Interweaving the past and present through architecture was one of the underlying themes at a plenary session titled Fish, Architecture and Economics at the national Festival of Architecture held in Calgary from June 3-6.
The presenters included Shorefast Foundation founder Zita Cobb, architect Todd Saunders, and Nick Herder, who is also part of the Shorefast Foundation project design team.
The Shorefast Foundation is a Fogo Island-based charity that aims to create "a meaningful contribution to the continued cultural, economic and social resiliency of small communities and develop a model that can serve as guide for others interested in contributing to the vibrancy of contemporary rural communities."
Fogo Island is Newfoundland and Labrador’s largest offshore island.
It has a population of about 2,500 people.
Cobb, a native of Fogo Island, started the Foundation in 2003 to revitalize the island’s 400-year history through facilitating "artistic practice that is local in context and global in scope"; supporting economic diversification through "the development of a world-renowned geo-tourism industry"; and to position Fogo Island as "a leading centre for a progressive ocean ethic."
Capitalizing on the knowledge and traditions of Fogo Island’s people is important to Cobb and the work of the Shorefast Foundation.
"People who live in little places have a very special relationship with the natural world," she said.
"We should pay close attention to not losing little communities, as we will all be dumber."
To help achieve the foundation’s aim of revitalizing Fogo Island, the foundation spearheaded the building of the 29-room Fogo Island Inn and four artists’ studios, each different, in which visiting artists can work.
The conception and achievement of these projects was the focus of Fish, Architecture and Economics.
Cobb emphasizes that "place," itself, is not a commodity.
However, she said, one of the most important ingredients in the architecture equation is "working with the community to create a greater sense of place."
"Architects are responsible for creating communities," she said.
In fact, Cobb likens the world to a cauliflower, in which each community – or intensely local place – is a floret, and the architects form part of the cauliflower’s connective stem.
The major question facing the architect responsible for creating the inn and studios was how to express, in contemporary architecture, what "Islanders" have learned in 400 years of clinging to the rock that is Fogo Island.
The foundation hired Todd Saunders of Saunders Architecture to do just that.
Saunders said he had to contemplate how to define new Newfoundland architecture, which was contemporary, yet incorporated island history. It would also need to not look out of place alongside existing structures.
A native Newfoundlander himself, Saunders said he could dip into the experience he had of growing up among small Newfoundland shacks, architecture he defines as honest and simple.
In addition, he had to take into account the studios’ physical requirements: natural light; spaces for the artists to work outside when both sunny and rainy; and the inclusion of a large, white room in which to create.
Saunders said the mantra for the project was: "Nature first, architecture second."
As such, the buildings were erected on wooden platforms to protect the underlying landscape.
Furthermore, their exterior colours are reflective of the landscape: black (echoing the night sky), grey (resembling the Newfoundland fogs) and white (suggestive of the snow and ice that covers the ground for much of the year).
The studios range in size from 30 square metres to 50 sq.m., while the inn is 4,000 sq.m. and incorporates several amenities including a restaurant, small movie theatre, library, art gallery and roof-top sauna.
The studios are off the grid, as they include such features as solar panels, rainwater collection systems, composting toilets and wood-burning stoves.
Saunders said many of the carpenters employed in the building of the projects had experience crafting boats.
Consequently, unlike most architecture projects, the team employed small models during construction, rather than standard architectural drawings.
Saunders also overturned architectural convention when he designed one of the inn’s buildings based on the parameters engineers provided him at the outset of the design process, rather than waiting to modify the structure according to engineering calculations later on.
He said he developed a sense of pride among the whole crew working on the project by soliciting opinions from everyone along the way.
"It was an inclusive process. I was an equal with the 200 other people working on the project," he said.
Even the inn’s furniture and décor was designed with Fogo Island’s history.
Saunders says he learned that the use of time in a project is extremely important."
"With this project, we took the time to ask questions, to reflect on things," he said.
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