Project entry 2020 for North America

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    Arctic Indigenous Wellness Foundation is led by Indigenous leaders, elders and healers. In Indigenous worldview, wellness is a holistic relationship between culture, community, and environment, unlike Western perspectives of medical care. AIWC developed from three years of engagement to define program, siting, form, and materials, and ensure it reflected priorities. Design workshops engaged Indigenous elders, healers, and youth in the design process through game-based participatory.

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    The building is organized into distinct yet unified parts. Three volumes serve the primary functions-gathering, traditional knowledge, and wellness. The circular volume at the entry is for gathering. The rectangular volume to the north is for education. The bowed volume to the east, the most private, is for wellness. The circulation space has various breakout spaces that can be used for informal events and activities. The building inscribes a large outdoor gathering space on the southeast.

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    The AIWC will serve 22,000 people from 7 Indigenous groups spread over 1.3 million km2.

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    The building is sited on a prominent perch of Canadian Shield adjacent to a lake in Yellowknife.

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    The AIWC is organized in a campus-like manner, as buildings within a building within a landscape.

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    The 3 volumes—traditional knowledge, gathering, and wellness - are distinct in form, light and views.

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    AIWC uses passive and active environmental strategies in response to the extreme climate/context.

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    View east of the entry approach reveals a building settled in and among the Canadian Shield.

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    View west of the large outdoor space for celebrations and a fire pit for ceremonies.

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    Interior circulation space with timber structure as a forest of columns and beams defining spaces.

Last updated: November 13, 2021 Toronto, Canada

People: Indigenous Traditions and Empowerment

In Indigenous worldview, wellness is a holistic relationship between culture, community, and environment. Despite Canada's recent shift toward truth and reconciliation with Indigenous people, there has been a shortage of facilities dedicated to Indigenous wellness in the Arctic territories. The AIWC will focus on mental wellness, traditional medicine revitalization, elder to youth skills programming, and traditional gardening. The foundation established a wellness camp in 2018 and has secured funds toward the construction of a dedicated wellness facility to open in 2022. The project emerged from ongoing co-design workshops with Indigenous elders, healers, and youth to define program, siting, and form. The project will extend local capacity from Indigenous skilled labour and craftspeople.

Place: De-institutionalizing Indigenous Health

The AIWC will serve Indigenous people who are often forced to travel out of their community for wellness services. It bridges a service gap between informal wellness camps and Western-oriented hospitals. In strong contrast to the institutional architecture of the adjacent hospital, the AIWC is intimate, de-institutionalized, and camp-like in its organization, form, and expression with strong connections to the unique northern environment and landscape. All of these activities necessitate a strong connection to the land with space for campfires and temporal constructions, such as sweat lodges, and gardening. The building's structure is glulam spruce wood, and in the long circulation space is conceived as a forest of beams and columns, reflecting the larger landscape beyond.

Planet: Arctic Climate is Culture

The project has a strong relationship to its immediate landscape and climate through its form and orientation. It responds to the difficulty of a harsh dark winter and the excess of sun in summer through careful deployment of materials and openings. The project maintains a light footprint by avoiding excavation and minimizing embodied energy. It sits atop the rocky site, with minimal impact to the existing ecology. This is due to cultural connections to the land, accessibility, and the opportunity for thermal mass from the ground. The building uses passive heating strategies throughout, with a district heating system that leverages waste heat from the adjacent hospital. The project uses regionally sourced renewable materials of wood and stone.