three areas: Photography and design culture, Issues of cultural and gender identity and diversity and Social activism and design.
Dr. Cynthia Karpan’s current research interests lie in the area of contemporary methods of interior design programming. Funding is currently being sought in order to obtain preliminary data and test the research methodology. Subsequent funding will be sought in order to expand the research through the United States. The goal of this research is to obtain data from 100-150 participants across Canada and the US. This data will be used as the basis for research-based publications on programming; publications that are desperately needed by interior design educators teaching programming, and students learning about programming interior environments.
Dr. Shauna Mallory-Hill has over twenty years research experience in evaluating the performance of built environments in relation to human requirements (environment-behaviour research). Part of this work includes finding ways to integrate research findings to inform the renovation and new design of buildings (evidence-based design), mainly through the use of computer systems known as design decision support systems.
Although originally focused primarily in the area of barrier-free/universal design, since 1996 Mallory-Hill’s work has expanded to include the examination of a broad scope of building performance and human requirement relationships. Her doctoral work (2003) focused on capturing design performance knowledge from existing innovative workplaces using her own multi-facetted evaluation methodology [MOPS]. The findings were incorporated into on-line Case-Based Reasoning [CBR] computer design decision support tool. Mallory-Hill's current research work is an investigation on how the design of sustainable workplace environments impacts on worker health and productivity.
As part of her PhD candidacy in the joint Ryerson/York Communications and Culture Program, Professor Lynn Chalmers is researching cultural practices reflected in workplace environments. She is using theory to frame a humanistic view, counter to neoliberal values in work place environments. Her work is currently concerned with Michel de Certeau's notion of tactics and it's applicability to subtle practices of subversion used by individuals to create spaces of resistance.
DEPARTMENT OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
Dr. Marcella Eaton’s current research relates to philosophy, ethics and aesthetics in relation to landscape architecture; international design competitions, including leading second placed team in International Peace Gardens competition in 2002-2003.
Dr. P. Richard Perron has a PhD in geo-science and cultural geography from the University of Victoria. His PhD thesis is an examination of computer mediated communications, hermeneutics and cultural meta-theory. Dr. Perron’s current research interests include landscape architectural theory, landscape urbanism, flood architecture and embedded landscape/digital technologies.
Dr. Perron has been the recipient of a number of National research awards including being the co-producer of a Heritage Canada: Virtual Museums of Canada research project “Landscape Change – Landscape Loss”. He has been a senior researcher on three CMHC external research grants (related to sustainable community design). He has also been a team member on a SSHRC strategic research grant “The Continuous Environmental Experience”. His most recent studio projects have been “Soft Systems: flood architecture and global warming in PEI” and “Synaesthetic Landscapes: embedded technologies and landscape experiences”.
Dr. Alan Tate’s PhD was directed towards understanding of the public realm (including urban parks - which remain an important focus of his work - and are one particular, and significant, constituent of the public realm) in order to promote and project its importance to city life and, in turn, to empower our students to make major contributions to its quality through their, eventual, professional work. Dr. Tate is approaching this work through semiotics and, specifically, the meanings of place titles (or suffix names) and what these imply in physical / design terms and setting the semiotic study in a phenomenological context. The aim is to eventually produce an urban open space typology based on the range of names that we give to the public spaces between buildings; the meanings that these imply, and the physical forms that they suggest.
Dr. Karen Wilson Baptist: Death by Landscape: Memorial Landscapes and the Phenomenology of Grief: Methodologically framed by Max van Manen’s self-acclaimed “practical, existential and hermeneutic phenomenology; with warp and weft provided by Heidegger’s concept of dwelling, and Merleau-Ponty’s notion of chiasm or intertwining, “Death by Landscape” investigates the lived-experience of grief and commemoration. In particular the research focuses on articulating the temporal, embodied, communal and spatial aspects of an increasingly familiar aspect of the rural and urban memorial landscape – the roadside memorial. The thrust of the research is directed toward informing the growing proliferation of memorial making in landscape architectural theory, teaching, and practice. Grounded in the investigation of the physical markers of tragic death, this work sympathizes with the position that memorial sites are created in response to an individual or collective loss of life. Those suffering from the loss of a loved one directly, or alternatively those experiencing a “phantom grief” attributed to a catastrophic event, exhibit varied degrees of grief. Thus the investigation of human experience required by a phenomenological inquiry, is in this instance, directed towards the lived-experience of grief. Because we have long turned to the earth to house the dead and to symbolically express sorrow, the landscape provides compensatory benefits to the bereaved. This, I posit, is because not only does grief exhibit embodied spatial qualities, but that fundamentally landscape as both a physical and metaphysical entity holds a primary role in the comprehension, compensation, and interpretation of grief. The roadside memorial, by its ability to gather the landscape to human consciousness – through its placement on the horizon, its orientation to the earth and the sky, its mimicry of ancient symbols of death, its temporality and its haptic marking of sudden tragic death – mediates the grief of survivors of events of tragedy and loss by dispersing painful memories through the mutability of landscape. This distillation of the relationship between grief and landscape is directed at the re-enchantment of a contemporary language for memorial landscapes.
201 John A. Russell Building
University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB R3T 2N2 Canada