May 22, 2026
CAPACity (Creative And Passionate About CITIES) has now launched the first edition of "The Vancouver Special", a published journal that gives a voice to the next generation of urban planners, with brilliant articles from several SCARP faculty and students.
More about CAPACity
CAPACity (Creative And Passionate About CITIES) at UBC is a student-led initiative that aims to bring together undergraduate students interested in urban planning and its various branches.
CAPACity has been an integral part of UBC students' passion for urban studies for a long time, before it was a degree offered by UBC Geography and UBC SCARP. It drove the development of urban studies curricular offerings at UBC for years.
Matthew Chen joined CAPACity 5 years ago in his first year as a UBC undergrad. He says at that time, the club's community existed entirely behind screens because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic—the club had never hosted an in-person event before. Now, in 2026, Chen wrapped up his journey with CAPACity by hosting the launch party for the inaugural issue of their new Urban Planning Student Journal.
As CAPACity outgoing president Matthew Chen says:
Planning has always been about who gets to imagine the future of our cities. CAPACity exists to make sure students get a seat at that table, and the Vancouver Special is what they bring to it. Some of the best planning comes from those who are genuinely curious about how it shapes our experiences in cities. CAPACity and the Vancouver Special are proof that curiosity is alive and kicking here at UBC.
About The Vancouver Special
Named after a popular housing design that for a long time defined urban Vancouver housing, this student-led publication showcases "the critical and creative work on city life".
As SCARP Associate Professor James Connolly and Geography Assistant Professor Priti Narayan (with whom he co-chairs our Urban Studies undergrad program) say in their Forward:
Students in the Urban Studies program at UBC know their cities. They are living the housing challenges in Vancouver, experiencing the anxieties presented by climate change, navigating the underinvested transit system of the region, and critiquing policy and planning decisions that are disconnected from their lived reality. Yet, in the classroom and out in the world, they hope and persevere to imagine better, more just cities, while studying the history, theory and practice of city-making.
Some familiar voices in this first edition:
| A forward by:
Urban Studies Co-Chair Priti Narayan |
| "Vancouver is Special" |
| "An Ordinary House that Changed the City" |
| "What Running Taught Me about Belonging" |
| "An Ode to the City that Made Me" |
| "It's a Teacher's Job to Help Students Have Hope" |