Lead: Indigenous Design Studio | Brook McIlroy Inc. | Saugeen First Nation
Completion Date: January 2021
The Saugeen First Nation GZHE-MNIDOO GI-TA-GAAN (Creator’s Garden and Amphitheatre) Master Plan will strengthen the community’s long-term economic viability while supporting the recovery of land-based knowledge known to Indigenous Peoples for millennia. The project is a co-design between community members and an interdisciplinary team led by Indigenous architects and designers. The restoration of Saugeen First Nation’s land surrounding the Amphitheatre is integral to the future success of the site, and supports the Garden’s emphasis on medicine knowledge, land-based learning and traditional storytelling. This emphasis heightens the potential for future programming based around medicine knowledge from a health, healing, and a horticultural perspective.
Project Credits:
Saugeen First Nation Project Team
Saugeen First Nation Dry Stone Wallers
Master Plan Team
Architects / Landscape Architects / Urban Design and Planning - Indigenous Design Studio / Brook McIlroy
Creators Garden - Plant-Based Medicine Specialist - Joseph Pitawanakwat
Theatre Consultants Collaborative Amphitheatre Design - Curtis Kasefang, Athos Zaghi
Civil / Structural Engineering and Arborists - Tatham Engineering
Electrical / Mechanical Engineering - Runge Engineering
Geotechnical Engineering - Peto MacCallum Ltd.
Cost Consultants - A.W. Hooker
RENDER - Brook McIlroy
RENDER - Brook McIlroy
RENDER - Brook McIlroy
RENDER - Brook McIlroy
RENDER - Brook McIlroy
RENDER - Brook McIlroy
“A beautifully executed project with exceptional attention to Indigenous learning, the environment, land-based knowledge and storytelling. The re-use of authentic material and the striking culturally appropriate architectural form lends a profound authenticity to the work."
"The design of the spaces are well integrated and the master plan is comprehensive in nature taking the environment and its context into consideration. The built form is unique to the site and its materiality reflects the nature of that site. The presentation is very clear with well depicted graphics."
"This project is to be applauded for its balance of comprehensiveness, context sensitivity, a poetic process, and a fulsome manifestation in form and material culture. It responds to our current need to address Indigenous sovereignty with an authentic voice, design sensitivity and precision. It is truly paradigmatic of a research and design trajectory that is necessary and acts as a key example moving forward.”
Jury members