Architecture and healing : culturally appropriate design in the Canadian Arctic

Elders in the remote hamlet of Kinngait (Cape Dorset) expressed a strong desire to have a

cultural healing centre designed and built for their community. This building program was taken

as an opportunity to discover what could be an appropriate architecture that responded to the

arctic climate, with results relating back to housing. The notion of healing was taken as a

powerful metaphor for architecture that proved itself literally in the design and dialogue within

the community. Appropriateness meant to consider people and their social and cultural values,

and using architecture as an interface between both environmental and human realms in the face

of climatic and social changes. It was determined that architecture as a healing aid could be

manifested within the community with inclusive design principles, the built form determined by

the creative energies of local community members. The programmatic functions within this

centre would then continue to nourish this creative healing spirit.