CHS History

From Oberlander, H. Peter, "A Dozen Year of Progress and Achievements": 

In anticipation of convening the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements--Habitat '76--in Vancouver, the University of British Columbia set up a President's Committee on Habitat '76 which launched a programme of lectures and seminars that took place from January to May 1976.  A series of academically distinguished speakers with international experience were brought to Vancouver.  The resultant papers were published by UBC Press under the title, "Improving Human Settlements," edited by Dr. H. Peter Oberlander. 

Consequently, the Centre for Human Settlements was established in the Faculty of Graduate Studies to initiate and maintain a multi-disciplinary research programme and engage a variety of academic resources in finding solutions to urban and regional development in the context of rapidly deteriorating environmental conditions both in Canada and overseas.  In meeting its mandate, the Centre has pursued substantive research, invited visiting scholars, convened invitational seminars, sponsored lectures on and off campus, and published extensive research results in a variety of formats.

Upon the University's initiative, on June 12, 1976, United Nations and federal and provincial government officials met with UBC President Kenny to sign an agreement committing into the care of UBC some 10,000 audio-visual items comprised of the 240 presentations made by 140 countries that took part in the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements held in Vancouver in May and June of that year.  Consequently, the Centre's additional role was to develop a creative process of using the audio-visual and print documentation deposited at UBC by the United Nations.  As a first step, all the materials--films, slides, videotapes--had to be sorted, assessed, and organized into an annotated catalogue that would describe and evaluate each presentation.  The next step was to provide university-wide access and institute a system for circulating this material.

Until 1982, when the audio-visual library was transferred to the University Library for university budgetary reasons, the Centre for Human Settlements operated a unique videotape library and viewing centre available to faculty, students and the general public.  A number of faculty brought their classes to the viewing centre to screen programmes.  During a two-and-one-half year period when statistics were collected, the viewing centre registered 3,200 users annually.  During its six years of operation under the auspices of the Centre for Human Settlements, the videotape library added 252 programmes from the NGO Habitat Forum, and procured another 93 programmes from a variety of sources.  In addition, the library responded to faculty requests by creating a number of special programmes out of existing materials.

In its first twelve years, the Centre for Human Settlements made substantial contributions to scholarship in the multi-disciplinary field of human settlements.  As a Centre, it brought together academics from a variety of faculties and departments at UBC, as well as Simon Fraser University and the University of Victoria.  It brought internationally recognized scholars to the campus to interact with both faculty and students, and achieved international recognition for its publications programme which shared discussions and findings with academics, professionals, and government officials around the world.

Directors from 1976 to 1997:

1976 to 1987:  H. Peter Oberlander

January to August 1988:  Alan Artibise

September 1988 to June 1991:  David J. Hulchanski

July 1991 to June 1997:  Aprodicio A. Laquian

July to December 1997:  Thomas A. Hutton, Acting Director

Chairs of the Management Committee from 1998 to 2006:

1998:  Peter Boothroyd

1999 to March 2001:  Penny Gurstein

April to June 2001:  Anthony H.J. Dorcey, Acting Chair

July 2001 to June 2006:  Anthony H.J. Dorcey

Associate Directors, SCARP, responsible for CHS:

July 2007 to June 2008:  William Rees

July 2009 to June 2011:  Thomas A. Hutton

July 2011 to June 2012:  Stephanie Chang