At the centre of Block 2, the new Indigenous Peoples Space will be located on the sites of the former American Embassy and the CIBC Banking Hall. Photo PSPC 2019-20 Annual Report
In 2020, a design competition kicked off in Ottawa to reinvigorate an oft-forgotten portion of Parliament Hill. Block 2?the city block directly facing Parliament Hill on Wellington Street?will be revitalized through the winning design submitted by one of the twelve teams currently in competition.
The project is technically challenging, with a requirement to be zero-carbon-ready. It must also negotiate the presence of several heritage-designated buildings, as well as a mid-block parcel designated as the Indigenous Peoples Space, which is being concurrently designed. But beyond these considerations, there is a philosophical element that needs to be incorporated into the final design of Block 2. To bring these concerns to the forefront, writer and political philosopher John Ralston Saul was invited to serve as the Honorary Chair for the Block 2 Design competition. ?I?ve always been interested in what they call Block 2,? says Saul. ?I?m not an architect?I?ve been trained as a historian, political scientist, philosopher?but one of the pieces I?ve always worked with is architecture. Architecture runs through all my novels, it runs through my essays. It?s always been an element in how I think about things when I write philosophy.?
Saul has held a longstanding fascination with the role the three Parliament...