Indigenous House sits at the edge of the Highland Creek Ravine, making the indigenous house scarborough campus a striking addition to the University of Toronto Scarborough campus. Its roof echoes the wigwam and the longhouse, two Indigenous building traditions, and the building was designed to support both learning and ceremony.
The 10,700-square-foot building, about 995 square metres, was designed by Formline Architecture + Urbanism with LGA Architectural Partners. It replaces a former parking lot. Earth ramps lead up to the second floor, and a staircase also rises from the atrium.
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A building that rises from the ground
Most of the identity of the indigenous house scarborough campus comes from the land around it. The site was flat, with the ravine’s steep edge ending abruptly at a path and a parking lot. Landscape architect Marc Ryan, a co-founder of PUBLIC WORK, said the team wanted to make the ravine feel connected to the building.
The team re-contoured the site so that earth ramps rise from a landform planted with medicinal and native trees and plants. Those ramps lead to the second level. The ovoid, or egg-shaped, plan curves around two round rooms, and a glue-laminated timber roof, made of layered wood beams bonded with adhesive, arcs over the whole structure.
Waugh, a status Indian and member of Treaty 8, founded Formline. He said the building’s bones came from Indigenous structures, but its form had to feel modern. “They used to peel the bark off of trees to cloak the wigwam structure, and it was held in place by saplings,” he said. “We wanted to create that kind of contrast between a very modern building and something that links us back to the past.”
The shingled roof overhangs the second-floor deck, which wraps the building. Concrete posts support the overhang. The cedar cladding has been stained a soft grey, and a rough-sawn cedar finish helps the curved walls bend more easily.
Entering through the landscape
Visitors can enter the indigenous house scarborough campus from many directions. On opening day, people moved along the ramps and across the landscape, which includes a Gathering Circle with a fire pit at its centre. Concrete stairs and an outdoor amphitheatre-style learning area lead down to a round room on the lower level.
The largest round room sits on the second floor. Its vaulted ceiling has ribs of black spruce, and the walls are covered in a felt basket-weave. Kathryn Walter of FELT Studio made the felt in collaboration with Alysha McMullan of the Oneida Nation of the Thames.
The indigenous house scarborough campus has high-heat detectors instead of smoke detectors. That choice allows smudging, a cleansing ceremony that produces smoke, to take place indoors. The building also has operable skylights and motorized windows, which help ventilate the space passively.
The lower floor has a smaller round room at the western end. It opens onto a sunken teaching garden. Visitors who enter at grade pass through a light-filled atrium first, where a pair of photographs from Lori Blondeau’s 2017 Pakwâci Wâpisk series greets them. The works show self-portraits in red draping gowns set against colonial architectural remnants.
The indigenous house scarborough campus also has an Indigenous-made art collection. Many of these, along with pieces already in the collection, hang in the building.
Designing the indigenous house scarborough campus for gathering and ceremony
The gathering space became a point of debate during design. According to Formline, the university’s pre-design program placed the main gathering space on the second floor, looking over the ravine. Waugh disagreed. He wanted the gathering space to open onto the ground, so people could spill out into the landscape.
Andrew Arifuzzaman, chief administrative officer at U of T Scarborough, wanted the space to overlook the ravine. A later correction in the print version credits Arifuzzaman with first suggesting the second-floor location. The design team reached a compromise. They built the ramps and embedded the building into the earth.
Drew Adams, project architect with LGA Architectural Partners, described the sequence visitors experience. “You could start the landscape there. Come up this ramp,” he said. Visitors can walk into the gathering room without using stairs or an elevator, then leave the room, return to the outdoors and walk back down.
Ryan described the landform as a bridge between the building and the valley. He said the design made the building feel “expansive and intimate.” The team wanted the immersive quality of the ravine to flow through the interior and into the north campus.
Landscape details and passive systems
Birch saplings surround the building. Birch saplings were planted around the building, 130 in total.
A gabion wall, made of wire baskets filled with limestone, supports the sloped terrain on the western side. The stones get smaller as the wall rises. Plants will eventually cover the wall. A concrete ventilation totem on the western side pulls in air, a design that echoes the birchbark air shaft in a wigwam that fed the fire with oxygen.
If you are drawn to architecture that blends into its natural setting, the way this building settles into the ravine has a close parallel in Ireland. Ancient Irish Rainforest Guesthouse by Schemata Architects offers an eco-conscious take on building inside a living landscape.
Waugh said the building cannot exist apart from the land. He described Indigenous House as a place that brings Indigenous ways of knowing together with Western knowledge. The building is open to all visitors, and its design aims to change how people think about indigenous architecture on campus.
Source: azuremagazine.com
Frequently asked questions
What is the Indigenous House at U of T Scarborough built on?
The Indigenous House at the University of Toronto Scarborough campus replaces a former parking lot. It sits at the edge of the Highland Creek Ravine.
Who designed the Indigenous House at U of T Scarborough?
The building was designed by Formline Architecture + Urbanism with LGA Architectural Partners. Formline was founded by Waugh, a status Indian and member of Treaty 8.
Why does the Indigenous House use high-heat detectors instead of smoke detectors?
The building uses high-heat detectors instead of smoke detectors so that smudging, a cleansing ceremony that produces smoke, can take place indoors.
What is the purpose of the Indigenous House’s roof design?
Its roof echoes the wigwam and the longhouse, two Indigenous building traditions. The building was designed to support both learning and ceremony.
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