Reaffirming Culture through a Community-based Housing Design Process

Abstract

A community-based design process led to the creation of housing designs that offer a northern response to the dwelling culture and housing shortage of the Cree community in Moosonee, Ontario, Canada. The housing proposal developed in this project is informed by a design charrette, a study of contemporary and traditional Cree material and dwelling culture, research on climate and environment, and an analysis of existing housing in Moosonee. The design charrette conducted with northern Indigenous people encouraged them to think about their cultural heritage and its relationship to their housing needs. Using art-based methods, including drawing, modelling and sculpting techniques, the participants designed their ideal houses as an activity involving cultural re-appropriation. Encouraging discussion of memories of their cultural heritage helped participants to overcome feelings of discrimination from others and alienation from place. The architectural designs emerging from this project centre on housing as a response to Cree material culture, social structure, and ways of experiencing the land. The traditional forms found within the snowshoe, the canoe, the tipi and the shaapuhtuwaan inspired the creative process and the design of culturally appropriate housing. This article summarizes results from the research activities conducted in October 2010 and February 2011 with Cree people from several First Nation communities on the western James Bay in Northern Ontario, Canada, and includes images of housing models created by the participants. It also presents the resulting housing designs and investigates the myriad ways in which architecture can act as a cultural tool that reaffirms a sense of place and responds to living patterns and the northern climate.