John Henry Lafford combined traditional techniques and industrially produced materials in this new sweat lodge changing house.
For the construction of the West Wing, we harvested trees and manu- factured trusses in Halifax using a plywood platform as a jig. The trusses were driven by van to Cape Breton and erected on an insulated 2x6 floor set on patio tiles. The trusses were secured with an initial layer of horizontal 1x3 t&g boards (acquired on discount from a local supplier) which became part of the interior finish. This layer was followed by two layers of 1 1/2” rigid insulation applied diagonally. The exterior was sheathed in shingles and copper clad window boxes punched through the skin to frame views of Bras d’Or Lake and surrounding forested hills. As a result of its geometry and the successive layers of strapping, the studio essentially acts as a rigid shell structure where the trusses may even have become superfluous. During construction we stayed on the reserve for a week in tents and trailers and returned occasionally on weekends during the fall to con- tinue work. Murdina’s husband,Albert Marshall, built a concrete founda- tion for the connection from the studio to the house while we worked on other parts of the project. Every night Murdina cooked us dinner, where we met the constantly changing cast of characters that gather around her table. The people we met in Eskasoni shared their stories, an immense sense of humour and generosity in response to our interest in their way of life. It was a humbling experience to come to appreciate the depth of their traditions and the complexity of their relationship with the place we now claim as part of ourselves.
Florian Jungen is currently working as an intern at L’OEUF in Montreal on the renovation of a 1940’s veteran’s housing complex into subsidised co-op housing.
*From the title of Kenneth Coates’ 1985 book Canada’s colonies: a history of the Yukon and Northwest Territories ,Toronto: Lorimer.
On Site review 11
23
Spring 2004
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