Dr. Riva and colleague Dr. Geneviève Vachon (School of Architecture, Université Laval) will be co-chairing two topical sessions at the upcoming Arctic Change 2017 conference in Quebec City, December 11th-15th. Of the two sessions focusing on Arctic housing and community planning, one will be composed of a panel (by invitation only) bringing together community members, policy makers, architects and planners as well as academic researchers from the circumpolar North to discuss challenges and best practices. The other is open to submissions from students and researchers working on related topics.
Click here to submit an abstract for to this thematic session
HUMAN HEALTH, WELL-BEING AND ADAPTATION
HUM04. Arctic Housing and Community Planning
Co-chairs
Mylène Riva (Institute for Health and Social Policy and Dept. of Geography, McGill University)
Geneviève Vachon (School of Architecture, Université Laval)
Sustainable housing and community planning in the Arctic is compounded by climate change and urbanization. The provision of affordable, adequate, suitable, accessible, culturally-appropriate, and safe housing for people across the Arctic is an important condition for well-being. There is a need for housing, public space and amenities, as well as biotechnical and sociocultural infrastructures designs and solutions that are suited to northern climate and environmental conditions, and to local lifestyles and cultural preferences. These will also have to be flexible and adapted to the demands of a rapidly growing population and a changing climate. The session proposed will aim to provide a space for dialogue and knowledge-sharing between different sectors, disciplines, and countries. It will cover a range of topics related to Arctic housing and community planning, for example: impacts on health social and economic well-being; vernacular architecture; climate change and infrastructures; settlement and landscape design; planning for an urbanizing Arctic; governance; methods and approaches in co-creating knowledge and co-designing habitat; best practices and lessons learned. The session will be structured to facilitate the sharing of views, approaches and methods as well as networking between research teams and community organisations.The session will be followed by a panel discussion with community leaders and policy makers. The organizers are responsible for two large partnership research programs in Nunavut and Nunavik: Dr. Mylène Riva, an Early Career Researcher based at McGill University leading the “Housing, Health and Well-being across the Arctic: Regional, local and family perspectives” project, and Dr. Geneviève Vachon, based at Université Laval leading the “Living in Northern Quebec: Mobilizing, Understanding, Imagining” project.