0197
Manitoba Start
Winnipeg, MB
office, education
22,500 sqft
complete 2012
$1.7M
Manitoba Start
Manitoba Start is a non-profit organization that provides arrival services to Winnipeg’s recent immigrants. Their new facility is located on the main floor of The Avenue on Portage. Faced with a somewhat irregular grid of existing columns, the plan responds with a hexagonal geometry that flows freely through the building. Rooms oriented at 30 and 60 degree angles establish solid and void spaces that allow for easier movement of people and greater connectivity between elements. Fixed programs are contained in solid boxes – with walls of birch plywood or white-painted MDF – while flexible spaces fill the remaining voids. Hexagonal perforations in the plywood panels provide a greater sense of openness while still maintaining visual separation, acting as a filter between the more energized public environment and the quieter classroom zones.
The hexagonal geometry is employed in a variety of forms and at multiple scales, from the configuration of lighting and the open office furniture layout, to the detailing of way-finding signage and interior finishes. Functioning as both an organizing principle and a graphic element, the repeated pattern establishes a coherent spatial arrangement and cohesive branding for the organization.
Award: 2014 Prairie Design Award of Merit






