Courses

UDES 505
Urban Design as Public Policy: Policymaking for a Sustainable Region
Introduction to the history and theory of how policy influences urban design, with a particularly emphasis on the evolution of zoning regulation in North American cities.

UDES 506
Real Estate Economics: Development Feasibility and Financing
Introduction to financial analysis and market analysis for urban design projects.

UDES 509A
Urban design methods
Cities change over time.  Time is a crucial element in the formation of cities and the main recurring theme throughout this course.

UDES 509B
Case studies
This is a class about a key ingredient in the everyday life of cities large and small: the neighbourhood. The course explores neighbourhoods as a particular geographic scale of planning and design, but also locates them as part of a larger ‘pattern language’, or continuum. 

UDES 509C
Three Great Waves Changing Cities
An exploration of the changes occurring in cities across the globe, the form and function of which are being impacted by three linked phenomena: declining birth rates, rural to urban migration and rising inequality.

DES 101
Introductory workshop
Week long orientation to the School community, the City and the study of design one week prior to the start of Winter Session Term 1.

DES 110
Architectural drawing
Introduction to a range of techniques applicable to analytic and technical drawing used in architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design. Formerly ENDS 110. 

DES 130
Design, Culture and Ecology
DES 130 introduces you to design as a collaborative activity across disciplines with the potential to address ecological challenges and human experience within the realm of the built environment.&n

DES 200
Design thinking
Design thinking through the analysis of architecture, landscape architecture and urban design and through hands-on design projects. Formerly ENDS 231. 

DES 201
Design studio I: Context and Sight
Design within the context of various analytical lenses including ecological, climatic, social, political, cultural and historical influences.

DES 202
Design studio II: Form
Essential processes and methods for thinking in three-dimensional spatial terms.

DES 211
Design media I
Techniques in architectural drawing, two-dimensional representation, three-dimensional representation and general visual literacy. Formerly ENDS 320.

DES 212
Design media II
Advanced techniques in architectural representation and discourse in digital representation and digital making.

DES 220
Architecture and urbanism in context: Vancouver and its region
Introduction to the unfolding architecture and urbanism of Metro Vancouver. Formerly ENDS 220.

DES 230
Sustainability by design
Interactions between human and natural urban systems using local and international examples of successful sustainable community designs. Formerly ENDS 221. 

DES 231
Site analysis and planning
Analysis and planning of relatively complex sites, emphasizing storm water management design.

DES 301
Design studio III: Building scale synthesis
Design at the architectural scale through the medium of program and site.

DES 302
Design studio IV
Vancouver as a laboratory for design at the architectural and urban scale with a focused view in to how design is implicated in the social, political and environmental transformation of the city.

DES 320
History of the Design of the Built Environment
A broad historical introduction to architectural and landscape architectural design within the context of policies, economics and culture.

DES 321
Topics in Architectural History I (pre-1900)
Hybrid lecture-seminar course on a focused topic covering one thematic aspect of the history of architecture during the time period of 1400–1900.

DES 322
Topics in Architectural History II (1900-present)
Hybrid lecture-seminar course on a focused topic covering one thematic aspect of the history of architecture during the time period of 1900–present. Through in-depth study of a particular thematic topic, students will engage with the latest research and approaches to understanding the history of architecture as embedded within cultural, political, and economic contexts. The topic of this course will be unique from other architectural history courses offered in the previous three years.

DES 323
Histories in Landscape Architecture
Landscapes from medieval times to the present studied synchronically across design elements as well as chronologically with the development of several key historical concepts.

DES 330
Structural systems and supports
Basic structural systems in the built world including wood, steel, concrete, composite systems and essential structural logics of soil retention systems and drainage.

DES 401
Design Studio V: Urban Systems Scale Synthesis
Relationships between communities and environment, urban infrastructure and ecological systems.