Lecture Series: Johanna Hurme

Johanna Hurme is an architect and co-founder of Winnipeg-based 5468796 Architecture (external link, opens in new window) . For the past 15 years, the firm has been pursuing a critical architectural response to contemporary issues in multi-family housing and urban design, grounded in real-life practice-based experience and a tandem investigation into world-wide housing research and built work. Her work has been awarded numerous recognitions nationally and internationally, including "50 Best Architectural Firms in 2020" by Domus, Rice Design Alliance Spotlight Award, the RAIC Emerging Architectural Practice Award, WAN 21 for 21, Architectural League of NY Emerging Voices, and the Design Vanguard issue of Architectural Record. In 2012, 5468796 represented Canada at the Venice Biennale in Architecture, and in 2013 they were selected as the recipient of the Prix de Rome Award in Architecture for Canada by the Canada Council for the Arts. 5468796 is led by Hurme with Colin Neufeld and Sasa Radulovic.

In addition to practice Johanna is an activist and an advocate, having initiated and co-created spearheaded number of design related events and programs, including Table for 12 + 1200, Chair Your Idea, Design Quarter Winnipeg, and Walk-Winnipeg. She is past Chair of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce, currently on the Executive Board of RAIC I Architecture Canada and a member of the International Council of the New-York based Van Alen Institute. In 2019 she was named visiting Professor-Morgenstern Chair at the College of Architecture, IIT, Chicago, and most recently, she was invited to teach at Cornell University as the Gensler Visiting Critic. She has also taught design at the University of Manitoba, Toronto and Montreal. Johanna lectures extensively and is co-author of ‘Innovative Solutions for Creating Sustainable Cities’ (2018), and 'platform:MIDDLE', Housing for the 99%, to be published in 2023.

She will be discussing the firm's practice ethos which spreads far beyond the traditional practice model, necessitating an understanding of how the architect's role in challenging contexts must increasingly intersect with politics, economics, social activism, and other forms of cultural and scholarly research and pragmatic engagement.