TIME: 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM
Description
The University of Toronto Scarborough's Indigenous House is its first landmark buildings to answer the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's 94 Calls to Action in built form. It grew out of Answering the Call / Wecheehetowin, the University's response to the TRC, and it put a difficult question to its design team: how does a campus organized around Western, Eurocentric ways of knowing make room for a holistic knowledge system in which all living things are related?
Formline Architecture in association with LGA Architectural Partners was selected to answer it. Sited on a rise at the terminus of Centennial Circle overlooking the forested ravine, the building holds ceremonial, teaching and gathering space in direct relationship to the land: medicine garden, community kitchen and outdoor ceremonial ground are part of the architecture, not a landscape applied to it.
Design Principal Alfred Waugh and Drew Adams from LGA Architectural Partners will trace the project from consultation through completion — how Elders, students and community shaped the plan; how cultural values were carried into tectonics, craft and materiality rather than applied as ornament; how wood gives an institutional building warmth and identity; and how sustainable strategies were drawn from Indigenous precedent — The insulated wigwam structure, displacement ventilation in the longhouse — rather than from a checklist.
For architects, students and institutional clients, the session offers a working method for designing with Indigenous communities, and a clear-eyed case for what reconciliation asks of architecture.
Learning Objectives
- Integration of Building and Landscape — Examine how siting, orientation and exterior ceremonial space, medicine garden and ravine edge can be developed as one continuous project rather than as separate building and landscape packages.
- Developing Cultural Identity Through Building Tectonics — Learn how consultation with Elders and community is translated into structure, craft and material detail, and how to do so without pastiche or appropriating the forms of a single Nation
- Innovative Use of Wood in Institutional Projects — Review the structural, code, cost and fabrication decisions behind exposed wood construction in a public institutional building, and where wood carries cultural as well as technical value.
Presenters:
Alfred V. Waugh, President, Founder, & Principal, Formline Architecture + Urbanism
Alfred V. Waugh emerges as a trailblazing Indigenous architect in Canada, renowned for innovative designs that honor cultural and environmental values. Born in Yellowknife to an English-heritage prospector father and a Fond du Lac Denesuline mother, he cherished summers on Great Slave Lake, fostering his independent creativity.
Graduating with a Urban and Regional Analysis degree from Lethbridge (1989) and honors in architecture from UBC (1993)—as its first full-status Indigenous alumnus—Waugh designed the award-winning Nicola Valley Institute of Technology at Busby Perkins + Will, securing a 2004 Governor-General’s Medal.
Through Formline Architecture + Urbanism, founded in 2005, he defines contemporary Indigenous architecture. Highlights include the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre (2009), First Peoples House at UVic (2010), and the UBC Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre (2022 Governor-General’s Medal winner), lauded for material symbolism and inclusivity.
In 2025, his firm advances with the Indigenous House at UTSC, shaping architecture trends—and Saskatoon's New Central Library, with mass timber progress underscoring sustainable innovation and the award of the commission to redesign the Vancouver Art Gallery with KPMB. Waugh's work inspires diverse communities, bridging Indigenous ways of knowing and western knowledge.
Drew Adams, Senior Associate, LGA
Tanya Senk, Director, Indigenous Initiatives & Indigenous House, University of Toronto
Pricing:
Licensed OAA Members: $42.50 + HST
OAA Interns and Students: $32.50 + HST
Non-Members: $63.00 + HST
NOTE:
1. An automatically generated confirmation will be emailed to you (once your registration goes through)
2. Please mark the time and date in your calendar
3. The OAA will email the Zoom Access Link to you one-day prior
4. OAA webinars are delivered via Zoom: Please check this Zoom Test Link or speak with your IT Consultant ahead of time, to ensure your device is compatible with Zoom. For technical concerns, please see the Zoom links for Technical Requirements and also their Download Centre.
For more information on the OAA Webinar Series click here.
If you have any questions or concerns, contact
OAA Continuing Education
e: OAAContinuingEducation@oaa.on.ca
t: 416.449.6898 Ext: 232
Attendance Policy: Members are required to attend at least 80% of a webinar in order to qualify for Continuing Education learning hours.
Cancellation Policy: Cancellations must be made at least 48 hours prior to the webinar in order to receive a refund. Webinar fees are not refunded if the cancellation is received after the deadline or if you are unable to attend.
Note: When registering for an OAA ConEd Webinar, please ensure you are using your Individual, rather than your Practice, account.