Fraser Lake's bid to build a cultural and economic cooperative got some key help from Vancouver's architect industry, which in turn looked to Prince George for some ideas.
For more than two years, a grassroots movement in the small Highway 16 town has been advancing the goal of a multi-use structure that would help stimulate and sustain a local economy buffeted by downturns in the natural resource sectors - forestry and mining, primarily.
"We are building community resiliency. It's all about healthy communities, self-reliant communities," said original proponent Shellie Gleave, who has led the formation of a steering committee that has explored the ways and means of getting the cooperative up and running.
Part of that effort was reaching out for Fraser Lake residents' input on what gaps and capacities there are within their community, seeking best practices from other communities that have done similar things, establishing support from the different levels of government, and getting feasibility input from professionals who have applicable knowledge.
The latter category got a significant boost when Inge Roecker and Chantelle Lupieri came on board. The project already had the attention of a number of departments at UNBC. One of the professors there, Guido Wimmers, an expert in passive houses and buildings with high energy performance, connected the proposal to these two figures in the Vancouver architecture industry.
Roecker is an associate professor at UBC's School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture and she is proprietor of AIR Studio, her own architecture firm.
Lupieri is a Master of Architecture candidate at UBC and works at AIR Studio.
The two of them were moved by the Fraser Lake proposal and offered their services pro bono.
To that end, they came to the area for a research trip before beginning their work on a building design. They knew it was essential to get a sense of the physical location where the building is proposed and a multi-sensory impression of the town and it's particular atmosphere.
"You could never do this kind of work without being on-site. You have to be on the ground. It was a good first impression. It sparked a lot of discussions," said Roecker, who has done similar initiatives in the past, some of them high-profile, like the Richmond Food Bank diversification project and the Vancouver Women's Health Collective that also, in addition to the architectural contributions, had a fundraising component that collected $350,000 for that cause.
The two spent multiple days in the region, touring not only Fraser Lake but also some multi-purpose facilities in nearby Prince George, picking up on northern B.C. innovations in social synergies. In addition to meetings at UNBC, they inspected places like the Native Friendship Centre, HUB Space, and the Community Arts Council's Studio 2880 complex.
All of these facilities have combinations of government, not-for-profit agencies and private enterprise infused into their workings. The way different social and business forces have been attracted together for mutual support and community development in these locations gave Roecker and Lupieri a specifically north-central picture of what combinations might work for Fraser Lake.
Lupieri, as the student, will do the bulk of the design work, with the close oversight of Roecker the teacher. It is a rare opportunity for an aspiring architect to work on blueprints that go beyond classroom theories.
"It's (class projects) not typically something that has a chance to ever be a real build, so this is really exciting for me to have a community contact. It's actual, practical, on the ground stuff, so I'm going to go back and do a lot more research," said Lupieri, who grew up in a small interior town herself (Trail). "The municipality (of Fraser Lake) gave us some maps and permitting documents we can look through so we can start to plan and organize our process. I'll also be looking at materials and sourcing, so that whatever comes out of this process can really represent the identity of the community and is a positive image they can project into the future."
Gleave was thrilled that a team with such a crucial skill-set became so interested in the Fraser Lake project.
"This co-op really represents five communities. Its not my baby, not just a Fraser Lake thing, because it will have a lot of importance also to (the adjacent communities of) Fort Fraser, Endako, Stellat'en First Nation and Nadleh Whut'en First Nation," said Gleave. "And we have other outside communities interested in what we're doing as well. It's still in its early growth process, but we are already showing other rural communities what can be possible."
One of the challenges of a design like this is drawing up a building that will accommodate the known inhabitants of the structure, once those commitments are made, but also be able to accommodate future unforeseen ideas that could be done at the same space.
"Everything is doable in phases," said Gleave. "One of the things we've had to stress (to Lupieri and Roecker) is the need to be adaptable over time. Once it's up and running, we have to expect people will see how the co-op would actually work for them, and they'll want to join in. And, all communities change over time, so we have to have a building that is ready for changes that inevitably happen."
"I personally think projects like these are amazing and I really think its such a great opportunity for students to experience this, because due to the way the system works, you can only do so much in the classroom," Roecker said. "We have to figure out how our communities, no matter where we live, can be sustainable, have a heart, have an identity. What Shellie's after is needed. It's simple but complex, and (the reason it hasn't gone ahead already) is because in modern times we tend to put things in boxes, but if we manage to do this it will be a place where so much could happen, and a real place for the community. In the city, I call it urban acupuncture so for this I'll call it rural acupuncture where you press on energy points that radiates to things far greater than the one place you injected the energy."
The first drafts of the design should be ready for the next round of public input sometime in the second quarter of 2019.
