Quality in Canada’s Built Environment: Roadmaps to Equity, Social Value, and Sustainability is a new research partnership for addressing the quality of public environments in urban spaces, buildings, and landscapes. Funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and other partners, it brings together 14 universities, 70 researchers, and 68 public and private organizations at the municipal, provincial, and national levels, including the OAA.

The partnership will explore how those active in considering and creating the built environment across Canada can redefine quality taking into account heightened equity, more social value, and greater sustainability. 

Coordinated from the University of Montreal by the Canada Research Chair in Architecture, Competitions, and Mediations of Excellence (CRC-ACME), the partnership has three aims:

• analyzing the current limitations of environmental norms and sustainability models to come closer to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs);
• co-designing new paths to equity, diversity, and inclusion in the built environment; and
• defining new frameworks for the definition of quality so as to enhance the social value of the built environment.