Herbert Enns

Professor Enns works across disciplines on a wide range of research and creative projects. Maintaining an active architecture practice, curating exhibitions, producing publications, and lecturing widely, he explores new territories of design innovation in architecture, urban design, product design, interdisciplinary creative practice, and digital technology. Professor Enns was Seconded (40%) to the University of Winnipeg as Director, CISCO Innovation Centre for Collaborative Technologies, the University of Winnipeg (2012-18)

Invited to join the Architect Selection Committee for the Winnipeg Art Gallery (WAG) Inuit Art Centre, Prof. Enns has been a member of the Building Committee since 2012. He has served on the WAG Board of Governors for two consecutive 3-year terms. 

Prof. Enns is active in practice, including Architecture, Urban Design, Product Design, Media, Publication and Exhibition Design and Curation.

Enthusiastic about the immediacy, density and interaction of installations, he has curated a number of exhibitions at the University of Texas at Austin (2010) and the University of Lapland (2011/2012). These explore immersive and media-rich spatial experience, including dense layers of 8 channel (U.Texas) and 4-channel (University of Lapland) spatial audio programming working collaboratively with Örjan Sandred and Gordon Fitzell from the University of Manitoba Desautels Faculty of Music. His most recent installation were in Iceland - the Strange Spaces exhibition at the Icelandic Academy of the Arts; a Masters I studio (Light & Space & Sound) in Hofsós, on the north coast; and an exhibition of Masters I Studio work in the Reykjavik City Hall, Iceland, October 2019.

Professor Enns collaborated with Dr. Serena Kashavjee on the Manitoba Modernist Architecture: 1945-1975 Exhibition at the WAG and the well-known book - Winnipeg Modernist Architecture: 1945-1975 – its second printing of 2,000 copies has sold out.

Mining Location J.O. 180: Experimental Buildings at Shoal Lake – a comprehensive overview of 20 years of design, fabrication and documentation on an island in Shoal Lake, Ontario - was published by the Center for American Architecture and Design, School of Architecture, The University of Texas at Austin (2014), edited by Kevin Alter. Professor Enns served as Chair of the Editorial Board of MOSAIC: An Interdisciplinary Critical Journal with Dr. Dawne McCance as Editor from 2000 to 2017. In 2019 he completed the University of British Colombia School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture Program Review as Chair. 

His research interests include Pre-Fab Architecture as a means of integrating high-quality sustainable off-site construction techniques with low-carbon targets specifically for remote sites. Projects at Crow’s Nest Pass, Alberta (2010), Treaty Island, Lake-of-the-Woods (2012) and a series of energy efficient housing units for the IISD / Experimental Lakes Area (2016). With the exception of dual glycol/hot water boilers and cook tops the ELA Units operate entirely on solar energy, including appliances, lighting, radiant floor heat pumps, and communications and control systems. Active solar energy infrastructure is further supported by passive solar gain, high insulation values, compact and efficient spaces, wood stoves, and triple glazed windows. The Units operate year-round.

• Staff Lounge for Manitoba Pioneer Camp on McKinnon Island in Shoal Lake, completed in 2021. 
• Major cottage addition on Dominique Island, Shoal Lake, (Fall 2021 Construction start)
• Experimental Lakes Area: Low Carbon Pre-Fab Residential Units 01 & 02 (Completed 2016)
• River House, East St. Paul, Manitoba (Completed 2016)
• Lake House, Clearwater Bay, Lake-of-the-Woods, Ontario (Completed 2015)
• Site Renewal Strategy for Manitoba Pioneer Camp, Shoal Lake, Ontario
• Campus Renewal Strategy for the International Institute of Sustainable Development (IISD) / Experimental Lakes Area (ELA), North Western Ontario, Ontario;
• River Series: A New Kitchen System, Sideboard, Wood Box & Tableware are examples of more than 20 industrial products designed in recent years

Future Studio: An Elective Course in Digital Technology for Undergraduate Architecture Option Students

• in Collaboration with The Hudson’s Bay Company Archive, the Winnipeg Art Gallery, and 3D Solutions;

Strange Spaces, Iceland

• Field Trip and Design Studio with U. Manitoba Interior Design, Landscape Architecture and Architecture students, as well as Masters students from the Dalhousie University Faculty of Architecture (2015) with Tanis Paul, M. Arch. Manitoba and Roger Mullin, M. Arch (FP), Technical University of Nova Scotia

Your Own Harbour, Reykjavik Harbour, Iceland
MB Department of Architecture:

• One Master’s Level Design Studio in Iceland (2016)

Light & Sound, Space & Span: Production & Collaboration Facilities for Iceland's Creative Economy
MB Department of Architecture + U. Texas at Austin School of Architecture Studio: Reykjavik Harbour, Iceland

• Two Master’s Level Design Studios in collaboration with the University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture, with Kevin Alter, M. Arch Harvard, & Tanis Paul, M. Arch. Manitoba (2017, 2018).

Live + Work
Two Special Topics Courses: Hosted by EQ3

• 16 Master of Architecture Students at EQ3 Headquarters, Winnipeg (2017)

New Iceland: Designs for a Settlement Strategy on Iceland’s North Atlantic Frontier at Hofsòs
MB Department of Architecture + U. Texas at Austin School of Architecture Studio

• Master’s Level Design Studio in collaboration with the University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture, with Kevin Alter, M. Arch Harvard, & Tanis Paul, M. Arch. Manitoba (2017, 2018).

Strange Spaces: Icelandic Academy of the Arts, Reykjavik, Iceland (November 2015)

• 15 projects from University of Manitoba and Dalhousie University
• Curated by Tanis Paul, Roger Mullin and Herbert Enns (with generous support from Steven Wheeler, Canadian Ambassador to Iceland.)

Strange Spaces, MAKE, Winnipeg, Canada (March, April, 2016)

• The University of Manitoba and Dalhousie University, curated by Herbert Enns and Jae-Sung Chon.

Mass Market Alternatives (Nov. 2017 - Jan. 2018)
John Szot Studio, Brooklyn, New York

• Faculty of Architecture Gallery, Arch II, curated by Herbert Enns and Jae Sung Chon