How will the design and planning industries be practicing in ten years? Angela Watson joins CAPLA Futures Council

Shepley Bulfinch Principal Angela Watson, FAIA, is serving as a member of the University of Arizona College of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture’s (CAPLA) inaugural Futures Council, a 12-member advisory group formed as part of CAPLA’s strategic planning efforts.

In the fall of 2018, both the University of Arizona and CAPLA unveiled major strategic planning initiatives. Per the UA 2018 Strategic Plan, one of the University’s key initiatives is described as: “Building a Changing World: Define design needs and solutions to create a sustainable, renewed, and purposefully deigned built environment in the 4IR [Fourth Industrial Revolution] (e.g. livable cities for the 4IR, built environment lifecycle, trillion sensor future and IoT in built environment, automated construction, cloud infrastructure)” University of Arizona 2018 Strategic Plan

Referring to the Building a Changing World initiative in the Q4 2018 DesignIntelligence Quarterly, CAPLA Dean Nancy Pollock-Ellwand, PhD states: “… the College, like the University, is embracing the same powerful principle to approach complex issues of the built environment in an integrated and highly collaborative manner. This alignment of purpose will help fuel the work of the College and the University in its objective to seek curricular, research and service innovations in the built environment.” Building a Changing World

At the CAPLA Strategic Plan Launch, Dean Nancy Pollock-Ellwand described the strategic planning process, saying: “We were asking such questions as: How will the design and planning industries be practicing in ten years? How should design and planning schools be preparing students to excel for the future? What are the biggest built and natural environmental issues facing the community today and tomorrow? And how will we, in CAPLA, get involved in solving those issues?” CAPLA will be looking to their new Futures Council to help answer these questions.

A video of the CAPLA Strategic Plan Launch Special Address can be seen here: CAPLA Strategic Plan