NEWS / AWARDS
Winners of 2010 Prairie Design Awards
Award of Excellence
Category: Small Projects
Table of Contents
Winnipeg, Manitoba
Designer: spmb
Owner/Client: City of Winnipeg
Structural Engineer: Peter Wertepny
Fabricator: SCT Welding Laser and Manufacturing Company
The Project
Inspired by the existing park tables at the Vimy Ridge memorial Park, Table of Contents is a table with sculptural proportions programmed to attend multiple activities by diverse park users. The designated site for this small urban design project plays a role adjacent to the whole park’s program. It is placed along the path with the most pedestrian traffic, emphasizing the character of the site as a passage. The project is responsive to the site by creating new space without restricting the existing uses, assuming in this way the size of the community, carefully observed during the community consultation process. The project challenges the traditional notion of the monument by reinventing public space, unfolding new modes of celebration, placing the public at the centre. Our view of a living history addresses qualities of the present, to remember the present as it is lived, about and for people who are alive and participating in the life of a community. A table can connect a family of strangers through sharing, talking, listing, and the like. The unpredictable nature of what happens around a table sets the stage for an event to occur-not prescribing the event, but allowing the community to establish it. The poetic and celebratory worlds donated by the community, now imprinted on the table, allow people to recognize themselves around the table by being affirmatively pictured and validated. The table and its collection of words become the canvas that creates a space for events to unfold.
Photos
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