Katherine Kovalcik

University of Waterloo, Cambridge ON, Canada

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La fondation est une composante architecturale qui sert de médiateur dans la relation entre un bâtiment et la terre. C'est un lien particulièrement difficile à trouver dans les sols dynamiques qui reposent sur le pergélisol. Reliant le cercle polaire dans le nord du Yukon, le territoire des Van Tat Gwich'in se situe entre les réalités culturelles et géopolitiques du Nord et du Sud. Les vies et les connaissances des peuples qui ont habité ce lieu pendant des millénaires sont liées à une terre mouvante, qui connaît à la fois des saisons changeantes et des tendances au réchauffement croissantes. Les Van Tat Gwich'in, à l'instar de nombreux peuples autochtones du Nord, se positionnent comme les «faiseurs de terrain» du changement environnemental sur leur territoire. Des «experts» professionnels distanciés abordent également ce problème crucial à travers la recherche et la conception. Ces points de vue se recoupent dans les pratiques de conception, de construction et d'entretien des fondations. Les fondations sont situées dans un réseau de réciprocité qui entrelace plusieurs façons de connaître la terre.

Conceptuellement, ce document positionne les fondations comme des connexions à la terre. Il existe deux typologies de fondations principales pour construire sur le pergélisol: des fondations profondes et peu profondes. Les fondations profondes - telles que les pieux qui nécessitent des matériaux, de l'équipement et une main-d'œuvre qualifiée importés - tentent d'isoler un bâtiment au-dessus de la surface supérieure du sol de la couche active en se reliant à un matériau plus solide en dessous. Des fondations peu profondes - telles que le design vernaculaire Gwich'in en bois utilisés dans la vie contemporaine sur le territoire - flottent au-dessus ou à l'intérieur de la surface de la terre. Ces derniers types de systèmes sont souvent utilisés dans la construction résidentielle, où les transformations du sol peuvent se manifester dans les expériences physiques de la vie dans ces bâtiments, et entraînent souvent le besoin de maintenir et de re-niveler constamment ces structures. À mesure que la terre change avec le changement climatique, de nombreuses fondations doivent s'adapter et creuser plus profondément ou tolérer plus de mouvement.

Sur le plan méthodologique, cet article est compilé sous la forme d'un aperçu académique des relations multi-scalaires entre les personnes, les bâtiments et les terres sur lesquelles l'architecture pourrait s'appuyer. Ce travail prend la forme d'un index illustré non-technique et ouvert de typologies de fondation existantes pour construire dans cette région continue de pergélisol, et détaille comment ces systèmes fonctionnent. À plus grande échelle, une série supplémentaire de dessins en coupe profonde annote les interrelations entre les bâtiments et le sol, et dépasse le cadre typique de l'architecte.

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Cet article présente une compréhension des fondations éclairées par une constellation de travaux comprenant la recherche architecturale, les conversations et le temps passé au cours de deux saisons estivales à Old Crow, au Yukon, et l'expérience de l'auteur sur les terres avec des citoyens locaux à lui. Écrit de la position d'un «non-connaisseur» - un étudiant en visite de l'architecture et de la terre - cet article propose une série de questions, des initiations, et invite à la considération du concepteur invité qui émergent à travers l'examen des fondements et leur réciprocité les relations avec les gens, les bâtiments et la terre.

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The foundation is an architectural component that mediates the relationship between a building and the land. It is a connection that is particularly challenging to ground in dynamic soils underlain by permafrost. Bridging the Arctic Circle in the Northern Yukon, Van Tat Gwich’in territory is situated between overlapping cultural and geopolitical realities of the North and the South. The lives and knowledge of the Peoples who have inhabited this place for millennia are entangled with a shifting land, one that experiences both changing seasons and increasing warming trends. The Van Tat Gwich’in, like many northern Indigenous Peoples, are positioned as the ‘ground truthers’ of environmental change in their territory. Distanced professional ‘experts’ also engage this critical issue through research and design. These perspectives overlap in the practices of foundation design, building, and maintenance. Foundations are located within a web of reciprocity that intertwines multiple ways of knowing the land.

Conceptually, this paper positions foundations as connections to the land. Two main foundation typologies exist for building on permafrost: deep and shallow foundations. Deep foundations – such as piles that require imported materials, equipment, and skilled labour – attempt to isolate a building above the upper surface of the ground from the shifting, active layer by connecting to a more solid material below. Shallow foundations – such as vernacular Gwich’in timber designs used in contemporary life out on the land – float on top of or within the earth’s surface. The latter types of systems are often used in residential construction, where the ground’s transformations can manifest themselves in the physical experiences of living in these buildings, and often result in a need to maintain and constantly re-level these structures. As the land shifts with climate change, many foundations must adapt and either dig deeper or tolerate more movement.

Methodologically, this paper is compiled as an academic overview of the multi-scalar relationships between people, buildings, and the land that architecture might build on. This work takes the form of an open-ended and non-technical illustrated index of existing foundation typologies for building in this continuous permafrost region, and details how these systems function. At a larger scale, an additional series of deep section drawings annotates the interrelationships between buildings and the ground, and looks beyond the architect’s typical ‘ground-up’ purview.

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This paper presents an understanding of foundations informed by a constellation of work that includes architectural research, conversations, and time spent over the course of two summer seasons in Old Crow, Yukon, and the author’s experience out on the land with local citizens who live close to it. Written from the position of a ‘not-knower’ – a visiting student of architecture and the land – this paper offers a series of questions, attunements, and prompts for the consideration of the visiting designer that emerge through the examination of foundations and their reciprocal relationships with people, buildings, and the land.

Myriam Blais

Université Laval, Québec QC, Canada

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The recent sedentarization of Nunavik’s Inuit communities is addressed through an understanding of the nomadic ideal that has characterized – and still does – their relationship to their land and dwelling territories. By tackling the housing crisis mainly in a qualitative manner, we aimed at developing a variety of new possibilities. The idea of the nomadic, vagabond house is thus at the heart of the studio work done by architecture Masters students, at various scales and for different occasions. The studio aimed at reinventing challenges that are taken for granted. Two main questions emerged [How to live in an arctic environment? How to build in an arctic environment?], which prompted students to “imagine” the ideal “experience” that culturally appropriate housing projects should offer, and to devise relevant and sustainable design and construction methods to achieve it. Design hypotheses implied that: 1) architecture produces the physical frameworks that allow dwelling; 2) dwelling, as fact and as aspiration, articulates various relationships between architecture and reality; 3) the architect’s task consists in inventing opportunities for dwelling, in building them.

In such context, the studio developed along a three-step sequence which offered a kind of itinerary for the students’ inquiries and architectural projects :

- Imagination + Construction. This first step invited students to “reinvent” design challenges for Northern dwellings, culturally and territorially appropriate for Inuit populations (the “vagabond” attitude of the studio), while revisiting their own preconceptions about the North and Inuit communities. They had to imagine the ideal experience that Inuit dwelling should offer, identify the project’s type and characteristics, and specify the most relevant and promising opportunities for construction development (in terms of systems, processes and materials).

- Construction + Experience. This step aimed at materializing design intentions through the study and development of construction systems that are appropriate to the climatic and cultural contexts of Nunavik. The synthesis of the entire design approach has been carried out, considering that the project experience is the result of an eloquent conciliation of imagination and construction.

- Atlas – illustrated travelers’ stories (Imagination + Construction + Experience). As a critical synthesis, this step anticipates on the reality and the realization of the housing projects. Illustrated scenarios of implementation of projects were produced that judiciously (and as much as possible) mobilized local resources (be they human, material, or natural).

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This communication present a few of those new itineraries for contemporary Inuit dwellings.

Sami Tannoury

EVOQ architecture, Montréal QC, Canada

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Numerous studies and reports have documented the housing shortage crisis in Inuit communities. With population growth well over the national average, and inadequate federal and provincial funding, Inuit communities are unable to keep up with their advancing needs. The effects of this crisis are wide-spread and promote overcrowded houses, deterioration of housing stock, family tensions, social tensions, education problems, as well as health and security issues. Without effective solutions and added funding the only foreseeable future is further decline.

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EVOQ architecture has been designing housing projects for the Inuit Nunangat communities for the past 20 years. Our team has developed over 15 different housing models and has overseen the construction of over 500 housing units in Nunavik, Nunavut and Nunatsiavut. We have helped our clients develop housing amid the ongoing housing crisis with the objective of building as much housing as possible. This faced pace approach is essential to counteract the housing shortage crisis. Through our sustained relationship, and thanks to the communities’ sharing and mentoring, over the years, we have developed a unique understanding of the constraints of building in these remote communities and we were also able to develop insight into the specific housing needs of these communities.

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The knowledge acquired through these ‘’in the trenches’’ experiences led, in time and as trust grew, to discussions about long term goals and possible improvements to ongoing projects. This slow paced approach is a true and sincere dialogue that has evolved through meetings, design charettes and public consultations. This dialogue process has led to the design and construction of two pilot projects in Nunavik and Nunatsaivut that are meant to serve as a benchmarks to future housing development.

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The lessons learned over the years have confirmed our belief that sustainable building design must strive to achieve more than efficient housing construction systems and energy efficiency targets. Protection of cultural diversity is as important, if not more so. This means that the ideal house for the Inuit Nunangat does not exists. A one shoe fits all approach is not sustainable even if it simplifies, in appearance, management of housing development. The multiple housing models developed attest to the variety of housing needs.

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These shared experiences, where local communities are heavily involved, speak loudly to the responsibility of Sustainable Building Design in Inuit communities to go one step further and to support cultural reappropriation and empowerment.

moderated by André Casault