UCalgary architecture alum promoted to SAPL assistant professor

A former adjunct professor has been promoted to assistant professor of architecture at the University of Calgary’s School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape (SAPL).

Matthew Parker, BSc’03, MArch’12, MEDes’16, an adjunct professor for the past five years, with a focus on design studios and representation courses, will now collaborate with students and faculty researchers to devise new projects and aid in the development and implementation of curriculum geared towards undergraduate and graduate integration.

The three-time alum is celebrated in his field as a key player in many interdisciplinary teams. Parker and his collaborators have won awards such as the 2022 Award of Excellence from the Building Engineering: Institutional Consulting Engineers of Alberta and the 2021 Tree of Life Award from the Association of Consulting Engineering Companies – Canada and Canadian Consulting Engineer Magazine.

From 2016 to 2020, Parker interned as an architect for DIALOG, a multidisciplinary design practice with studios across Canada and the U.S. During this time, he and his team received the 2019 Mayor’s Urban Design Award from The City of Calgary for their outstanding work on UCalgary’s MacKimmie Complex. He also served as DIALOG’s chair of Disruptive Technology Roundtable, a group that worked across scales and disciplines to advance the integration of computation across architecture, engineering and construction industries. Concurrently, Parker also assisted in research with the Laboratory for Integrative Design.

In his new role at SAPL, Parker will explore how novel computational and digital fabrication support distributed authorship, increases affordability, and advances construction techniques and sustainability.

Parker says he is looking forward to advancing cultural and environmental sustainability through architectural design, while strengthening the connections between local communities of practice and research.

With expertise on a variety of topics, acclaim from his peers and firsthand knowledge into the inner workings of SAPL, Parker hopes to advance architecture and design towards what he describes as “the ethical treatment of the diversity of bodies and lived experiences that make up our shared world.”

When he is not working, Parker says he enjoys walking his dog, listening to philosophy and critical theory podcasts, and spending his time “experiencing the city I grew up in through the eyes of my children.”