Spirit Walkway

Thompson, Manitoba
2006

This walking/biking route in Thompson, Manitoba highlights historical, cultural, geological, industrial and scenic perspectives with 18 points of interest marked by a viewing platforms.

The design intent of the viewing platforms is to embrace rather than dominate the environment by creating forms that sit lightly on the landscape. The structures themselves suggest a purity of form and an openness that allow the visitor to perceive the setting around and through it.

Inspiration for the form was borrowed from the construction of toboggans and canoes; two objects that are synonymous with northern living. These objects are things of beauty, constructed using methods that have been passed down for generations. The notions of exposed structure and aesthetic simplicity have been extracted from these objects and are integrated in the point of interest platforms.