Lorela Bregu

STREET +: Street-Centered Imaginations toward Downtown Winnipeg's Development

The streets in downtown Winnipeg predominantly serve as conduits for vehicular traffic, with a noticeable lack of pedestrian activity. This thesis endeavors to uncover the potential for street-centered urban living within this context, by exploring urban interiority as a means to enhance walkability and livability, ultimately attracting a greater number of residents to the area.

Downtown Winnipeg's urban fabric is characterized by fragmentation, primarily due to the prevalence of parking lots. These parking lots disrupt the continuity of building masses, resulting in a juxtaposition of density and open spaces. This study acknowledges these fragmented spaces as sites for potential urban development, from the perspective of livable streets.

Inspired by Kevin Lynch's concept of "grain," this research identifies patterns and clusters within the downtown fabric, with a focus on the size and shape of spaces between buildings. Understanding and utilizing this pattern becomes essential to how Winnipeg's downtown can achieve a fine-grained and diverse urban environment that attracts residents and fosters a sense of place.¹

This context can generate several questions. Can downtown Winnipeg cultivate a vibrant street life, even in the challenging winter climate, amidst its business-centric development, and against the backdrop of underutilized parking lots? What are the critical elements required to envision and develop such streets? How can these ideas be practically implemented, considering existing urban factors and neighboring developments? Can a street-centered urban design rejuvenate downtown Winnipeg and seamlessly integrate with its existing urban context? What does it look like?

At the core of this exploration lies the concept of "open linkage" by Fumihiko Maki. By uniting layers of urban activity and physical form, it aims to create a more coherent urban environment, connecting the past with the present and providing a time-based template for future developments in downtown Winnipeg. Streets could be transformed into dynamic sequences of urban life in different time frames, in several phases.²

In summary, this topic aims to imagine and explore ways to revitalize downtown Winnipeg through street-centered urban living development. By recognizing urban grain patterns, accommodating diversity, and redefining the urban streetscape, it seeks to transform downtown Winnipeg into a livable, and engaging urban center that accommodates its residential population and attracts more pedestrians.

1. Lynch, Kevin. The Image of the City. MIT Press, 1960.

2. Maki, Fumihiko. Investigations in Collective Form. Washinton University, The School of Architecture. St. Louis. 1964.