In May 2023, the One House Many Nations team, as part of the Architects Against Housing Alienation – Not For Sale! campaign, showcased our ‘Housing As Cosmology’ installation for the Canadian Pavillon during the opening of the 2023 Biennale Architettura in Venice, Italy. The exhibition is a protest and a call to action that runs until November 2023.
Our proposal is for the establishment of Housing Design Lodges to be built in first nations communities that would serve as a vital resource for maintaining existing homes and making it possible to design and build new homes within communities as determined by communities. It would serve as a hub and meeting place to promote the existing skills, capabilities, and to support the imagination and aspirations of community members. It also would create an inter-community network of housing production and skill-based resources for reserves to achieve housing sovereignty within and between First Nations communities.
Our team are a talented and dedicated group of Activists, Architects and Advocates working together to address the housing crisis in what is now known as Canada. The project Architects Against Housing Alienation! (AAHA!) @aaha.ca is comprised of 10 teams, representing various communities and First Nations reserves in the prairies and proposes radical changes to the harmful systems that have displaced and oppressed many across the country for too long. This team included David Fortin with AAHA, Dr. Alex Wilson, Sylvia McAdam, Lancelot Coar, Shawn Bailey, and Jason Surkan. Noting amazing contributions from Luxmy Ragunathan, Laurie Aftanas, Naomi Ratte, Celina Rios-Nadeau, Matthew Baker, The Prairie Climate Centre , The Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions, Honoure Black and the inspiring students of Decolonizing Design in the Department of Architecture at the University of Manitoba: Lauren Bennett, Vienna Castanaga, Brooke De Rocquigny, Danton Derksen, Devin Dushanek, Daniella Fernandez Romero, Hyeonji Kwon, Mackenzie Loewen, Mahbod Noroozi Babasheikhali, Paul Valencia, Yi Wang!
“After working on our installation for over a year it’s finally time for the Venice Biannale! One House Many Nations is a part of the Architects Against Housing Alienation exhibit at the Canada pavilion. The world will know about the housing crisis in First Nations and other indigenous communities and our solutions and demands and hopefully there will be some shift. Thanks to everyone on our team.” – Alex Wilson
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In collaboration with Architects Against Housing Alienation (AAHA) as stated on their website,
Federal funding for housing on reserves typically goes directly to the construction of houses as products to meet the urgent demands of existing shortages and deplorable housing conditions. We believe that investing in Home Building Design Lodges tied to housing manufacturing facilities, on reserves, can instead build capacity within communities by grounding the production of houses, and/or their components, in community values, language, and education.
We demand that necessary funding be directed towards a pilot Home Building Design Lodge (full name to be determined later by the community) and manufacturing facility at Opaskwayak Cree Nation (OCN) that could include partnerships with various education and industry partners. The manufacturing facility will be designed to manufacture housing components including the innovative universal utility core, which is being developed by OCN Housing to assist Northern and remote First Nations to improve their housing construction programs. However, this project transcends the manufacturing facility. It introduces the development of a Home Building Design Lodge as a new community centre that is woven into existing educational infrastructure. The Design Lodge establishes a hub for multigenerational teachings and learning about community-led design and making. The centre is a catalyst to disrupt current housing delivery models and allows the community to self-determine their housing future over generations. Moreover, it is a pilot for other communities that is scalable and adaptable, depending on that community’s needs and capacities. This project promotes housing as cosmology, not commodity. (AAHA.ca)
