Archinect - News

Esteemed academic and architect Janice Shimizu has passed away at 54

2024-04-17T13:54:00-04:00

Archinect is remembering the life and legacy of Ball State University architecture professor Janice Shimizu, who has passed away at the age of 54.

Janice won many hearts and minds throughout an estimable career in academia and the professional realm, sentiments that were repeated by the many people with whom she became familiar through her involvement in the Japanese-Canadian community in and around her native Manitoba.

She earned a Bachelor of Environmental Design degree from the University of Manitoba before completing her graduate studies at SCI-Arc, later entering professional practice with Thom Mayne and Morphosis in Los Angeles and, in 2004, founding the now widely-recognized studio Shimizu + Coggeshall Architects (S+Ca) with husband Josh Coggeshall.

Revisit our 2017 Archinect Sessions conversation with Janice Shimizu below.

Donna Sink has shared the following thoughts with Archinect: “Janice was not only deeply respected but deeply loved by her colleagues and by hundreds o...

Protesters in Canada have toppled monuments to Queens Victoria and Elizabeth II

2021-07-06T21:21:00-04:00

Two statues of queens on the grounds of the Manitoba Legislature were pulled down Thursday during a rally aimed at replacing Canada Day celebrations with actions in memory of hundreds of Indigenous children buried in unmarked graves at residential schools across the country. [...] The grounds were the destination of an Every Child Matters walk in Winnipeg on Canada Day afternoon to protest the fallout of Canada's residential schools system.

The demonstrators were part of a Canada Day protest meant to draw attention to issues surrounding the forced removal and integration of 150,000 indigenous school children begun during Victoria's rule of the former UK Dominion. 6,000 of the children are reported to have died, and the recent discovery of the remains of 215 in an unmarked grave at a site near Kamloops in British Columbia has renewed calls for the observance of the holiday to be canceled.

Similar scenes have played out throughout the US and UK recently in light of the George Floyd protests, Charlottesville, and other events that have caused a sea change in societies grappling with their own ugly histories of racism and colonization.

Thousands of people attended the demonstrations in Manitoba's capital, Winnipeg. More details on the protest can be found at artnet.

Inside Winnipeg's growing Indigenous design scene

2020-06-22T16:00:00-04:00

As American architecture firms and institutions continue to grapple with inadequate levels of diversity and inclusion, Canadian groups are highlighting an increased willingness to highlight and support the work of Indigenous designers.

A recent CBC article highlights the Brook McIlroy Indigenous Design Studio, a focus within the Winnipeg, Canada-based practice that engages with Indigenous communities and worldviews as a part of its overarching ethos. The firm, according to the architects, positions Indigenous designers to lead "co-creation teams with Canadian professionals whose families have come from all over the world," and has worked to nurture Indigenous design talent for over a decade.

Previously on Archinect: "GSD students launch Harvard Indigenous Design Collective." Photo courtesy of Wikimedia user Gunnar Klack.

Brook McIlroy senior associate, Ryan Gorrie, who is Anishinaabeg from the Bingwi Neyaashi Anishinaabek (Sand Point First Nation on Lake Nipigon) region tells CBC, ...

The grain elevators of the Canadian prairie are disappearing

2020-01-20T15:09:00-05:00

Grain elevators were once an icon of Canada’s west: often painted a bright boxcar red, they stood in towns across Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. [...] In the 1930s there were nearly 6,000 towers; now fewer than a thousand remain. The destruction, in many ways, mirrors the broader decline of rural communities in western Canada.

For The Guardian, journalist Leyland Cecco on the struggle of small agricultural communities in Canada's prairie provinces to preserve their aging, wooden grain elevators as cultural heritage monuments.

Restored Alberta Wheat Pool elevators at the Canadian Grain Elevator Discovery Centre in Nanton, Alberta. Photo: Tony Hisgett

Once the pride of every community and dubbed "prairie castles" for their often imposing heights in the flat landscape, thousands of them were left to rot and eventually faced demolition. Only a handful of lucky structures managed to win protection status, such as at the Canadian Grain Elevator Discovery Centre in Nanton, Alberta or the Prairie Elevator Museum in Acadia, AB.

Sole-practitioner from Manitoba, Michael J. Cox, inducted as 2018 President of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada

2018-02-13T14:36:00-05:00

Michael J. Cox, FRAIC, an architect from Manitoba who has led numerous organizations and is passionate about the contribution architects can make in their communities, is the 79th President of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC). Mr. Cox received the President’s Medal of office from the 2017 President Ewa Bieniecka, FRAIC, at a change-of-office ceremony on February 2 in Ottawa.

A 1971 University of Manitoba B.Arch graduate, Michael J. Cox has been the principal of his one-person practice in Brandon, Manitoba since 1979. "You can’t get much smaller than one," he jokes.

Outlining key goals during his term, Cox remarked: "The RAIC needs to focus on the immediate needs of its members at all stages of their careers and in all sizes of practice. This includes delivering relevant and accessible continuing-education programs, helping emerging practitioners, and advocating for architects on practice issues such as procurement reform."

A glimpse of the Warming Huts 2017 winning designs

2016-11-10T13:21:00-05:00

Recently concluding its 2017 edition, architects got to submit their most innovative designs for a temporary winter-hut installation. Once the winners are selected, they travel to Winnipeg near the end of January to bring their warming huts to life, and for all to enjoy during the winter months.

Winnipeg locals will get to see the latest winning designs of the highly anticipated Warming Huts Art + Architecture Competition next January, in time for the winter season. The 2017 edition recently concluded with three winners, a special invited installation by esteemed London-based artist Anish Kapoor, and another installation designed by local high-school student Sean Kohli from Nelson McIntyre Collegiate. Get a glimpse of the entries below.

Winner: “Greetings From Bubble Beach” by Team 888 from Chicago, Illinois

Winner: “Ice Lantern” by Lisa Tondino, Alexandra Bolen, Mathew Rodrigues & Drew Klassen from Nova Scotia, Canada

Winner: “Open Border” by Joyce de Grauw & Paul van den Berg from Rotterdam, Netherlands

2017 Additional installation: “On The Rails” by Sean Kohli, student at Nelson McIntyre Collegiate in Winnipeg, Manitoba

Invited designer: “Stackhouse” by Anish Kapoor

More details on Bustler.

Previously:

"The Hole Idea" celebrates the simple joys of creating "spontaneous architect...

"The Hole Idea" celebrates the simple joys of creating "spontaneous architecture"

2015-04-01T15:16:00-04:00

Architectural design can be as playful as a child's imagination and still be taken seriously. Coated in a sunny yellow and candy-colored circular openings, "The Hole Idea -- Now in Technicolor" in Winnipeg is a snow tunnel that may seem like a kids-only zone at first glance, but is an engaging installation that can spark the curiosity of anyone who is trudging by in the snow. Since it was first installed in January after winning the popular Warming Huts 2015 competition, The Hole Idea has attracted visitors of all ages. The project's success continues with its recent win of an Ontario Association Of Architects Award.

Designed by Toronto-based Weiss Architecture + Urbanism, the playful concept for The Hole Idea -- which was named after a 1955 Looney Tune animation of the same name -- evokes childhood memories of Saturday morning cartoons, colorful playgrounds, and building snow forts.

The firm worked alongside Blackwell Engineering and the Canada Culvert fabrication team to complete th...

Winners of Warming Huts v.2015

2014-11-26T18:51:00-05:00

The Warming Huts competition is back with its 2015 edition! The blind jury sifted through over 100 submissions from around the world for this season's most creative warming huts. The top three winning designs will be constructed at the Red River Mutual Rivertrail in Winnipeg in Manitoba, Canada. This year's competition awarded two Shelter category winners and one Installation winner.

(Above) SHELTER WINNER: This Big by Tina Soli & Luca Roncoroni from Dorebak Akershus, NORWAY

SHELTER WINNER: "The Hole Idea by Weiss Architecture & Urbanism Limited from Toronto, CANADA

INSTALLATION WINNER: Recycling Words by KANVA, from Montreal, CANADA

For more project details and other noted submissions, head over to Bustler.

Warming Huts Competition v. 2014 winners

2013-12-05T15:07:00-05:00

It's that time of year again — when the Warming Huts Competition winners are announced, that is. Every year, the competition invites architects around the globe to develop their most innovative warming-hut designs. With no theme for v. 2014, the competition was met with a variety of submissions.

The international jury chose three winners out of 190 entries. As for the other three: one hut was selected for a separate University of Manitoba competition; one from an invited local architect (Étienne Gaboury); another hut — soon to be determined — will become a class project for Kelvin High School’s drafting program.

NUZZLES by RAW DESIGN INC. - Toronto
Red Blanket by Workshop Architecture Inc. - Toronto
Windshield by Kate Busby & Bella Totino - Vancouver
University of Manitoba winner: SKYBOX - Winnipeg
Étienne Gaboury's winner - Voyageur Hut
Kelvin High School - TBA

Second House First exhibition currently at the RAW Gallery, Winnipeg

2013-10-15T14:17:00-04:00

Check out the "Second House First" exhibition, currently at the RAW Gallery of Architecture and Design in Winnipeg, Canada until Oct. 27, 2013. Second House First gives an in-depth look into the cottages and cabins that surround Lake Manitoba in Manitoba, Canada. The exhibition explores and questions the growing differences between the cabin and the suburban house as well as the contrasting lifestyles of its residents.

Contributors include Conrad Koslowsky (Roz Barr Architects); Frederik Bo Bojesen, (Herzog & de Meuron); Scrap Marshall, (UCLA AUD); Yannick Guillen, (YG), and Lisa Stinner-Kun (University Of Manitoba).

Local architects power Winnipeg’s reinvigorated design

2012-10-19T20:32:00-04:00

Like the meeting of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, there’s a compelling confluence of urban activists standing next to each other on the sidewalk of Portage Avenue in downtown Winnipeg. To my right is a group of First Nations flood evacuees protesting (politely) against cuts to their daily living allowance. To my left, below the gleaming, mirror-polished aluminum balconies of the Avenue on Portage mixed-use development...