Archinect - News

A new grant will support Indigenous students and curriculum development at the University of Calgary's design school

2023-03-31T15:55:00-04:00

A new grant meant to encourage Indigenous students’ participation in the architectural field has been announced by the University of Calgary.

The $120,000 CAD ($88,600 USD) grant is being funded by the Alberta Real Estate Foundation (AREF) and will help the university’s School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape (SAPL) further develop its existing Indigenous Pathways Program while integrating Indigenous knowledge and subject matter into the brand-new Bachelor of Design in City Innovation (BDCI) degree.

The school shares that the BDCI is also its first-ever undergraduate degree offering. Sessional instructors and staff from the Indigenous community will also be recruited as a result of the funding, which helps to underscore the central mission and principles of the institution. Currently, the SAPL is the province’s only accredited architectural degree program.

“This project elevates real estate leadership in our province through inclusion, representation, and professional standa...

Art Gallery of Ontario reveals Selldorf, Diamond Schmitt, and Two Row-led expansion design

2023-03-02T16:52:00-05:00

The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) has just revealed the initial plans for its new Dani Reiss Modern and Contemporary Gallery project led by Selldorf Architects, Diamond Schmitt, and Two Row Architect.

The 40,000-square-foot addition will add 13 galleries in order to expand its total exhibition space by 30%. The project is being funded by a $35 million donation from Canada Goose CEO Dani Reiss and, led by Two Row, has sought expensive input from Ontario’s Indigenous community in addition to the other two architect-advisors that were announced by the gallery last year.

The AGO says: “These conversations and others are instrumental in leading the team to adopt adaptability, accessibility, relevancy, zero carbon operating, and inclusivity as their guiding principles.”

Rendering courtesy of Art Gallery of Ontario, Diamond Schmitt, Selldorf Architects, and Two Row Architect

The project will accomplish a zero carbon emissions output for all its operations and otherwise be designed along int...

Perkins&Will begins construction on mass timber gateway to University of British Columbia campus

2023-01-04T11:15:00-05:00

Construction is underway on the $180 million Gateway Building at the University of British Columbia, designed by Perkins&Will and Schmidt Hammer Lassen. Intended as a “principal point of entry” to the UBC campus, the design of the six-story, 267,000-square-foot mass timber building seeks to balance sustainability, personal well-being, and Indigenous collaboration.

Image credit: Perkins&Will

The scheme comprises two five-story wings connected by a central naturally-lit six-story atrium, which includes a large interconnecting staircase and lounging spaces. The building’s mass timber structure is fully expressed in the interior; a decision driven by the importance of timber for the Indigenous Musqueam people on whose territory the UBC campus sits.

Image credit: Perkins&Will

“This was the first capital project where we did what we call ‘deep engagement’ with the Musqueam,” UBC’s director of planning and design Gerry McGeough told Canada’s Journal of Commerce. “We went through a whole seri...

Portland State University enlists Australian architect to develop Indigenous Center and surrounding oak savanna

2022-10-13T10:02:00-04:00

Kevin O’Brien, an acclaimed Indigenous architect from Australia, has embarked on a year-long collaboration with Portland State University. His involvement centers on the restoration of a campus oak savanna and the design-build of a facility at the site that will host the school’s Indigenous Traditional Ecological and Cultural Knowledge (ITECK) program.

O’Brien joins the University’s School of Architecture as its 2022 Distinguished Visiting Professor. He will lead a one-week Indigenous design methods workshop for undergraduate and graduate students. He will also meet with students in PSU’s Indigenous Nations Studies program, engage with architects from local firms, and host a public lecture. As stated on PSU’s website, “O'Brien will challenge students to rethink their assumptions about architecture's relationship to the land, how they imagine the city, and how we learn through doing.”

The Queensland-based architect works as a Principal at Australian practice BVN Architecture. He als...

A ‘pillar in the reconciliation of Indigenous and Western ways of living and building’ — design reveals a new public library in Saskatchewan

2022-10-12T21:21:00-04:00

A joint team of Formline, Chevalier Morales, and Montreal’s Architecture49 has revealed its design for a new library project in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

The firms say the project is conceived as a “pillar in the reconciliation of Indigenous and Western ways of living and building” that will serve as an important precedent as the first “major public building” in an area with the highest ratio of Indigenous residents of any other major city in the country.

The new central library will link to the nearby Remai Modern Gallery and several small shops near the site to form a small new cultural hub along Second Avenue. The design team says it was directed by the city’s relatively low park-to-person ratio in the selection of form, materials, and the arrangement of public spaces in and around the 142,000-square-foot structure. Overall, some 45% of the site will include landscaped public spaces punctuated by the building's oval footprint.

Image courtesy Formline, Chevalier Morales, and Archi...

Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson) details the push behind its new name

2022-08-19T18:27:00-04:00

Concerns about the university’s association with and commemoration of Ryerson had been voiced by its Indigenous students, staff and faculty for years. How the university addressed those concerns with statements on its website or revised plaques placed next to Egerton Ryerson’s statue fell short of the steps necessary to speak to his legacy or the continued harm it was causing

Egerton Ryerson’s name is inextricably linked to the legacy of murder and abuse within Canada’s residential schools, as he is often cited as the system’s principal designer through his role as the country’s first Chief Superintendent of Education starting in 1844. This relation made the university a target of a nationwide protest movement which eventually took down a statue of the educator in a well-publicized June 2021 kerfuffle.

The rebranding was the product of a working group called Standing Strong (or Mash Koh Wee Kah Pooh Win) that convened with a 22-strong list of recommendations a year ago. Over 2,000 unique names (including the temporary 'X University' moniker) were considered in a public consultation. Dr. Eva Jewell, an Indigenous faculty member who detailed her own past experiences with racism at the school, tells University Affairs it "signals a willingness to listen and an attentiveness to the issues of our time."

Related on Archinect: National Gallery of Canada establi...

Mukwa Waakaa'igan Indigenous cultural center project unveils updated design

2022-07-28T17:44:00-04:00

New renderings have been revealed for the planned Mukwa Waakaa’igan Indigenous Centre of Cultural Excellence at Algoma University in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, previewing a futuristic nod to the past while extending the conversation around an issue that’s been at the forefront recently as Pope Francis makes his long-awaited public apology tour across Canada.

The project is being headed by Moriyama & Teshima with Smoke Architecture, an Ontario studio focused on First Nations and Indigenous communities. The team says they intend it to serve as a showcase of the “truth-telling” work their client, the Children of Shingwauk Alumni Association (CSAA), has pursued in shedding light on the injustices that took place during Canada’s fraught residential schools era.

Image courtesy Moriyama & Teshima Architects

Per the architects: “The architectural design has been articulated through consideration of Indigenous teachings, from building form to material selection. The new Cultural Centre's ar...

National Gallery of Canada establishes Indigenous Ways and Decolonization Department

2022-02-17T13:10:00-05:00

There is welcome news in Ottawa, home of the National Gallery of Canada (NGC), a city that has been under a state of emergency the past while due to the ongoing “Freedom Convoy” protest. The gallery, which had closed due to the Omicron surge but has delayed its re-opening because of the demonstrations, announced on 8 February that it had created a Department of Indigenous Ways and Decolonisation [...].

The department will focus on reimagining the gallery’s programming and policies to better reflect Canada’s diversity and its Indigenous populations. Its first Vice President, Steven Loft, who is of Kanien’kehá: ka (Mohawk) and Jewish heritage, will be joined by Michelle LaVallee, who is Anishinaabe (Ojibway) and a member of the Neyashiingamiing Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation in Cape Croker, Ontario, with Canadian settler heritage from her mother. She will serve as the department’s director, set to start on March 21. LaVallee will work with other senior management, in addition to the curatorial department and the Indigenous art team.

The pair will work to deepen the gallery’s relationship with Indigenous communities globally with a focus on decolonization and reconciliation.

Design team selected to envision a new Indigenous cultural center in Ontario

2022-01-12T19:25:00-05:00

The heart of one of Canada’s oldest and most notorious educational institutions is about to be renewed thanks to a forthcoming Indigenous center for cultural excellence called Mukqua Waakaa’igan on the campus of Algoma University in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.

Moriyama & Teshima Architects and Smoke Architecture are the team behind the plan to build the space that will serve as an important hub to the university. Its name translates to “Bear’s lodge” in Anishinaabemowin and is evocative of its use as a learning archive and place of healing for the Indigenous community. The architects say their proposal was developed in homage to the triadic directions of Memory, Present, and Future laid forth in a native text called The Sweetgrass Path.

According to the university, Mukqua Waakaa’igan is meant as a showcase for the decades-long pursuit of “truth-telling work” undertaken by the Children of Shingwauk Alumni Association and the Shingwauk Residential Schools Centre. Aside from the archi...

Ontario's first mass timber higher education building is taking shape at Centennial College in Toronto

2022-01-10T14:04:00-05:00

The first mass timber academic building in Ontario is taking shape at Toronto’s Centennial College. Located at the college’s Progress Campus in Scarborough, the A-Block Expansion Building will have the potential to be the province's first net-zero carbon, mass timber, LEED Gold higher education facility when completed in 2023.

Image: Dialog

First unveiled in February 2020, the $82 million building was designed by Canadian architecture firm Dialog, in collaboration with Smoke Architecture, and EllisDon as contractor. The design for the expansion was based on the Indigenous concept of “two-eyed seeing,” in which people view the world through an Indigenous lens with one eye or perspective, while the other eye sees through a Western lens. The new campus building aims to embody the college’s commitment to truth and reconciliation, Indigenous education, and sustainable design.

Image: Dialog

“The two perspectives amplified each other,” said Craig Applegath, Principal-in-Charge at DIALOG. “F...

Indigenous tribes are making a push for commercial real estate investment in the hopes of building a future for their communities

2021-07-08T19:52:00-04:00

Native Americans have been systematically dispossessed of their ancestral lands for more than a century, thanks to federal land management policies. But a spate of new real estate projects highlights efforts to reclaim that territory, as tribes invest in land development in an effort to diversify their revenue base and support their members.

Only a handful of tribes have pursued ventures involving commercial property outside of gambling and many still reside in poverty-stricken reservations in the U.S. and Canada. A group from the Squamish Nation is behind Canada's largest development in Vancouver while others have made serious investments in tribal-controlled areas with the backing of some major corporate teammates.

The tribes have themselves been the frequent victim of commercial development schemes historically even occasionally leading to violence and mass protests in both countries. Now, recent developments are causing many to herald a tide change in Indigenous relations that may favor those "long-term leaders" investing in real-estate development now.

The Seattle Times has more on the effort here.

Architects reconnect with Indigenous traditions in Toronto

2020-09-22T18:30:00-04:00

Smoke detectors and birch trees. These are two things that an architect would not typically mention while talking up an ambitious new building. But for the Indigenous House at the University of Toronto Scarborough, these matters are critical. Here, connections with Indigenous traditions and ways of thinking will be everywhere, from the guts of the building to the landscape that accompanies it.

Alex Bozikovic, The Globe and Mail’s architecture critic, reviews the planned Indigenous House at the University of Toronto Scarborough, designed by Formline Architecture in collaboration with LGA Architectural Partners and landscape architecture firm Public Work.

Additional renderings unveiled for Squamish First Nation's 6000-unit development in Vancouver

2019-12-06T18:52:00-05:00

The single largest private investment undertaken by a First Nation in the world could take a step forward in Vancouver next week as members of the Squamish community meet to discuss the approval of a proposed 6,000-unit residential development designed by Revery Architecture.

If approved, the 11.7-acre development would take shape in the city's Kitsilano neighborhood on triangular site located below and around the Burrard Bridge. An updated set of renderings published by The Daily Hive showcases the visionary nature of the 11-tower development, which will be built almost entirely without parking.

Most of the buildings are design with no parking. Image courtesy of Revery Architecture / Westbank / Squamish Nation.

The multi-phase development would take shape around the city's Burrard Bridge. Image courtesy of Revery Architecture / Westbank / Squamish Nation.

The Daily Hive reports that the five phase project would take shape on a starbust-shaped site that would link both to a nearby ...

Squamish Nation proposes Vancouver's third-tallest tower

2019-11-18T13:10:00-05:00

A 6,000-unit residential development designed by Revery Architecture has been proposed by the Squamish First Nation for 12 acres of tribal lands located in the Vancouver area.

Because the development is being proposed for land that falls solely under the jurisdiction of the Squamish First Nation, it is being designed outside of conventional zoning and land-use regulatory structures. As a result, the project partners aim to have little to no parking associated with the development and are moving to offer all of the units as rental homes, an arrangement that will guarantee a long-term flow of revenue for the Nation, The Vancouver Sun reports.

Image courtesy of Revery Architecture.

Revery Architecture is designing the 11-tower development, which will feature a series of housing complexes grounded by pedestrian retail and shared public spaces. Renderings for the development depict a series of sculptural towers studded with colorful metal scrims and dotted with full-size trees. Unlike ...

Laurentian University welcomes first Indigenous director of a Canadian architecture school

2018-01-11T13:51:00-05:00

Laurentian University is pleased to welcome Dr. David Fortin as the next Director of the McEwen School of Architecture (MSoA). Dr. Fortin, a faculty member at the MSoA, assumed his new duties at the beginning of January, 2018, taking over from the school’s Founding Director, Dr. Terrance Galvin, who successfully led the creation and development of the MSoA since its inauguration in 2012.

The statement by Laurentian University's McEwen School of Architecture points out that Dr. Fortin is a member of the Métis Nation of Ontario, making him the first Indigenous director of a Canadian architecture school: "Dr. Fortin currently focuses on Indigenous design in contemporary architecture and is co-curator for a team of Indigenous architects (UNCEDED) representing Canada at the world-renowned 2018 Venice Biennale competition in Italy."

Former US Embassy Building Is Declared Culturally-Inappropriate for Canadian Indigenous Center

2017-06-20T19:20:00-04:00

Classical revival is perhaps the architectural style most identified with colonization. This building, which references Washington architecture, is a building of formal rooms, offices, and hierarchies, echoing structures of European authority.

This June the federal government announced that the US' former embassy building in Ottawa will become a space dedicated to Inuit, Métis and First Nations communities which the task force of the RAIC finds to be a deeply inappropriate space for an Indigenous Centre.

"Canada's Indigenous communities have, for too long, been forced into leftover spaces that fail to connect in any meaningful way to their cultures and unique connectivity to place" says the task force, composed of about 30 mostly Indigenous architects, architectural students, interns and academics.

Dr. Patrick Stewart, the chair of the task force suggests that the federal government should provide capital dollars for the design and construction of a structure based upon Indigenous knowledge and through the use of Indigenous architects.

Indian artifact treasure trove paved over for Marin County homes

2014-04-28T20:36:00-04:00

A treasure trove of Coast Miwok life dating back 4,500 years - older than King Tut's tomb - was discovered in Marin County and then destroyed to make way for multimillion-dollar homes, archaeologists told The Chronicle this week. The American Indian burial ground and village site, so rich in history that it was dubbed the "grandfather midden," was examined and categorized under a shroud of secrecy before construction began this month on the $55 million Rose Lane development in Larkspur.