http://www.spmb.ca spmbBLDG Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:33:09 +0000 http://www.spmb.ca en http://www.spmb.ca/HOTHUT http://www.spmb.ca/following/spmb.ca/HOTHUT Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:33:09 +0000 spmbBLDG 2688921 <img src="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/1.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="368" width_o="1527" height_o="840" src_o="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/1_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/10.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="449" width_o="1280" height_o="859" src_o="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/10_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/10b.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="449" width_o="1280" height_o="859" src_o="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/10b_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/10c.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="449" width_o="1280" height_o="859" src_o="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/10c_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/10d.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="449" width_o="1280" height_o="859" src_o="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/10d_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/11.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="449" width_o="1280" height_o="859" src_o="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/11_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/11b.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="449" width_o="1280" height_o="859" src_o="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/11b_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/12.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="449" width_o="1280" height_o="859" src_o="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/12_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/15.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="449" width_o="1280" height_o="859" src_o="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/15_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/21.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="449" width_o="1280" height_o="859" src_o="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/21_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/21a.JPG" border="0" width="562" height="840" width_o="562" height_o="840" src_o="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/21a_o.JPG" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/21b.JPG" border="0" width="562" height="840" width_o="562" height_o="840" src_o="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/21b_o.JPG" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/22a.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="502" width_o="1280" height_o="960" src_o="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/22a_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/22b.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="502" width_o="1280" height_o="960" src_o="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/22b_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/23.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="448" width_o="1280" height_o="857" src_o="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/23_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/24.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="448" width_o="1280" height_o="857" src_o="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/24_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/25.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="1000" width_o="1280" height_o="1912" src_o="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/25_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/26.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="448" width_o="1280" height_o="857" src_o="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/26_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/27.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="448" width_o="1280" height_o="857" src_o="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/27_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/28.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="448" width_o="1280" height_o="857" src_o="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/28_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/29.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="448" width_o="1280" height_o="857" src_o="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/29_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/30.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="448" width_o="1280" height_o="857" src_o="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/30_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/31.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="1000" width_o="1280" height_o="1912" src_o="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/31_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/32.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="502" width_o="1280" height_o="960" src_o="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/32_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/HH_1.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="448" width_o="1280" height_o="856" src_o="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/HH_1_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/HH_2.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="448" width_o="1280" height_o="856" src_o="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/HH_2_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/HH_3.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="448" width_o="1280" height_o="856" src_o="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/HH_3_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/HH_4.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="448" width_o="1280" height_o="856" src_o="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/HH_4_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/HH_5.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="448" width_o="1280" height_o="856" src_o="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/HH_5_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/HH_6.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="448" width_o="1280" height_o="856" src_o="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/HH_6_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/HH_7.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="448" width_o="1280" height_o="856" src_o="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/HH_7_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/HH_8.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="448" width_o="1280" height_o="856" src_o="http://payload19.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2688921/HH_8_o.jpg" align="left" /> HOTHUT Styrofoam and polyurea (hut); steel and plywood (skid), 16' x 8' x 10' Festival Warming Huts, The Forks, Winnipeg, 2012 The individual is not an autonomous, solitary object but a thing of uncertain extent, with ambiguous boundaries. Kengo Kuma The beautiful has but one type, the ugly has a thousand. The fact is that the beautiful, humanly speaking, is merely form considered in its simplest aspect in its most perfect symmetry, in its most entire harmony with our make-up. Thus the ensemble that it offers us is always complete, but restricted like ourselves. What we call the ugly, on the contrary, is a detail of a great whole which eludes us, and which is in harmony, not with man but with all creation. That is why it constantly presents itself to us in new but incomplete aspects. Victor Hugo in “Preface to Cromwell" (1827) HOTHUT is a project for the Festival Warming Huts v. 2012. The project is a collaboration between Eduardo Aquino and Karen Shanski and all the students participating in the Superficial Studio, Department of Architecture, University of Manitoba. Superficial Studio is a laboratory to understand the contemporary city, exploring and developing architectures that are critical of the accelerated and often unmeasured urban development. Working collaboratively through analogical models, this vertical studio—composed of both undergraduate and graduate students—proposes alternative hyper-architectures that seek a more balanced, more humanist response for our cities. HotHut is a natural extension of the studio investigation, as we understand the project as a microcosm of the city at large. Charged with the task of designing a space that is warm, low-cost and of a limited size, we propose a warming hut made entirely of foam. Providing more than just warmth, HOTHUT is an exploration into foam’s inherent structural, visual and acoustic qualities as a way of intensifying the hut’s social and cultural experience. Carved from a solid block of foam, HOTHUT is a collection of body spaces that engage visitors. These experiential spaces are not imposed on, but rather derived from the human body. Experiences such as sitting, leaning, standing, kissing, looking through, meeting, stretching are examples of what give HOTHUT form. HOTHUT playfully questions the relationship between empty and full, positive and negative, and inside and out. For example, spaces to rest and escape from the wind are carved from the foam in ways that feel both inside and out. As a result, visitors can wholeheartedly engage the hut while remaining connected to nearby activities along the Assiniboine River. HotHut Team | Superficial Studio_ Eduardo Aquino and Karen Shanski with Mari Aguirre, Luis Miguel Ortiz Barragan, Mallory Briggs, Erin Crawley, April David, Jeff Del Buono, Paul Dolick, Lori Fossum, Jon Granke, Calee Gushuiak, Taylor Hammond, Beth Hicks, Nicole Hunt, Mackenzie Loewen, Matthew Trendota, Tracey Umali, Mark Van Dorp, Souk Xoumphonphackdy, and Gordon Yiu. Partners Program U of M | Doug Clark & Brandy O’Reilly Department of Architecture U of M | Frank Fantauzzi AMC Foam Technologies | Tom Smerchanski, Dinu Paraschiv & Kevin Rosger CAST - Centre for Architecture Structures and Technology U of M | Mark West Department of Design Engineering U of M | Ron Britten Thank you: Peter Hargraves, Paul Jordan, Dave Pancoe, Chris Schanck, Lancelot Coar, Patrick Harrop, Ronnie Araya, Jeff Garcia, Jae Sung Chon, Leah Defoort, Daniella Mandarano, Kim Bamburak, Veronica Angelatos, Scott Normand, Zach Nimchuk, Brad McGregor, Brad LaFoy, Ralph Stern, and Robbin Watson. http://www.spmb.ca/public-works http://www.spmb.ca/following/spmb.ca/public-works Sun, 09 Oct 2011 22:25:07 +0000 spmbBLDG 2123835 <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2123835/public_works1.JPG" border="0" width="670" height="449" width_o="1251" height_o="840" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2123835/public_works1_o.JPG" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2123835/public_works1a.JPG" border="0" width="670" height="449" width_o="1251" height_o="840" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2123835/public_works1a_o.JPG" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2123835/public_works2.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="472" width_o="1190" height_o="840" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2123835/public_works2_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2123835/public_works3.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="472" width_o="1190" height_o="840" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2123835/public_works3_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2123835/public_works4.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="472" width_o="1190" height_o="840" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2123835/public_works4_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2123835/public_works5.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="309" width_o="1820" height_o="840" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2123835/public_works5_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2123835/public_works6.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="519" width_o="1084" height_o="840" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2123835/public_works6_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2123835/public_works7.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="517" width_o="1087" height_o="840" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2123835/public_works7_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2123835/public_works8.JPG" border="0" width="670" height="449" width_o="1251" height_o="840" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2123835/public_works8_o.JPG" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2123835/public_works9.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="449" width_o="1251" height_o="840" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2123835/public_works9_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2123835/public_works10.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="449" width_o="1251" height_o="840" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2123835/public_works10_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2123835/public_works11.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="472" width_o="1190" height_o="840" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2123835/public_works11_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2123835/public_works12.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="472" width_o="1190" height_o="840" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2123835/public_works12_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2123835/public_works13.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="472" width_o="1190" height_o="840" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2123835/public_works13_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2123835/public_works14.JPG" border="0" width="670" height="449" width_o="1251" height_o="840" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2123835/public_works14_o.JPG" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2123835/public_works15.JPG" border="0" width="670" height="449" width_o="1251" height_o="840" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2123835/public_works15_o.JPG" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2123835/public_works16.JPG" border="0" width="670" height="449" width_o="1251" height_o="840" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2123835/public_works16_o.JPG" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2123835/public_works17.JPG" border="0" width="670" height="449" width_o="1251" height_o="840" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2123835/public_works17_o.JPG" align="left" /> PUBLIC WORKS! Kitchener Operations Centre Public Art Project / Kitchener, ON. / 2011 Component 1 / Billboard / 12’ x 24’ / Mirror-polished stainless steel Component 2 / Communal tables / 4’ x 10’ / Cut-out aluminium plates In a very basic way, a prominent landmark tells you where you are. They let you know that you’re not the first person in a place. Tracy Kidder The dinner table is the centre for the teaching and practicing… of conversation, consideration, tolerance, family feeling, and just about all the other accomplishments of society... Judith Martin (Miss Manners) spmb’s concept for the Kitchener Operations Centre Public Art Project is motivated by the gathering of all the city yard workers for the first time in the City’s history under one single roof. For spmb this is a reason to celebrate the human effort that goes in maintaining a city and a community, therefore the central idea for the public art concept are the city workers and their contribution: the public art is for the public workers. We developed our concept into a public artwork that takes careful thematic consideration of the situation, and as well will seek the practical and poetic aspects of the context, understanding that this Facility will serve mainly the city workers. The Kitchener Operations Centre remains an important infrastructure that sustains life in the City of Kitchener. Sustainability is often reserved to environmental concerns, but we see sustainability as the whole welfare of human beings living together. Hence we choose the “WORKERS” and “the collaborative nature of public works” as the driving forces of our concept. We developed an artwork that has direct relevance to the workers and their daily routines, something that they can “use” everyday, an artwork that functions beyond simple contemplation. There are two components that constitute the artwork. The element 1 is a gateway created in direct relationship with the architecture of the building facade in the form of a billboard. The element 2 is a collection of communal tables to be shared among the workers in their respective working areas. http://www.spmb.ca/mutt-on-a-leash http://www.spmb.ca/following/spmb.ca/mutt-on-a-leash Sun, 09 Oct 2011 17:50:25 +0000 spmbBLDG 2122712 <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2122712/mutt1.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="453" width_o="1280" height_o="867" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2122712/mutt1_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2122712/mutt2.JPG" border="0" width="670" height="448" width_o="1280" height_o="856" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2122712/mutt2_o.JPG" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2122712/mutt3.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="496" width_o="1280" height_o="949" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2122712/mutt3_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2122712/mutt4.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="449" width_o="1280" height_o="858" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2122712/mutt4_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2122712/mutt5.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="434" width_o="1280" height_o="830" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2122712/mutt5_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2122712/mutt6.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="446" width_o="1280" height_o="853" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2122712/mutt6_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2122712/mutt7.jpg" border="0" width="566" height="840" width_o="566" height_o="840" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/2122712/mutt7_o.jpg" align="left" /> MUTT [ON A LEASH] Proposal for Art Souterrain, Nuit Blanche 2012, Montreal, QC. with Adam Robinson 2x4 and aniline stain; 30” x 8” x 4”; several units in several arrangements. MUTT is a family of benches inspired by informal roadside seats built in the countryside of Brazil often referred as “cachorrinhos” (little dogs in Portuguese). MUTT is also a term used to designate a mixed-breed dog, a dog that has characteristics of two or more breeds. Consequently, MUTT is the synthesis of a hybrid model as it uses the Canadian standardization icon of the 2X4 crossbred with the Brazilian aniline hot pink dye, used in urban construction sites as a standard colour to designate a lower grade of plywood. MUTT negotiates between private and public space, in the context of a gallery or in a public space. For Art Souterrain 2012 we propose MUTT to go “on a leash,” with a steel cable going through them as they are grouped in strategic sites during the event, and anchored by a column or any other architectural feature of the site, being secured at the same time. In this way MUTT can serve as an infrastructure for the event offering seating and a meeting point to art viewers and incidental walkers. We can produce as many MUTTs as the allocated budget will allow. http://www.spmb.ca/the-winnipeg-project http://www.spmb.ca/following/spmb.ca/the-winnipeg-project Mon, 05 Sep 2011 18:49:34 +0000 spmbBLDG 1958679 <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1958679/wpg_1.jpg" border="0" width="649" height="840" width_o="649" height_o="840" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1958679/wpg_1_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1958679/wpg_2.jpg" border="0" width="649" height="840" width_o="649" height_o="840" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1958679/wpg_2_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1958679/wpg_3.jpg" border="0" width="649" height="840" width_o="649" height_o="840" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1958679/wpg_3_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1958679/wpg_4.jpg" border="0" width="649" height="840" width_o="649" height_o="840" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1958679/wpg_4_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1958679/wpg_5jpg.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="517" width_o="1280" height_o="989" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1958679/wpg_5jpg_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1958679/wpg_6.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="517" width_o="1280" height_o="989" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1958679/wpg_6_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1958679/wpg_7.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="517" width_o="1280" height_o="989" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1958679/wpg_7_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1958679/wpg_8.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="517" width_o="1280" height_o="989" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1958679/wpg_8_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1958679/wpg_9.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="517" width_o="1280" height_o="989" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1958679/wpg_9_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1958679/wpg_10.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="433" width_o="1280" height_o="828" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1958679/wpg_10_o.jpg" align="left" /> THE WINNIPEG PROJECT A research project on Winnipeg’s urbanism and exhibition at Architecture 2 Gallery / WINNIPEG, MB / 2001 with Ken Borton A city is a city is a city. To the imagination London, Paris, Dublin, Winnipeg, Moscow, New York are level; military, political, economic power and even antiquity are irrelevant. A city occupies space, informs time, memorializes—triumphs, tragedies, glories, catastrophes. To the imagination a Red River is a Thames, a Liffey, a Seine, the wind-driven snows that batter Winnipeg are humanly if not historically puissant as the snow that buried Napoleon. The Winnipeg Strike did not have to be the storming of the Bastille to jolt the contemporary imagination. No surprise at all that Ulysses popped up in Joyce’s Dublin: it might have been Gogol’s St Petersburg, perhaps St. Vital, St. Boniface. To me Tolstoy’s and my Winnipeg snows were one. I often heard Flaubert’s train pound through the CPR yards. Jack Ludwig, Imagined City What characterizes Winnipeg as a unique, authentic city? What are the urban characteristics of a city that composes a differentiated cultural identity? This project was an examination of Winnipeg that addressed its contemporary urban condition, while navigating through its mythological landscapes. It crossed over disciplinary boundaries as an attempt to find a new reading of the city. It reflected on new and existing data about the city: its life, politics, history, geography, urban development, architecture, economy, and, beyond data, it reached people’s experiences through literature, anthropology, and pop culture. We looked at Winnipeg as a lens through which we could better understand the urban condition of other cities. Architecture here should be considered as a tool to explore new methods of analysis, to find new sources, and to create new systems of observation to examine the city. Largely becoming a visual atlas of the city’s psychosis and anthropometry, The Winnipeg Project is simultaneously an ongoing celebration and a critique of the city. http://www.spmb.ca/power-centre http://www.spmb.ca/following/spmb.ca/power-centre Sun, 04 Sep 2011 16:28:38 +0000 spmbBLDG 1954072 <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1954072/portage_main_site.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="472" width_o="1280" height_o="903" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1954072/portage_main_site_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1954072/power_centre_2.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="502" width_o="1280" height_o="960" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1954072/power_centre_2_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1954072/power_centre_3.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="473" width_o="1280" height_o="904" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1954072/power_centre_3_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1954072/power_centre_4.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="473" width_o="1280" height_o="904" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1954072/power_centre_4_o.jpg" align="left" /> PORTAGE AND MAIN POWER CENTRE Portage and Main International Design Competition / Winnipeg, MB / 2004 with Ken Borton wind turbines and space heaters This was a proposal in the context of the Portage and Main International Design Competition. spmb relied on the dirty realism of the site offering an infrastructure instead of the usual design ornamentations proposed in urban design competitions to counterpoint the harsh reality of downtown Winnipeg. Considered the windiest corner in Canada, Portage and Main suffers from the total lack of pedestrian occupation due to the climate conditions and the faulty urban design presently in place in this significant Winnipeg urban space. To take advantage of the wind, windmills would be installed and the captured energy transferred to space heaters spread allover the city below, making the sidewalk experience during the winter more bearable, if not agreeable, dreaming of a new inhabitation of the city centre. http://www.spmb.ca/soft-catalogue http://www.spmb.ca/following/spmb.ca/soft-catalogue Sat, 03 Sep 2011 23:42:07 +0000 spmbBLDG 1952038 <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1952038/softcatalogue_cover.jpg" border="0" width="645" height="840" width_o="645" height_o="840" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1952038/softcatalogue_cover_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1952038/softcatalogue_center.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="444" width_o="1280" height_o="849" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1952038/softcatalogue_center_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1952038/softcatalogue_1.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="442" width_o="1280" height_o="846" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1952038/softcatalogue_1_o.jpg" align="left" /> SOFTCATALOGUE Neutral Ground Gallery / Regina, SK, 2001 with Rodney LaTourelle, Christine Shaw, David Grenier, and KIT I was interested in a system that is tied into a medium rather than in my saying I am an artist. Dan Graham, quoted in Dan Graham in Relation to Architecture, by Brian Hatton Softcatalogue resulted from an invitation to write for an exhibition catalogue. Based on the junk mail flyer, magalogues, and consumer’s catalogues, softcatalogue is a space for discussion about art and architecture where the overlapping of ideas suggests a non-linear reading, a "soft" form of re-presentation for the art catalogue. Instead spmb turned the whole catalogue into a new, autonomous project. We started by asking: Can the disciplines of art and architecture be branded within a single tradition of practice or should they be distinguished as separate mediums? What are the inconsistencies or advancements found in art realized by architects, or in architecture by artists? These questions didn’t seem to be an issue during the Renaissance, where the role of the artist encompassed of the architect and vice-versa, as with Michelangelo or Leonardo da Vinci. How can we start to critically tackle the distinctions and associations of art and architecture? Is there a coherent discourse to clearly articulate the relationship between the two? Dan Graham, whose work has been pivotal within this discussion, has stated that what he does is defined by the medium, which in turn is defined by the reader/beholder, and by the context in which the work is situated. Since more and more architects are spilling over into the field of art, and artists are increasingly using strategies common to the practice of architecture, it has become more complicated to outline a critical framework to think about these conditions. > softcatalogue http://www.spmb.ca/complex-order http://www.spmb.ca/following/spmb.ca/complex-order Sat, 03 Sep 2011 05:52:24 +0000 spmbBLDG 1949822 <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1949822/complex order_cover_front_cropped.jpg" border="0" width="599" height="840" width_o="599" height_o="840" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1949822/complex order_cover_front_cropped_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1949822/complex_order.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="448" width_o="1280" height_o="857" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1949822/complex_order_o.jpg" align="left" /> COMPLEX ORDER: INTRUSIONS IN PUBLIC SPACE contributors / Floris Alkemade [OMA], Ricardo Basbaum, Jean-Claude Bernardet, Adrian Blackwell, Tony Brown, Catherine Crowston, Detanico Lain, Herb Enns, Robert Enright, Cliff Eyland, Walter Firmo, Jochen Gerz, Erik Göngrich, Arni Haraldsson, Gilles Hébert, Stephen Horne, Philip Jodidio, Anthony Kiendl, Charles Kirschbaum, Rodney LaTourelle, Marie-Paule Macdonald, Rubens Mano, Fernando de Mello Franco, Paulo Mendes da Rocha, Ligia Nobre, Sami Rintala, Ed Ruscha, Karin Sander, Katerina Šedá, Bob Wolfenson, Theodore Zeldin. publisher: Plug In Editions / Winnipeg, 2009 design / Adam Robinson Complex Order was born from a necessity to build a conversation around the work of spmb [São Paulo-Manitoba], in dialogue with other practitioners, artists, architects, theoreticians, and critics, mapping out the regions of understanding of what we do. Rethinking the artist’s book, we proposed a collection of works and texts by spmb, as well as projects and writings conceived by other artists and architects, generating a network of relationships around common ideas. We were not interested in the traditional monograph, centred in the production of the individual artist, but instead in the relationships of the work within a larger context. We work “in response” to circumstances and challenges presented to us, often in the public realm. Therefore, we wanted Complex Order to create a kind of public space of sorts, made of several constituencies, to stretch the discussion of public space itself, its poetics and politics, its actions and representations. http://www.spmb.ca/border-crossings-study-centre http://www.spmb.ca/following/spmb.ca/border-crossings-study-centre Thu, 01 Sep 2011 21:39:00 +0000 spmbBLDG 1943708 <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943708/BCSC_5.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="448" width_o="1280" height_o="857" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943708/BCSC_5_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943708/BCSC_1.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="472" width_o="1280" height_o="903" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943708/BCSC_1_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943708/BCSC_2.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="472" width_o="1280" height_o="903" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943708/BCSC_2_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943708/BCSC_3.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="472" width_o="1280" height_o="903" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943708/BCSC_3_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943708/BCSC_4.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="472" width_o="1280" height_o="903" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943708/BCSC_4_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943708/BCSC_6.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="448" width_o="1280" height_o="857" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943708/BCSC_6_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943708/BCSC_7.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="448" width_o="1280" height_o="857" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943708/BCSC_7_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943708/BCSC_8.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="448" width_o="1280" height_o="857" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943708/BCSC_8_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943708/BCSC_9.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="448" width_o="1280" height_o="857" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943708/BCSC_9_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943708/BCSC_10.jpg" border="0" width="562" height="840" width_o="562" height_o="840" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943708/BCSC_10_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943708/BCSC_11.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="445" width_o="1280" height_o="852" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943708/BCSC_11_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943708/BCSC_12.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="448" width_o="1280" height_o="857" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943708/BCSC_12_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943708/BCSC_13.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="448" width_o="1280" height_o="857" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943708/BCSC_13_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943708/BCSC_14.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="419" width_o="1280" height_o="801" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943708/BCSC_14_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943708/BCSC_15.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="757" width_o="743" height_o="840" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943708/BCSC_15_o.jpg" align="left" /> BORDER CROSSINGS STUDY CENTRE Gallery One One One / University of Manitoba / Winnipeg, MB / 2009 with DIN Projects / Curator_ Cliff Eyland / Editor_ Meeka Walsh dimensions: 5’ x 5’ x 12”; Baltic plywood BorderCrossings magazine and the University of Manitoba’s Gallery One One One have developed a unique, portable archive of the magazine’s 27-year publishing history. This archive—known as the BorderCrossings Study Centre (BCSC)—consists of a collection of each issue of the magazine to date housed in a portable hybrid storage/reading unit. The BCSC unit was first shown at the Gallery One One One for half the gallery’s entire programming year, during which the Gallery devoted to the presentation of a series of exhibitions by Winnipeg artists who have appeared in the magazine. Winnipeg architects Neil Minuk (DIN Projects), Eduardo Aquino and Karen Shanski (spmb) worked together with Meeka Walsh to design and fabricate the unit. Since then the BorderCrossings Study Centre has been travelling to many galleries across Canada and in Europe. http://www.spmb.ca/kovacs-pavilion-460 http://www.spmb.ca/following/spmb.ca/kovacs-pavilion-460 Thu, 01 Sep 2011 20:09:06 +0000 spmbBLDG 1943166 <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943166/KOVACS_1.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="445" width_o="1280" height_o="851" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943166/KOVACS_1_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943166/KOVACS_2.JPG" border="0" width="670" height="449" width_o="1280" height_o="859" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943166/KOVACS_2_o.JPG" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943166/KOVACS_3.JPG" border="0" width="670" height="449" width_o="1280" height_o="859" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943166/KOVACS_3_o.JPG" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943166/KOVACS_4.JPG" border="0" width="564" height="840" width_o="564" height_o="840" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943166/KOVACS_4_o.JPG" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943166/KOVACS_5.JPG" border="0" width="670" height="448" width_o="1280" height_o="857" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943166/KOVACS_5_o.JPG" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943166/KOVACS_6.JPG" border="0" width="670" height="448" width_o="1280" height_o="857" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943166/KOVACS_6_o.JPG" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943166/KOVACS_7.JPG" border="0" width="670" height="448" width_o="1280" height_o="857" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943166/KOVACS_7_o.JPG" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943166/KOVACS_8.JPG" border="0" width="670" height="449" width_o="1280" height_o="859" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943166/KOVACS_8_o.JPG" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943166/KOVACS_9.JPG" border="0" width="670" height="449" width_o="1280" height_o="859" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943166/KOVACS_9_o.JPG" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943166/KOVACS_10.JPG" border="0" width="670" height="449" width_o="1280" height_o="859" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943166/KOVACS_10_o.JPG" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943166/KOVACS_11.JPG" border="0" width="670" height="449" width_o="1280" height_o="859" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943166/KOVACS_11_o.JPG" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943166/KOVACS_12.JPG" border="0" width="670" height="448" width_o="1280" height_o="857" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943166/KOVACS_12_o.JPG" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943166/KOVACS_13.JPG" border="0" width="670" height="448" width_o="1280" height_o="857" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943166/KOVACS_13_o.JPG" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943166/KOVACS_14.JPG" border="0" width="670" height="449" width_o="1280" height_o="859" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943166/KOVACS_14_o.JPG" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943166/KOVACS_15.JPG" border="0" width="670" height="449" width_o="1280" height_o="859" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943166/KOVACS_15_o.JPG" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943166/KOVACS_16.JPG" border="0" width="670" height="449" width_o="1280" height_o="859" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1943166/KOVACS_16_o.JPG" align="left" /> KOVACS PAVILION [460] Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art Summer Institute / Winnipeg, MB. / 2011 with Natalie Kovacs and students of the Summer Institute 6m x 5m x 2,40m; wood, paper and projection. Kovacs Pavilion [460] was a structure built to support Natalie Kovacs’s performance at the Plug In ICA 2011 Summer Institute. Kovacs is an independent curator with a specialization in performative art that explores and expands new media. Kovacs’s practice is inclusive, committed to engaging people with art on every level. Kovacs uses art as a spectrum through which we view life, death and the infinite, often with an environmental perspective. For the Plug In ICA presentation spmb built a prototype of the Buhler Building (460 Portage Avenue—the building where Plug In is located) in the scale of the gallery space, recycling the stretch canvas frames from a previous painting exhibition that took place in the same gallery space. The structure was partially covered with tracing paper, filtering the projection images selected and edited by Kovacs, making the images amalgamate within the participants and dissolving the pavilion structure into the gallery space. http://www.spmb.ca/chroma http://www.spmb.ca/following/spmb.ca/chroma Thu, 01 Sep 2011 17:09:01 +0000 spmbBLDG 1942164 <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1942164/CHROMA_1_1.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="772" width_o="729" height_o="840" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1942164/CHROMA_1_1_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1942164/CHROMA_2.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="502" width_o="1280" height_o="960" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1942164/CHROMA_2_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1942164/CHROMA_3.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="473" width_o="1280" height_o="904" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1942164/CHROMA_3_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1942164/CHROMA_4.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="473" width_o="1280" height_o="904" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1942164/CHROMA_4_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1942164/CHROMA_5.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="500" width_o="1280" height_o="957" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1942164/CHROMA_5_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1942164/CHROMA_6.jpg" border="0" width="562" height="840" width_o="562" height_o="840" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1942164/CHROMA_6_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1942164/CHROMA_7.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="448" width_o="1280" height_o="857" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1942164/CHROMA_7_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1942164/CHROMA_8.jpg" border="0" width="562" height="840" width_o="562" height_o="840" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1942164/CHROMA_8_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1942164/CHROMA_9.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="472" width_o="1280" height_o="903" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1942164/CHROMA_9_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1942164/CHROMA_10.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="502" width_o="1280" height_o="960" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1942164/CHROMA_10_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1942164/CHROMA_11.jpg" border="0" width="593" height="840" width_o="593" height_o="840" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1942164/CHROMA_11_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1942164/CHROMA_12.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="473" width_o="1280" height_o="904" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1942164/CHROMA_12_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1942164/CHROMA_13.jpg" border="0" width="562" height="840" width_o="562" height_o="840" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/131766/1942164/CHROMA_13_o.jpg" align="left" /> CHROMA Public Art Project for the Mount Dennis Neighbourhood / Toronto, ON. / 2011 with Colin Herperger site: 40m x 30m; asphalt, stainless steel, LED lighting and mirror. But a central objective of community-based site specificity is the creation of a work in which members of a community – as simultaneously viewer/spectator, audience, public, and referential subject – will see and recognize themselves in the work, not so much in the sense of being critically implicated but of being affirmatively pictured or validated. Miwon Kwon, in One Place After Another CHROMA was a proposal for a permanent public art project for the Mount Dennis Neighbourhood in Toronto, Canada. It is derived from the neighbourhood’s desire to signify one entrance into Mount Dennis through art, more specifically marking the corner of Dennis Avenue and Weston Road. Three main references generated the concept of CHROMA [the Greek word for colour]: the rich and colourful make up of the neighbourhood—a mix of many ethnicities and cultures; the historical presence of the Kodak factory, here symbolized by one of its most iconographic products—the Kodachrome film; and the selected material to be used in the fabrication of the artwork—chromed steel, reflecting the colours of the neighbourhood back to the artwork and the visitors. The cartography on the ground created a microcosm of the neighbourhood on the corner street, creating a place of encounter and memorialisation.