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HeadlinesIn Defence of the Architectural Vision of Peter Gzowski College Trent University Student Receives Prestigious Futures Fund Scholarship White Ribbon Campaign at Trent: Dec. 6 Trent University Recognizes Academic All-Canadians Trent University DNA Teaching and Research Facility Approved in Principle Trent's Board of Governors Approves Athletics Expansion Business Plan for Project's First Phase Trent University's Submission to the Rae Review Bonnie Patterson becomes vice-chair and chair-elect of AUCC Nominations Requested for the Ashley Fellow, 2005-2006 Trent University Launches Peter Gzowski College Campaign FeaturesCities Expert Professor Harry Kitchen Has A Hand in Local Government Reform in Russia and China Trent University Named "Research University of the Year" Click here for photos of Trent University's 40th Anniversary Party |
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| In Defence of the Architectural Vision of Peter Gzowski College | |||||
From Professor David Newhouse, Department of Native Studies Re. The Mugging of Thom's Trent – December 1, 2004 Enweying Reading a building, like reading a book, is an interesting exercise. We come to the reading with our own ideas, which often are not reflective of the intent of the author. We must, however, be prepared to enter into a dialogue with the author to deepen our understanding of the text and to see things that we may have missed. Lisa Rochon's reading of the new buildings at Trent is one reading among many. It presents the building using a vocabulary to tell the story of the building that was not in the minds of those of us involved in its design. There is another story to the building that can also be told. Our architectural vocabulary consisted of dialogue, community, celebration, respect, honour and beacon rather than hip, chic, modern, or poseur. Here's our reading. The new building at Trent is called Enweying, an Anishnaabe word meaning 'the way we speak together'. Enweying, to use our terminology, hosts the new Peter Gzowski College and the First Peoples House of Learning. The building consists of 250 residence rooms for students, 80 offices for faculty and staff, a dining hall and 12 lecture and seminar rooms. The College and the First Peoples House are intertwined with each other, each maintaining its own distinct entity yet living side by side, much as we are attempting to do in Canada. The siting of the building on a prominent location on the east side of the Otonabee River was chosen to represent two centres of learning in this land: the Bata library on the west bank represents the European heritage of the book; the Enweying building on the east side represents the Aboriginal heritage of the land. It sends an enormous statement about the new world that we are trying to create here at Trent: a place where indigenous knowledge is honoured as much as the knowledge of the European settlers of the last few hundred years who have come to dominate the land. The building itself was designed using a vision statement prepared by a group of prominent architects of Aboriginal heritage and non-Aboriginal heritage who worked closely with Trent faculty and students. We were highly conscious of the heritage of Ron Thom as we lived with it every day. This statement talks of the building as honouring the land, creating a respectful community of learners and acting as a beacon. The ground floor of the building is open to create a sense of sitting gently on the land, to be respectful of it. We began the construction process with an Anishnaabe ceremony to ask for forgiveness from the land and we ended the building process with a ceremony to ask the land to accept and honour what we had built upon it and to take care of it. The building then becomes a part of the spiritual community that is Trent. It adds to it a component that Ron Thom and Canadian society of the time could not have conceived of when designing Trent: a large, distinctive indigenous presence. The colours of the building are derived from the four colours of a medicine wheel: yellow, red, black and white. Yellow, which is the colour of the east, represents the rising sun, the dawn of a new day and new beginnings, hope; the entire building is clad in tiles coloured with Ochre #33. Red, the colour of the south, represents youth, energy and celebration. The First Peoples Gathering Space is clad in weathered steel, which will turn red as it rusts. The shape of the Gathering Space honours the Anishnaabe/Ojibway peoples of this area. The steel cladding was chosen to honour the legacy of the Mohawk/Iroquoian steelworkers, also from this territory. Black, the colour of the west, which represents growth and maturity was used for the trim of the windows. White, the colour of the north, represents spirit and wisdom. The white panels of the windows of the faculty offices and greyish metal of the building represent the white of the medicine wheel. The First Peoples House of Learning is a distributed space. It consists of six distinct elements spread throughout the building: a First peoples performance space (erroneously described as a "windowless lecture hall"), a gathering space, ceremonial space, an atrium/gallery with red lights (erroneously described as "a garish nightclub"), lecture hall and faculty offices. These elements are coloured red to ensure that they are visible and remain visible. The design of First Peoples Performance Space represents a rock lodged in the landscape: irregular and partly buried. This space is home to the work of the nation's first Canada Research Chair in Aboriginal Arts and Literature. The idea behind the distributed space is to reflect the distribution of Aboriginal Peoples throughout the country: that all Aboriginal Peoples are not in one place and to ensure that the encounter with aboriginality is everywhere and unexpected, much as it is in Canada. The Aboriginal elements were also designed to push the boundaries of Aboriginal representation. Trent has been extremely successful at pushing the academic boundaries in Aboriginal programming and now in making an outstanding contribution to the creation of places of dignity and respect for Aboriginal Peoples. The building was intended to stimulate dialogue. It is a fitting name for a building that hosts Peter Gzowski College, a man who made his living engaging in dialogue about Canada. The Enweying building, in its Aboriginal soul, is also a part of the soul of the Canadian Shield. The medieval castles of Ron Thom are rooted in a very different sensibility of the environment (sublime castles to gently lord over the drumlins). To say that representations of European medieval castles represent the soul of the Canadian Shield is to continue to ignore the presence of indigenous peoples on this land and to deny them a place in Canadian consciousness. This building is an attempt to bring an indigenous presence back to the consciousness of Canada. The ochre colour of the building represents a celebration of that heritage and of our survival. The building glass invites a dialogue with the environment rather than shutting the environment out in the style of European castles. It is to take a place alongside the drumlins not to lord over them. Using views from my own indigenous heritage, the world is a place of constant transformation, where everything changes and things are not always as they seem. What is timeless for us is the sense of community that we share and the respectful relationships that we favour. The physical forms will come and go and change over time. Even the drumlins change with time. They now accept this new entity among them and rejoice in its presence. This is another story of the building. Professor David Newhouse was the chair of the First Peoples House Design committee, is a member of the Department of Native Studies, and is the first Principal of Peter Gzowski College at Trent University.
From Susan Apostle-Clark, Vice President (Academic) Re. "The Mugging of Thom's Trent" - December 1, 2004 Ron Thom's contribution to the breathtaking natural setting that is so much a part of the Trent experience certainly provided the University with an extraordinarily beautiful point from which to evolve. However, over the last 30 years, the University has celebrated architectural integrity through diversity, by blending the work of at least a dozen architects. Dunlop Two Rows' introduction of colour to the campus is another innovation. Rochon overlooked the profound Aboriginal symbolism in this feature and many of the other elements of Peter Gzowski College and the First Peoples House of Learning. The Gathering, Ceremonial and Performance spaces (the latter of which Rochon refers to as a "windowless lecture hall") were thoughtfully designed to incorporate Aboriginal themes, most notably through the colours of the medicine wheel. At Trent University the intensity of our debates distinguishes us from other universities. The design of Trent's newest building draws heavily on the needs and vision of academics and students who desired a different intellectual environment to inspire performance, teaching and research. While some may have not embraced the new design, many are welcoming this next step in the evolution of distinctive architecture at the University. The design for the new college has taken considerable strides, incorporating residential, academic and administrative space while embracing Aboriginal culture and the educational needs of Aboriginal people -- testimony that architecture is indeed "an important intellectual experience" at Trent. Susan Apostle-Clark, Vice President (Academic)
From Michael A. Moxam, OAA, MAA, FRAIC December 2, 2004 To the Editor: We read, with interest, your article entitled "The Mugging of Thom's Trent," in the December 1st, 2004 issue. While we are not interested in debating Ms. Rochon's "opinion" of the project, (after all, everyone is entitled to one), we do take issue with The Globe and Mail's publication of an article that clearly has no foundation in research or investigation. The Enweying/Peter Gzowski College and First Peoples House of Learning is a complex project. It represents the largest single addition to the campus since its inception in 1963. The design concept balances not only the multi-faceted student, faculty and administrative requirements but also establishes a strong symbolic representation of this new cultural layer on campus. The article displays a lack of understanding of the project at a rudimentary level. For example, the "windowless lecture hall " referred to, is in fact, a Performance Space for the First Peoples House of Learning; a multi-use "black box" for dance, music and theatre. In pursuit of a serious critique of the project, responsible journalism would have demanded contact with the University and the Architect to gain a well rounded understanding of the concept. This contact was not attempted. The article's lack of rigor, or understanding, is clearly preoccupied with the "look" of the building. A true critique of Architecture requires a much deeper examination of the issues. Articles such as these are one of the few opportunities for the public to engage in, or be exposed to, a dialogue on Architecture. It is unfortunate that The Globe and Mail is unable to provide a critical perspective that achieves more than an uninformed personal opinion. I believe our City and our Profession deserve better. Sincerely, Michael A. Moxam, OAA, MAA, FRAIC Posted December 3, 2004 |
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