ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN
The Arctic care facility built to serve Inuit elders
Jeff Penner, a Senior Associate at Verne Reimer Architecture in Winnipeg, Canada, discusses the design of new long-term care facility in the Arctic in Canada’s largest, easternmost, and northernmost territory, built on the foundation of Inuit cultural awareness, dignity, and respect.
Right: As with most buildings in the arctic with ice or ice-rich permafrost conditions, the building required being raised on a platform of steel piles that are drilled into bedrock.
In 2014, the Government of Nunavut – a sparsely populated territory of northern Canada, forming most of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago – initiated an assessment of long-term care that described the situation in the territory as beyond capacity, and not meeting the needs of the Nunavimmiut (Ungava Inuit) community. The study outlined the need for long-term care facilities in Nunavut, and particularly the Kivalliq region – the selected location of the first modern facility planned for Rankin Inlet on the western shore of Hudson Bay. The project strategised to retain elders in the community and region, closer to family, their culture, and home, reducing the current strain and issues related to out-of-territory care. The design and construction of the 24-bed centre,
named the Kivalliq Long Term Care Facility, and completed last December, was challenging. When the project commenced design so did pandemic lockdowns, creating an extraordinary task that required both a shift and adjustment to the project design process, and taking into account emerging findings/perspectives on long-term care facility design in Canada.
Unique complexities While there were unique complexities, the design team (with contributions from across Canada) remained focused on the paramount need for the new elders’ centre to be reflective of and responsive to Inuit culture, values, history and traditions. The design team brought experience from Manitoba, Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Quebec, and Nunavut, through an online collaboration not unlike most other remote community project developments during the initial lockdown. The nature of the design process meant that all consultants and stakeholders needed to work together in a new way, adapting to remote and digital sharing of complex ideas. This proved to be a challenge, with technology limitations related to the Internet, and power issues often presented in northern communities.
Above: A view from the ‘spine’, looking towards the rotunda.
Left: The setting encourages family members to be actively involved with elders through programming and design features that are inclusive and community-focused.
All photos courtesy of Verne Reimer Architecture and Blouin Orzes architectes
28 Health Estate Journal February 2025
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