If design exists in every culture then every culture has its design sense. Its how terms like Gothic, Baroque, Victorian and Brutalist enter our vocabulary. Design seems to be a universal concept–see Feng Shui in China and Vastu Shastra in India–as well as an immemorial one: the ancient Romans called it Genius Loci or “the Spirit of the Place.” But what about aboriginal design?
To anyone who has ever spent any time with it, aboriginal design is vibrant, intuitive and sophisticated, often marked by a prevalence of natural and spiritual motifs. Yet, like so much of aboriginal culture, either historicized or neglected. Yet by looking at a few examples of new aboriginal design it makes sense that aboriginal perspectives would gel with architecture, sustainability & urban planning. That’s the hope of the “First Nations Conference on Sustainable Buildings and Communities” on February 29th and March 1st at the River Cree Resort & Casino, on the Enoch First Nation just west of Edmonton.
Architect Wanda Dalla Costa knows this firsthand, particularly around sustainability. She says aboriginal-driven design “aligns with traditional philosophies of environmental responsibilities, being caretakers of the land and caretakers for the next 7 generations. It comes from within.” As Chief Clarence Louie, the CEO of the Osoyoos Indian Band Development Corporation will attest to, resource-based aboriginal economies are poised to boom in Canada, so Dalla Costa says there’s also pragmatic reasons for this conference. “(First Nations communities) are aware that there is a large push towards green buildings right now and therefore funding for those innovative, pilot projects.”
The event is entitled “Starting the Conversation”—perhaps a tacit acknowledgement of the sorry state of housing in aboriginal life (one word: Attawapiskat, of which Grand Chief Stan Louttit will update the conference). Even when done with the best of intentions, the government-mandated urbanization of aboriginal communities hewed to a boxy, institutional approach that privileged function over form, according to Dalla Costa. “A lot of First Nations communities were built and designed on an urban layout i.e. with town centres on a grid system and prototyped housing but without regards to the society, climate, culture and activities people in rural cultures may undertake.”
So what does aboriginal design in architecture look like? Some groundbreaking examples include Arthur Erickson’s Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia and Blackfoot member Douglas Cardinal’s sinuous Canadian Museum of Civilization in Gatineau, Quebec as well as the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC.
Dalla Costa, a Cree member of the Saddle Lake First Nation, says aboriginal design often borrows from geomantic principles. For example, after spending many hours listening to elders envision a learning centre for the Blood tribe of Southern Alberta, she incorporated the four cardinal directions, sun patterns, wind dynamics and other earthly elements into the building.
“Concepts with FN architecture are almost everything. They are so important because the communities are trying to hang on to their identity…They want to resurrect the culture and buildings are one of those forms. “
Amazingly, Dalla Costa counts herself as only the 8th licensed aboriginal architect in Canada, a tiny fellowship that includes Cardinal and Alfred Waugh. Waugh calls the Left Coast home which is where the most progressive examples of aboriginal design tend to be. He and Dalla Costa will be having a panel discussion on the best of Canadian sustainable architecture at the Conference (www.sustainablefnc.ca).
Waugh has characterized aboriginal architecture thusly:
“It embraces what happens whenever we take action to give order or meaning to the space around us. Naming space, designating sacred parts of the wilderness, clearing village areas, garden plots, claiming food-gathering areas, planning and constructing buildings and arranging the spaces that surround and connect them are all components of Native architecture. Encoded into these buildings and social domains are the social and religious meanings particular to each Nation.”
Seabird Island School by Patkau Architects
UBC Museum of Anthropology by Arthur Erickson
Squamish Lilwat Cultural Centre by Alfred Waugh
Canadian Museum of Civilization by Douglas Cardinal
Musings & meanderings on design thinking and other things 