Helga Plumb facts for kids

Helga Plumb is a Canadian architect known for her modern and environmentally friendly designs. She was born in Bruck/Mur, Austria, in 1939. Plumb left Austria at the age of 20, moving to Canada and settling in Toronto in 1959.

Learning to Build

Helga Plumb started studying architecture in Austria for one year. Then, she moved to Toronto, Canada. She finished her first architecture degree at the University of Toronto in 1963. She stayed there to get her master's degree in Urban design in 1967. It was very unusual for women in Ontario to study architecture at that time. Countries like Austria had more female students. Many women who came to Canada to study were often the only women in their classes. Female architects like Plumb have talked about feeling a bit lonely studying as a woman in Ontario during the 1960s and 70s.

Her Work as an Architect

After getting her master's degree, Helga Plumb began working for several companies. She started at Diamond and Clark. There, she was a project architect in Edmonton, Alberta. Plumb helped design the Edmonton Health Sciences Centre. She also worked on a housing project and an Amphitheatre in Calgary. Around this time, she also worked for Sasaki Dawson & DeMay in Massachusetts. With this company, Plumb helped build a college gymnasium and a university library. Later, she worked for Shore and Moffat in Toronto. Her projects included a building at the University of Saskatoon and a research building in Burlington, Ontario.

While gaining experience, Plumb also became involved in teaching architecture. From 1981 to 1982, she was a professor at the University of Waterloo. After that, she was a visiting professor at the Technical University of Nova Scotia from 1985 to 1986. Through her teaching, Plumb became very interested in how classrooms were used. She wondered if they helped or distracted students. How people used her buildings became a big concern for Plumb. She believed buildings should help people connect, not stop them.

As her career grew, she joined Fairfield and Du Bois Partnership. There, she met Macy Du Bois, who later became her husband. When Fairfield retired, Plumb became a partner. The company was renamed Du Bois Plumb Partnership. Between 1979 and 1993, Plumb and Du Bois created some of their most famous work. One of these was the Canadian Embassy in Beijing. This building took over ten years to plan. This was because of many official problems that caused delays for the architects and builders. The embassy is located in Beijing, China. It is one of many foreign offices there.

Plumb enjoyed working with her husband until she retired in 2001. Plumb once said, "I’m not sure I would get jobs if clients didn’t know I had a male back-up." It was common in Ontario for people to think women needed a man's help to succeed in architecture. Female architects in Ontario often felt scared in the male-dominated field. However, many female architects in Quebec said they did not feel this way. They would often be upset if someone suggested they needed male co-workers to succeed.

Her Building Style

Plumb's style is known for bringing people together inside a space. She liked taking old building ideas and changing them for modern life. She believed contemporary ideas came from the past, not from completely new thoughts. She often focused on how a building would be used, its structure, and the materials. She thought these were the main parts of a great design. However, she felt that use and structure were more important than materials. Materials, she thought, should support the use and structure.

She wanted her buildings to be like a background where people could interact. Her buildings never stood out too much. Instead, they blended into their surroundings. Growing up, Plumb was very inspired by the old buildings in Austria. She noticed how these buildings and streets made people act. Plumb took these ideas and used them in a post-modern style. She liked the simple look of the modern movement. It moved away from adding lots of decoration. Plumb once said, "I don’t think you have to attach things to architecture because you can utilize everything you have." This idea is often seen in her designs.

Famous Buildings She Designed

The Oakland Condominium is a large housing complex built in 1981. This was two years after she became partners with Macy Du Bois. This building in Toronto has six floors and 65 apartments. Plumb wanted to create a "city within a city" here. To do this, she made an indoor walkway filled with natural light. This way, residents could meet and interact in this mini-city. All residents have access to parking. This encourages them to invite guests. This building's design won Plumb many awards. These included the Habitation Space International Award of Excellence and the Governor General’s Medal for Architecture.

Plumb used the Scaramouche Restaurant in Toronto to explore human interaction. Built in 1979, this restaurant is located in Toronto, Ontario. The restaurant's base uses a grid-like structure. This helps guide people through the restaurant. Plumb designed this building to sit on a hillside. This way, diners could enjoy looking down at the city while eating. At night, the city lights create a romantic view for the restaurant's French cuisine. The original owner still runs the restaurant over 35 years later. They worked with Plumb to create a space that matched the chef's modern French food. The restaurant is divided. People can enjoy a casual dinner downstairs or fine dining upstairs. Reviews of this restaurant still praise Plumb's design. They say it creates the perfect atmosphere for relaxing.

Another famous project from the Du Bois Plumb Partnership is the Tom Longboat Elementary School. It was built in 1978. This school is in Scarborough Malvern. It is named after the long-distance runner and Onondaga Aboriginal, Tom Longboat. The school shows Plumb's famous postmodern style. It has a grid-like foundation, similar to the Scaramouche Restaurant. The grid encourages children to play and learn together. It also helps them stay organized. This building won the Scarborough Planning Board Urban Design Certificate of Merit. It also won the OMRC Award of Merit.

Plumb was often sad about the lack of care put into designing schools for children. She thought Canadian schools looked too much like jails. She felt they did not encourage learning. Helga Plumb often said no to requests for schools with no windows. She believed students should not be locked inside. Once, in an interview, Plumb said, "there is this whole idea that children will be distracted outside which is incredible to me because there is so much to learn outside. To lock a kid up inside is unbelievable." A special moment changed how Plumb saw classrooms. One day, a butterfly flew through her window while she was teaching. She said all the students stopped their work. They became completely interested in the butterfly. After she tried to get their attention back, she gave up. She spent the rest of the class talking about and watching the butterfly. Plumb realized students felt disconnected from nature in the classroom. Schools, she thought, did not reflect students' minds. Instead, they tried to control them. Plumb tried to change classrooms in ways that didn't cost much. Sometimes, she would slant roofs to allow more windows. Or she would add colour to the walls. School boards kept pushing architects to make schools very strong so they would last a long time. However, Plumb noticed this made them look more and more like prisons. By adding more natural light and colour, Plumb tried to bring softness and life back into the classroom.

Awards for Other Projects

• Helga Plumb received the Governor General's medal for architecture.
• Her works have been featured in books about energy-efficient design.
• Plumb received the O.M.R.C Award of Merit for the Grand River Cable Television building.
• Plumb was given the Low Energy Building Design Award of Excellence for a Government of Canada Office Building.
• Plumb received the Modern Healthcare/ AIA Design Award and the Nova Scotia Association of Architects Award for the Souris Hospital in Nova Scotia.

Groups She Belonged To

• Member of the Ontario Association of Architects.
• Fellow member of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada.
• Past executive member of the Toronto Society of Architects.
• Past member of the Toronto Urban Action Committee.
• Past member of the O.A.A Task Force on Conservation.
• Member of the Professional Advisory Council at Humber College (Interior design department).
• Advisor of the Architectural Science Department at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute.
• Past Faculty Council member of the school of architecture at the University of Toronto.
• Former member of the board of directors at the Canadian Wood Council.
• Chairman for the RAIC Awards Committee.
• A member of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada.
• Design critic at various schools of architecture across Canada and the United States of America.