On February 1, 2019, Mackenzie Skoczylas and Nicole Luke, curators of Exhibit 369 at Arch 2 Gallery at the University of Manitoba, visited the Play office to interview Joseph, Grant, and Paulo.
Earlier in the year, Architects At Play was invited to take part in the exhibit, which highlighted local architecture and design firms, including Boreal Architecture, Little Bluestem, 5468796 Architecture, SDO Architecture, RIDI, Din Projects, F-Blok Architecture, Debbie Grant Design Group, HTFC, Cibinel Architecture, and ft3 Architecture. It was an honour for us to be listed among this great group of established and accomplished firms. The purpose of the exhibit was to showcase the processes and work environments of the selected firms. The exhibition gave students an opportunity to take a sneak peek inside the offices of each firm and hear from key personnel. The interview covered topics from challenges the firm faces, to the future of design in the city, to workflow of projects.
Each firm was asked to provide work samples and photos that demonstrated how work progresses within the office. Also, each firm provided a "tool" that was important to the office environment. The firms submitted favourite pens, chairs, modelling materials, and even salsa. We decided to live up to our name and submit a basketball. Essentially, the ball represented the one aspect of our business structure that differentiated us from others: our belief that "play" is an integral part of our practice.
At the close of the exhibition, a special "Mixer" was held, and each of the participating firms were invited to see all the work together. It was a great evening, and we thoroughly enjoyed seeing our work displayed beside firms that we respect and admire. Thank you to Mackenzie and Nicole for including us and for all their hard work organizing the exhibition. We were truly honoured.
