Spring 2018
with Brandon DaCosta
This project was created for the Dene Nahjo organization whose goal is to advance social and environmental justice for northern peoples and promote Indigenous leadership in arts and culture. The organization wanted a community centre that would allow for traditions like hide tanning to be passed down from older to younger generations, as well as a place to celebrate young indigenous talent.
As the Dene people feel a distinct connection to their ancestral land it was important for the project to be sensitive to the local landscape. To accomplish this, the floors in the project rise and fall to imitate the natural topography below them and large stone extrusions rise up out of the ground to create a rhythm as the body moves through the space. A habitable and landscaped roof minimizes the visual impact of the building from overhead, blurring the edge of the building and its natural surroundings. To support this roof, wooden trusses span between the stone extrusions. Light-wells above theses trusses allow light to filter down into the spaces below like sunlight through the branches of trees.
