Futurecasting collection
2008-2023
CD048
“Futurecasting: Indigenous-led Architecture and Design in the Arctic” was an indigenous led seminar and charette held in the context of the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) exhibition “ᐊᖏᕐᕋᒧᑦ / Ruovttu Guvlui / Towards home” presented from June 11th, 2022, to March 26th, 2023. It was developed by Nicole Luke, Inuk architectural designer, and Gunvor Guttorm, Professor of duodji (Sámi arts and crafts, traditional art, applied art) at Sámi University College, in collaboration with the CCA. It consisted of the gathering of a group of Indigenous architecture students and emerging practitioners across Turtle Island, Inuit Nunangat, and Sápmi Territory, to discuss the future of Indigenous-led architecture in Northern communities. [1] From these discussions and collaborative research, each participant created a piece that was presented in the “ᐊᖏᕐᕋᒧᑦ / Ruovttu Guvlui / Towards home” exhibition. Futurecasting was formed by Jenni Hakovirta, Naomi Ratte, Nicole Luke, Magnus Antaris Tuolja, Andrea McIntosh, Robyn Adams, Berit Kristine Andersen Guvsám, Laila Susanna Kuhmunen, Johanna Minde, and Reanna Merasty.
The first Futurecasting activity consisted of an online seminar held in January-February 2022. This seminar gathered four Indigenous mentors and participants to present on and discuss four themes: land, indigenous knowledge, north and south relation, and home. Each subject was presented by one of the mentors, respectively Shawn Bailey, Assistant Professor at University of Manitoba, Gunvor Guttorm, Professor of duodji (Sámi arts and crafts, traditional art, applied art) at Sámi University College, Helena Lennert, Architect at firm TNT Nuuk, and David Fortin, Associate Professor at Laurentian University. From this, the Futurecasting participants were to start elaborating ideas and gathering references of indigenous design work they could use as inspiration to create their own pieces. This online seminar was an introduction for Futurecasting participants but also aimed to initiate the collaborative research for the later in-person workshop.
Following this seminar, two in-person workshops were held: one in Guovdageaidnu (Kautokeino) in Sápmi Territory, Norway, from April 25th to May 1st, 2022, and one in Montréal, Canada, from October 12th to 15th, 2022. The workshop in Guovdageaidnu (Kautokeino) was a workshop held “on the land”: “Over the course of the workshop, participants will create speculative design projects while being out on the land. The emphasis during this workshop will be to collect processual material rather than producing a fully resolved design project.” [2] This included presentations from duodji professors Gunvor Guttorm, Joar Nango, and Sunniva Skålnes, on material, building tradition and gardening traditions; duodji workshops; and the gathering of material and the construction of a luovvi, a traditional Sámi storage room. The Guovdageaidnu (Kautokeino) workshop also included a snowmobile day expedition. Gunvor Guttorm, Reanna Merasty, Robyn Adams, Naomi Ratte, Jenni Hakovirta, Magnus Antaris Tuolja, Nicole Luke, Laila Susanna Kuhmunen, Berit Kristine Andersen Guvsám, and Johanna Minde were present at the Guovdageaidnu (Kautokeino) workshop.
The workshop in Montréal, Canada, was for the participants to present their work and attend a series of seminar on Indigenious led architecture and its future. The workshop consisted of individual presentations by Futurecasting participants. It also included a lecture by Tiffany Shaw, a Métis architect and artist, the exhibition designer, a lecture by Ange Loft, Kanien’kehá:ka performance artist, about the history of Tiotia:ke / Montréal, and a research workshop which included the consultation of material from the CCA collection selected by Futurecasting participants. The Montréal workshop ended at Kahnawà:ke with an outdoor meeting and a tour of the Kanien’kehá:ka Onkwawén:na Raotitióhkwa (KOR) Language and Cultural Center Museum. Jenni Hakovirta, Johanna Minde, Magnus Tuolja, Naomi Ratte, Reanna Merasty, and Robyn Adams, and Nicole Luke were present at the Montréal workshop.
Participants’ biographies:
Robyn Adams is a Red River Métis citizen of the Manitoba Métis Federation. She is currently a student at the University of British Columbia in Vanouver, where she studies for a dual masters in architecture and landscape architecture. She also holds an Honours Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in sculpture and film photography from the University of Manitoba. She is a multidisciplinary artist and her practice “interrogates relationships with the land and water through the intricate weaving of Indigenous knowledge, ceremony, art and architecture. She seeks to create an architecture of poetic joy, alongside the matriarchs that have helped steward a sense of home for Indigenous communities through the dark times so that we may be able to forge paths into brighter futures.” [3] As a member of Futurecasting group, she presented the piece “Wasushk Watapa / Rat River /Rivière aux Rats" in the CCA exhibition “ᐊᖏᕐᕋᒧᑦ / Ruovttu Guvlui / Towards home.”
Berit Kristine Andersen Guvsám is a duodjár (Sámi craftsperson) from Steinkjer, in Norway, with connections to Divtasvuodna in the Lule Sámi area. She has a master’s degree in duodji from Sámi allaskuvla (Sámi University of Applied Science) in Guovdageaidnu (Kautokeino) in Norway. “Traditional duodje from the Lule Sámi area is the base of her practice.” [4] She works with traditional material and collected material from nature, as well as with textiles and soft material. [5] As a member of the Futurecasting group, she presented the piece “Majt vuojná” in the CCA exhibition “ᐊᖏᕐᕋᒧᑦ / Ruovttu Guvlui / Towards home.”
Jenni Hakovirta is a Sámi architect and PhD researcher in Indigenous and Sámi architecture at the Oulu School of Architecture. She completed a bachelor’s in architecture from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow and has a master’s degree in architecture from Oulu School of Architecture. “Her research examines Saami communities’ and society’s relationships with prevalent Western architectural practices and history of built environment. She specifically examines agency and power relations as part of architecture and its processes.” [6] As a member of the Futurecasting group, she presented the piece “Päikki” in the CCA exhibition “ᐊᖏᕐᕋᒧᑦ / Ruovttu Guvlui / Towards home.”
Laila Susanna Kuhmunen is a duodjár living both in the Lule Sámi and the North Sámi cultures. She studied in the two-year program in duodji at the Sámi Education Centre in Jokkmokk and has a master’s degree in duodji from the Sámi allaskuvla (Sámi University of Applied Science) in Guovdageaidnu (Kautokeino) in Norway. [7] “Laila Susanna’s creativity emanates from the traditional duodji, Sámi handicraft, but at the same time it also expresses itself through methods that are a symbiosis of both the traditional and the modern.” [8] As a member of the Futurecasting group, she presented the piece “It’s a love story” in the CCA exhibition “ᐊᖏᕐᕋᒧᑦ / Ruovttu Guvlui / Towards home.”
Nicole Luke is an Inuk architectural designer born in Yellowknife, in Northwest Territories, Canada, but grew up in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Her family is originally from Rankin and Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut, Canada. She studied Environmental Design at the University of Manitoba, in Winnipeg, in 2019, and a master’s degree in architecture, also at the University of Manitoba, in 2021. “Due to her exposure of urban areas, she is focused on the design realities communities face within rural and non-rural areas and believes the built environment is a key factor to socio-economic agency. She is committed to indigenous initiatives and well-being as well as sustainable building practices.” [9] Nicole Luke is also an Ilinniaqtuit (students / learners) at Inuit Futures, an Inuit-led organization with the mission to supports Inuit and Inuvialuit with artistic initiatives for their communities by providing mentorship and training. [10] Nicole Luke was a co-organizer as well as a member of Futurecasting group and presented the piece “Past memories, Future ideas” in the exhibition “ᐊᖏᕐᕋᒧᑦ / Ruovttu Guvlui / Towards home.”
Andrea McIntosh is an architect and a member of the Fisher River Cree Nation in Manitoba, Canada. She completed a bachelor’s in neuroscience and mental health with a minor in psychology from Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario, in 2017, as well as a master’s in architecture, also from Carleton University, in 2022. As of 2024, she was an intern at Farrow Partnership Architects in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. “She is interested in the coexistence and mutual flourishing of architectural, neuroscientific and indigenous perspectives of health and well-being. Her master's research on Psychedelic Architectures explores a taxonomy of psychedelic ceremonial spaces and establishes a theory of complementary care epistemologies for psychedelic mental health treatment facility design.” [11] As a member of the Futurecasting group, she presented the piece “Aggregates of Gatherings” in the CCA exhibition “ᐊᖏᕐᕋᒧᑦ / Ruovttu Guvlui / Towards home.”
Reanna Merasty is an architect and Nihithaw artist of Barren Lands First Nation on Reindeer Lake in northern Manitoba, Canada. In 2019, she graduates with a bachelor degree in environmental design at the University of Manitoba, in Winnipeg. In 2021, she graduates with a master’s degree in architecture, also from the University of Manitoba. While studying at University of Manitoba, she co-founded the Indigenous Design and Planning Student Association. [12] She is a member of the Royal Architecture Institute of Canada Climate Action Plan Steering Committee and Indigenous Task Force. She is an intern at Number Ten Architectural Group, an architectural firm based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She is also a research assistant at the One House Many Nations, an initiative by the Indigenous-led ongoing protest movement Idle No More to address the housing crisis that First Nations and other Indigenous communities are facing in Canada. [13] As a member of the Futurecasting group, she presented the piece “Akâmihk: Raised by water” in the CCA exhibition “ᐊᖏᕐᕋᒧᑦ / Ruovttu Guvlui / Towards home.”
Johanna Minde is an architect and a duodjár based in Stockholm, Sweden. She studied architecture at the Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige universitet (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) from 2020 to 2022 and has a master’s degree in architecture from Kungliga Tekniska högskolan in Stockholm, where she studied from 2022 to 2025. She creates handicrafts working with traditional materials. As a member of the Futurecasting group, she presented the piece “Vuhttot” in the CCA exhibition “ᐊᖏᕐᕋᒧᑦ / Ruovttu Guvlui / Towards home.”
Naomi Ratte is a landscape architect from the Peguis First Nation from Manitoba, Canada. She has a master’s in landscape architecture from University of Manitoba, in Winnipeg. During her master studies, her work “focused on exploring past narratives and dreamt into ways to form new stories and connections in her community’s traditional territory at the mouth of the Red River near Selkirk, Manitoba.” [14] She is a consultant at NVision Insight Group, a majority Indigenous-owned consulting company. Her work consists of providing "support on projects related to territorial park design, interpretive planning, traditional knowledge studies including interviews, mapping and much more.” [15] She is also a co-chair of the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects Reconciliation Advisory Committee. As a member of the Futurecasting group, she presented the piece “Lost Natures” in the CCA exhibition “ᐊᖏᕐᕋᒧᑦ / Ruovttu Guvlui / Towards home.”
Magnus Antaris Tuolja is a duodjár from Västra Götaland county in Sweden. He started by studying architecture at the Umeå universitet in Umeå, Sweden, but went on studying cultural preservation at University of Gothenburg and graduated in 2024. He works on Sámi building conservation and preservation of traditional Sámi architecture and building traditions, as well as studying and restoring sites traditionally occupied by Sámi people. As a member of the Futurecasting group, he presented the piece “Vuhttot” in the CCA exhibition “ᐊᖏᕐᕋᒧᑦ / Ruovttu Guvlui / Towards home.”
Sources:
[1] Canadian Centre for Architecture (2022). Open call: Futurecasting: Indigenous-led Architecture and Design in the Arctic, page 2. Futurecasting Collection (CD048.S1.003). Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montréal, Québec
[2] Ibid
[3] “About + Contact,” Robyn Adams, https://www.robynadams.ca/contact/, last accessed January 14th, 2025.
[4] “Architecture of Aroha: Gunvor Guttorm, Berit Kristine Andersen Guvsám, Inga Ravna Eira, Tanya Reihana White and Jasmine Te Hira,” Object Space, https://www.objectspace.org.nz/exhibitions/architecture-of-aroha/, last accessed January 14th, 2025.
[5] Ibid
[6] “Sisältöä avainsanalle participatory planning : Jenni Hakovirta,” University of Oulu, https://www.oulu.fi/en/researchers/jenni-hakovirta, last accessed January 14th, 2025.
[7] “Artic Highways. Virtual Exhibition,” Mötesplats Granö, https://motesplatsgrano.se/arctic-lsk-pres/, last accessed January 15th, 2025.
[8] Ibib
[9] “Inuit Futures Ilinniaqtuit“, Inuit Futures, https://www.inuitfutures.ca/home, last accessed January 15th, 2025.
[10] “Our mission“, Inuit Futures, https://www.inuitfutures.ca/home, last accessed January 15th, 2025.
[11] From Andrea McIntosh Linkedin profile, https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrea-mcintosh-5b653860/?originalSubdomain=ca, last accessed January 15th, 2025.
[12] “Reanna Merasty,” Indspire, https://indspire.ca/laureate/reanna-merasty/, last accessed January 15th, 2025.
[13] “About,” One House Many Nations, https://www.ohmn.ca/about/, last accessed January 15th, 2025.
[14] “Naomi Ratte,” NVision Insight Group, https://nvisiongroup.ca/dipl-team-member/naomi-ratte/, last accessed January 15th, 2025.
[15] “Naomi Ratte,” ASLA 2025: Beyond Boundaries, https://www.aslaconference.com/fsPopup.asp?efp=RUJaRktMWE0xODIxMg&PresenterID=1814919&rnd=0.5476&mode=presenterinfo, last accessed January 15th, 2025.
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