To read the full story and view images, follow the link to Exploring Woven Relations at the Forks.

Competing in IDES 7220 – Masters Studio 3: The Future of the Office, led by sessional instructor Kleighton Burns, MID3 students Oladejo and Goldberg explored the evolving nature of workspaces. Through their studio projects, they integrated critical research to propose solutions that address the needs of contemporary workplaces. Their competition project focuses on a new office space in Chicago, IL, designed to house an independent global creative advertising agency called “NEXT”. Both students planned and designed NEXT’s new Chicago office, which spans 2-levels and approximately 16,000 square feet.

Designing for Autonomy (Top 28)

Oladunsi Oladejo’s project envisions the workplace as a destination of choice, where autonomy and empowerment drive employee satisfaction and productivity. The design proposes a flexible work environment that allows employees to take control over how, when, and where they work. This adaptability ensures that individuals can shape their experiences to best support creativity, collaboration, focus, and well, being.

“The curated work environment features warm wood tones and bold colours, reflecting the company’s values of approachability and expressiveness,” Oladejo explained during her studio presentation. A podcast studio wildcard space further enhances the office by providing a platform for storytelling, knowledge, sharing, and fostering community engagement. More than just a workspace, the design transforms the office into a dynamic hub for innovation and collaboration, a workplace that inspires both employees and clients alike.

Authenticity in the Workplace (Top 5 – Finalist)

Noa Goldberg’s project takes inspiration from Chicago’s reputation as the “City of Neighbourhoods” and applies this principle to the office environment. The concept focuses on transparency, experience, and pathos, three key elements that contribute to an inclusive and authentic workplace culture.

Goldberg’s design prioritizes open communication and accountability through strategic spatial planning, balancing public and private work areas to reinforce a culture of trust. The Music Lounge and Recording Studio wildcard space further enriches the office experience, allowing employees to connect on a deeper level through shared storytelling, music, and creative expression. Additionally, elements reminiscent of home, such as a communal kitchen and living room, inspired areas, foster a sense of belonging and comfort, reinforcing the workplace as a “second place” where employees feel valued and engaged.

_____________________________

Shaping the Future of Workplace Design

The Steelcase NEXT Student Design Competition is a platform for emerging designers to challenge conventional workplace solutions and push the boundaries of design thinking. Both Oladejo’s and Goldberg’s projects reflect the goals of IDES 7220 – Masters Studio 3, which encourages students to critically engage with workplace programming, including corporate culture, global trends, and evolving user-experience needs.

Their success in the Steelcase NEXT competition highlights the strength of UM’s Interior Design program in equipping students with the skills and vision necessary to redefine the future of the workplace.

Update: Noa Goldberg has been selected as one of the Top 5 Finalists for the design competition and will be traveling to Grand Rapids, Michigan in the coming days. They will have the opportunity to present their project to a panel of professional designers and industry leads from across North America. We are proud that Noa will represent Canada as the only Canadian design student selected as a finalist.

Congratulations to both Oladunsi Oladejo and Noa Goldberg for their outstanding achievements!

The creators of six new huts were on site this week to build their installations.

The huts line the Nestaweya River Trail and the Winnipeg 150 Winter Park at The Forks.

Ice Henge is a winterly version of Stonehenge designed by University of Manitoba’s faculty of architecture students. They were interviewed by Global Morning Winnipeg to talk about their huts.

Watch here

FISHING FOR IDEAS
The Department of Biosystems Engineering is committed to the establishment of a Sustainability-in-Action Facility (SiAF) at the site formerly referred to as the Alternative Village. The facility will be available to the University of Manitoba community for experiential learning and demonstration opportunities in areas of sustainability.

Somehow hidden away from the heart of the everyday academic life on campus, the facility’s managers welcomed teachers and students to utilize the site as a place for enjoyable experimental research, outreach and hands-on work. The site is bounded by access roads on the east, north and west sides and a row of trees on the south side. In addition, the site is enclosed by a chain-link fence.

The Department of Biosystems Engineering is interested in reimagining the site’s current appeal. The project is to be implemented in a series of practical steps and the building process could be characterized by the application of construction techniques and materials which allow volunteers including students and teachers, of any skill and commitment level to get involved in building, while learning and laughing together. This participatory method opens up new perspectives for the future of the facility. It builds community and inspires focused participation.

The SiAF Student Design Competition was curated by Prof. Danny Mann (Department of Biosystems Engineering) and Prof. Dietmar Straub (Department of Landscape Architecture) in collaboration with Brandy O’Reilly (Faculty of Architecture’s Partners Program). The competition was open to any student enrolled in the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Manitoba in the 2020-2021 academic year. Interdisciplinary collaborations were encouraged. Team entries were welcome. Only one design per team or person was allowed. Deadline for submissions was Monday June 14, 2021 at 4:30 pm CT.

A design competition is not a matter of fishing for free ideas. All people involved in the organization of this competition agreed that ‘a good bait’ should attract the catch. The University of Manitoba Office of Sustainability, the Faculty of Architecture and the Price Faculty of Engineering have offered to support this competition with $7,000 CAD in total.

A TRICKY TASK
The task was a site design for the external environment enclosed by the chain-link fence at the SiAF site. The functional and spatial program was kept fairly open. The overall intention was to emphasize the area as an open space that “can be used to demonstrate environmental sustainability (through vegetation and/or other materials) and social sustainability (i.e., Indigenous culture) while allowing flexibility for future ideas and projects. Existing renewable energy technologies (i.e., wind turbine, photovoltaic panels, etc.) must remain accessible by foot and should be featured as ‘places of interest’ within the site. Essentially, the Department of Biosystems Engineering covets an outdoor classroom (attractive gathering place), or learning environment, dedicated completely to sustainability. The terrain was left marvellously open for the designers’ imagination with only a few requirements:

• it should be transformed into a welcoming and appealing place which allows individuals to explore the site and to learn about sustainability technologies featured at the site (including the renewable energy technologies already in place).
• ideally the SiAF site will incorporate electric vehicle charging infrastructure (most likely on the west end of the Strawbale building) to show the linkage between the generation and usage of renewable energy.
• recycling and/or upcycling of waste materials should be featured prominently to provide tangible evidence of the value of reusing waste materials” (competition brief).

One of the trickiest tasks in this context was to design a terrain of a limited size while inventing the playing rules or program. Appealing pictures of the future must be developed, which will subsequently harmonize with both the surrounding campus landscape and the future life of the SiAF site.

Twenty students took up the invitation for this design competition and submitted nine entries. The multidisciplinary jury panel met on Wednesday June 23, 2021. After an extensive adjudication process with lively discussions three prizes were awarded.

The first prize went to Smile Singh for her submission called Sustainability in Action. The core of Smile’s design are two circles, placed around the ‘most prominent sustainable technologies on-site to enhance their importance …’. A snack bar made out of shipping containers creates a spatial closure on the south west corner and offers an additional meeting place. The breeze garden, located on the north edge of the site, provides a calm, resting area.

The second prize went to Cindy Tran and Heber Garcia for their design Snaring the (Sun)Stainability. A snare path leads visitors through the site, connecting parking, an outdoor classroom, a patio area, a Sun Circle, the Green Garage and the new Materials Library. The reduced range of features around the straw bales building leaves room for events, programs and/or temporary exhibitions.

The third prize went to Aaron Bomback for Gardens to E.A.T., Experiment in Art and Technology. This proposal suggests a very diversified, detailed program seeking to engage and inform the public. Numerous attractions are equally distributed throughout. The intention is to inspire and educate visitors meandering through the site.

DESIGNING INDETERMINED SPACES
How may we design appealing spaces allowing participants to inscribe their own stories and dreams? Many interesting elements and features have been suggested by the students. However, the jury decided to award concepts that contribute towards getting people involved by offering spaces of multiple possibilities which can be occupied by different users at different times.

A major selection criterion was the ability of the physical space to constitute a framework which can be activated and deactivated by the inhabitants, fluctuating freely between permanence and a sense of the temporary. The higher ranked submissions reduced design elements to such an extent as to guarantee spatial openness for a variety of different activities and events conducted by various participants in the future.

This was the first design competition organized jointly between the Department of Biosystems Engineering, the Department of Landscape Architecture and the Partners Program in the Faculty of Architecture. The fruit of cooperation creates an appetite for more interdisciplinary adventures.

Jury

• Danny D. Mann, Ph.D., P.Eng., Professor & Head, Department of Biosystems Engineering, University of Manitoba
• Nazim Cicek, Ph.D., P.Eng., Professor & Acting Head, Department of Biosystems Engineering, University of Manitoba
• Joe Ackerman, Ph.D., SiAF Manager, Department of Biosystems Engineering, University of Manitoba
• Kale Kostick, Acting Director, Office of Sustainability, University of Manitoba
• Shawn Bailey, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Architecture, Department of Architecture
  Price Faculty of Engineering, Indigenous Scholar, Architect, University of Manitoba
• Suzy Melo, B. Env., MLArch, ft3 Architecture Landscape Interior Design, Landscape Architect, Winnipeg, Manitoba
• Dietmar Straub, Professor, Department of Landscape Architecture, Landscape Architect and Urban Designer, University of Manitoba

“Our era of screens heightens the importance of physical spaces and activities where we can re-establish contact with ‘nature’. As the coronavirus lockdowns shutter public spaces, gardens hold open the possibility of immersing our bodies in the physical world. The unpretentious Sumac Garden reflects that ‘cultiver son jardin’ is possible or even desirable at a time of global pandemic” -D. Straub

We packed the garden with sumac and irregular hedges gather like strange creatures around the house. Image credits: Straub Thurmayr Landscape Architects

A house in Winnipeg had been renovated for a family of six. After the work on the house was done, it was the garden’s turn. The key actors in this garden are the plants. Their multilayered compositions set the stage for diverse atmospheres and microclimates triggering associations to nature and paradise. This unpretentious project reflects that “cultiver son jardin” is possible or even desirable at a time of global pandemic.

The branches of mature trees on the lot and neighbouring properties had formed an expansive canopy over the area. But a large elm tree infected with Dutch elm disease had to be felled, and this created a clearing bathed in light. Straub Thurmayr used a simple trick to structure the space and allow it to develop its own rhythm. Sumacs love the sunlight. Irregular hedges of smooth sumac were planted along the lines of light. These green figures gather like strange creatures around the house. They define and separate all the functional areas without creating barriers or boundaries. It is a fresh interpretation of the ancient art of topiary.

Dietmar and Anna designed and built this garden together with the family. Grandparents, parents, and grandchildren were all involved. For years, the family stored old paving stones, concrete sleepers, sand, boards and pea gravel on their property. After cleaning, all salvaged materials were recycled and reused.

On April 7^th, 2021, the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects (CSLA) announced the recipients of their Awards of Excellence. The award-winning projects highlight new approaches and illustrate the levels of expertise to be mobilized to address current social, cultural and environmental challenges (Bernard St-Denis, Chair of the 2021 Awards of Excellence jury). SUMAC GARDEN in Winnipeg, designed by Straub Thurmayr Landscape Architects has been chosen by the jury for this prestigious award.

“The design represents restraint in every sense: few design moves, accomplished with the reuse of existing material and a limited palette of native plants. It cleverly combines found and collected materials; sweat equity, with the involvement of the designers; and extensive use of the common and resilient sumac. The intuitive and free-flowing layout provides a sense of ease and comfort in a semi-natural, sprawling garden space. This project teaches multiple generations about passion, technique and the deep understanding of your choices. It is philosophical, daring and fully aware of its power.” – jury’s feedback Sumac Garden

As researchers and teachers Dietmar and Anna need a constant connection with professional practice. A good eye for plants and colours, for scale and materials, for communication and drawings, for concepts and ideas, needs ongoing practice. They believe that an intelligent cross-linking of ecology and design and art and engineering will provide sustainable solutions for mankind and nature.

They believe in projects that are adventurous and experiential experiments in conformance with place, time, plants, people, materials, soil, light, water, and budget. They commonly use building materials for their projects that are leftovers the city or the adjacent landscapes produced and threw out. The controlled re-use, upgrading and transformation of materials into a new context is the key to their poetic design statements. 

Processes of aging and decay, speculative projections, uncertainties, and the deliberate integration of the uncontrolled are crucial to Dietmar and Anna. They highlight gardens and open spaces as an archetypal conception of humans trying to coexist with nature and thus create a platform for the ‘post-boom generation’ in search for moments of happiness.

“As designers we have to be attentive to the subtle experiential fabric of everyday life, while being modest and frugal. In an era of overexploitation and over-consumption of the globe’s resources we have to adopt new design attitudes. This forces a radical paradigm shift for designers towards a building culture of improvisation, repairing and recycling. The innocent garden remains as an exemplary and powerful medium to promote a socially, ethically and ecologically responsible culture in environmental design practice.” -D. Straub

https://www.csla-aapc.ca/awards-atlas/sumac-garden

Cool Gardens is a public exhibition of contemporary garden and art installations that offer a shift of sensation for the summer—cooling—as a general theme for public projects in the downtown. The exhibit aims to bring architects, designers, landscape architects, and artists together to celebrate contemporary garden culture and the local landscape. 

MASKED CONVERSATIONS submitted by Chukwuebuka Idafum, Kenyo Musa, Victor Odusanya was chosen as the winning design.  Their proposal integrates a series of playful sculpted figures located next to the Manitoba Theatre for Young People.  The presence of the figures will aim to set the scene where the audience is engaged, the stage comes alive, and the performance commences.  Podiums next to the figures will provided descriptions that aid in the interpretation of their facial expressions.   

The winning design will be unveiled July 2021 at The Forks.  

Honorary mentions went the following two proposals: 

Curtain Call, submitted by Jamie Coverini

Reflect, submitted by Carlos Rueda, Amanda Reis, Juliana Anderson, Emily Birch, Alex Boss, Madeleine Dafoe, Ralph Daniel Gutierrez, Lisbeth Hildebrand and Ashley Ann Polet

We would like to thank the following jury members for their work selecting the winning project: Karen Wilson-Baptist, Leanne Muir, Melissa McAlister, Meaghan Hunter, Bhavana Bonde, Bianca Dahlman, Kim Wiese & Dave Pancoe.

The Wellness Bench Competition, hosted by the Canadian Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute (CPCI), was open to Architectural and Engineering students from Canadian universities. The theme focused on wellness and submissions had to highlight the opportunity that precast con­crete offers in terms of construction, safety, structural strength, design innovation, social value, maintenance and durability.

The winning team included Faculty of Architecture students Kerui Zhang and Michael Wu and Price Faculty of Engineering students Ianna Liu, Matthew Ma and Sky Liu and the team was supervised by Janelle Harper, Mojtaba Hassanzadeh, Marcella Eaton, Ph.D., and Qingjin Peng, P.Eng. Ph.D. Their submission, The Cantilevered Bench was designed to provide a space to relax and connect with nature. The design took advantage of the added tensegrity of pre-stressed reinforced concrete and mimicked the natural structures of tree branches. The bench design accommodates multiple programs and social exchanges, allowing users to interact with it their way and help to harness a sense of place and ownership.

Levitation – Amber Perron

Faculty of Architecture student, Amber Perron, was also recognized with an honorable mention for her bench titled Levitation. Amber’s design highlights the versatility of precast/prestessed concrete by making parts of the bench appear to be floating. The mode of occupation is left to the occupant, so the use of the bench is ever evolving. Levitation aimed to change the static perception of seating and invite people to engage with their surroundings.

Their proposal, “Alluvium: Water, Habitat, and Community,” envisions a habitat on Toronto’s waterfront that redefines relationships with nature and mitigates the climate crisis.

With a series of interventions, their design aims to heighten awareness of human impact on nature by redefining relationships with it. As the project brief states, “Rather than relying on technology to solve our problems, this team believes that the climate crisis originated from a social issue. Therefore, these interventions use engagement, education and awareness as tools to motivate social change.”

The award-winning proposal was created by four collaborators: three from the University of Manitoba, Tali Budman (M.Arch thesis student in the Department of Architecture, advised by Prof. Lisa Landrum), Connery Friesen (M.Arch graduate, 2020 and intern at 2architecture Inc.), and Ryan Coates (Master of Landscape Architecture graduate, 2017, and sessional instructor); plus Ryerson University Master of Planning student Paul Arkilander.

According to Budman, while remote teaming was a challenge, “it allowed for the unique experience of working with students from different backgrounds and various universities across Canada.”

The Manitoba-Ryerson proposal was one of three projects selected for recognition by a distinguished jury from more than 40 entries, submitted by teams of students and recent graduates from across Canada.

Cultural Heritage
The Call for Counterproposals was part of the Future of Ontario Place Project to generate broad public discourse and responsible direction for redeveloping this iconic modern site in Toronto. Facing development threats by Ontario’s provincial government, the site was placed on the 2020 World Monuments Watch alongside only twenty-four other cultural heritage sites of global importance.

The Future of Ontario Place Project is led by the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at the University of Toronto, with support from the World Monuments Fund and the Architectural Conservancy Ontario. The initiative is helping to imagine the future of Ontario Place as a cultural asset, and to hold the Government of Ontario responsible for conservation planning and consultation with Indigenous peoples and the public, while raising awareness of the heritage value of modern architecture and natural eco-systems.

Succession Plan (not masterplan)
Significantly, the approach of the team Arkilander-Budman-Coates-Friesen radically rethinks top-down approaches to the issues. According to their brief, instead of a master plan they propose a succession plan, “as a way to work alongside the ecology of the site… allow[ing] the site to become one of study, research, and leisure for humans, animals, and vegetation.”

Their design includes an open aviary to support the 409 indigenous avian species; retrofitted “pods” to serve as an urban climate adaptation centre and arboricultural facility; a rain tower to bring critical attention to Toronto’s flooding issues; and a roving park and resilient urban canopy.

Drawing on public outreach strategies, diverse knowledge systems, and seven generational thinking, “Alluvium: Water, Habitat, and Community” creates conditions for a more sustainable and equitable future.

For the full award announcement and all submissions to the Ontario Place: A Call for Counterproposals, go to https://futureofontarioplace.org/imagine/design-challenge 

Congratulations to the winners:

1^st Place             
Emma Dicks
Matthew Glowacki
Bryce Stovin

2^nd place              
Nabil Basri
Aaron Bomback
Laurel Cowley

3^rd place              
Manuela Villarreal
Sabrina Kratsberg
Owen Toth

The 1^st place design (rendered above) detailed three types of concrete blocks that work together to shape the pre-existing sunken patio by providing a space for sitting, lingering, learning, and relaxing. Wide tread pavers were imagined as a leisurely staircase for entering and exiting the space or to be used as an outdoor classroom. Planting blocks allow for greenery while adding texture into the space. 

A special thank you to Alan Barkman, Scott Barkman, Brian Pries, Tim Fast, Garry Funk, Mark Hiebert, Wayne Patram and Wayne Wiebe from Barkman Concrete Ltd. for jurying the entries. 

Connery’s project titled “In the Spirit of Shibui: Re-Animating the Ruins of Fukushima” is a concept for commemorating the site of the 2011 earthquake in Japan’s Fukushima Prefecture.  “The A+ student award is a fantastic conclusion to a project that not only took me on the journey of a lifetime but carried me through these uncertain times. It is an honor for my work to be internationally recognized, and I am grateful for the individuals at the U of M that helped shape this thesis,” said Connery when asked about what this winning this award meant to him. 

For full project details please visit: https://www.azuremagazine.com/article/az-awards-2020-winner-in-the-spirit-of-shibui-re-animating-the-ruins-of-fukushima/

To read more about the AZ Awards visit: https://www.azuremagazine.com/article/announcing-the-2020-az-awards-winners/