West Wind
TERM : Winter 2014
COURSE : Architectural Design 2
INSTRUCTOR : Talia Dorsey
DURATION : 10 Weeks
GROUP PROJECT : Pierre-Charles Gauthier
COURSE : Architectural Design 2
INSTRUCTOR : Talia Dorsey
DURATION : 10 Weeks
GROUP PROJECT : Pierre-Charles Gauthier
Aupaluk, the smallest Nunavik community, is located on the southern shore of Hopes Advance Bay, an inlet on the western shore of Ungava Bay. Adjacent to Aupaluk, a major Iron mine development by Oceanic Iron Ore Corp., ‘Hopes Advance’ is currently being designed and undergoing feasibility assessment.
One of the biggest concerns facing the Inuit population of Canada today is a chronic and worsening housing crisis. Popularized this fall as one of the key imperatives in a UN special human rights report on Canada’s aboriginal people, its importance and multi-dimensional implications were brought to the fore by the consulting Inuit delegation itself.
OBJECTIVE : To address the housing needs in Nunavik, through a specific case study. The studio looks beyond the standard avenues of support to parallel avenues of development – namely industrial exploits (principally mining and hydro-electric). The mining serves as our industrial case study to uncover the development and investment mechanisms it implies, and the strategic opportunities that might support and address the housing needs of the local communities.
The third intersecting subject of the studio is contemporary pre-fabrication systems. The investigation of the current and future-minded trends in this burgeoning area of the discipline identifies new potentials that might simultaneously serve both the industrial and community development projects in the north.
DESCRIPTION : During our research, we started to realize that the true enemies of housing in the North were simply time, space and numbers. We also realized that the North embodied many sources of intrinsic intelligences that were left under or totally unexploited, and that in order to come up with a more appropriate and sensible response to the housing crisis, we had to tap into those inherent potentials. In a very basic way, we could say that our project proposes a new platform that challenges these constraints and turns them into opportunities. We believe that in this new systemic approach lies the possibility for developing better housing typologies for the north.
We propose the idea of a mobile fabrication unit that could take advantage of the new deep sea port facilities built at the mine’s expense in order to plugin to the community of Aupaluk. This infrastructure could profit not only from its proximity to the village, but also its yearlong presence, using the dead time of winter to maximum productivity time, thus reducing the limitations and creating opportunities through those. In addition to building facilities, the ship offers dormitories and common spaces that can accommodate villagers in need of emergency housing until they can assemble their home during summertime.
The mobile factory unit benefits from the fact that at thaw, the boat is already to location and the modules flatpacked and ready for delivery in the local port. The units are sized and designed with simple technology so that they can be assembled by the village residents, instead of relying on heavy machinery and lifting equipment. The unit lends itself to many uses, whether small shop, residential dwelling or small commercial venture, virtually every configuration is attainable. They can connect to one another easily, while preserving their lateral wall so they can later retrofit to autonomous units.
In addition to adapting to the human physical capabilities, the form-factor of the unit is derived from how it responds to the prevailing wind, with the intent of generating snowdrifts to further insulate the houses. To do this efficiently, we developed a series of snow fences which vary in height and density in order to create snow accumulation where desired and clearings at entry points.
We envision housing typologies that won’t nearly rely as much on mechanical systems as they do now, but that will invest in passive opportunities that could significantly reduce the environmental footprint of the settlement.
