Canada has a small but growing number of Indigenous architects and Indigenous designers working in allied fields such as interior design, planning and landscape. Here, we take a deeper dive into the work of ten of these practitioners whose names may be relatively unknown at present, but who are working in thoughtful ways deserving of attention.
These practitioners represent a range of ways that Indigenous thinking can impact design. Land-based practices are at the forefront for many of them: Jason Surkan begins his projects by living on the land, while Kelly Edzerza-Bapty is making use of forest-fire-killed wood as the structural timbers for buildings. The four elements are integral to Jason Hurd?s design for the Dakota Dunes Resort Hotel (pictured on this page), while Naomi Ratte aims to convey the connection between people and place in her recent work on a team masterplanning a national park in Iqaluit. Community engagement is also key to Indigenous methodologies, although it is different for each project. David Thomas has been part of a large team with several Indigenous designers and many Indigenous stakeholders working on a revolutionary masterplan for a neighbourhood-scale development for an urban reserve in Winnipeg. Rachelle Lemieux and Nicole Luke have completed much of the design for a recent project through the pandemic, shifting from in-person to online engagement of communities.
The practitioners featured also bring a variety of disciplinary perspectives to the...