Location: Laurentian Main campus, room C-112
1.5 ConEd Learning Hours
1.5 AIA LU
1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Science North, Canada’s second-largest science centre, is embarking on an exciting expansion. With a mandate to serve all of Northern Ontario, it is building two new science centres in Kenora and Thunder Bay that will be hubs of hands-on science learning and beacons of net-zero sustainable building design.
Geography prevents many Northern Ontarians from directly accessing a physical science centre, and there is a demonstrated lack of place-based educational opportunities in Northwestern Ontario. In addition to building tourism anchors in Kenora and Thunder Bay, the centres will contribute to economic diversity and job creation across the North. Design and planning are underway for both the architectural design and the visitor experience, informed by extensive community engagement with Northern communities, many of them remote and Indigenous.
The Science North project team includes the design team of Reich&Petch/Two Row Architects (visitor experience), and the Northwest Design Collaborative (architectural team) led by Moriyama & Teshima Architects, Brook McIlroy, FormStudio Architects, and Nelson Architecture.
Learning Objectives
- Understand how to incorporate culturally responsive perspectives in an ongoing manner throughout a project and early design phases.
- Embrace the benefits of community engagement from the beginning of a project, in collaboration and consultation rather than approval-gathering.
- Learn a variety of formal and informal methods of gathering community input on architecture and visitor experiences.
- Weave in Indigenous practices and technologies throughout the landscape, building, and exhibit design, as a storytelling and learning opportunities. Create relevance by designing a building whose story is rooted in the surrounding lands.
Ashley LaRose is the CEO of Science North, Canada’s second largest science centre and Northern Ontario’s most popular tourist attraction. She received her honour’s degree in biology from the University of Waterloo and completed her master’s of science at Laurentian University. Ashley is a passionate scientist who spent the earlier part of her career working as a research scientist in cities across North America, including bringing cutting-edge genomic techniques to world-renowned freshwater research. The recipient of Greater Sudbury’s 40 under 40 Award in 2019, she has also served on numerous boards and committees, including Cambrian College’s International Business Advisory Committee, Themed Entertainment Association North American Board, City of Sudbury Development Committee, and the Northern Ontario School of Medicine’s Board of Directors.
Brian Rudy, Partner, Moriyama Teshima Architects is deeply passionate about the poetry of architecture and is, in equal measure practical about how great architecture gets realized. Cultural projects are similarly born out of a societal need to tell its stories, but often with limited resources. It is this combination of poetry and practicality that has made Brian one of the leaders of Moriyama Teshima Architects cultural portfolio for the last 20 years. Brian’s strong design leadership searches out meaningful and right-sized solutions which place sustainability and cultural sensitivity at the very heart of the design.
Brian also has a wide breadth of experience in educational, performing arts, and transportation projects, building his reputation as a stalwart leader on large, complex, national, and international projects ranging from the Governor General’s award-winning Canadian War Museum to the Etihad Museum in Dubai, and the multi-billion-dollar P3 Gordie Howe International Bridge. Other significant projects include the Waterloo Region Museum, Queenston Plaza Border Crossing Complex, Niagara Falls History Museum, and Place des Arts Francophone Cultural Centre in Sudbury. A strong believer in the sustainable practice of adaptive re-use, Brian has also led several innovative projects including Discovery Centre in Halifax which is repurposed from a pre-existing power plant turbine hall, and the Humber College Building G project, a heritage designated administration building of the former Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital.