DESIGNING THROUGH DIALOGUE | The Shared Path as a Model for Community-Grounded Landscape Architecture

Aerial view of a park with brown pathways and sparse vegetation. Three benches host people and belongings, surrounded by dry, patchy greenery.

DESIGNING THROUGH DIALOGUE 
The Shared Path as a Model for Community-Grounded Landscape Architecture 

Lake Manitoba First Nation is located on Indian reserve Dog Creek 46 in Manitoba, Canada. The reserve lies on the northeast shore of the south basin of Lake Manitoba. Since 2018, members of the Lake Manitoba Health Centre have been working collaboratively with Dietmar Straub and Anna Thurmayr from the Department of Landscape Architecture, as well as with contributors from the College of Rehabilitation Sciences, to develop healthy and accessible outdoor environments on and around the Health Centre grounds. In 2021, this collaboration resulted in the creation of the Zaagaate Garden.

The Shared Path is a second collaborative initiative that connects to the beautifully inhabited Zaagaate Garden. The project aims to develop a walking path for the elders of the community, supporting their ability to age in place. Dietmar and Anna’s work with Indigenous communities calls for intercultural sensibility. It approaches design as a process in which the designer engages with the communities with whom and for whom the design takes place, in a shared aspiration to shape a meaningful and livable environment.

Anna Thurmayr and Dietmar Straub, approach landscape architecture less as a matter of monumental authorship and more as a form of quiet insurgency. Their practice resists spectacle, embracing instead small yet resonant gestures, collective processes, and deep attentiveness to context.

Both professors at the University of Manitoba, they work at the intersection of teaching, research, and community engagement, cultivating doubt and humour as tools of design. Dietmar and Anna like to reflect on how gardens —modest and improvised—can become potent acts of resistance and hope, subverting our beliefs about how things should be (Urška Škerl, Landezine).

For more information: https://landezine.com/straub-thurmayr-horizon-of-understanding/

Project Deep Dive Series 

The Faculty of Architecture presents Project Deep Dive, a talk series that explores the complexities of design practice beyond images. Each session features a 30–40 minute presentation followed by open discussion, highlighting the processes, challenges, and lessons behind significant projects. Students, faculty, and professionals are invited to learn from real cases that reveal how design unfolds through negotiations, logistics, and technical expertise, celebrating local excellence and professional rigour.