Openings:
Two PhD positions available. Apply by 11:59 PM, August 31, 2026. Details here.
News
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July: New publication on scalable urban tree cover for Canadian cities. Open access here, and the research webpage is here.
June: We are beyond excited to receive funding from NSERC and SSHRC to conduct two very different (but complementary) research projects.
May: New paper on tree heat stress simulation using raytracing is now published by the JoDLA. Open access here.
April: More new research students joined us this summer! Michael Rados, Marc Ballelos, Shiza Jawed, and Jenelle Schellenberg will be working part-time with us from May to August.
April: We are excited to welcome Bayan Shaeri and Dhrubo Latif (2026 URA). Bayan and Dhrubo will be working full time with us from May to August.
April: New open-access publication on Canada’s urban open data landscape. Full paper is here, and a short research summary is here.
March: Our Instagram page is live now. Follow us @festudio.ca.
February: We are excited to receive the University of Manitoba’s URGPfunding for our research on “The Forms of Growth”. More details coming later this year.
January: Our project on simulating outdoor surface temperature receives funding from LACF. This project is also joined by students and researchers from UBC and ETH Zurich. More details coming later this year.
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December: Three Mitcas Globalink internship positions were awarded to international students to join us in summer 2026.
November: We are delighted to welcome Maryam Hajizarghani to our group as a research intern funded by the Mitacs BSI program.
September: Justin McCarty and Yuhao are invited to present at AIBC this October to share their work on urban scale shading models. Link to event.
August: Preliminary Canada wide urban tree cover (UTC) is now online. Great effort from our 2025 URA researcher Bayan Shaeri.
May: Our first ever workshop (00) on DAP welcomed over 35 participants including academics and professionals. photos
May: Yuhao is invited to present at The Remote Sensing Community of Practice (BC Provincial Government). He will share how remote sensing can be used for vegetation monitoring in cities.
May: To better disseminate our research and learning on photogrammetry using drones, our lab will host its first official workshop on May 2. RSVP.
April: We are excited to welcome Bayan Shaeri (2025 URA). Bayan will be working full time with us from May to August.
March: Brandan and Miguel will be presenting their work on digital aerial photogrammetry (DAP) at this year’s EDRA56 conference in Halifax.
February: We are going to Portland! Matt (MLA) will present our UDT project to this year’s CELA conference in March.
January: Our (very first!) publication on 3D urban elements from our student researchers are now available online. PDF.
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December: Today we are excited to release the Buildings of Winnipeg dataset. This marks a significant step in our urban digital twin research. Read more here.
November: We are back with an existing lecture from Dr. Riccardo Tortini on advanced remote sensing and land monitoring. See you on Nov 22.
October: As part of our ongoing research on urban digital twin (UDT), this Winnipeg city-wide 2.5D urban tree dataset is now available to download.
September: We are excited to share the first version of a guide on digital arial photogrammetry thanks to our amazingly talented URA student researchers. Details here.
August: To celebrate and share what our amazing summer students have achieved, Dr. Mark Meager and our research lab are organizing a joint 3MT event. Details here.
August: Teegan and Kimia (welcome!) will be working with us this Fall, developing a categories of abstract landscape patterns. Thank you SoTL for supporting this project.
August: We thank Dr. Srilalitha Gopalakrishnanfrom FCL for giving us a talk on biophlic design and the BTS of iconic landscape architecture projects in Singapore.
July: Excited to have Haozhuo Yang from the Graduate School of Design (Harvard University) presenting his research on urban data and AI later this month. RSVP here.
June: We are delighted to be part of the summer research presentations happening at the FoA. Visit our new Gallery page to see some of the actions from our students!
May: A new teaching-oriented project has been funded by the SoTL with a focus on patterns and vocabulary. This is also in collaboration of our colleague Frits Van Loon.
April: We are excited to welcome two Undergraduate Research Awardees, thanks to the URA program. Brandan and Miguel will be working full time from May to August!
March: Our proposal to acquire a multi-spectral drone has been awarded by the SIEF grant. We look forward to working with friends and colleagues at the FabLab.
February: Yuhao becomes one of the newest working group members of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 6.
February: We are growing! Kyra, Reece, and Zach from the Environmental Design program joined us to work on a funded project. Welcome!
January: We thank the University of Manitoba’s URGP program for providing a seed grant for our research on urban digital twins (UDT).
Januray: festudio welcomes Benjamin, Matthew, and Gel from the Department of Landscape Architecture. First three of many!
January: future elements studio (festudio.ca) begins now!
About
Future Elements Studio (festudio) is a research and teaching laboratory in the Department of Landscape Architecture, Faculty of Architecture, at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada.
We inventory, monitor, and research the intricacies of human settlements, encompassing elements from individual trees and buildings to cities and regional landscapes.
Our work uses geospatial analytics, cartography, and an array of sensing technologies, including optical remote sensing and laser scanning.
Collaborators + Funders
We are located on original lands of the Anishinaabeg, Cree, Ojibwe-Cree, Dakota, and Dene peoples, and on the homeland of the Red River Métis.
We are grateful for being able to live, work, and play on these lands.
Video: colourized point clouds of the University of Manitoba’s Fort Garry Campus.
Land acknowledgement
Point cloud of the The Quad at the University of Manitoba Fort Garry Campus