Indigenous narratives and esthetics are woven through the mass-timber construction emerging on Centennial College’s Progress campus, and the young architect behind the work hopes people demand more of that in the country’s future buildings.

Built on the shared territories of the Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe peoples, the zero-carbon building design incorporates creation stories from each along its main avenue, which leads visitors to a central roundhouse and on to an open kitchen ready for Indigenous faculty in Centennial’s culinary school (and others) to cater feasts.

“They’re very intricate narratives pertaining to Indigenous peoples, but the thing is that the whole thing is wrapped in this beautiful geometric pattern reminiscent of snakeskin or fish scales,” Eladia Smoke tells Canada’s National Observer.

In those naturally recurring patterns, the principal at Smoke Architecture said she hoped the college’s multicultural student body will be able to see their own artisanal works and textile patterns.

“We imagine this as a space that — because it is coming from an inspiration that is from the land we all share — as people enter … they’ll feel comfortable and be able to see a little bit of themselves in that space,” she said.

The design incorporates a gentle rise in the topography to create a stepped amphitheatre, mirrored outside and in, that is suitable for classwork or small group meetings based on the weather, Smoke said. The hall is inspired by midewigan, a pre-contact architectural form of simple bentwood framing “that barely encloses the space,” she said.

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