SECWEPEMC CULTURAL CENTER
YEAR 2019
TYPOGOLOGY Cultural Center
LOCATION 108 Mile
INSTRUCTOR John Bass
COLLABORATORS Carla Gruber
TYPOGOLOGY Cultural Center
LOCATION 108 Mile
INSTRUCTOR John Bass
COLLABORATORS Carla Gruber
This project carries forward the rich architectural traditions of the Secwepemc people in order to meet the community’s contemporary needs.
A cultural center and museum for the Northern Secwepemc Tribes in BC, this project engages with the two major traditional secwepemc vernaculars and plays with the tension between them. In doing so it creates a space that carries this rich cultural heritage forwards into a building that meets the community’s contemporary needs. The lightweight and porous summer-house is contrasted with the heavy, sunken winter-house through a lightweight outer skin enclosing heavy rammed earth volumes within. The space within the light skin, weaving between the heavy volumes, is flexible and adaptable to various temporary programs and needs, becoming connected or portioned by pivot doors as needed. The space within the heavy volumes, on the other hand, contains permanent programs including Class A museum storage, a theater, washrooms, and a small residential component for visiting Secwepemc families.
