Our team.

Prof. Alberto de Salvatierra

Founder + Director, Principal Investigator (PI)

Alberto de Salvatierra is Founder + Director of the Center for Civilization (CFC). He is also Associate Dean (Undergraduate) and Associate Professor of Urbanism and Data in Architecture at the University of Calgary School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape (SAPL), where he leads the Bachelor of Design in City Innovation (BDCI) Program.

A transdisciplinary polymath, designer, and urbanist, Alberto’s research and work is organized around the pursuit of six simultaneous streams of inquiry—intersections between the city and morphology, ecology, pedagogy, technology, mythology, and civilization. Projects within each stream additionally deploy cross-fertilized research methodologies as appropriate. The Civic Commons Catalyst Initiative, the CFC’s flagship trandisciplinary project, combines sociology (through interviews), strategic foresight (through horizon scanning), human geography (through geospatial data analysis), public policy, finance innovation, and urban design, among others. Since arriving to Calgary in 2020, Alberto has secured, as Principal Investigator, over 1.5 million dollars in grant funding, including funding sponsorships by Alberta municipalities, industry partners, community associations and non-profit organizations.

His work has been published widely and exhibited both domestically and abroad, such as in Australia, Canada, the U.S., the U.K., Mexico, Italy, Japan, Sweden and Serbia, and in such venues as the Priscilla Fowler Fine Art Gallery in Las Vegas, Nevada; the Calatrava-designed Milwaukee Art Museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. Previously, he’s been part of the Harvard Kennedy School’s inaugural STS (Science, Technology and Society) program on Expertise, Trust and Democracy, and an invited panelist and delegate to the United Nations.

Alberto is the past recipient of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) Local Pathways Fellowship, Cornell’s Robert James Eidlitz Fellowship, Harvard Library’s inaugural May Crane Fellowship, and Harvard GSD’s Penny White Prize. He has previously taught at Cornell University, the Boston Architectural College, the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Universidad Iberoamericana (Mexico City), and the UNLV School of Architecture.

Alberto holds a Bachelor of Architecture from Cornell University and both a Master of Landscape Architecture and a Master of Design Studies in Urbanism, Landscape and Ecology from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design.

Mathieu Denis

Research Associate + Operations Lead

Mathieu Denis a Research Associate and Operations Lead at the Center for Civilization. He is a designer and academic with over a decade of professional and research experience. Trained as an architectural technologist at Collège La Cité, he holds a Bachelor and Master of Architecture from Carleton University, with a minor in Sociology, and is pursuing a PhD in Environmental Design at the University of Calgary. His doctoral work builds on his master’s thesis, exploring the intersection of architecture, homelessness, and social inclusion. Mathieu has won multiple academic grants throughout his studies and has had his work published in multiple University magazines.

Mathieu’s career spans multiple areas of architecture, including work for the Municipal Building Code Department, custom home design at Lavoie Design, large-scale developments at Provencher Roy, and public infrastructure at Architecture49, where he continues work toward architectural licensure.

An educator since 2020, Mathieu has taught at Collège La Cité and the University of Calgary, sharing his passion for architecture’s social impact. His work reflects a commitment to creating spaces that foster connection and community.

Ji Song Sun

Adjunct Research Fellow

Ji Song Sun is an Adjunct Research Fellow at the Center for Civilization and an Associate at Zimmer Gunsul Frasca (ZGF) Architects’ Vancouver office. At ZGF Architects, Ji Song is currently working on a $2.88 billion healthcare project called the New Surrey Hospital and BC Cancer Centre in Surrey, B.C., one of the first fully electrified facilitied in Canada constructed to last for the next 100 years.

As an avid designer and architect-in-training, Ji Song’s interests in the field trace their genesis to the latent opportunities for adaptive re-use in the built environment. This examination of potential, often mediated and effectuated through innovative creativity and bold design strategies, drives his work.

Outside of work, Ji Song is affiliated with the Architectural Foundation of British Columbia (AFBC) as an administrator of monthly meetings, as well as with the Architectural Institute of British Columbia (AIBC), as a member of a Conference Professional Development Advisory Committee. Ji Song is also occasionally invited as guest critic/lecturer to share his knowledge and skillsets with students at the University of Calgary’s SAPL and the University of British Columbia’s SALA. Ji Song holds a Bachelor of Arts in Architectural Studies and Mathematics, with honors, from the University of Toronto and a Master of Architecture from the University of Calgary.