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Parc provincial Upper Fort Garry

UFG in WPG is one of the most important historic sites in Western Canada. Within its walls, experiments in frontier governance led by Louis Riel and others established a new model for multicultural society, and helped spur Canada toward nationhood.

The history of the fort has no single correct telling - its stories are rich, complex and controversial.

The Fort was largely dismantled between 1871 and 1900, with only the north gate remaining, surrounded by downtown Winnipeg. Development pressures in 2008 spurred a dramatic conservation showdown and a citizen group was formed to lead the charge.

The group took possession of the land and formulated a bold vision to reclaim it as a new Provincial Park, and provide the city and the province with something compelling and new - a way to capture the complex and controversial history in an exciting way.

The consultant team were challenged to create a park that relates history in a way that is engaging and accessible to a younger generation, such as these design students exploring the fort’s resource extraction heritage.

Five Key design ideas drove the development. The first was “Don’t Reconstruct.” The site is so compromised by urban growth that the physical fort is not as important as the stories it has to tell.

This gave the designers license to reinterpret historic structures using contemporary materials and media, and to suggest things rather than say them outright.

Key Design Idea #2 was “Avoid Signs.” Well, most signs. Signs are static and fixed and limited to ‘one voice’. The designers proposed a more artistic and multi-channel approach in all the communications.

All forms are abstracted – for example, building locations are marked by low platforms that are stylized versions of the foundation stones.

Key Design Idea #3 was “Look forward as well as back.” UFG needs to be part of the fabric of the city: the content needs to stay relevant, and the park needs to work as an appealing urban space knitted into the downtown.

The MLCC Heritage Wall co-developed by Cohlmeyer Architecture, HTFC and Pattern Interactive, provides an engaging focal point for the park.

The 400 foot long CorTen steel wall marks the location of the former west wall of the fort and includes a sound system, laser-cut imagery and an array of 7000 LED’s that lend lo-fi ambient graphics and soundscapes to park experience.

Key Design Idea #4 was to ensure the design was “Not a snapshot; rather a mash up.” The fort was in a constant state of flux, expansion, rebuilding during its lifetime. It is a true ‘palimpsest’ - a collage of ghostly patterns from its continual rewriting.

This layering of periods and representations are inherent in the various materials and paving patterns on the site, creating a slightly jittery outline as the designers approximated the locations of things, visually capturing the idea that history “is a distillation of rumours”.

Key Design Idea #5 was “Messages should be augmented and participatory.” The designers borrowed ideas from the web to make it explorable - ‘easter eggs’, weblinks, a mobile app with changing content and instant translation, and a program to invite the public to co-create and share content.

Content for the park should come from the user. The park has the ability to share many voices through events, programs, art and installations such as this winning entry into Winnipeg's annual Cool Gardens exhibit inspired by the cultural 'weaving' witnessed in the fort.

Upper Fort Garry tackles the question: How do you engage with history in the saturated mediascape of the 21st Century?

You leave room for discovery.

Offer comfortable spaces for quiet contemplation.

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Google Street View

Prix national 2018 | Paysages publics à moyenne échelle conçus par un architecte paysagiste (1 à 5 ha)

Parc provincial Upper Fort Garry

HTFC Planning & Design

Upper Fort Garry s’éloigne radicalement de l’interprétation traditionnelle du patrimoine, embrassant l’ambiguïté inhérente à nos documents historiques pour alimenter une approche de la création de lieux urbains combinant le contenu communautaire, la programmation populaire ainsi que l’art et la technologie pour honorer le patrimoine du fort et stimuler de nouvelles conversations sur l’histoire écrite aujourd’hui.

AAPC | CSLA 12 crois. Forillon, Ottawa (ON) K2M 2W5

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