Prairie Design Lab

In episode 26, we dis­cuss a rad­i­cal pro­pos­al for a Toron­to water­front land­mark whose future is in doubt. Ontario Place is fifty years old and has been closed for ten. A team of Uni­ver­si­ty of Man­i­to­ba and Ryer­son Uni­ver­si­ty archi­tec­ture grads and stu­dents tell us about their award-win­ning project that rede­fines rela­tion­ships with nature and mit­i­gates cli­mate change.

Episode 25 of Prairie Design Lab is titled ​“Japan.” This week we meet Jun Shi­ba­ta, a Japan­ese stu­dent who came to the Uni­ver­si­ty of Man­i­to­ba to learn Eng­lish & study archi­tec­ture and was lat­er accept­ed into the pres­ti­gious Bartlett School of Archi­tec­ture. We also meet an indi­vid­ual from Bran­don, Man­i­to­ba, named Will Gal­loway, who came to the U of M for two archi­tec­tur­al degrees and then pur­sued his Ph.D. at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Tokyo to begin a 25-year career in Japan.

Canada’s ​“House of LMD” inte­ri­or design has 40 lux­u­ry projects on the go that can span six years and encom­pass 30,000 sq. ft. After 35 years of suc­cess, Lori Mor­ris shares how this ​“Design Dar­ling” went from small-town Ontario to become North Amer­i­ca’s ​“Maes­tra of Majesty.”

In Episode 23, we dis­cuss the endur­ing appeal of mid-cen­tu­ry mod­ern fur­ni­ture. Three U of M design­ers con­vers­es on the newest incar­na­tions of the ever-pop­u­lar ​’30s through 60’s Eames, Bertoia, and Saari­nen styles.

Cracked win­dows. Leaky roofs. Aban­doned hous­es. Across Win­nipeg’s inner city, there is a great need for improved hous­ing. Many exist­ing homes are old, over­crowd­ed, and in poor repair. We meet the head of a social enter­prise and an archi­tec­tur­al asso­ciate who are work­ing togeth­er to build afford­able new homes.

Episode 22 Guests: Kalen Tay­lor, Fletch­er Noonan

A leader we lost too soon. Archi­tect David Pen­ner died sud­den­ly in Jan­u­ary of 2020 at 61. His lega­cy lives on. We salute the gift­ed design­er & founder of Store­front Manitoba.

How is it that two of the most suc­cess­ful West Coast Mod­ern Archi­tec­ture prac­ti­tion­ers both trained at The Uni­ver­si­ty of Man­i­to­ba’s Fac­ul­ty of Archi­tec­ture? What was it about The U of M’s rigours that pre­pared D’ar­cy Jones and Sean Pear­son for West Coast notoriety?

Today on ​“Whim­sy” — Episode 19 of Prairie Design Lab — design to make you smile. Much design, no mat­ter how beau­ti­ful and use­ful, can be sort of seri­ous. We intro­duce you to two Win­nipeg design­ers who put delight, plea­sure, and whim­sy at the cen­tre of what they cre­ate, and peo­ple across North Amer­i­ca are smil­ing as they dis­cov­er it.

When you paint­ed your bed­room last month why did you choose that colour? What’s the colour of your favorite sweater? What colour is your front door? What shapes your taste in colours? Episode 18 of Prairie Design Lab meets three peo­ple from the glob­al colour indus­try, with dis­tinct Win­nipeg con­nec­tions, who ana­lyze and shape world­wide colour tastes.

What does hand­made book­bind­ing have to do with Inte­ri­or Design? Plen­ty, as we’ll find out from a book­bind­ing artist, an Inte­ri­or Design pro­fes­sor, and two stu­dents who saw and felt the link between the two first hand.