Coral Harbour, Nunavut – School and Community Visioning Sessions
As successful proponents for the Coral Harbour K-12 School in Nunavut, Parkin Architects Limited (Parkin) and Accutech Engineering Inc. (Accutech) presented at visioning sessions with the Mayor, council, local educational authorities, staff, students and the community. Several visioning sessions were conducted throughout the third week of January, 2020.
Each group was presented with a variety of activities that focused on gathering ideas for the renovations and expansion of the Sakku School. Idea sharing, the selection of architectural images, drawing activities, and writing news headlines for the future were just a few of the activities that took place amongst the various groups. The activities identified several important relationships, opportunities and challenges relating to the specialized needs of youth education within the unique cultural and environmental characteristics of Coral Harbour. The resultant information and ideas gathered enables Parkin/Accutech to identify key characteristics and goals for the Saku School’s redevelopment.
Parkin/Accutech’s goal is to gather as much information from the stakeholders and users to ensure that the renovations and expansion of the school meet the current and future needs of the students, staff, and the community. These projects are designed and built to provide the students and staff with a robust environment in which to learn and develop. The school plays an important role as a community facility: providing common spaces, multi-purpose rooms, and the gymnasium, for after-school use.
With a number of schools designed and built in the Arctic, Parkin/Accutech continues to learn from past experience. Each new project provides the team with the opportunity to apply lessons learned to the next facility. The use of Inuit IQ continues to influence our design and helps us to understand how to incorporate local knowledge. By incorporating these visioning sessions, we truly believe that we will create spaces that support the specific needs of education in Coral Harbour.