Graduate students in the Rural Planning and Development's Advanced Planning Practice course (RPD*6280) took a road trip to Bruce County from March 24-25, 2026. Getting out of the classroom is always a fun experience and a chance to see how policy affects projects on the ground, especially as we explored the local community and its interactions with tourism and environmental policies during our visit to Bruce County.
Students in the senior Landscape Architecture Capstone Studio had the opportunity to visit a range of leading design and planning firms in Guelph and Toronto. These visits included Dillon Consulting in Guelph, as well as Esri Canada, Studio TLA, and Urban Strategies Inc. in Toronto.
The Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA) recently honoured Dr. Robert Brown with a Lifetime Achievement Award, recognizing his pioneering research in microclimatic landscape architecture and evidence-based design. Dr. Brown, Professor Emeritus at the University of Guelph and a Professor at Texas A&M University, has spent decades advancing the science of landscape architecture. Dr. Brown’s research in microclimatic landscape design has had global impact.
In March 2026, Rural Planning and Development (RPD) graduate students Emma Pothion and Tristan Cook participated in the CARE International Annual Conference, hosted by the Paris School of International Affairs (PSIA) at Sciences Po in Paris, France, alongside faculty member Dr. Nicolas Brunet.
The School of Environmental Design and Rural Development (SEDRD) at the University of Guelph invited Grant Fahlgren, a member of Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation, Indigenous Design Lead at PFS Studio, and Chair and founding member of the Reconciliation Advisory Committee of the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects, to deliver a public lecture titled 'Indigenous Urbanism: Design for All Our Relations' on Monday, March 9, 2026.
Rural Studies alumna Ashleigh Weeden (PhD '22) has been awarded a Canada Postdoctoral Research Award from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
The School of Environmental Design and Rural Development (SEDRD), University of Guelph, welcomed Dr. Geneviève S. Metson, Associate Professor in the Department of Geography & Environment at Western University on February 26, 2026, for a seminar titled “Making the Invisible Visible: Rethinking Urban Ecological Sustainability.”
The School of Environmental Design and Rural Development (SEDRD) at the University of Guelph hosted a seminar on February 25, 2026, featuring Dr. Elsa Vasseur, Associate Professor in the Department of Animal Science at McGill University.
Canadians have felt the impact of the housing crisis and innovative solutions are being highlighted from coast to coast. That’s the message Brian Doucet, Associate Professor of Planning at the University of Waterloo, emphasized on February 5th with those attending the screening of “Thinking Beyond The Market: A Film About Genuinely Affordable Housing” in the LA building of the University of Guelph, School of Environmental Design and Rural Development.
Governments, researchers, and communities rely on definitions of rural places to decide where funding goes, how programs are designed, and which communities are eligible for support. Yet many existing definitions treat rural as simply the opposite of urban, missing the diversity of places that sit along a continuum.