written by Jared Tailfeathers

Hidden away in wandering and meandering corridors are gems of intrigue and astonishment. A collection of art, greenery, collaboration and architecture moments that never get talked about outside of these walls. Halls of fluctuating people, minding their business, with various goals and timings, hold a series of happenings of the micro-presentations of life in the inner city. Whether on the way to a meeting, to a lunch, to hide for a break or sneak into a store for a purchase or to peruse the selection of chocolates in a corner shop, we forget that the Plus 15 (+15) and the linking Lobbies are often neglected in their importance in the life of downtown Calgary. Did you know that the +15 system in Calgary is the largest of its sort in North America? 18 kilometers of interlocking cubed tubes that spider-web across downtown Calgary.

Map of Calgary’s 15 system. Created by Migration Design and Mark Cooper

Lobbyfest noticed the absence of engagement in these spaces, so they built a platform for disparate groups of creatives to design pop-ups in the +15 and lobbies to encourage the normally busy passersby to stop and take a breath as they learned something and participated in a game or activity that highlighted a feature or their own ideas about these underutilized locations.

Design Talks, like many others, created an interactive pop-up. Through Lobbyfest’s three-day event (September 13-15, 2023) Design Talks had a standing interactive installation at the Bow Valley Square +15 where passers-by were invited to answer a few questions about their ideas of “Daily Ritual”, especially in the post-COVID landscape and how they would like to see change and growth in the use of lobby and +15 spaces. The installation held other activities that poked at the ideas of lobby use, what routes did the regular +15 users take, and what ideas about location use could be explored. There was also an encouragement of mentioning and locating places of note along the +15 system, like art, architecture, places of contemplation and congregation.

Along the lines of challenging the idea of lobby and +15 use; day one of the Fest was a Design Talk “Spaces, Places and Community Traces” a public panel with local filmmakers, artists and critics of the inner city use of public spaces and their perspectives of proper use and this idea of “public” space. We engaged Gary Burns (“Waydowntown” and “Radiant City”) and Kelli Morning Bull (“Treaty Money” and Calgary Public Library Indigenous Design Lead) to weigh in on these perspectives and accompanying issues. This was done in the Bow Valley Square +15 space that caught the ear of people walking by as well as registered attendees.

dTalks publication “FOLD” had been working on a months-long project of auditory episodes for a podcast called “Rituals”. What do people of varying ages, communities and cultures do on a daily habit, ritual or personal ceremony that they wanted to explore and share. So, in the pop-up a booth was set up for passersby to interact and listen to those podcast episodes, they were also encouraged to post on the walls of the pop-up their own ideas of ritual, from the simple to the complex. This also tied into a live recording at the installation on day two of the fest with a creative journalist Floyd Black Horse, who hails from the strong Siksika Nation nearby visiting his nation’s ancestral home in Mohkintsis (present-day Calgary), discussing his rituals, the different rituals and routines people have in Calgary and in Siksika and why it is interesting to examine.

For the third day, DTalk’s “M/X” added to their series of experiential happenings, digital tours and individual connections with “Untold City: Lobbies and +15”. The “M/X” had a Live Instagram post to help uncover the lesser known story of the +15 and lobbies as public domains for urban interaction. This “Untold City” episode presented an online examination of the histories and legacies of the +15 and lobby as public spaces for expression and gathering.