A Park For The Tsimshian Tribe
​Town of Prince Rupert, BC

This participatory design project began with broad outreach to engage the mostly indigenous place based population living around the location of an abandoned park. It had fallen into neglect mostly due to bureaucratic issues and funding problems, and not from a lack of love or use by the local community. At the request of the Transition Town-oriented mayor and native community, communitecture was asked to guide an iterative process of creative engagement and design, which has resulted in a visionary masterplan with numerous remarkable features that each reflect a value or dynamic that is vital. These include a covered basketball pavilion supported by four spirit poles that represent the four cultural quadrants of the native community; a spirit pole carving lodge and attached community gathering hall; numerous outdoor spaces for gathering and play, including a public square and a nature play area; community vegetable gardens and native habitat gardens for gathering food and building materials; a covered skate park; and numerous other features that display the wondrous characteristics of water flowing through gravity fed systems as it returns to the earth.