Precast insulated concrete panels are used to create a lively, lantern-like façade on BridgmanCollaborative Architecture?s Mayfair Recreation Centre in Winnipeg.
TEXT Jeffrey Thorsteinson

PHOTOS Jacqueline Young, unless otherwise noted
Architecture is shaped by its materials. As Marshall McLuhan put it, medium and message are inseparable. Nearly a century ago, Modernist architects became energized by the possibilities of steel, glass and concrete as a means to achieve aspirational goals: efficiency, modern-living, an embrace of the future. Today, architects are turning to new industrial materials for new aims: sustainability, constructability and cost-effectiveness. This is as true in Winnipeg, McLuhan?s hometown, as anywhere else. Here, a diversity of small firms and specific cultural and economic demands has fostered an abundance of material experimentation. The Mayfair Recreation Centre, by BridgmanCollaborative Architecture, is one result of this experimentation. Nestled in a stand of well-established elms to the side of busy River Avenue, the Centre strikes an engaging balance of idiosyncrasy, monumentality, and harmony with its setting. Surprisingly, this compelling mix stems largely from the building?s usually prosaic enclosure material: precast concrete insulated sandwich panels, normally used in big-box and industrial construction. Here, the utilitarian panels are imaginatively reconfigured at an intimate scale. The result is a low-cost, easy-to-construct, and du...