Client: RRC Polytech

Overview

A painting by Anishinaabe/Winnipeg artist Jackie Traverse, spans across Manitou a bi Bii daziigae’s overhanging parapet and fourth floor ceiling. Inspired by The Forks—where the Red and Assiniboine Rivers meet—nearby, it depicts the 13 moons, people, bear paws, and Oodena Celebration Circle that speak to the history of Indigenous people in Winnipeg. Greens, golds and reds, reference the sun and compliment the façade’s bronze-gold photovoltaic cladding. Projecting over the street, it is an urban gesture, seen from blocks away. The imagery illustrates a traditional gathering place and speaks to the College’s goals of creating a hub where students, businesses, and the community can come together and collaborate.

‘Morning Star’ by Anishinaabe/Nêhiyaw/British artist KC Adams suggests a story about the Indigenous art of birchbark biting arranged in a pattern that represents new beginnings. Embedded into the floor of the College’s 210-seat Roundhouse Auditorium, it celebrates traditional Indigenous technologies with emerging ones, in a space designed to bring people together to learn and innovate. The circular room has hosted a range of interactive lectures, traditional teachings, ceremonies, and large events – including an annual Pow Wow, which honours Indigenous student achievement.

Goals

Manitou a bi Bii daziigae facilitates ‘thinking and learning’, offering flexible, high-tech, and interactive spaces. Located in the emerging start-up sector of Winnipeg’s Exchange District, the academic program combines a repurposed building with new construction, and provides an atmosphere that nurtures creativity and collaboration.

Winnipeg is home to Canada’s largest urban population of Indigenous people, and through the design of the building, the College wanted to create a space that was welcoming to Indigenous learners and community members. The School of Indigenous Education, Elders-in-residence, and knowledge keepers at RRC Polytech, participated in the integrated design process and stressed the importance of representation for students, so they see themselves in the building and feel welcomed.

As part of the renewal, RRC Polytech engaged with the Winnipeg Arts Council to consult and collaborate on the integration of artwork into the building’s design. Aligning with the College’s commitment to advancing Indigenous achievement and works, the public art opportunity invited Indigenous artists residing in Canada to submit proposals for the building’s 1,000 sf fourth floor ceiling and exterior soffit, with the possibility of other opportunities for design elements arising.

Process

Once the artwork for the soffit was chosen, the opportunity for art in the Roundhouse was also identified. The team worked with RRC Polytech Indigenous elders to ensure the pieces were thoughtfully integrated into the building.

After reviewing Jackie’s initial concepts, the architects worked with her to create a piece that could be enlarged and printed on high-pressure laminate panel with a custom layer for artwork. Her painting was scaled to show the motifs from the exterior and interior of the building at different proportions—a canvas of colour representing traditional Indigenous teachings and local history.

For Adams’ design, the team worked to make the piece site specific using it to denote cardinal directions to orient you within the Roundhouse Auditorium. Various methods and materials were prototyped (mosaic tiles, laser cutting, etching), but the floor trade offered the solution of custom moulds to replicate the bite mark patterns, simplifying the process of repeating the motifs on each panel. Terrazzo is inlaid with copper forms referencing integrated circuits, Inuit tattoos, the weaving of a Métis sash, and bite mark patterns. Carefully selected colours and aggregate completed the fabrication process. The terrazzo was finished to seamlessly integrate into the floor.

Additional Information

The Centre’s new Anishinaabemowin (Ojibwe) name translates to where creator sits (Manitou a bi) and brings light (Bii daziigae). Elders-in-Residence utilized their own traditional ceremonial protocols for the naming process. The building’s internal use of light, and its ability to transfer energy through light, were elements that inspired its name. The building is unique and much like how we live, is powered by the sun. Solar power is a key energy strategy, as the design employs both rooftop and building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) panels which vary from bronze to gold depending on the angle of view and lighting conditions. This innovative concept—a Canadian first—conceals solar cells behind nano-coated glass panels. Their shape-shifting appearance animates the building and conveys a sense of wonder and delight that itself is an outward expression of the path of learning and innovation. Modelled energy use is 112 kWh/m2/yr with offsets from PV systems. When occupied the photovoltaic panels provide approximately 18% of the building’s power. When unoccupied, the PV systems provide 50-70% of the building’s power requirement as measured through the BAS power metering.