2025 Architectural Practice Award

5468796 Architecture is a design studio established in 2007 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, on Treaty 1 territory. 

Practicing in the context of the urbanized Prairies, 5468796 adopts a brand of architecture based in the mainstream and seemingly mundane [profound] understanding of capital in architecture, and re-imagines how it can be re-invested for greater social good. 

Basing the practice on two tenets — that the art of city-building has been lost, along with a diminished focus on creating buildings that define cities — 5468796 builds cities one project at a time. Individual projects are weaved into the urban fabric and design activism cultivates a culture of architecture against ambivalence. The outcomes are a critical response to pressing urban issues of multi-family housing and city-building in all its forms, from social housing to market-rate condominiums and master planning. The work has been peer-recognized by organizations such as the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC), Canada Council for the Arts, Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize, Architectural League, and the World Architecture Festival. 

Our projects challenge architecture (and an architect) to be broadened to that of a strategy (and a strategist). The role of a strategist is not limited to skillful form-making, technical achievement, or satisfying the client’s financial targets. It also includes concern for making good spaces for people both inside and outside of the program; weaving the project into the existing city fabric; being environmentally sustainable; finding the right partners and partnerships; operating in political and financial realms; and meeting the challenge of affordability—all while keeping the project on time and on budget.