Prairie Design Lab (PDL) is a podcast on ideas, design, and culture, in collaboration with journalist Terry MacLeod. Each episode covers a range of conversations centered around local and global perspectives and is produced in conjunction with the lecture series at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Manitoba. The host, Terry MacLeod, is an independent Emmy-nominated journalist and recipient of The Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal. In his 33 years with CBC, he established himself as a respected, informed, inquisitive, and compassionate presence. He left CBC for new pursuits on Dec 31, 2016. With CBC Winnipeg, he was a host on "Information Radio" and host/producer of "The Weekend Morning Show." In 2005 with Terry hosting, Information Radio was named "The Best Local CBC Radio Program in Canada."
Today the story of Cornelia Hahn Oberlander of Vancouver — one of the greatest landscape architects of the modern era. The world's most valuable award in that field is The Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architect Prize. We hear the story of her escape from Nazi Germany, her early landscape works in Philadelphia public housing, her stunning park at Expo 67, her innovation at Canada's National Gallery and the Northwest Territories Legislature, and her pioneering green roofs at Vancouver's Robson Square and Public Library.
Local architecture to help save the planet. The story of the first commercial building in all of Manitoba to achieve “Passive House Certification.” We go deep with Stantec Winnipeg — the firm tasked with this leading-edge design at Fort Whyte Alive.
According to climate scientists the planet has until 2030 to cut carbon dioxide emissions in half. Winnipeg-born Kelly Alvarez Doran is a world leader on climate-positive design. He describes how to get carbon out of architecture.
Prairie Design Lab returns w/Season 2. In Episode 1 meet Winnipeg-born Bisi Williams — The Chief Insights Officer of the Chicago-based Massive Change Network & the partner of Bruce Mau. Find out why this expansive thinker calls herself “architecture & design adjacent”, a “Prairie chauvinist” & a “Winnipigeon”.
Many students drawn to architecture school imagine working with, or creating, a small firm and having a personal impact designing unique structures. But the reality of architecture is changing. More and more architects choose to work with larger firms and collaborate with diverse multi-skilled teams on long-term projects requiring intense planning, preparation and financing. In Episode 41 we take a deep look at what it takes to do architecture on the “FIRM” scale.
In Prairie Design Lab Episode 40 called “Sets,” Winnipeg film-maker Guy Maddin reveals how he worked with film designer and former architect Rejean Labrie to build his world-famous signature style. Maddin reveals to Terry MacLeod that he relied on “an architecture of shadows,” sound effects, howling winds and using, as Maddin playfully puts it, “every cheap trick in the book.
What does photography have to do with how we see architecture? Plenty according to gifted Winnipeg photographers Jacqueline Young and Lisa Stinner-Kun. They tell us about the tools of their trade including: capturing ultra-deep depth of field, image-sensors, large-format cameras, Photoshop, gigabite-sized files and phase-one backs.
Clayton Salkeld, the founder of the Winnipeg firm “Design-Built”, describes himself and his 18 team members not as architects but as “designers with tool belts”. Most are Environmental Design grads from the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Manitoba. The homes they design and build are defined by timelessness and restraint. We find out how their unique hands-on approach is earning them clients and acclaim.”
Five design teams are competing to be chosen to design a national monument to tell the story of generations of LGBTQ2+ people in Canada who have been persecuted, abused, dismissed and marginalized because of who they desire and how they identify. It will acknowledge discrimination experienced by these communities and the abuse perpetrated by the Canadian state. Bapiiwin is the working title of the Team SOM monument proposal. We explore their design deeply with team members from Winnipeg, New York City and Berlin.
Canadian cities in film impersonating somewhere else. Hear the story from the people who built Canada's 2121 Venice Biennale Pavilion on site and on Instagram.
Gillis Quarries in Garson, Manitoba is 110 years old but its Tyndall Stone is 450 million years old. Hear how this iconic Manitoba limestone has become the go-to stone to build some of Canada's signature buildings
This episode explores design through the eyes of three small-scale independent Winnipeg graphic designers. Hear about the daring and innovative diversity of their skills and practices in demand here, and around the world.
Allan Chochinov has a stunning and incredibly diverse definition of what constitutes ‘design'. This former Winnipeger is the chair and Co-founder of The Master of Fine Arts in Products of Design Program at New York's School of Visual Arts. Hear how this innovator is redefining the art and science of design.
Today the story of Cornelia Hahn Oberlander of Vancouver — one of the greatest landscape architects of the modern era. The world's most valuable award in that field is The Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architect Prize. We hear the story of her escape from Nazi Germany, her early landscape works in Philadelphia public housing, her stunning park at Expo 67, her innovation at Canada's National Gallery and the Northwest Territories Legislature, and her pioneering green roofs at Vancouver's Robson Square and Public Library.
Local architecture to help save the planet. The story of the first commercial building in all of Manitoba to achieve “Passive House Certification.” We go deep with Stantec Winnipeg — the firm tasked with this leading-edge design at Fort Whyte Alive.
According to climate scientists the planet has until 2030 to cut carbon dioxide emissions in half. Winnipeg-born Kelly Alvarez Doran is a world leader on climate-positive design. He describes how to get carbon out of architecture.
Prairie Design Lab returns w/Season 2. In Episode 1 meet Winnipeg-born Bisi Williams — The Chief Insights Officer of the Chicago-based Massive Change Network & the partner of Bruce Mau. Find out why this expansive thinker calls herself “architecture & design adjacent”, a “Prairie chauvinist” & a “Winnipigeon”.
People with disabilities often face challenges in accessing resources and funding to pay for their housing and care. We explore what it takes to create housing to support them in their needs with Amie Gross (NYC), and Emily Barber (U of M Interior Design Masters student) specializing in Supportive Housing.
World-renowned French landscape architect Michel Desvigne tells us why transformation, transposition, and time are at the core of his success.
What makes an old building worth conserving? Three Winnipeg architects who have focused on heritage preservation work explain the challenges and values that infuse their work.
You start out at a good architecture school in your hometown, but — you get restless. You want to experiment with learning & working in a different setting at a new school & workplace — far from home. Today on Prairie Design Lab, we talk with three people who left for Hong Kong, Oslo & Frankfurt to do just that.
Cold enough for you? The classic Canadian winter question. We explore the creative impetus that cold weather provides to two Canadian international design festivals. We celebrate the success of Winnipeg's Warming Huts and Toronto's Winter Stations.
With two world-class interior designers, we explore the fractious debate between interior design & interior decorating. We find out about the difference between LEED ratings for sustainability, building materials, energy efficiency, and the environment. We also discuss the new standard called WELL, which focuses on human sustainability. These topics and much more on Episode 11, “Interiors.”
Episode 10 of Prairie Design Lab is titled “Leadership”. In it, three practice founders explore not the aesthetics of architecture but the effectiveness of imaginative leadership.
The story of an unexpected modernist who transformed Saskatchewan architecture. A Mennonite farm boy becomes, in his own words, not an architect but an “improver.” Excerpt from Plywood World 1970[Source: Facebook — Our Lady of the Lake Chapel at Silton, Saskatchewan]
University of Manitoba Architecture grads work all over the world in communities large and small. In episode 8, titled “Remote,” we introduce you to 3 graduates who have created robust opportunities far afield in small remote firms.
This week on Prairie Design Lab: a modest precocious rising star in architecture & design. How did Tom Fougere transform EQ3 into an international force? Find out what's next for this gifted Winnipegger.
Have you ever heard of Rooster Town? Most haven't. It was a Winnipeg neighbourhood that was home to 250 Métis people between 1900 & 1960. That is until the city forced everyone out to make room for the building of Grant Park Shopping Centre and High School. Was it racism or urban development, and what were the consequences? Prairie Design Lab takes an in-depth look. “This is a photo of where the Sais family home stood in Rooster Town. Right where the small white shed stands now beside the PanAm Clinic with the PanAm Pool in the background.” — Terry Macleod “This is the new library from the rear. It is built on land that used to be Rooster Town at Grant and Cambridge.” — Terry Macleod “The Grant Avenue and Cambridge Street corner with the new Bill and Helen Norrie Library in Rooster Town.” — Terry Macleod
Prairie Design Lab takes an in-depth look at how Michael Maltzan Architecture beat out 63 other worldwide architecture firms to design Winnipeg's Inuit Art Centre — Quamajuq. Jury member Herb Enns explains. Michael Robertson of Winnipeg's Cibinel Architecture tells us how he brought Maltzan's incredibly complex vision to life by never “no”.Music snippet of “Inuusiq” provided by The Jerry Cans with permission.
The world's biggest collection of Inuit art will soon be displayed at the brand new Inuit Art Centre at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. Twelve years in the making, we will hear from those who made it happen. This includes WAG CEO Stephen Borys and leading expert on Inuit art Dr. Heather Igloliorte of Nunatsiavut as well as world-famous architect Michael Maltzan of Los Angeles This was taken just out on Eclipse Sound off Pond Inlet at the northern tip of Baffin Island. We are standing in front of the iceberg that had got lodged in the sound and spent the winter there. We were looking to harvest icicles to bring back to the elders at Pond who cherished the ancient meltwater from the icebergs — Photo and caption by Terry Macleod A family on their Skidoo in Pond Inlet on Eclipse Sound. you can see their dog team beside them and their overturned komatik (wooden handmade sled). In the background are the mountains of the Bylot Island Migratory Bird Sanctuary. Pond Inlet is now known as Qikiqtaaluk, Nunavut — Photo and caption by Terry Macleod
The upside of garbage. Renovating our abandoned landfills to create new parks is making a big difference in Winnipeg. What should we do with 2000 acre Brady Road Landfill — the only active one in the city? A brilliant young U of M landscape architect shares her vision for what Brady Road could become.
A diverse community of immigrants, refugees, indigenous and Canadian-born work together to renew and improve a failing downtown park. One of the world's leading experts on urban parks analyzes their efforts and outlines the changes occurring in parks from a global perspective.http://prairiedesignlab.com/
Prairie Design Lab presents — Episode 1: Lifecycle
Today's episode, #28, is the final one of the first season of PDL. Don't worry. We'll be back in the fall. Today we explore the impact of 30 years of the student-produced Warehouse Journal, and we offer you the chance to win a copy.
Ten years after setting indigenous achievement as a strategic priority at the University of Manitoba, hear about its impact. Two professors and a student from The Faculty of Architecture are seeing many more indigenous students, more scholarships for them, more activism, and more connections to indigenous communities across the western hemisphere.
In episode 26, we discuss a radical proposal for a Toronto waterfront landmark whose future is in doubt. Ontario Place is fifty years old and has been closed for ten. A team of University of Manitoba and Ryerson University architecture grads and students tell us about their award-winning project that redefines relationships with nature and mitigates climate change.
Episode 25 of Prairie Design Lab is titled “Japan.” This week we meet Jun Shibata, a Japanese student who came to the University of Manitoba to learn English & study architecture and was later accepted into the prestigious Bartlett School of Architecture. We also meet an individual from Brandon, Manitoba, named Will Galloway, who came to the U of M for two architectural degrees and then pursued his Ph.D. at the University of Tokyo to begin a 25-year career in Japan.
Canada's “House of LMD” interior design has 40 luxury projects on the go that can span six years and encompass 30,000 sq. ft. After 35 years of success, Lori Morris shares how this “Design Darling” went from small-town Ontario to become North America's “Maestra of Majesty.”
In Episode 23, we discuss the enduring appeal of mid-century modern furniture. Three U of M designers converses on the newest incarnations of the ever-popular '30s through 60's Eames, Bertoia, and Saarinen styles.
Cracked windows. Leaky roofs. Abandoned houses. Across Winnipeg's inner city, there is a great need for improved housing. Many existing homes are old, overcrowded, and in poor repair. We meet the head of a social enterprise and an architectural associate who are working together to build affordable new homes. Episode 22 Guests: Kalen Taylor, Fletcher Noonan
A leader we lost too soon. Architect David Penner died suddenly in January of 2020 at 61. His legacy lives on. We salute the gifted designer & founder of Storefront Manitoba.
How is it that two of the most successful West Coast Modern Architecture practitioners both trained at The University of Manitoba's Faculty of Architecture? What was it about The U of M's rigours that prepared D'arcy Jones and Sean Pearson for West Coast notoriety?
Today on “Whimsy” — Episode 19 of Prairie Design Lab — design to make you smile. Much design, no matter how beautiful and useful, can be sort of serious. We introduce you to two Winnipeg designers who put delight, pleasure, and whimsy at the centre of what they create, and people across North America are smiling as they discover it.
When you painted your bedroom last month why did you choose that colour? What's the colour of your favorite sweater? What colour is your front door? What shapes your taste in colours? Episode 18 of Prairie Design Lab meets three people from the global colour industry, with distinct Winnipeg connections, who analyze and shape worldwide colour tastes.
What does handmade bookbinding have to do with Interior Design? Plenty, as we'll find out from a bookbinding artist, an Interior Design professor, and two students who saw and felt the link between the two first hand.
People with disabilities often face challenges in accessing resources and funding to pay for their housing and care. We explore what it takes to create housing to support them in their needs with Amie Gross (NYC), and Emily Barber (U of M Interior Design Masters student) specializing in Supportive Housing.
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