At the scale of the Community From the main gravel road of the community, the studio will glow with the life of the carvers during the extended winter nights of the Arctic. It hovers perched above the frozen ground, the shell of the building reaching down to interact with the sensitive ground layer, careful not to disrupt the permafrost and lifting in locations allowing the persistent blowing snow to pass under the building. The floor plate of the building extends to provide a sheltered exterior carving space. The symmetry of the building is broken up at the main entrance, with the protective shell pulling around to block the predominate north-west wind, creating an entry free of drifting snow. During the short summer of extended daylight the studio will be seen from the water, as the people of Cape Dorset return from their long and laborious trip to the quarry to obtain stone for the year. They are greeted with the jetty stretching out from the landscape, and the main entrance of the opaque studio faces the water, like that of the tradi- tional built forms. Carvers spill out from the exterior carving areas, onto the tundra. At the scale of the Carver The building designed is for carving. It is a studio for the people of the community to visit, watch, learn, and carve. The building thresholds are informed by the process of carving. The carver will progress through the building as they work on the different stages of the carving; selecting a stone from the exterior storage area, roughing out in the sheltered exterior spaces, detailing in an individual studio space, sanding at the wet stations, and selling the finished piece. The program consists of individual and communal carving spaces. The in- dividual studios are in clusters of male and female. These clusters link to the exterior by way of exterior carving spaces and come together, swelling in form, to create the teaching area.
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At the scale of the community the carving studio tells the story of the harsh elements in which it is trying to survive; lifting off the frozen ground, orientating itself to the water as tradition and pulling around to break the predominate Arctic wind and blowing snow. The studio tells of winter and summer, excessive dark and light, the transforma- tion of a glowing to an opaque object. At the scale of the carver, the program tells of the process of carving, the studio acting as a stage for learning. The carving studio is a visual representation of Cape Dorset, the process of carving, and the carver. g
Tammy Allison first experienced Canada’s north while working with PSAV Architects in Yellowknife for 2 years. She has since returned to the Mari- times, where she currently resides, to complete her masters at Dalhousie University in Halifax. Her thesis benefited greatly from the help of Goota Ashoona and Bob Kussy in sharing their craft.
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architecture and land
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