Prairie Design Lab

In Prairie Design Lab Episode 40 called ​“Sets,” Win­nipeg film-mak­er Guy Maddin reveals how he worked with film design­er and for­mer archi­tect Rejean Labrie to build his world-famous sig­na­ture style. Maddin reveals to Ter­ry MacLeod that he relied on ​“an archi­tec­ture of shad­ows,” sound effects, howl­ing winds and using, as Maddin play­ful­ly puts it, ​“every cheap trick in the book.

What does pho­tog­ra­phy have to do with how we see archi­tec­ture? Plen­ty accord­ing to gift­ed Win­nipeg pho­tog­ra­phers Jacque­line Young and Lisa Stin­ner-Kun. They tell us about the tools of their trade includ­ing: cap­tur­ing ultra-deep depth of field, image-sen­sors, large-for­mat cam­eras, Pho­to­shop, giga­bite-sized files and phase-one backs.

Clay­ton Salkeld, the founder of the Win­nipeg firm ​“Design-Built”, describes him­self and his 18 team mem­bers not as archi­tects but as ​“design­ers with tool belts”. Most are Envi­ron­men­tal Design grads from the Fac­ul­ty of Archi­tec­ture at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Man­i­to­ba. The homes they design and build are defined by time­less­ness and restraint. We find out how their unique hands-on approach is earn­ing them clients and acclaim.”

Five design teams are com­pet­ing to be cho­sen to design a nation­al mon­u­ment to tell the sto­ry of gen­er­a­tions of LGBTQ2+ peo­ple in Cana­da who have been per­se­cut­ed, abused, dis­missed and mar­gin­al­ized because of who they desire and how they iden­ti­fy. It will acknowl­edge dis­crim­i­na­tion expe­ri­enced by these com­mu­ni­ties and the abuse per­pe­trat­ed by the Cana­di­an state. Bapi­i­win is the work­ing title of the Team SOM mon­u­ment pro­pos­al. We explore their design deeply with team mem­bers from Win­nipeg, New York City and Berlin.

Cana­di­an cities in film imper­son­at­ing some­where else. Hear the sto­ry from the peo­ple who built Canada’s 2121 Venice Bien­nale Pavil­ion on site and on Instagram.

Gillis Quar­ries in Gar­son, Man­i­to­ba is 110 years old but its Tyn­dall Stone is 450 mil­lion years old. Hear how this icon­ic Man­i­to­ba lime­stone has become the go-to stone to build some of Canada’s sig­na­ture buildings

This episode explores design through the eyes of three small-scale inde­pen­dent Win­nipeg graph­ic design­ers. Hear about the dar­ing and inno­v­a­tive diver­si­ty of their skills and prac­tices in demand here, and around the world.

Allan Chochi­nov has a stun­ning and incred­i­bly diverse def­i­n­i­tion of what con­sti­tutes ​‘design’. This for­mer Win­nipeger is the chair and Co-founder of The Mas­ter of Fine Arts in Prod­ucts of Design Pro­gram at New York’s School of Visu­al Arts. Hear how this inno­va­tor is redefin­ing the art and sci­ence of design.

Today the sto­ry of Cor­nelia Hahn Ober­lan­der of Van­cou­ver — one of the great­est land­scape archi­tects of the mod­ern era. The world’s most valu­able award in that field is The Cor­nelia Hahn Ober­lan­der Inter­na­tion­al Land­scape Archi­tect Prize. We hear the sto­ry of her escape from Nazi Ger­many, her ear­ly land­scape works in Philadel­phia pub­lic hous­ing, her stun­ning park at Expo 67, her inno­va­tion at Canada’s Nation­al Gallery and the North­west Ter­ri­to­ries Leg­is­la­ture, and her pio­neer­ing green roofs at Van­cou­ver’s Rob­son Square and Pub­lic Library.

Local archi­tec­ture to help save the plan­et. The sto­ry of the first com­mer­cial build­ing in all of Man­i­to­ba to achieve ​“Pas­sive House Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion.” We go deep with Stan­tec Win­nipeg — the firm tasked with this lead­ing-edge design at Fort Whyte Alive.