We cannot longer ignore the climate change-fueled effects we are seeing every year, in every corner of our planet. In the region of Halifax alone, this climate disruption has included a sharp increase in hurricanes and other storms, flooding, and a record-setting wildfire in 2023. This subtheme invites conversations around how we plan and adapt for climate change in all parts of environmental design – in coastal (e.g. Halifax) and non-coastal contexts. In our cities, towns, and small villages, important changes need to be made by design professionals and governments alike. While we look to lower emissions via mitigation strategies, local and provincial governments are also working hard to adapt to a warming planet. We invite participants to share stories and findings related to questions such as: What role and responsibility do those who work in environmental design have in terms of the climate crisis?; In what ways might environmental design principles help in terms of planning communities to be more resilient to the effects of climate change? and; At what scale are our efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change most effective, equitable, and supported by the broadly-defined public?

In this track, we look to generate discussions around how growing cities and communities can build new homes, infrastructure, and public spaces that address cost-of-living-concerns and create conditions where residents flourish. Halifax (like many urban centres across Canada and the US), has experienced record setting population growth – in just one year, from 2022 to 2023, we grew by more than 4%, or 20,000 people. Alongside a lack of new homes, this sharp growth has created a housing crisis and infrastructural concerns. The average cost of a home in Halifax is now $630k (approx. $30k more than the average US home, in CAD, despite lower incomes). Given this background, we especially encourage submissions from those who are thinking about and uncovering solutions to lowering the costs of living, building homes quickly, and creating the conditions that lead to more vibrant, healthy communities in a variety of urban, peri-urban, and rural contexts.

Centered around what many of those working in environmental design focus on, for this track, we invite conversations around how we build housing that is both ecological and affordable in communities of all sizes, and ways to reimagine what the future of housing should look like. Given the intersection of socio-economic and environmental crises of our time, we can no longer treat these principles as independent – in fact, what is “green,” or efficient, is now often the most cost-effective way to develop homes over the long term. We ask interested participants questions such as: In the rush to address the housing crisis – both here in Halifax and elsewhere – how do we ensure green principles are not disregarded? How can we more creatively embed sustainability principles into the homes of the future?

Sharing some thematic overlap with Building Green Affordable Housing, for our fourth track, we encourage discussions around innovative and sustainable materials as we build and adapt communities, through all stages of design and development. We especially look forward to submissions that focus on principles of the circular economy, reuse, and the recycling of materials through development processes. In Halifax, researchers and practitioners in Dalhousie’s Faculty of Architecture and Planning hope to share news of their research programs on building with mass timber, concrete additives, 3D printing with clay, and more. We hope that these stories will be mirrored by similar advancements across the world and shared within these sessions at EDRA56.

While centering disability, equity and justice in everything we do should always be our practice, in this track, we wish to provide a dedicated space for conversations around these issues, including sharing stories of successes and failures in doing so. In Nova Scotia, we can contribute research and case studies on environmental racism, building and access issues, persistent structural inequality in the design of spaces and communities, and new thinking on prioritizing concepts of care in design. We invite similar and divergent stories from around the world.

Finally, we want to ensure that we offer a transdisciplinary and open track that encourages submissions that may not fit neatly into our five tracks described above. This final track also serves the purpose of creating a space that challenges those submitting to help us to critically re-think and examine our existing conference theme and tracks.

Submissions must be made through the EDRA56 submission portal system following the session types described below. Session lengths will be 60-90 minutes unless otherwise noted. Intensive sessions, group presentations, and the graduate student workshop will be double blind peer-reviewed meaning authors should not include their names or other identifying information in the abstracts and papers. Intensives and the Graduate Student Workshop will be held May 27, 2025. For more information, read our EDRA56 call for proposals.

Submissions must be made through the EDRA56 submission portal following the session types described in the EDRA56 call for proposals. Session lengths will be 60-90 minutes unless otherwise noted. Intensive sessions, group presentations, and graduate student workshop will be peer reviewed. Individual presentations and visual presentations will be blind peer reviewed. Authors should not include their names or other identifying information in the abstracts and papers

The purpose of the workshop is to strengthen and further the thesis/dissertation work, support the development of networks for young researchers, and offer professional advice. Graduate students who are EDRA members and are enrolled in Master’s or Doctoral programs in Environmental Design and affiliated fields are eligible to participate in the Graduate Student Mentoring Workshop, which will be held on May 17, 2025. For more information, please visit the EDRA56 home page and follow our social media. See Key Dates for submission deadlines.