Architecture and Healing: Collaborative Design as Catalyst

Architecture, as a formal expression of a people and their cultural identity, has an important role in developing healthy Arctic communities. In response to contemporary built forms that disregard cultural paradigms, architectural resolutions must involve design principals of space, form and materiality that are borne from within the community. Elders in Cape Dorset instigated a design proposal for a cultural healing centre in the remote hamlet. Culture would be fostered in the proposed centre in tangible and ephemeral forms, with the building as an object itself acting as a mnemonic device.

For the architecture to be appropriate required consideration of local people and their social and cultural values, and using architecture as an interface between both environmental and human realms in the face of climatic and social changes. Taking a cue from the desired program "a cultural healing centre" it was determined that architecture as a healing aid could be manifested within the community with inclusive design principles, the built form determined by the creative energies of local community members. Local collaboration at the design stage was done in a series of workshops held in Cape Dorset in 2008 that culminated in a hybrid design reflecting traditional building form and spatial organization with modern programs, and building technologies. The programmatic functions within this centre would then continue to nourish this creative healing spirit and strengthen the community.

This presentation highlights the results of a thesis of architecture on a collaborative design effort influenced by traditional vernacular forms and contemporary function and cross-cultural expression. Cross-cultural collaboration does not diminish but rather enhances the participating cultures, and may serve as a catalyst for locally generated solutions, architecturally and otherwise. The importance of inclusively in the design process for such culturally relevant projects is exemplified by the strength of participation during this research in Cape Dorset.