CASE STUDY

Initial research by: Desiree Theriault

Edited by: Samantha Miller & Nicole Brekelmans

Case study compiled in 2017

 

 

Project: Iqaluit Municipal Cemetery

Type of Urban Strategy: Indigenous

Type of Project: Indigenous Resurgence

Location: Iqaluit, Nunavut

Date Designed/Planned: 2013

Construction Completed: 2014

Designer: LEES + Associates

 

 

The Iqaluit Municipal Cemetery portrays a story of Indigenous Resurgence by transforming the Indigenous community's perception of what a cemetery can be. The project looks to respond to the local and traditional knowledge of the community and provide a meaningful space of gathering, process, and memory. 

 

Designed in association with the Iqaluit community and Landscape Architects, LEES + Associates, the Iqaluit Municipal Cemetery achieves resurgence through actions and process. The community-driven design provides empowerment through the people of Iqaluit by utilizing local craftsman and traditional operations to create a contextual cemetery that prides itself on traditional burial and adaptive sacred spaces. The design embraces minimalism and ecological fortitude by creating a series of pathways with traditional materials that respond to the flooding on the site, in conjunction with a community management plan that looks to preserve and engage the tundras’ changes with permafrost.  

"The cemetery makes an eloquent statement, a blending of time, honouring those that have passed with the current landscape and the people that live within it." (ASLA, 2018)