New Indigenous gathering space opens at Queen’s University

Members of the Queen’s community recently gathered to celebrate the official opening of a new outdoor Indigenous gathering space on campus.

The new space, designed by Smoke Architecture, is located at the south end of Tindall Field, and will now serve as a place for learning, ceremony, and reflection.

“This is a teaching and learning space for the whole campus, with a focus on the teaching of Indigenous studies and giving Indigenous faculty a space where they can teach classes in the ways they have always taught, in the ways we have always come to know things,” said Kandice Baptiste, senior director, student inclusion, equity, and belonging, during remarks at the event.

“I look forward to seeing many classes here that are taught in circle and flipped from the traditional lecture style so that folks have an understanding of the history of this territory and are exposed to different ways of knowing and being on this campus. The land is our first teacher, and this is purposefully made to be in the land so that we can as a campus better understand our roles and responsibilities as human beings.”

The building is an outdoor classroom inspired by the wakaaigan | teaching lodge, a bentwood frame clad in wiigwaas | birchbark.

According to Smoke Architecture, the building was designed collaboratively with Indigenous faculty and advisors and is an outdoor-integrated learning space that is usable year-round. Accommodating a central fire and audio-visual capability, the space can be entirely enclosed or fully opened to the four cardinal directions using insulated rolling overhead doors.

The curved glulam frame and enclosure of cedar over bent ribs aims to celebrate the warmth and flexibility of wood, while daylighting from above connects the realms of sky and earth, according to Smoke Architecture. Additionally, they noted that the pre-contract form has been used for knowledge sharing from time immemorial to the present day in Anishinaabeg territories.

To achieve full accessibility to the nearby Indigenous learning suite in Mackintosh-Correy Hall, the complementary landscape works with existing topography and paths. Additionally, an existing service road is transformed into a pedestrian experience that has been naturalized with Indigenous plantings and lined with informal outdoor learning and seating areas.

Smoke Architecture collaborated with landscape architects Vertechs and Indigenous-led Spruce Labs to weave Indigenous principles back into the landscape, and with engineers Arup to reinterpret the bentwood precedent of the wakaaiigan.

Technical Sheet:

Location: Kingston, ON

Client: Queen’s University

Budget: $628,000

Size: 1000 sq. ft.

Status: Completed, 2023

Team Members: Eladia Smoke, Jennifer Kinnunen, Chelsea Jacobs

Landscape Architect: Vertechs Design, Spruce Labs

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