‘Concrete, brick, and stone’: Winnipeg’s history and appreciation of brutalist architecture

The Manitoba Teachers' Society Building in Winnipeg, pictured on Jan. 17, 2025, is an example of Brutalist architecture in Winnipeg. (Charles Lefebvre)

What do the Pan Am Pool, the Manitoba Teachers’ Society building, and the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre all have in common?

They are all examples of the brutalist architecture style on display in Winnipeg.

Brutalism, an architectural style that emerged in Canada in the 1960s after being developed in Europe, places an emphasis on form and structure, showcasing bare concrete and brick.

“It’s an approach to architectural design that takes as its basis a kind of honesty, and an honesty to materials in particular,” said Jeffrey Thorsteinson, an architectural historian with the Winnipeg Architectural Foundation.

“There’s also a kind of embrace of directness, a kind of unfinishedness or roughness and rawness. And that was something that I think was a response to the earlier modern architecture.”

Brutalist architecture also includes a concept of “heavy lightness,” Thorsteinson said.

“You’re using modern architectural techniques like concrete and steel skeletons to be able to go up, to create a building that might feel light, but at the same time using concrete and other materials, including Tyndall stone in Manitoba, to have a balance there, to bring in a kind of weight. And a lot of brutalist architecture has a real weight to it, but in a way that is kind of paradoxical. A building like the Pan Am Pool has these huge concrete walls, but they’re actually elevated off the ground, almost like they’re floating. There’s kind of an interesting paradoxical effect there.”

Thorsteinson said Winnipeg had the only school of architecture in Western Canada for the longest time, and ideas were allowed to flourish in the city. He added the 1960s, which coincided with Canada’s centennial, saw Brutalism flourish across Canada.

“You can think of Brutalism as being often associated with really large-scale institutional projects,” Thorsteinson said.

Many brutalist buildings were built on university campuses, including the Duff Roblin Building and the UMSU Building at the University of Manitoba. The Manitoba Teacher’s Society Building on Portage la Prairie, with its almost fortress design, is another example.

The Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, which has been designated a historic site, is another well-known example of brutalist architecture in Winnipeg.

“The architect of that building, Allan Waisman, said he wanted it to be a building you could be as comfortable in jeans as you could be in a tuxedo,” Thorsteinson said.

So why has Brutalism endured in Winnipeg? Thorsteinson said he believes it is because the buildings were built to endure.

“There’s concrete, brick, and stone; you can kick a brutalist building, and it usually won’t break. That’s not as true of, let’s say, drywall.

He said there are positive aspects people can still appreciate from brutalism, even decades later.

“These are buildings that were built to last, were built to make a statement, and be captivating and have a real architectural imagination to them,” Thorsteinson said. “And that’s something that we can maybe learn from as well, in terms of thinking about how we build buildings that last and that can engage the public.”