The Daniels Faculty is pleased to announce that Professor Mason White has been appointed Director of the Master of Urban Design (MUD) program for a one-year term, effective July 1, 2023. He takes over from Assistant Professor Michael Piper, who had led the program since 2020.
Professor White joined the Daniels Faculty in 2005 and has served as interim Director of the Master of Architecture program twice, in 2007 and in 2011. For the past five years, he has directed the Faculty’s Post-Professional Master of Architecture and Post-Professional Master of Landscape Architecture program, a position he will continue to fill.
“Assuming the directorship of Master of Urban Design program provides an opportunity to identify allegiances between all of our Post-Professional programs,” says White. “I am honoured to serve the Faculty in this new role, and I am all ears to hear from colleagues, students, alumni and professionals about how we can better serve the discipline and practice today.”
White says he is excited to build on the program’s existing strengths. “In particular, the MUD program has expanded to include urban design across scales, recognizing the importance of community-driven co-design,” he says. “Equally, the program broadened its consideration of sites and contexts that have been underrepresented and overlooked. Given how uniquely international the MUD cohort is, this year we will be further expanding the subjectivities and cultural scope of the program globally.”
With the Daniels Faculty located in North America’s fourth largest city, and one of the most diverse cities in the world, White sees ample possibilities to address the complexity of contemporary urban issues. “This opportunity,” he says, “creates a truly unique program with both strong ties to parallel fields and direct links to professional practice in a truly urban setting.”
Looking ahead to the 2023-24 academic year, White expects a number of new initiatives and curricular innovations in the MUD program, including welcoming new faculty into studio courses, as well as providing more opportunities for students to engage with professionals. In terms of research, “The program will also be exploring regions traditionally overlooked by the urban design discipline that will include rural and remote regions in Canada, but also internationally,” he says. “Like their urban counterparts, these ‘hinterlands’ are also undergoing rapid transformation.”
The MUD program will also continue to explore collaboration with the Faculty's forestry and visual studies programs to uncover curricular and research potentials in urban forestry and urban art practices. “There are so many wonderful new opportunities here at the Daniels Faculty MUD program to address truly contemporary urban issues that are unfolding in real-time,” White says.
White founded the design practice Lateral Office in partnership with Lola Sheppard in 2003 and is also a founding editor of the journal Bracket. His work, research and teaching invite readings of architecture as a by-product of complex networks within ecology and culture. His recent research pursues questions of the role of infrastructure and networks within contemporary spatial practice.
