The Nunavik Hackathon 2017

The Nunavik Hackathon 2017 was an initiative that mobilized the community of Kuujjuaaq to conceive and build a shelter for the town’s outdoor skating rink in just four days. The event brought together a range of community stakeholders, in a community design project, which explored the possibilities of up-cycling available materials, and actively designing for community based needs. The event, organized by McGill university and the Village of Kuujjuaq worked to build on ideas generated from the 21st CCA inter-university design Charrette: Reassembling the North. The team collected various items from the village dump, repurposing them as building materials from which they built an outdoor community pavilion/shelter. The structure is wedged between two outdoor sport arenas, including a baseball field to the south and a skating rink to the north. The Pavilion includes outdoor bleachers that provide a dugout space behind the baseball field, a shelter for the skating rink, and a performance stage that fronts both spaces. The pavilion activates the adjacent sports arenas and creates a central node of activity for the area. As a shared activity, the hackathon provides a unique precedent that was able to bring a range of people and agencies together. This event challenges governments, schools, and architectural practices to adopt a more collaborative approach to policymaking and design leadership in northern Canada and has been instrumental in valourizing the rich design/ build culture that already exists within the north.