Presentation Schedule
Design Innovation in Turbulent Times: Agility, Technology and Lived Experience as Catalysts for Quality of Life (104668)
Session Chair: Brian Robert Sinclair
Tuesday, 12 May 2026 12:40
Session: Session 2
Room: Room G407 (4F)
Presentation Type: Oral Presentation
Contemporary cities confront unforeseen and perplexing challenges that erode health, happiness and wellbeing. From unsafe streets and toxic buildings to unaffordability and homelessness, our communities struggle to design, develop then occupy their environments in ways that lift not lower quality of life. The built environment is a fundamental determinant of public health. The manner in which we craft our spaces and places impacts, for good and for bad, our perception, emotion and identity. These environments can destabilize feelings or buttress belonging, depending on how they resonate with needs, expectations and aspirations. Historically the shaping of the city was in the hands of environmental design professionals, such as architects and planners. However, today there is growing awareness around an urgency to increase voices at the table and heighten agency beyond the status quo. To this end, the present paper explores a number of dimensions of design that are emerging as innovative, potent and impactful as citizens change, requirements pivot, and environments morph. Namely, the need for greater agility and mutability; the potential for technology to support users; and the centrality of lived experience as a driver of good design. These three factors are considered together as powerful facets of modern society that collectively promise to render design more sensitive, environments more supportive, and quality of life more evident. Through an unprecedented five-year intersectoral study into “Quality in Canada’s Built Environment”, pressing issues of design innovation are explored, with a premise that improving quality of design raises quality of life for all.
Authors:
Brian R. Sinclair, University of Calgary, Canada
About the Presenter(s)
Dr Brian R. Sinclair is a University ProfessorPrincipal Lecturer at University of Calgary in Canada
Connect on Linkedin
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-brian-r-sinclair-phd-drhc-fraic-aia-intl-2167048/
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