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For design and sustainability, the place to be is here

Design and Computation Arts students learn sustainable design practices and ethical technologies
May 22, 2012
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By Ann Tanner-McDonald

Source: Concordia University Magazine

Carla El-Samra and Jason Shatilla have parlayed their design education into an award-winning Montreal design firm, Surface3.
Carla El-Samra and Jason Shatilla have parlayed their design education into an award-winning Montreal design firm, Surface3.

Carla El-Samra, BFA (design art) 01, and Jason Shatilla, BFA (design art) 03, believe in payback. As principals of Surface3, the award-winning, Montreal-based design office they founded in 2003, El-Samra and Shatilla are building a practice that embraces the concepts they learned at Concordia’s Department of Design and Computation Arts, where the two met. “The beauty of the program is that it merges all types of design,” El-Samra says. “It gave me the confidence that I could do many different things.”

Recently, Surface3 undertook a “total experience” design — everything from the interior to the menu to the business cards — for Montreal pastry restaurant De farine et d’eau fraîche. That work earned Surface3 a Prix Café design award in the Espace Commercial – Secteur Alimentaire category at the Grand Prix du Design 2011 in Montreal.

“Our philosophy — a combination of strategic thinking, creative exploration and a global approach — came out of our studies at Concordia,” El-Samra says. “We wanted to give back to the place that inspired us.”

The partners have expressed their appreciation by establishing the Surface3 Design Award, an annual $500 prize that will be given to a top design program graduating student, whose work reflects excellence and sustainability. “As designers, our commitment to intervene in a responsible way is huge,” says Shatilla. “Redefining the meaning of sustainability, and looking at it in novel ways, is vital.”

Rhona Richman Kenneally couldn’t agree more. The associate professor and chair of the department says sustainability is a crucial concern in their programs. “Designers are instrumental in the creation of images, objects, narratives and environments that characterize human experience,” she asserts. “We must seek a deep understanding of the stakeholders and ecologies implicated by our designs, and of the socio-cultural, economic and environmental repercussions of those designs throughout their lifecycle.”

The department’s programs investigate the areas of visual communication, the built environment and interaction design. Faculty members share an interest in sustainability from a range of research and teaching domains.

Left: Design students embraced a sustainability mandate in redesigning the Hive Café, repurposing materials for furniture and creating the visual identity. Right: Time TravellerTM/Abtec is a virtual reality adventure about a young Mohawk man living in the 22nd century who travels through time and relives historical conflicts that have involved First Nations.
Left: Design students embraced a sustainability mandate in redesigning the Hive Café, repurposing materials for furniture and creating the visual identity. Right: Time TravellerTM/Abtec is a virtual reality adventure about a young Mohawk man living in the 22nd century who travels through time and relives historical conflicts that have involved First Nations.

Associate professor pk langshaw was named one of Concordia’s inaugural Sustainability Champions in 2010 for her longstanding commitment to sustainable practices both inside and outside the classroom. For more than a decade, she has worked with the Montreal community-based organization Dans la Rue’s alternative school whereby design students receive marks for teaching computer skills that in turn count towards high school credits for youth at risk. Last year, langshaw and part-time instructors Sarah Greig and Andrew Dolan took on a major class project that involved the renovation of the student-run Hive Café on the Loyola campus. Their students used the café’s sustainable business plan as a guide for every aspect of the design.

The students of recently-hired sustainability professor Carmela Cucuzella are also adopting environmentally friendly strategies and assessment methods in projects. An example includes the redesign of the Concordia Volunteer Abroad Program (CVAP) and Sustainable Concordia offices. “My
students learn that everything in the built environment has an impact,” she explains. “They soon realize that their actions can make a difference and they find ways to rise to the challenge.”

Associate professor Martin Racine was named a 2011 Concordia Sustainability Champion. Since 2000, he’s been coordinating the Quebec Eco-design pavilion at the Salon international du design at Montreal’s Place Bonaventure, where his students’ furniture projects consistently attract significant attention. Racine sits on the education committee of Mission Design, a consortium of design leaders committed to raising awareness about the vital role of design in the social, cultural and economic fabric of Quebec. Montreal’s designation as a UNESCO City of Design — unique in North America — fuels the dialogue and draws attention to the city’s prominent design sector.

From Left: Still comes alive by Kyosuke Nishida, Brian Li, Sean Yendrys, Dominique Liu, Stefan Spec and Duc Tran; Gaia by Henk Boom, Karen Lee, Niclas Munoz and Peter Rockwell; Lamp Project by Alexandre Cameron Royer and Chantal Brière, created in the 3D technologies Design course; the Eco-Design Pavilion presented at the Salon International Du Design at Montreal's Place Bonaventure showcases projects done in Design and Computation Arts Associate Professor Martin Racine's Ecology and 3D Design course.
From Left: Still Life Comes Alive by Kyosuke Nishida, Brian Li, Sean Yendrys, Dominic Liu, Stefan Spec and Duc Tran; Gaia by Henk Boom, Karen Lee, Nicolás Muñoz and Peter Rockwell; Lamp Project by Alexandre Cameron Royer and Chantal Brière, created in the 3D Technologies Design course; the Eco-Design Pavilion presented at the Salon International Du Design at Montreal's Place Bonaventure showcases projects done in Design and Computation Arts Associate Professor Martin Racine's Ecology and 3D Design course.

Montreal is also a world centre for games activity. Computation arts professor Jason Lewis explains that industry leaders have realized they can no longer rely mainly on technological advances to attract gamers, and so are concentrating more on the development of meaningful stories. Lewis’s research focuses on how First Nations, Inuit and Métis storytelling can be used to create compelling, playable narratives using digital, online and mobile technologies.

In July 2012, a new faculty member with expertise in game and virtual environment design will  join the department, offering rich points of contact with the Faculty of Fine Arts’ Film Animation and Intermedia/Cyberarts programs as well as the Technoculture, Art and Games (TAG) lab. “For students, the place to be is here,” Lewis says.

Design and Computation Arts chair Richman Kenneally points out that diverse and innovative faculty research — which ranges from visual communication to electronic textiles and responsive environments — helps generate a vibrant teaching environment. The department is also developing a Master of Design program. “We are very proud of our commitment to interdisciplinarity sustainability, and to our collaborative ethos in addressing design and computation arts,” she says.

With additional reporting by Jill C. Moffett, BA 98

Related links:
•  Faculty of Fine Arts
•  surface3.com
•  "Student designs go from greenhouse to global exhibition" — NOW, May 23, 2012



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