PROJECT HISTORY

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In 2016, PI/KHS began laying the foundation to develop a new centre dedicated to the documentation, revitalization and mobilization of Inuiunnait knowledge. This centre will forefront the collective identity of Inuinnait, a regional group of Inuit located primarily in the communities of Cambridge Bay, Kugluktuk, Gjoa Haven and Ulukhaktok. It will entail the creation of facilities, digital resources and human networks specifically designed to provide Inuinnait with the resources and common focus required to ensure the survival of their unique culture, heritage and language. 

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In 2017, we drafted a set of principles that would guide the construction of our building. These included:  ​​

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1. Architectural Flexibility 

Contemporary architecture in the Arctic tends towards the monolithic. Buildings are often conceived and designed to accommodate activities and spatial concepts that are not found in Inuit culture.  How can we create a building that will allow Inuit to continually shape its use? Can a building's architecture be made flexible enough to move with Inuit culture, changing and adapting to new needs and conditions?  We want to create a building that is modular, scalable, and whose architecture ultimately does not determine the culture it houses. We want a design that can be replicated across the Arctic, to serve a variety of different communities and purposes.   

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2. Cultural Compatibility

We want to create a building whose architecture not only supports, but also encourages, community engagement with cultural activities.  We seek to combine building techniques perfected by Inuit over millennia with contemporary innovations in materials and technology. In designing our new centre, we will ensure that Inuit community members, architects, and researchers are involved at every stage of the process to ensure the building is fully suited to both its social and physical environment. 

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3. Environmentally Sustainable Building

We recognize that the Canadian Arctic is undergoing a profound and irreversible shift due to climate change. We understand that it is our responsibility to minimize our own impact on the environment, and to maintain the balance between humans and land long upheld by our ancestors. We want to create a building that targets net-zero or net-zero ready standards to maintain this balance. We want the materials and energy for this building to be ones that are sustainably harvested from the earth.  

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CONCEPT AND STRATEGIC DOCUMENTS

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We recognized early that our proposed facility would entail more than a new building. Our vision for a dedicated Inuinnait research centre required us to begin defining what Inuinnait research looked like and how it would take place. Over 2017 and 2018 our staff assembled two key documents designed to guide our project into the future. Created in-house by our own staff, these resources were key to helping us develop our own understanding and vision for the foundations of Inuinnait research and how a new facility can help us get there.   

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