Red River College?s Skilled Trades and Technology Centre (RRC STTC) welcomes the Smart Factory, an expansion that serves as a prototype for manufacturing spaces of the future.
The design of the STTC came out of a five-year collaborative process between Winnipeg?s Number TEN Architectural Group, pico ARCHITECTURE inc. and the RRC?s large stakeholder group.
Photo Courtesy of pico ARCHITECTURE inc.
Members of the college?s administration, instructional staff and students took part in four full-day integrated design process charettes.
For high-demand trades that are important to Manitoba?s expanding and diversifying economy, the 104,000 sq. ft. development accommodates training of over 1,000 students per year.
The learning spaces are arrayed along a sky-lit Galleria-inspired spine that?s nearly as long as two-football fields, according to the developers. With an objective of transparency, collaboration, and knowledge sharing, the building?s floor-to-ceiling windows open onto workshops organized by trade discipline.
As an acknowledgment of the tools used every day by the graduates of the program, pliers, screwdrivers, and other implements were embedded in the concrete flooring.
To connect the most current techniques with traditional crafts, designers drew aboriginal themes for the spatial structure and building envelope. The pattern of longboard, aluminum composite panels, and solar shading on the building?s façades was designed to evoke patterns in birchbark, as well as an ar...