Azrieli Global Studio 2019

Extreme Potentialities
The Azrieli Global Studio, Technion Israel Institute of Technology

The Azrieli Global Studio program is a collaborative initiative between McGill University in Montreal, Carleton University in Ottawa, Tel Aviv University, and the Technion Israel Institute of Technology, with the Azrieli Foundation’s support. The common theme for the studio at the four schools concerns architecture in extreme environments. The present book includes student projects from the Technion. Our group concentrated on the future of the Canadian territory of Nunavut and its capital city Iqaluit. Iqaluit expresses the challenges for First Nation communities to adapt their traditional way of living with the current movements toward a globalized economy and its social sustainability. The extreme environmental conditions of Nunavut contribute to reaching a balance between preserving local cultures and acting as a region that is connected to the rest of the globe. Iqaluit is located along the Baffin Island in Frobisher Bay. The island is known for its ice-capped mountains and tundra valleys. Iqaluit rapidly evolved from a small fishing village to a town with non-Inuit populations’ arrival when the United States and Canadian governments declared it as a strategic site for its military deployment during World War II. With the American military’s departure in 1963, Canada pursued its administrative and logistical activities in the town that included a total of 1400 residents. Iqaluit became the capital city of the newly declared Nunavut nation in 1995. It now hosts one of the most advanced northern communications technology infrastructures as a sign of its inclusion globally. Iqaluit expresses these extreme conditions set by its local culture and its international stature, its remote geography, and its central positioning on the continent’s edge. In this context, The Azrieli Global Studio aims to address these intertwined extremities. The following student works reveal the multiple aspects of this mostly unknown reality. Iqaluit holds the traces of tragic histories between communities that finally decided to work together yet without forgetting their respective pasts. We would like to give special thanks to the Azrieli Foundation Canada-Israel for their generous support, making this important project possible.