Simon Fraser University
Engaging the World

Course Outlines

Summer 2025 - SD 401 E100

Sustainable Development Studio (4)

Class Number: 2981

Delivery Method: In Person

Overview

  • Course Times + Location:

    May 12 – Aug 8, 2025: Wed, 4:30–8:20 p.m.
    Burnaby

  • Prerequisites:

    SD 281 and 60 units.

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Engages students in creating innovative solutions to real-world challenges of sustainability and development, using studio-based approaches. Explores mechanisms for effective social and environmental change and develops policies and strategies for implementing sustainability in different locations and at different scales.

COURSE DETAILS:

This summer, the focus is on art, sustainable planning, and place-making strategies from around the world for engaging youth in facilitating more equitable, green, creative and resilient communities. Our applied project is a site along the Fraser River. 

Applying the UN Sustainable Development Goals and Human Rights legislation lens as a global challenge lab where students work with community partners to design an innovative response to secure more sustainable, equitable, green, and resilient communities involving youth and art. This semester, the challenge includes collaborating with several partners in the Fraser Valley, including artists and civic partners, to explore themes of sustainability, art, policy, and design, focusing on themes of resilience in relation to climate challenges and the historic, present and future role of the Fraser River. 

SD 401 will be offered in person with selected lectures virtual to facilitate international speakers. Lectures, guest speakers, group activities and weekly responses are integrated into weekly sessions.

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

At the end of the course, students will be able to:

  • Identify the key elements of Agenda 2030 and SDGs from a theoretical and practical perspective and discuss their relevance to the regional level.
  • Describe what ‘sustainability’ and ‘sustainable development’ mean in the context of community development, arts-based placemaking and planning policy, and the challenges of employing and operationalizing these terms through a youth-led social justice lens in varying urban and regional contexts.
  • Examine and evaluate local and regional sustainability challenges, implications of climate change, roles of waterways and placemaking policies and strategies in a manner that recognizes the relationships between social, economic, cultural, political, and environmental systems.
  • Identify, synthesize, and apply key theories and best practices that inform the field of sustainable, youth-friendly, and resilient place-making through an equity and diversity lens.
  • Express the above through human-centred design, problem-solving, collaboration, mind mapping, policy presentations and more.

Grading

  • Participation/Weekly Activities (Individual) 20%
  • Virtual Case Study Field Trip Report (June 4th/Individual) 20%
  • Climate Change, Green Spaces, WaterWays and City Policy Blog Post (June 25th /Individual) 20%
  • Applied Human-Centered Challenge Policy Project (July 30th/Virtual Presentation) 40%

NOTES:

Individual/Group:
The following provides basic information on the various assignments and assignment options. More detailed descriptions and marking rubrics will be made available at the appropriate times as the course unfolds.

Participation (20%):
This course is structured to maximize student participation, with the instructor and TA providing context and direction to students who in turn deliver a lot of the course content. Each student will be graded on the level of effort and quality of their contribution to the course, including:
* 10% of your engagement with the course readings and in-class discussions, asking questions (of the instructors, speakers, each other), participation in-class activities
* 5% submitting your personal biography/positionality
* 5% attendance in class (if you can’t attend a session, please notify C. Enns)
* note that the grading for this part of the course goes from zero for non-participation to full marks for full participation.

Materials

REQUIRED READING:

Required readings are available online (Canvas), through the library, or will be emailed to students via the course email list. Students are not required to purchase a textbook.

RECOMMENDED READING:

Adams, 2016. Searching for a New Normal: Social Practices and Sustainability. In Ecological Crisis, Sustainability, and the Psychosocial Subject: Beyond Behaviour Change. Palgrave Macmillan: London, UK. Pages 67-88.

Agyeman, J., Jayne Engle, and Tim Draimin, 2017. Future Cities: Creating collaborative infrastructure for inclusive urban innovation. Medium. https://medium.com/cities-for-people/future-cities- 9bfc85dbbc27 (Links to an external site.)

IDEO.org. Design kit: The field guide to human-centred design. http://www.designkit.org/resources/1 Create account/accessed April 24, 2017. Download PDF. Experiential Graphic Design https://segd.org/explore-experiential-graphic-design Create account/accessed April 24, 2017.

Leach, M, S. E. Lee, D. V. Hunt & C. D Rogers, 2017. Improving city-scale measures of livable sustainability: a study of urban measurement and assessment through application to the city of Birmingham, UK. Cities, 71: 80-87.

Courage, C., & McKeown, A. (Eds.). (2018). Creative Placemaking: Research, Theory and Practice (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315104607  (Links to an external site.)


Florian, M.-C. (2022, August 24). Can Public Space be Created in the Metaverse? [web log]. Retrieved November 22, 2022, from https://www.archdaily.com/987613/can-public-space-be-created-in-the-metaverse Pelley, V (2017) The Rise of Public-Sector Crowdfunding. City Lab, Sept 15. https://www.citylab.com/life/2017/09/the-rise-of-public-sector-crowdfunding/539244/  (Links to an external site.)

FVRD and Regional Planning Documents. (To be provided)

Lahoud, C. and Enns, C. (2024) “Young Gamechangers: Amplifying Youth Voices for Healthier Public Spaces”, The Journal of Public Space, 9(2), pp. 1–8. doi: 10.32891/jps.v9i2.1826. 


Wrangsten, C., Ferlander, S., & Borgström, S. (2022). Feminist Urban Living Labs and Social Sustainability: Lessons from Sweden. Urban Transformations, 4(5), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1186/s42854-022-00034-8 https://urbantransformations-biomedcentral-com.proxy.ufv.ca:2443/counter/pdf/10.1186/s42854-022-00034-8.pdf  (Links to an external site.)

REQUIRED READING NOTES:

Your personalized Course Material list, including digital and physical textbooks, are available through the SFU Bookstore website by simply entering your Computing ID at: shop.sfu.ca/course-materials/my-personalized-course-materials.

Registrar Notes:

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: YOUR WORK, YOUR SUCCESS

At SFU, you are expected to act honestly and responsibly in all your academic work. Cheating, plagiarism, or any other form of academic dishonesty harms your own learning, undermines the efforts of your classmates who pursue their studies honestly, and goes against the core values of the university.

To learn more about the academic disciplinary process and relevant academic supports, visit: 


RELIGIOUS ACCOMMODATION

Students with a faith background who may need accommodations during the term are encouraged to assess their needs as soon as possible and review the Multifaith religious accommodations website. The page outlines ways they begin working toward an accommodation and ensure solutions can be reached in a timely fashion.