2022 Summer courses

This course explores contemporary public art and design found in the Canadian urban landscape. Works of public art along with their respective social, political and historical implications will be explored. Western theories will be coupled with Non-Western philosophies and Indigenous worldviews. Through this process, students will gain an awareness of artists, architects and designers who are contributing to the field as well as scholars who write about public art and design. At the end of the course, students will be able to discuss the interdisciplinary nature of public art and design.

Winnipeg’s “third river”, the Seine waterway is a remnant riparian forest traversing conflicts of development, industrial legacies, and recreational interests celebrating its bucolic contrasts. For thirty years, Save Our Seine (SOS) has operated as a non-profit organization advocating for and carrying out the restoration of this previously forgotten and formerly declining ecosystem. Aligned with the SOS mandate to develop public access and awareness of the Seine River, the course will explore the role environmental designers can play in helping uplift the greenway and river system. 

The course will ask how our skills and expertise can be used for collaborative intervention to cultivate greater awareness and sympathy for the Seine River. Students will engage the river setting through hands-on and in-person field studies, including engagement with SOS in order to understand the context and conditions that shape the site. The results of dialogue and examination will be a collective pursuit for sensitive design interventions as an interface between river and city. Modest in nature, design work will be anticipatory of future engagement for study and proposition.

This design seminar course is an exploration of applying critical mindful thinking and contemplative strategies to design thinking and practice. Through a series of reflective design assignments and lectures, students learn how to integrate mindful and contemplative learning strategies into design praxis. By focusing on critical first-person discourse, students are taught the positive aspects of individual self-care while employing mindful, contemplative, and critical approaches in the understanding and resolution of design challenges.

This course explores the theory and practice of ‘making’, by augmenting our collective environment through physical and digital modes of modelling. 

Products, furniture, architectural elements, land formations and ecological systems rely upon effective modes of messaging to ensure their evolving bodies communicate in reciprocity with other material beings. Literacy plays a large role in the ability of one to communicate effectively. This course unveils a root language of digital space that assists in bridging physical and digital modes of ‘making’.

This course will focus on urban constructed wetlands (and uplands). Native plant species are a part of our natural past. In an age of climate uncertainty and an increased need for greater sustainability, native species are a future part of our built environment. This course covers the widespread use of constructed wetlands and prairie grass plantings  in Winnipeg's urban residential developments, associated ecological goods and services and science-based technical considerations.  

Besides Emeka, students will interact with members from the Nnadi Group, other experts, and possibly a client - similar to a co-op opportunity, including a visit to the office.

The interdisciplinary course and project will focus on the challenges of growing and harvesting fruits and vegetables in Indigenous northern communities. The work will tap into and expand on the ongoing and exciting research of Qiang Zhang. Students will visit on and off-campus field stations including the U-Pick Fruit Farm of Easton Sellers and the U of M Greenhouse Complex to learn about the relationship between farming practices & infrastructure and planning & design. Students will have the opportunity to research and design prefabricated growth chambers and greenhouses for cultivating produce, gaining valuable knowledge and experience in a collaborative learning environment. Some of the topics will include cold climate farming, vertical farming, indoor climate control, building envelope, modular design, placemaking, and more. The short-term goal is to research the challenges of year-round food production and distribution in remote areas and offer potential sustainable solutions. Students will propose design concepts including site, interior, and exterior environments, and produce technical drawings, models, and small-scale prototypes to address the research initiatives. The long-term goal is to submit the body of work for funding, and possibly realize the concept in the following year(s). The students and instructors in the Faculty of Architecture, the Faculty of Engineering, and the Faculty of Agricultural & Food Sciences will provide unique perspectives and specialized skills, which will enhance the learning objectives and outcomes of the interdisciplinary course and project.

OBJECTIVES AND OUTCOMES:

• To learn the effects of climate and sustainability on supply and demand.
• To understand the logistics of fresh food production and distribution in Indigenous northern communities.
• To learn new interdisciplinary skills through collaboration.
• To study traditional and contemporary farming.
• To investigate the spatial, experiential, and technical requirements of a comprehensive project.

LIST OF IMAGES:

1. Hegen, Tom. LED Greenhouses. 2019. Accessed February 1, 2022. https://www.thisiscolossal.com/tags/netherlands/.
2. EcoSpeedLED. Accessed February 1, 2022. https://www.ecospeedled.com/.