Cool Gardens - “6,000 Points”

Winnipeg, MB, Canada

6,000 Points reflects 6,000 years of recorded human history at The Forks.

To record this deep and complex history with meticulous technique, a grid of 6,000 rods are spaced 12” apart across the site; their seriality establishing a calming (cool) order to the space.

Through a strategic and measured subtraction of these rods, additional historical narratives are represented. Two planar voids acknowledge the historical significance of the two immigration sheds that once stood at The Forks, a key shift in the physical and socio-cultural make-up of the city and Western Canada. Accepting the realities of its current public use, two paths bisect the staked field corresponding with the site’s observed desire lines. These intersecting forms orchestrate leisurely and curious occupation within its walls. Abstract enough to embody multiple identities, it is engagement with this pointilated mass that simultaneously grounds and connects.