Birth Centre

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Located in St. Vital, Winnipeg, Manitoba at the major traffic junction of St. Marys Road and St. Anne’s Road. The building, built in 1959, is a conversion of a 12,000 sf Safeway building into the new Birth Centre, which includes a 3,000 sf addition. The new building program includes a reception area, waiting room, birthing rooms, workspace, conference room, meeting room, offices, lounge, exam rooms, education room and ancillary services.

The original gable-shed roof of the Safeway provided the conceptual framework for the building and was transformed into a single-pitch roof, ultimately leading to the concept of ‘building within building.’ This architectural strategy is an attempt to bring the building to a human scale and to create difference within by focusing on the in-between spaces: The transition spaces, the courtyard, the protective corridor, and the interactive spaces around the perimeter of the building.

The result is a playful building defined by the busy v-shaped intersection with a focus on providing an economical solution to a complex transformation and sensitive program.

Client:Winnipeg Regional Health Authority and Women’s Health Clinic