As more and more people move around the globe, the issue of im/migration is more important than ever. In spite of humanity’s increased mobility, many countries are becoming less open to new im/migrants, with Canada remaining a notable exception.

Migrating Landscapes was selected by a national juried competition as Canada’s official entry at the 2012 Venice Biennale in Architecture. The project was curated by 5468796 Architecture + Jae-Sung Chon, who joined together to become the Migrating Landscapes Organizer (MLO).

Migrating Landscapes explores the settling-unsettling dynamic of im/migration, featuring 18 video narratives and architectural scale models of ‘dwellings’ designed by young architects/designers. The work was selected by a prestigious jury from a Canada-wide competition and displayed in regional exhibitions, organized and constructed by MLO.

MLO has designed a wooden exhibition infrastructure that acts as a conceptual landscape onto which each architectural dwelling is settled, with each model representing an act of first im/migration. The landscape is envisioned as a malleable grid mosaic – an abstraction of the physical, social, economic and political conditions that form Canada’s pluralistic cultural identity.

Photography: Lisa Stinner-Kun and Jacqueline Young

Press:

2014
Migrating Landscapes | Braun | Exhibition Design | Jul

2012
Migrating Landscapes | Canadian Architect | Nov
Migrating Landscapes | Maclean’s | Oct
Migrating Landscapes | SPACE Magazine | Sept
Migrating Landscapes | Archdaily | Aug

The Avenue on Portage revives two historic commercial buildings from the early 1900s located one block west of Winnipeg’s most famous corner, Portage and Main. Once major retail destinations in the city, the Avenue and Hample Buildings experienced a slow decline, becoming blights to the street and downtown. In 2010 our client purchased the site to develop the derelict properties into 75 rental apartments and 22,500 s.f. of commercial space.

A series of formally simple moves dramatically transform the original façades, shifting public perception of the buildings from eyesores to a unified urban landmark. Hovering above the sidewalk, steel balconies cantilever from existing window openings and provide outdoor access for residents. Clad in mirror-finish aluminum, the balconies become camouflaged against their surroundings, reflecting at turns the sky, the façade and the street below.

At street level a wall of glass folds back into the building to create a deep, V-shaped entrance that broadens the width of the sidewalk. Overhead, a faceted canopy angles outward 13 feet from the face of the Hample before returning to meet the edge of the Avenue, unifying the two façades. Together, these elements draw the city into the building’s expression, making it an active participant in the life of the street.

Photography: James Brittain unless noted.

Award: 2014 Prairie Design Award of Excellence

Press:

The Avenue on Portage | Architectural Record, Editors’ Picks
The Avenue on Portage | Arquine | Summer
The Avenue on Portage | Canadian Architect | Jun
The Avenue on Portage | Architectural Record | Feb

Sunspot, along with four other skating shelters designed by local and international architecture firms, was part of an exhibition of Warming Huts along the Forks River Trail in the winter of 2009. The event is now an annual celebration of art and architecture on ice.

The finished project is the result of a collaboration between 5468796 Architecture and Winnipeg-based artist Ewa Tarsia. The sphere is an extension of Ewa’s exploration of ‘dot’, a recurring theme in her recent work, as well as an interpretation of the ultimate source of heat – the sun.

The Sunspot hangs from the Forks’ Historic Rail Bridge, hovering just three feet above the frozen river. Composed of a structural frame coated in a skin of ice and coloured water, the interior is rendered with a vibrant and warm glow that evokes Tarsia’s painting plates. A large diameter opening at the bottom of the sphere allows skaters to enter and experience the transformed sky. The bottom ring provides a rope-wrapped bench to rest on, while the structure offers shelter from the wind.

‘The Cube’ is an open-air performance venue situated in Old Market Square, an iconic green space and summer festival hub in Winnipeg’s historic Exchange District. In 2009, 5468796 won an invited competition with a multi-functional design that throws out the old bandshell concept on the grounds that when a conventional stage is not in use it looks forlorn – especially through the city’s long winters.

A concrete structure enclosed by a flexible metal membrane, The Cube functions as a multipurpose environment. The membrane is composed of 20,000 identical hollow aluminum pieces strung together on aircraft cables. The orientation of the pieces alternates, forming a malleable and shimmering curtain that can stand like a wall, be pulled in to reveal the performance space, or function as a light-refracting surface – allowing it to morph into a projection screen, concert venue, shelter or sculptural object. When the stage is closed, the membrane’s diamond extrusions capture and refract internal lighting or projections to their outer surface, creating a unique pixel matrix for artists to appropriate at will.

Photography: James Brittain unless noted.

Awards: 2015 Premier’s Design Award of Excellence; 2014 Governor General’s Medal in Arch; 2014 Mies Crown Hall Prize | Shortlist; 2011 RAIC Award of Excellence; 2010 AR Award for Emerging Architecture

Bloc_10 strives to re-imagine and re-invent the market-driven condominium. Situated on the site of a former gas station, the developer wanted a modestly priced building designed and constructed within 12 months. The resulting three-storey, 10-unit condominium is modelled after a ‘white-box’ concept: each buyer purchases an unfinished unit with basic plumbing, heating and electrical systems installed, allowing them to decide which rooms and finishes they would like on each floor. 5468796 challenged traditional townhouse layouts with apartments that cross from one side of the building to the other as they ascend over three levels. This arrangement provides every unit with north and south views, and transforms eight into corner suites. To take advantage of the maximum allowable mass for the development, cantilevered projections expand rooms, create balconies and provide support for the screen of vertical wood slats that wraps the exterior. The screen provides each homeowner with privacy and shade, filtering surrounding views and creating a buffer against traffic noise. The screen’s sheer texture unifies the façade and gives Bloc_10 a distinctive identity within the neighbourhood.

Photography: James Brittain and Lisa Stinner-Kun

Awards: 2013 RAIC Award of Excellence; 2012 AR Emerging Architecture Award; 2012 Governor General’s Medal in Arch.; 2010 Canadian Architect Award of Excellence

Press:

2019
Bloc_10 | Canadian Modern Architecture, 1967 to the present | Oct

2018
Bloc_10 | Housing as Intervention: Architecture towards Social Equity | Architectural Design, Wiley | Aug

2014
Bloc_10 | The Architecture of Engagement | Mar

2013
Bloc_10 | Arketipo – Housing | Sept

2012
Bloc_10 | Architectural Review | Dec
Bloc_10 | treehugger | Sep
Bloc_10 | Globe & Mail | Jun
Bloc_10 | Arquine | Mar