WINNER OF A 2023 CANADIAN ARCHITECT AWARD OF EXCELLENCE
The building reads as an extension of the landscape filled with natural light and the warm hue of mass timber. The simple approach to the roof carried by the galloping mass timber forms is uplifting and peaceful. This is a sublime project. — Omar Gandhi, juror
An active community, the equestrian cultural legacy of the Peoples of Frog Lake, and the land itself combine to create an almost new type of community centre. The open and curved vault is distinctive and approachable, and shows great promise for creating an inspiring shared space for horses and people, under a mass timber structure and atop an earthen floor. — Claire Weisz, juror
For residential school survivors and others who have experienced trauma, connecting with people can be difficult. Frog Lake First Nations, based on prairie land about 210 km east of Edmonton, has long recognized the therapeutic value of horse-human relationships. The Frog Lake First Nations’ Children & Family, Intervention/Prevention Horse Healing Centre offers healing through traditional and modern methods centred on interaction between humans and horses.
The Centre’s program encompasses mental health, victim services, aftercare, a wellness court, cultural and ceremonial spaces, a museum, and activity spaces for children and youth. These are all clustered around a 28-horse stable and 1,150-square-metre indoor riding arena with viewing stands, tack stalls, and an indoor round pen.
Nestled into the rolling landscape, the Centre rises to the north and transitions down to a lower south elevation. Locally sourced Spruce-Pine-Fir (SPF) glulam beams, configured in free-flowing curves, support the large, open central span. The building’s organic lines draw a parallel between horses’ tails and manes, and the ribbons that the people of Frog Lake use to articulate dancing and spiritual expression.
Throughout the Centre, even the spaces that do not allow for physical interaction between people and horses offer views of horses, typically with steeds and humans finding themselves at eye level. In the stable, portals allow horses to peek their heads through to socialize with clients and other horses. In their proportions, the meeting rooms and offices overlooking the indoor riding arena from the north echo the dimensions of the horse stalls that line the arena’s south side.
In addition to the Centre, the site houses ancillary buildings, paddocks, pastures, an outdoor riding area, ceremonial grounds, children’s play space, an amphitheatre, and healing gardens.
This project targets net-zero and carbon-neutral status, using passive sun, wind, and water strategies, as well as solar panels and a geothermal loop. The site operates entirely on electricity and generates its own resources: it is not connected to a gas line.
The natural topography is leveraged to collect surface runoff in a retention pond that functions as skating rink in winter. Decommissioned oil well sites are reclaimed and used as overflow parking lots for large community events and cultural gatherings.
Thin, horizontally staggered, thermally treated cedar planks clad much of the exterior, contrasting with stone collected from the land, which clads the round, projecting volumes of a cultural room and the museum. On the interior, cedar planks, stone, brushed concrete, birch plywood, Corten panels and steel finishing harmonize with soil, sand, wood chips, and horse accoutrements such as wool blankets and leather bridles. The design team states that integral to the Centre’s healing nature is the idea of “embracing what is already there, and celebrating materials that will, in time, become ‘worn in’, and not ‘worn out’.”
CLIENT Frog Lake First Nations | ARCHITECT TEAM Carey van der Zalm, Garth Crump, Rob Maggay, Nina Christianson, Toni Chui, Chandra Domes, Matt Murphy, Karamjit Grewal, Ana-Dora Matei, Andreea Stanica, Alecsandru Vasiliu, Kenton McKay, Vivian Manasc | STRUCTURAL Fast + Epp | MECHANICAL Williams Engineering | ELECTRICAL Reimagine Consulting | LANDSCAPE Katharina Kafka Landscape Architecture | ENERGY Revolve Engineering | AREA 5300 m2 | BUDGET $36 M | STATUS Construction Documents | ANTICIPATED COMPLETION November 2025
ENERGY USE INTENSITY (PROJECTED) 74 kWh/m2/year | PROPORTION OF ENERGY FROM RENEWABLE SOURCES 100% photovoltaics | EMBODIED CARBON 450 kgCO2e/m2