Qaumajuq - Inuit Art Centre
Winnipeg, Manitoba

Category: Recent Work
Architect: Cibinel Architecture Ltd. with Maltzan Architecture, Inc.
Owner/Client: Winnipeg Art Gallery
Landscape Architect: HTFC Planning & Design
Structural Engineer: Crosier Kilgour Partners Ltd.; Guy Nordenson and Associates
Mechanical Engineer: Epp Siepman Engineering; Stantec
Electrical Engineer: MCW/AGE Consulting Professional Engineers; Stantec Sustainability and Energy, Commissioning, Civil Engineering: WSP
Lighting: LAM Partners in Architectural Lighting Design
Snow Loading: RWDI
Contractor: PCL Construction
Photographer: Lindsay Reid

Jury Comments

This project presents a tactful and elegant solution to a difficult site, directly adjacent to Gus da Roza’s formidable Winnipeg Art Gallery. The use of near white masonry to create a metaphorically inspired sculptural form, set against the Tyndall stone monolith, achieves an equal weighting yet a separate identity to the WAG. The prominent manner in which it opens to the street and makes visible the rich collection of Inuit art is counter-intuitive to the hermetic nature of most galleries. The Inuit gallery space and on-grade level public realm and support spaces blend seamlessly through the interior. The vision and contribution of those who set out to bring this remarkable body of art work to the world over the years, the commitment of the client and the architects to create a world class facility, and the involvement of Inuit and Indigenous peoples throughout the design and curatorial process, have provided the world with “something really rich and important”. Most significantly, Qaumajuq speaks to the peoples of Canada on-going commitment to ‘conciliation’ with its Indigenous relations.