Design for Calgary’s Aboriginal youth centre focuses on private/public duality

by arslan_ahmed | June 7, 2023 12:52 pm

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The design for the Urban Society for Aboriginal Youth’s (USAY’s) new headquarters in Calgary’s Forest Lawn neighbourhood highlights togetherness and privacy by making the centre’s spaces distinct and permeable between one another.

Barrier-free entries and hallways mediated by wood and translucent polycarbonate panels are incorporated into the design to heighten this sense of togetherness and privacy. Co-designed and co-authored through a close, participatory relationship with the Indigenous-led, not-for-profit USAY, the architect, Lemay’s planning and design addresses the organization’s daily and long-term needs.

Calgary’s Forest Lawn neighbourhood location is significant as well, as it is the traditional territory of the Siksika, Kainai, Piikani, Iyarhe Nakoda, and Tsuut’ina Nations, as well as the Metis Nation of Region 3.

Designed to achieve a sustainable balance, the USAY youth centre will use passive strategies such as solar gain and holistic elements of biophilia and natural lighting to enhance the site’s natural materials, and the rooftop space for the future integration of solar panels to reduce operational costs through energy efficiency.

Aiming for completion by March 2024, and long in the making since USAY first began in 1999, with careful attention to cultural detail in its interior design and architecture, its form complements its purpose as a place of belonging and personal development for the thousands of Indigenous youth USAY supports between the ages of 12 and 29.

Measuring nearly 465 m² (5,000 sf), the structure provides for Calgary’s urban Indigenous youth through three primary spaces spanning across two floors. The main floor combines a primary programming space for communal gathering and eating aligned with the Indigenous worldview of feasting. The area is also capable of supporting youths identifying as non-binary, which connects to a multipurpose Maker’s Space for USAY’s science, technology, engineering, art, and math (STEAM) programming, learning opportunities, and cultural exchange.

On the second floor, space is dedicated to staff offices, partnership meetings, and overflow areas for youth skill-building, practicums, and employment opportunities. This leads out to a rooftop garden equipped for traditional medicines and teachings alongside communal seating that will allow for smudging, constellation teachings with Elders, self-care, and other activities under its pergola.

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Adjacent to the building is a 595 m² (6,400 sf) outdoor lot that can host anything from sports to markets, food handouts, employment fairs, drum circles, and more.

“Lemay’s practice model is set up to create open dialogues and take time to create space for understanding, and USAY’s youth centre demonstrates the weight we place on meaningful, participatory approaches to co-designing space for communities,” says Grace Coulter Sherlock, regional director of Lemay’s Western Canada office and design director for USAY’s youth centre. “That’s how we could best create a place that’s as safe as it is essential.”

Other project collaborators are the structural engineering firm, ELEMA; civil engineering firm, McElhanney; mechanical and electrical engineering firm, MCW; geotechnical engineering company, Terracon; and the general contractor, Synergy.

Source URL: https://www.constructioncanada.net/design-for-calgarys-aboriginal-youth-centre-focuses-on-private-public-duality/

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