Erem Rishad

Advisor: Neil Minuk

Satellite view of a river with an overlay of organic, leaf-shaped design elements. Surrounding neighborhood streets and bridge structures are visible.
A monochrome map showing a winding river with bold black outlines, surrounded by faint, detailed land plots. Brown areas highlight specific river sections.
the oxbow lakes between Headingley and St. Francis Xavier
Aerial view of a patchwork landscape with meandering river, farmlands, and roads. Black and white tones highlight curves and patterns, creating an abstract feel.
Tracing the Assiniboine river westward toward Headingley and Saint François Xavier reveals its bends, curves, and meanders formed over long-time spans.
A series of four old maps and three 3D models depict a meandering river through an urban grid. The maps include sepia and grayscale tones, while models use blue accents. The image conveys a sense of historical urban planning.
Study of the Oxbow of the Red which is now known as Enfield Crescent.
Composite image showing a city map with a winding river and shaded circle. Sketches depict evolving designs, with color overhead view of a natural urban area.
A series of drawings were developed in response to the river’s flow, shaped by the control gate that mediates its movement. The drawings consider scenarios of rising water levels, allowing the river to enter while ensuring that the elevated land continues to survive and thrive.
A black-and-white aerial map shows a river with an artistic overlay of abstract, oval shapes. Near the bridge, these forms resemble interconnected, swirling patterns. Surrounding the river are densely packed residential streets, highlighting the contrast between urban development and fluid design. The overall tone is modern and conceptual.
Using layered tracings and sketches, the land inside the imagined oxbow lake was redesigned.
Map of a residential area with orange houses, purple mixed-use buildings, pedestrian walkways, and primary and secondary roads on a green landscape.
A draft layout of the neighbourhood was developed with the intention that each island could be connected to others through pedestrian access, while some smaller islands were intentionally left untouched to allow nature to thrive and to provide resting spaces for wildlife such as beavers, foxes, and geese.
Cross-section illustration of trees on a sloped landscape, supported by stilts and platforms. Roots extend across the terrain, conveying an engineered ecosystem.
The design reconnects water to human living in a way that reflects how it existed for a very long time—before grids, before control, before straight lines.

Bending the Grid
Rivers, Oxbows, and Alternative Urban Futures in Winnipeg

This thesis investigates how the natural geometry of the Red River can inform and transform neighbourhood grid design in Winnipeg. It compares the early French seigneurial system of long, narrow riverfront lots with the later Dominion Land Survey’s rigid square grid, which represent two fundamentally different understandings of land: one responsive to the river and one imposed upon it.

Through the study of historical maps1, this research identifies former oxbow lakes along the Red River, including areas near The Forks and Enfield Crescent. Although many of these meanders are no longer visible as open water, their traces remain in the land’s topography, the siting of buildings, and subtle street slopes, indicating that Winnipeg’s contemporary form continues to be influenced by the river’s earlier paths.

This thesis focuses on Kingston Crescent as a location where the river’s geomorphological history and its potential future transformation intersect. The neighbourhood, defined by a pronounced meander and a documented history of flooding, presents a likely scenario in which the river could eventually cut through and form a new oxbow lake. Through speculative mapping, collage, and layered drawing, the thesis explores how Kingston Crescent might evolve if fluvial processes were allowed to continue, and how human occupation might adapt to, rather than resist, this change.

The thesis advances a new type of neighbourhood grid guided by hydrological flow patterns instead of conventional surveying tools. The design incorporates flood-adaptive strategies2, including elevated landforms, water channels, and a controlled river–lake gate system, to support a mixed-use residential community rooted in the ecological and historical logic of the river.

Ultimately, this research asks how cities might more accurately reflect the natural systems on which they depend, and how neighbourhoods can be re-imagined through the movements, memory, and future possibilities of the Red River.

1.Winnipeg Historical Map. Accessed on October 18, 2025
https://www.flickr.com/photos/manitobamaps/collections/72157603367125513/
2.The importance of oxbow lakes in the floodplain storage of pollutants. Accessed on October 30,2025.
https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geology/article/50/4/392/610213/The-importance-of-oxbow-lakes-in-the-floodplain