Iqaluit, NU
Under Construction
59,000 sq. ft.
Client: Qikiqtani Regional Hospital
Type: Institutional, New Construction
Beds: 35

Qikiqtani General Hospital is a new 35-bed hospital for the city of Iqaluit in Nunavut, Canada. The facility is a long awaited full-service hospital in a region where the nearest major medical facility is a 3-hour flight away in Ottawa.

The facility was designed to symbolize "open arms" to the community. In Iqaluit, the hospital is a primary community fixture, and each patient wing represents an arm of a warm embrace overlooking and protecting the community.

A central orienting skylight that captures the low, sometimes 24 hour sun channels light into the facility and - typical of WNAL designs - allows the rare opportunity in a hospital setting to provide the surgery suite with natural daylight.

In Iqaluit, when someone is sick it is not uncommon for the whole extended family to show up for a visit, often all at the same time. Using this cultural indicator as a design instrument, each patient wing is splayed in a V, widening the corridor back to the nursing station. In turn the nurse station receives ample views to every room for efficiency and easy monitoring.

Design visits for this project were always exciting because there was always incredible art and amazing people. Once in Iqaluit, one finds oneself interested in extended Arctic adventure excursions further North.

Building on permafrost means foundations are not an acceptable construction practice. Instead, the facility must be built on piers that elevate the whole building four feet off the ground.

Equally interesting is the narrow shipping window for the massive amount of construction supplies that were used to build the hospital. There is a 65-day summer "sealift" window during which supply ships can bring materials which are ferried to the shore from the anchored vessels.

permafrost construction
(click to enlarge)

shipping containers for the narrow "window"
(click to enlarge)