Design revealed for the Inuit Heritage Center,
Danish architecture firm Dorte Mandrup has won an international competition to design the Nunavut Inuit Heritage Center (NIHC) in Nunavut,
Canada, on the northern edge of the provincial capital of Iqaluit.
The Mandrup project, which is partly located underground, is guided by landscape, snow and wind movement.
The building is inspired by the “patterns formed in the snow by the prevailing winds”.
Dorte Mandrup won the competition with Record Guy Architects, LEES + Associates and Adjeleian Allen Rubeli
EXP, Pageau Morel, Altus Group, and original advisors Kirt Ejesiak and Alexander Flaherty.
According to the company, the winds, known as kalutoqaniq –
producing sculptural shapes like drifting sand – have long acted as a natural way-finding system for the Inuit.
The building is carved into the rocky hillside overlooking Iqaluit and is drawn in the curves and longitudinal features of the landscape.
Design features
Set to be built on the Iqaluit landscape, the facility will have an area of 55,000 sq ft (5,110 sq m),
It will include a café, workshop area and preservation laboratory.
shop, daycare center, hostel, offices and connected to a large outdoor area,
which provide spaces for traditional practices such as carving, kayak building,
tool making, and berry picking.
Once completed, the center will promote greater awareness of Inuit culture and support cultural healing and reconciliation between Inuit and non-Inuit,
By providing a place where Inuit can reconnect with their collective past through objects,
stories, and activities.”
The Nunavut Inuit Heritage Center is an exceptional project
The Nunavut Inuit Heritage Center is an extraordinary project as working in this context
requires both extreme sensitivity and consideration of the landscape and its cultural significance.”
The community has long worked tirelessly to create a place for the Inuit to collect precious heritage
and share unique and specialized knowledge that remains essential to future generations and is in grave danger of fading away.
While a jury statement read,
“The winning proposal convinced the jury with their beautiful and poetic response to the requirements outlined in the feasibility study and during March Design Week in Iqaluit.”
The jury members felt Mandrup heard and understood the community’s perspectives regarding traditional Inuit knowledge and healing potential for NIHC.”
The reference to kalutoqaniq resonated with the jury, the prevailing wind causing hues and shapes in the snowdrifts.”
While the project will be built in Iqaluit in respect of the Canadian government’s commitment to the Nunavut Convention,
which is to be developed as an “urgent need for a regional heritage facility”.
As explained by the studio, the new center will also encourage the growth of local heritage and foster a network of cultural centers across the region.
Where the Inuit can reconnect with their heritage and find a stronger sense of identity and culture.
While the studio takes advantage of the ample land area and gives it back to the building by creating a spacious roof.
The rooftop, which blends into the landscape, provides a fresh natural outdoor gathering place with great views of the vast tundra.
