News

Fall is an amazing time on the Sexton Campus. Students and Professors return to their routines with an energy and enthusiasm that extends far outside the classroom. This year the fall semester was particularly exciting, with students, staff and faculty members participating in numerous events that help showcase just what it is that makes Dalhousie Architecture and Planning so special!

Homecoming

On October 16th the Faculty hosted a joint lecture with our neighbors and friends in Engineering. Titled Innovation in Buildings – Architectural and Engineering Design Solutions, the lecture attracted alumni and students from both Faculties.

Faculty members Professor Brian Lilley and Dr. Lukas Swan (MASc’06, PhD’10) presented their experience with cutting edge building design in both disciplines, leaving the audience with a feel of what is possible as this field continues to develop. The lecture was part of a weekend of events to celebrate Dalhousie Homecoming and was followed by a reception including some reminiscing of great times on the Sexton campus!

Dean Josh Leon mingles with alumni celebrating milestone reunions

Nocturne Halifax: Art at Night

Our students made an amazing contribution to Nocturne this year.”Living Traces” was an interactive exhibition that allowed attendees to experience a taste of what it’s like to be an Architecture student — and make their mark on a Halifax landmark.

The exhibition involved a vertical light wall, on which attendees could do their own tracing over a view of the old Halifax library across the street. “So on the light wall, we have images and plans of the old libraries. People can come in, rip off the sheet of trace and make their own mark on this building and what they want to see happen to it,” said lead organizer Mark White. “It was a really interesting way for us to engage with the public in a way that’s different.”

The light wall (photo credit: Mark White)

“Living Traces” at Nocturne (photo credit: Mark White)

“Living Traces” was well received by the public and had enthusiastic participation over the span of the evening right up until the close of the event at midnight.

Engaging the public (photo credit: Mark White)

Also on the Sexton Campus was “Twinkle Twinkle” an installation hosted by the Dal-linked #PlayMeHfx initiative in collaboration with the Dalhousie Architecture Students Association, the Dalhousie Society of Undergraduate Planners and the Dalhousie Undergraduate Engineering Society. It featured a “magical” grove of trees, hidden on Sexton Campus, where curiosity was rewarded in unexpected ways with red swings, twinkling starlights, hot lemonade and playful pianos.

“Know Your Dal”

Dalhousie is a community of more than 6,000 faculty and staff and 18,000-plus students, all with busy lives and schedules. Understandably, it can be difficult to know what’s happening in other corners of the university—whether it’s on another campus, in another building or sometimes even across your own department or unit. That’s where “Know Your Dal” came in this fall. The week of November 16th, “Know Your Dal” gave the University community an inside look at the Faculty of Architecture and Planning. Special photos, videos, articles and more showed off the incredible work we do and the people who help make it happen. Interested in a closer look? Check out our feature story, the dean’s video, a photo album of faculty and staff, etc. 

Parade of Lights

Multidisciplinary team of students (photo credit: Nick Pearce)

Organization and ideas

It’s a longstanding tradition for Architecture and Engineering students to organize a Dalhousie contribution to Halifax’s annual holiday parade. Shalini Makdani and Jennifer Kinnunen — both now in the first year of the Master of Architecture program — were co-leads for this year’s effort, with the support of a team that included upwards of 30-to-40 Dal students from across the Architecture, Engineering and Planning programs. Work began in September with a series of design charrettes (planning meetings), which allowed different groups of students to brainstorm what the float might look like.

Construction begins!

Prototyping had been underway for about a month or so, but it was a week before the parade that construction began in earnest. All week, for three or more hours, dozens of students were in the woodshop making saws cut, sparks fly and plastic bend. By midweek the float’s focal point — its largest “bulb,” pulled on a trailer — was truly taking shape, while alongside students also worked on smaller jellyfish-like bulbs that will be worn by individual parade participants.

Constructing their vision — design build at its best! (photo credit: Nick Pearce)

Collaboration with Engineering

Sam Fresia, a third-year Electrical Engineering student, has been working on the float’s lighting. He says the project has been a great way to connect with students from the different programs that call Sexton Campus home. “It’s really great to work with students from other disciplines and get these different opinions,” he says. “Even though we’re on the same campus, engineers, architects and even planners are often separated in our work, and there’s not always opportunities to bring them together quite like this.

Jeff Walker, first year planning student (photo credit: Nick Pearce)

A little help from Dal Bike Centre

The team’s final concept embodied “parade of lights” and “float” quite literally. Attendees enjoyed seeing a living seascape of rainbow-coloured “jellyfish” (as the team calls them) swimming through the streets of Halifax, each beaming with light and propelled by foot, by trailer and by bicycle. Outfitting the bicycles was one of the trickier parts of the design process — which makes it all the better that the Dal Bike Centre not only provided the bikes but also helped with construction.

Sharing their vision

On November 21st, the students showed Halifax the fun, engaging design they’ve been toiling over for months. And after the Parade of Lights reached the end of its route, the students were left with an experience that demonstrated what’s possible when inspiration meets collaboration.

“To mobilize a group of young people is really exciting: bringing them together, talking about things and making something beautiful out of it,” says Shalini.
Jennifer agrees. “It was really eye-opening, as to how and where we can do projects like this in our futures — just how to create that community dynamic, foster people’s talents, enjoy each other’s company and get involved.”