UBC School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture

Applications for SALA’s Design Discovery program are open now. This program introduces high school students, college students, graduates, and second-career professionals to the world of design, and allows participants to explore the field and build foundational skills.

Led by experienced architectural practitioners and current SALA students, Design Discovery will give you an intimate look into the creative process, and a glimpse of life as a SALA student!

Learn more and register at the link in our bio.

Design Discovery | SALA Designing for Experience : July 6 – July 17Designing for Behaviour: July 20 – July 31 SALA’s Design Discovery summer program consists of two two-week courses, designed to give high-school students, college students, graduates, and second-career professionals an introduction to the world of des...

How can you help bring to innovation in design education?
SALA Design + Build provides direct, hands-on experience for Applied Science students in design and construction.

On April 8, help shape this future with us and support SALA Design + Build on Giving Day, a 24-hour event of giving back to important initiatives at UBC. Head to givingday.ubc.ca to give now!

On April 8 only, your gift will go twice as far with this matching gift:
•$5,000 from DIALOG when 10 donors give to SALA Design + Build

https://givingday.ubc.ca/32770/gd2026/194322/sala-design-build-fund

Join us at Inform Interiors on Wednesday, January 14 to celebrate Leslie Van Duzer’s new book updn: 88 Spins with Bill Pechet. Get your tickets here: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/informinteriorsinc/2008061

The evening will feature a conversation with Leslie Van Duzer, who has assembled and annotated with great insight, attention and good humour, a book looking at the work of Bill Pechet, designer and artist, teacher and mentor.

Copies of updn will be available for purchase. Book signings will take place during the reception.

Join us on Friday, December 12 for the opening reception of student work from the ARCH 540 studio, Salmon, Salmon, Swifties led by Thena Tak.

The event will be held at Project Space at 602 East Hastings Street from 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. with light refreshments being served. Admission is free so come support our students and check out the work on migrations they have been developing this semester! A broad range of migrations have been explored, from buffalo to death rituals to q***r bodies to AI’s water extraction. The exhibition also includes student work from Emily Carr University of Art + Design led by Daphne Plessner.

The work will also be up over the weekend:
Saturday, December 13 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Sunday, December 14 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Featured students: Huda Akbar, Alyssa Cheung, Greg Culley, Justine Fahey, Layal Farah, Yasaman Khalili, Omar Munoz Rodriguez, Manuel Ortega Santos, Lea Papillon, Joud Shawwa, Ruvé Staneke, Hannah Whitlaw, Kevin Wong

Learn more about our Master of Architecture and Master of Landscape Architecture programs at our Graduate Open House on November 24. Hear about the application process and life at SALA straight from faculty, current students, and advisors.

This event is both in person and online. RSVP here:

Graduate Open House | SALA Hear from our faculty, advisors, and current students about the program, the application process, and life at SALA. This is a great chance to ask questions before you submit your application. We are offering a simultaneous online option through Zoom for those who cannot join us in person. A link to....

Admissions are open for the 2026/27 academic year! The admissions guide linked in our bio has everything you need to know about applying, including deadlines. For most of our programs, your application is due by January 15, but be sure to check on our website.

Interested in applying for our Bachelor of Design program? Come to our Open House on October 30, either in-person or online. Hear from our faculty and current students about the program, the application process, and life at SALA.

RSVP here:

Bachelor of Design Open House | SALA Hear from our faculty and current students about the program, the application process, and life at SALA. We are also offering a simultaneous online option through Zoom for those who cannot join us in person. If you select the online option, a link to the Zoom meeting will be emailed to you closer to...

Harvesting Colour, Weaving Storied Landscapes
Hannah Whitlaw
LARC 582: Study Abroad with Sara Jacobs

Natural dyeing has long been central to Sardinian weaving traditions—a practice rooted in the gathering of plants and natural materials to draw colour from the land itself. Historically, this was a deeply relational, collective process, shared among women. Though with the rise of synthetic dyes and the shift toward individual weaving production, many of those connections—between women, land, and craft—have begun to fade. Natural dyes reconnect weaving to its place of origin. The colours drawn from walnuts, oak galls, and clay (among other natural materials) reflect the unique ecology of the island, grounding wool from Sardinian sheep in the plants they graze among and the landscapes they move through.

Some weavers can even detect subtle colour differences in dye depending on the region where a plant was harvested—each hue acts as a map or a way of reading the land. To dye with natural materials is to enter into dialogue with the land. The resulting weavings are more than textiles; they become expressions of interdependence, memory, and care. This project, guided by the knowledge of women at Foghiles, explored those relationships. Through the act of harvesting, dyeing, and weaving, the stories of the local landscape began to emerge and the work unfolded as a conversation between people, plants, and place. — View the full project at sala.ubc.ca/projects, or the Student Work link in our bio.

Sardinia
LARC 582: Study Abroad with Sara Jacobs

For three weeks in May, a group of SALA MArch and MLA students traveled with UBC Assistant Professor Sara Jacobs to the Mediterranean island of Sardinia, embarking on one of the annual Study Abroad courses offered by SALA. After a dense and demanding winter semester, they traded screens and books in favour of immersive, land-based learning at a slower pace. They shared their experience with us at the link in our bio and at sala.ubc.ca/news. Photo courtesy of Hannah Whitlaw — (8/9)

Sardinia
LARC 582: Study Abroad with Sara Jacobs

For three weeks in May, a group of SALA MArch and MLA students traveled with UBC Assistant Professor Sara Jacobs to the Mediterranean island of Sardinia, embarking on one of the annual Study Abroad courses offered by SALA. After a dense and demanding winter semester, they traded screens and books in favour of immersive, land-based learning at a slower pace. They shared their experience with us at the link in our bio and at sala.ubc.ca/news. Photo courtesy of Hannah Whitlaw — (7/9)