Where community meets learning: Designing Sage Creek School in Manitoba
February 10, 2026
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Discover how collaboration and creativity shaped a school designed to inspire learning, preserve culture, and connect community
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In this series, we’ll explore the power of collaboration and co-creation with our clients. These partnerships showcase how we rise to the world’s greatest challenges together.
Walk into Sage Creek School on a sunny morning in Winnipeg, Canada, and you’ll feel it—energy, curiosity, and a sense of belonging. The school building is bright and colourful, with natural light pouring through two stories of windows. But the real story isn't just about design. It’s about partnership, the kind that turns ideas into spaces where students and communities grow.
" }If we don't build spaces like this, kids lose interest, lose culture, and lose the chance to succeed. We need to evolve—and that means creating places where they thrive.
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Beyond the blueprint
School principal Rachel Foidart remembers the excitement when students first explored the school. “You expect kids to love the gym, but they’re excited about the things that you don’t really expect them to be excited about, like cosy nooks and corners, brickwork, and lighting. Those details matter. They change how kids feel and behave.”
Foidart has seen how natural light affects learning. “Some students came from classrooms with no windows. Here, they feel natural openness, can see outside, and don’t feel closed in. They have room to grow and explore.”
Listening builds better spaces
Architect Souk Xoumphonphackdy has worked on Sage Creek for the last four years. He knows that great buildings come from listening. “We started with open conversations. It’s about giving people time and space to feel comfortable, and that is what builds trust,” he says. “Rachel’s enthusiasm, the staff’s ideas, even feedback from students—all of it shaped the school.”
Xoumphonphackdy’s team avoided one-size-fits-all solutions. They added barn doors between classrooms to encourage team teaching. “We aimed to explore innovative design ideas. Seeing students use those features is incredibly rewarding.”
Partnership at Sage Creek went beyond design. Foidart describes it as “becoming like a family. We laughed, we had fun, and we shared the love and appreciation of what we created as a team. That’s what made it work.”
Xoumphonphackdy agrees. “We built trust slowly. Rachel wanted a school that functions really well, something that the students can be proud of. We wanted to create a project that could be recognised for its inspiring design. Contractors wanted to deliver on time. Everyone came with an open mind. Over time, we became a team.”
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Souk Xoumphonphackdy and Rachel Foidart
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A place where everyone belongs
Sage Creek is more than a school. It’s a place for music, culture, and community events. Foidart sees it as a way to preserve traditions—like sewing and woodworking—that might otherwise be lost. “Families are busy. We don’t always pass down those skills. Here, kids learn them and the community connects.”
École Sage Creek is a French-first school and part of the Division scolaire franco-manitobaine (DSFM), which supports French-language education across Manitoba. This connection reinforces its role as a cultural hub in a province where French-language schools are rare.
For Xoumphonphackdy, the project is personal. “I’m a first-generation Canadian. School meant endless opportunity. Designing Sage Creek was about creating a space where everyone feels welcome. It’s a place where culture lives.”
Foidart puts it simply: “If we don’t build spaces like this, kids lose interest, lose culture, and lose the chance to succeed. We need to evolve—and that means creating places where they thrive.”
More than a building
Sage Creek is proof that when people listen and work together, they build more than walls. They build possibilities. “It’s more than I could have ever imagined,” Foidart says. “It’s hard to even describe this place to someone. You have to come and actually see it, because there are no words.”
Xoumphonphackdy isn’t done. “Now I have to top this. That’s the goal—keep growing and evolving.”
At Sage Creek, partnership isn’t just a word. It’s the reason the school feels like home. And if you ask anyone who’s walked through those sunlit halls, they’ll tell you: together, we built something extraordinary.
With every community, we redefine what’s possible. Through collaboration with our clients, together we will unlock outcomes neither could achieve alone.
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What happens when school design puts people first? Students and the community get: Collaboration. Leadership. Positive behavior. It started by listening to teachers, funders, families, and students.