Julie Hince

Advisor: Jason Shields

A spacious restaurant featuring a large dining area and a well-stocked bar, inviting guests for a delightful dining experience.
A modern lobby of a building featuring sleek design, elegant furnishings, and ample natural light streaming through large windows.
A vibrant restaurant scene featuring patrons gathered around a table, enjoying their meals and engaging in conversation.
A cozy living room featuring a round ceiling and stylish chairs arranged for comfort and conversation.
A detailed rendering of a restaurant interior showcasing elegant decor, seating arrangements, and ambient lighting.
A family gathered in a cozy living room, enjoying time together near a bright window.
An architectural rendering depicting a new building design at a street corner, highlighting its contemporary features and layout.

Community, Conversation and Tourism: Safeguarding French-Speaking Red River MŽtis Cultural Heritage Through Hospitality Design 

Cultural diversity plays a vital role in enriching the world, fostering curiosity, facilitating learning, promoting well-being, and driving personal development. However, the advent of modernization, prevailing trends, virtual networks, and mass tourism poses a threat to cultural diversity, eroding unique identities and local cultures.

This Master of Interior Design practicum project focuses on acknowledging, safeguarding, and providing a meaningful space for the French-speaking Red River MŽtis Nation. The project seeks to address the question: ÒHow can hospitality design contribute to a stronger sense of identity and spirit of place for the French-speaking Red River MŽtis?Ó. By exploring the hospitality industry and designing a cultural hub in St Boniface, including a hostel, restaurant, and gathering spaces, the project proposes repurposing the historic Kiewel Brewery building at 690 St Joseph Street, Winnipeg, as a gesture of reclamation and cultural revitalization.   

Utilizing methodologies including visual essays, literary analysis, precedent studies, and assessments of both site and building, the project conscientiously fosters a sense of place that embraces the surrounding community, promoting cultural understanding and appreciation. Le Fil Rouge draws inspiration from Phenomenology, and concepts such as sense of identity, spirit of place, adaptive reuse, decolonization and sustainable tourism to showcase the value of hospitality design in fostering connections, instilling value, and immersing the community, locals, and tourists in the local culture and land. Subsequently, the research highlights the importance of decolonizing architecture and the transformative potential of hospitality design in creating spaces that honour and celebrate the cultural heritage of communities, ensuring their representation and vitality in the built environment. The project emphasizes the importance of recognizing, honouring, and preserving cultural diversity to create more inclusive, valid, and resilient societies.