I am an architecture student at the University of Manitoba in my third year of faculty. Before going back to school, I took 5 years deciding what it was I wanted to do with my life. I spent some of that time in the music scene as a singer/song writer doing a few shows here and there and released a single. I stuck with dancing as well (I'd been in tap and jazz for 17 years). I used to teach hip hop to high school students and also choreographed dance routines for music performances. I did some travelling as well (mostly in South America) and it was one journey in particular that finally helped me make up mind. I was back packing through Peru and went to see Machu Picchu. It is such a beautiful city and what I learned about the architecture open my eyes to a new way of perceiving.
I was always creative by nature but had never thought of architecture as such an abstract, conceptual, powerful, meaningful and capable thing. It is one area where philosophical thought can become tangible.
I chose the studio I am in this year because it focuses on Winnipeg. Being born and raised here in this city, I am drawn to take part in it. There is so much potential here; to be involved in a studio that introduces me to some of those potentialities is an exciting way to spend the year.
Last term, our studio was focused in the Exchange District primarily via site as an abstract thought. We (as a studio) were encouraged to challenge conventional ways of representation. I choose to focus on perspective as a point of view and as a mathematical distortion of reality.
Eventually my project morphed into exploring the idea of "program" as being broken up into sections rather than contained in one structure. The concept was that a program could be separated into shards or fragments dispersed throughout an area.
My architecture is a revealing. I have created subtle moments within my site that, as the space unfolds, reveals the "secrets" of the site. Pieces of history and forgotten moments are indicated in such a way as to generate conversation to extend the reveal of these secrets. A curious uncertainty of the space encourages further interaction with the architecture.
