Rainbow Butterfly
Winnipeg, Manitoba

Category: Small Projects
Architect: Brook McIlroy Inc.
Owner/Client: Collective of Voices and Manitoba Moon Voices
Team: Ryan Gorrie, Architect (Brook McIlroy), Rachelle Lemieux, Architect, Reanna Merasty, Student, Danielle Desjarlais, Student
Fabricator: Wood Anchor
Photographer: Stationpoint Photographic

Jury Comments

This project speaks to the difficult subject of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and two-spirited people and their families and survivors—and does so with reverence, inclusiveness and hope. Through a collective process that began with a series of conversations on the subject, this project evolved in the form of a memorial pavilion. An Indigenous design team worked closely with fabricators to create a steel rib structure whose complex curvature is draped with intricate metal panels inspired both in scale and detail by the traditional jingle dress. Its gifted name, ‘Rainbow Butterfly’ further inspired the brightly coloured pavilion to take its final form. It is remarkably tactile, visually engaging and inviting. It has been installed in a number of locations, but has as yet to find a permanent site … which is perhaps a fitting approach to its calling.