On University of Toronto’s Scarborough Campus, a new building inspired by traditional Indigenous Ways of Knowing, provides Indigenous staff and students with a culturally place in which to foster connections to culture and community.
The University of Toronto commissioned Indigenous House to provide the Scarborough Campus’ Indigenous students, staff, Elders, and community members a place to gather, learn, teach, and practice ceremony on campus. The two-storey building combines purpose-designed spaces for exhibitions, classes and gatherings and ceremonies where none had previously existed. Prominently located at the centre of UTSC, the building reflects the university’s commitment to strengthening its relationship with Indigenous communities and responding to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action.
Our main design goal was to draw on traditional Indigenous Ways of Knowing to guide the building’s design, construction and engineering. Drawing on the input of local Elders, the grounds and surrounding area are planted with medicinal and other native tree and plant species including a thicket of birch trees.
Visitors approach by ascending earth ramps seeded with medicinal plants, overlooking a large outdoor gathering space with views of the Highland Creek Ravine. Inspired by a wigwam, the building’s distinctive ovoid-shaped structure is fashioned from a curved diagrid of glue-laminated timber, recalling traditional bentwood construction techniques. Its distinctive ovoid form and curved glue-laminated timber structure recall traditional bentwood construction, while offering a warm, organic counterpoint to the campus’s predominantly Brutalist and modernist buildings. Inside, offices and support spaces are held at the centre, with round social and ceremonial spaces at each end, connected by a light-filled atrium.
