The Global Engagement Seminar: Finding Our Future City - Health, Housing, and Humanity is opening its special lectures to the public! Join our 2025 Jarislowsky Fellows, leading experts and practitioners in the field, as we explore what Future Cities within our lifetime could look like in terms of our individual and collective sense of being and belonging, and the ways in which we need to think creatively about how we can best ensure healthy and sustainable homes and communities at the local, national, and global levels.
Everyone is welcome - no registration required!
All lectures are taking place in Arts Lecture (AL) 208 and include a talk and Q&A.
Introduction to Futures Thinking
Wednesday, January 29, 7:00-8:00PM | AL 208
Join Helen Kerr, Director of Research, Foresight, and Innovation at KerrSmith Design, for a talk on futures thinking as a practice with a focus on how we can incorporate that work into imaging and building the urban conditions we want, resiliently, despite the challenges we are facing.
Representing the Human Experience: Our voice in the People-Place Dialogue
Wednesday, February 5, 7:00-8:00PM | AL 208
Join Itai Palti, Founder of the Centre of Conscious Design and Director of Hume, to explore the vital role of representing the needs and aspirations of people in building environments that resonate with people. By dissecting current modes of production and examining practical strategies, this talk illuminates how to reinfuse identity, belonging, and empathy into our cities, fostering spaces that inspire and nurture connection to place and one another.
Challenges and Innovation in The High Arctic
Wednesday, February 12, 7:00-8:00PM | AL 208
Join Juanie Pudluk, Director of Infrastucture at Nunavut Housing Corporation, to explore the challenges of building in Nunavut. What are the solutions or strategies that we can use to alleviate the housing crisis? We will discuss some of the challenges and strategies that we have started and share that with the students.
Reinventing Growth Management: The Need for a Systemic Overhaul of Land Use Planning and Community Building in Ontario
Wednesday, February 26, 7:00-8:00PM | AL 208
Join Frank Cairo, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Caivan, to explore the intersection of economy, environment and social realms and the lack of comprehensive, interdisciplinary methods in land use planning. Topics covered:
- Generative and Parametric Design Tools;
- Harnessing quantitative methods and optimization in the planning of built environment;
- The need for robust economic feasibility modelling in municipal decision making;
Advanced manufacturing as a productivity solution for the construction sector.
The Urban Determinants of Health
Wednesday, March 5, 7:00-8:00PM | AL 208
Join Tai Huynh, Editor-in-Chief at The Local, to unpack how cities can be health promoting but they can also make us unwell. How they do this often isn’t very visible and goes beyond plainly obvious things like walkability or road safety. Using Toronto as a case study and drawing on his work at The Local, Huynh will discuss the social determinants of health within the context of a dense urban setting.
Moving Forward Together: The Power of Collaboration
Wednesday, March 12, 7:00-8:00PM | AL 208
Join Sandy Little, Director of Strategic Initiatives at the City of Waterloo, to explore linkages between housing, health (with a focus on planetary health specific to climate change), and humanity highlighting homelessness and the importance of connecting and collaborating with municipal divisions, other levels of government, and community strategic partners in this work.