Faculty Spotlight: Lucie Gagné
Written by: Anthony Nerada
When I think of architecture and design, I immediately visualize the grand spires of the Sagrada Família in Barcelona or the towering skyscrapers in our own City of Glass here in Vancouver. It is only when Lucie Gagné, Chair of the Interior Design Program at KPU’s Wilson School of Design, starts to speak that I am struck with the realization that design is literally all around us. As her words transport me from the concrete jungle I find myself in to the lush green landscape of the Amazon rainforest, I know Lucie deserves recognition for her teaching excellence.
Born and raised in Québec City, Lucie found herself jumping grades (yes, plural) in high school with a keen eye toward the sciences. “I didn’t really know that something like design even existed,” she says with a smile. It was not until colleagues on her swim team, of which she competed at the national level, introduced her to the architecture program at Carleton University in Ottawa that Lucie dove in headfirst. “I always liked the arts and drawing and so, as a fluke, I applied.”
While finishing her studies, Lucie adds that her program was not without its challenges. “The school of architecture was quite well renowned back then, but it was a boy’s club. I was one of the few female colleagues.” Lucie completed her BA with a combined major in architecture and art history, but soon found herself yearning for change. It was then that she discovered a “little college” in British Columbia, known as Kwantlen College, and decided to pack up her things and jump ship into the world of interior design. After earning a diploma in interior design, Lucie worked for the National Gallery of Canada, which houses the most extensive collection of Canadian and Indigenous art in the world, before becoming a partner and principal of Carlyle Design Associates in Ottawa. Over the years, Lucie has garnered many accolades and, in 2008, helped found The Alliance of Canadian Educators in Interior Design (ACEID).
Lucie returned to KPU as an instructor in 1998 and has never looked back. “I like to say that I bleed KPU red,” she laughs. Between snowshoeing on the Sunshine Coast with her husband of 30 years and basket weaving on Texada Island, Lucie has earned both a Bachelor of Applied Design in Interior Design from KPU (alongside her students during her first year of teaching) and a Doctor of Education (EdD) in Educational Leadership from Simon Fraser University.
During her career at KPU, Lucie’s pride and joy is a course she helped build from the ground up; DESN/ARTS 3000: Interdisciplinary Amazon Field School. Additionally, she has been particularly invested in DESN 3100: Design Field School, a course that promotes multicultural awareness of design in a global context and has been a requirement of KPU’s Interior Design program since its inception. “I got a lot of push back for making [the course] required” due to the costs associated with it.
“My argument is actually the opposite. I find that [making it] required for the degree is a great equalizer. Every student has to take it to graduate. They know it’s a requirement coming in and they can get scholarships and funding and can do fundraisers. For those students who don’t have the money or think it’s too expensive, we try to support them as best as we can. And they are so thankful for it afterward. It allows everyone to be a part of something by giving them access to something they wouldn’t normally have access to on their own.”
To date, Lucie has led over 18 field schools, including interdisciplinary teaching experiences in Colombia, Istanbul, Mexico City, and Chile (to name a few). “It’s all about decolonizing the European grand tour notion of field schools and exploring areas of the world that might get overlooked.” Instead of highlighting histories that are readily available and have often been told time and time again, Lucie makes a point to connect her students with local Indigenous communities to learn their customs and traditions.
When it comes to curriculum, Lucie strongly believes the power is in the experience. “There’s only so much you can show a student on paper. It’s not enough to just walk through and see something. They must be able to make meaning of, and contextualize it. That’s the key.” Lucie realizes her role as an educator is to help guide students in their learning journeys and to construct that experience. “It’s a challenge to push students, to get them to reflect and ask more questions. I think the field school [breaks down those barriers] because when you’re there, you’re constantly questioning everything around you.”
When COVID-19 hit, and travel became restricted, Lucie had to think outside the box to accommodate online learning. Early last year, during a first-year colour theory course, Lucie invited students to a socially-distanced workshop where they learned from a textile artist who specializes in indigo dyeing – a practice rooted in Indian culture. “We talked a lot about bringing this idea of natural dyes to the modern world. The artist did some lectures and we showed films about India. We had to try to offer these other lands and cultures and ways of looking at the world without actually going to these places.” Since then, Lucie has held a handful of lunch ‘n’ learn opportunities that have connected her students to the Calanoa Natural Reserve in Colombia, where later this year they would have spent two weeks learning alongside local Indigenous communities. Lucie is no stranger to online learning challenges, having hosted teleconferencing group projects with students around the world long before the days of Microsoft Teams and Zoom meetings. “[Students] used to have to come up to the front of the class and show their drawings on a little webcam. It was very challenging.”
At the heart of her teaching philosophy, Lucie understands the importance of collaboration. “It really is an exchange of ideas. Every time we go to a [new] city, we try to connect with the design school there because you never know what kind of partnerships may come from that.” The principle of collaborating applies not only to the connections made with institutions but also with her students.
“Every student brings something to the table, and with field schools, something amazing always happens. You get business students with fine arts students, creative writing [majors] with biology [majors]. It’s so interesting to see the sharing and the richness of their interactions. I always worry about cliques forming, but the opposite happens. They end up forming these kinds of connections with other students they didn’t know at the beginning.”
Lucie sees the changing world around us, and its shift to a more online world, and wholeheartedly believes the answer to distinguishing KPU from its competitors lies in providing students with something they would not get elsewhere.
“We have to really ask ourselves; why do [students] come to school when they can just go on YouTube and learn how to put an airplane engine together themselves? School has to have meaning. There has to be a real value there for [our students] and part of being an instructor is knowing what value I bring to the table. That question is always at the forefront for me when I’m developing and questioning curriculum.”
When asked what KPU should do to innovate and support experiential learning beyond its 2023 strategic goals and academic vision, Lucie takes a moment to think. “I would really love to see KPU become a leader in field schools,” she answers. “Providing funding opportunities and subsidies can make field schools possible and accessible to KPU students.” Instead of striving to be second best, Lucie believes we should “embrace who we are as a Polytechnic institution.”
In the foreseeable future, Lucie is excited about developing continuing education courses and Continuing Professional Studies (CPS) workshops at KPU for people who are not necessarily able to commit to a full degree but have a general interest in design. “It’s all about evolutionizing the Interior Design program, not revolutionizing it. I’m looking forward to being able to offer micro-credentials and badges with a focus on intercultural competencies and decolonization [as it pertains to design].”
Despite the many challenges ahead, Lucie continues to plan for a future where travel is possible not just for KPU students, but also for international students worldwide whom KPU can someday welcome with open arms. After all, design can be seen anywhere if you open yourself up to the possibility of it.
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