Faculty of Architecture
What we are working on
The Community Design and Planning Centre (CDPC) views its work as embodying “love in action.” Through the work we do, the Centre hopes to demonstrate how to live and work in good ways as Indigenous peoples and settlers on Turtle Island. Our work is divided into ongoing partnerships, education, research, and projects.
Ongoing Partnerships
Art City
The CDPC partners with Art City, an art-focused Winnipeg nonprofit, to develop hands-on educational workshops for children in after-school programs. Through interactive art, play, and making, participants explore how cities are designed and experienced, fostering creativity, critical thinking, spatial awareness, and early understanding of urban life and community.
Spence Neighbourhood Association
The CDPC collaborates with Spence Neighbourhood Association on community-led initiatives supporting transitional housing for Indigenous peoples moving to Winnipeg from other parts of Manitoba and the West End 24-Hour Safe Space program. In Fall 2024, the CDPC team participated in Community Connecting Nights to learn from residents about housing needs. CDPC Faculty Affiliate Shawn Bailey leads architecture design studios, working with SNA representatives to develop student work and visual representations.
Education
Experiential Learning
The CDPC is developing hands-on learning opportunities in community engagement for student volunteers, faculty members, and design and planning professionals. These initiatives support skill development through applied projects, community partnerships, and continuing education, while strengthening ethical practice, collaboration, and real-world experience across diverse community contexts.
Community-based Processes in Architecture
Across Manitoba, Department of Architecture faculty and professional partners collaborate with community organizations, grassroots initiatives, multicultural groups, and Indigenous peoples. In Winter 2024, CDPC Coordinator Alixa Lacerna and volunteer Maryam Amini delivered a History and Theory seminar at the Faculty of Architecture, University of Manitoba to M.Arch students, examining community-based design practices, engagement tools, and methods used across practice and academia.
Mentorships
To encourage the next generation of industry practitioners toward service-oriented design and planning, the CDPC provides mentorship days to students in Winnipeg’s MET schools. The CDPC Coordinator and MET school students meet regularly to collaborate on student-led projects that focus on city-related and city-making issues. The students also practice public speaking by presenting their work to CDPC volunteers.
Projects
Brandon University Indigenous Storytelling Space
CDPC members Alixa Lacerna, Hanan Alahmad, Jory Thomas, and Mimi Locher are collaborating with Dr. Michelle Lam, Canada Research Chair, and the administration at Brandon University to develop annotated pre-design drawings for an Indigenous Storytelling Space in the Faculty of Education. The drawings incorporate local Indigenous teachings and motifs and will be used by Dr. Lam to work with a licensed architect and the Brandon University Administration.
Star Blanket Cree Nation Indoor Sweat Lodge
In Spring 2024, Star Blanket Cree Nation, represented by Victor Starr, approached the CDPC at a retreat hosted by the University of Manitoba College of Rehabilitation Sciences to explore the development of an indoor sweat lodge. From Summer 2024 through Fall 2025, CDPC engaged in site visits, relationship-building, community engagement sessions, and collaborative sweat lodge construction to support a community-led process grounded in trust, healing, and long-term partnership.
Research
Accessibility
The CDPC is building expertise in accessibility policies, building codes, and retrofit practices across varied applications. This research examines regulations, standards, and best practices to support inclusive design, informing practical strategies that improve accessibility, equity, and usability in existing buildings, public spaces, and new construction projects across Manitoba and beyond.
Structures of Sustenance
CDPC is researching food security through local and global perspectives, including impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The research examines implications and recommendations for designers and planners. Findings from work conducted throughout Summer 2025 are being consolidated into a comprehensive report to inform future design initiatives.
Where Kinship Resides: Recovering Indigenous Design and Planning Across the Globe
This research explores design and planning heritages represented by CDPC volunteers include: Ilokano: Philippines, Polish: Poland, Quechua: Ecuador, Japanese: Japan, and Calabrese: Italy. Alixa Lacerna (Cebuano: Philippines) facilitates the research using a framework loosely based on ethnoautobiography, as outlined by J. Kremer and R. Jackson-Paton. Each session examines heritage, culture, land, and language to contextualize design and planning traditions.
Winnipeg Bus Shelters
In collaboration with AROW Global, a bus window manufacturer, the CDPC team is researching multiple aspects of bus shelters, including regulations, construction materials and details, and precedents for bus shelters as community landmarks. Through ideation and co-design workshops with diverse stakeholders, the team is developing innovative and functional bus shelter concepts for Winnipeg.
Winnipeg Yards, Little Forks National Park, Housing, Gentrification
This ongoing research responds to a feasibility study by the Province of Manitoba examining the proposed relocation of the Winnipeg Yards railyard and the Little Forks National Park proposal in North Point Douglas. CDPC volunteers are researching precedents, history, social context, and impacts on housing and gentrification. In partnership with Art City, the CDPC will host workshops with youth from Winnipeg’s North End to explore ideas for the future of the railyard.
