The 2017 Kuujjuaq Hackathon
An all season outdoor sports pavilion, a modest structure bearing a unique design and made from building materials found in the village dump, was selected to receive a medal under the category of Small or Medium Community Urban Design in the 2018 National Urban Design Awards competition. The project, was jointly created by the Minimum Cost Housing / Hackathon Group of McGill University and the northern village of Kuujjuaq. The Kuujjuaq Hackathon, a five-day event in September 2017 brought together an interdisciplinary design team from southern Quebec with more than 60 village residents. The design team first identified a variety of public spaces across the community; then, capitalizing on the local knowledge, building expertise and lead-ership, reimagined key public spaces of the village. In the end, the team creatively repurposed found materials from the village dump to build the pavilion comprising a performance stage, a baseball dugout, a protective shelter to watch and do winter sports, and a searchlight beacon to announce public events in the town. According to Professor Vikram Bhatt, Director of the Minimum Cost Housing Group and Project Leader, “Hacks are a response to institutionalized inadequacy and are found in every culture. They advance the notion of the reuse and re-cycling of defunct parts and existing technologies to radically transform everyday life. Hacking approach-es are especially relevant in remote communities in northern Canada.” None of the villages in Nunavik have road access. Only two sea-lift shipments trans-port building materials and supplies from southern Canada every year. Lacking both material and finan-cial resources to deal with exorbitant costs of living, communities must consider alternate design solu-tions to overcome these challenges. Inuit communities in Nunavik already possess a great wealth of knowledge and experience with mak-ing the most of available materials. They are adept at recycling and refer to the village dump as their “Ca-nadian Tire”, Canada’s most notorious hardware store.Building on these capacities, the Hackathon is a unique precedent that challenges governments, schools, and architectural practices to adopt a more collaborative approach to design leadership and policy making. According to the project organizers, “It has been instrumental in valorizing the rich design / build culture that already exists in Nunavik”. The National Urban Design Awards were jointly established by the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC), the Canadian Institute of Planners (CIP) and the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects (CLSA) to promote the public and private awareness of good urban design. The awards recognize individuals, organiza-tions, firms and projects that have contributed to the quality of life in our Canadian cities and their sustainability. The Kuujjuaq Hackathon was realized with the support of Living in the North SSHRC supported project, McGill University Peter Guo-hua Fu School of Architecture and the Village of Kuujjuaq. Project LeadsProfessor Vikram Bhatt, Director, MCHG David Harlander, Research Assistant, MCHG Dr. Susane Havelka, Research Assistant, MCHG Project Coordinators
Ron Gordon, Municipal Manager at nv Kuujjuaq David Harlander, Research Assistant, MCHG Partners
Marie-Pierre Macdonald, Project Manager, BC2 Tunu Napartuk, Mayor of nv Kuujjuaq Design Team
Vikram Bhatt, professor Kassanda Bonneville, Architect Justin Bouttell, Intern Architect Maggie Cabana, Architect Andrée-Anne Caron-Boisvert, Intern Architect David Harlander Intern Architect Susane Havelka, Architect Emmanuelle Lauzier, Intern Architect Alexandre Morin, Architectural Graduate, Flavie Martineau, Architecture Student Mae Ningiuruvik Village Management Staff, Paul Parsons, Manager, Makivik
News, Media and Links
- Kuujjuaq Hackathon on Facebook
- Project description on the Living in Northern Quebec (HLNQ) website
- The Nunavik Hackathon Facebook page
- Article in the McGill Reporter
- Images from the National Urban Design Award Ceremony (via HLNQ)
- Jury comments on the project and the National urban Design Award
- Offical press release
- Project description on McGill's Peter Guo-hua Fu School of Architecture
- Project Summary on the Living in the North (HLNQ) Website
- Presentation and questions periode at the RAIC Urban Design awards ceremony (VIDEO)