New director to take over Laurentian's School of Architecture

Laurentian University'sMcEwenSchool of Architecture will have a new director in 2018 the first Indigenous architect to directa Canadian school of architecture.

Laurentian University has named assistant professor DavidFortinto the position.

He replaces Terrance Galvin, whoheld that position long before the school even opened, but under the faculty collective agreement, directors can onlyserve two three-year terms.Galvin'sterm ends in December, but hewill remain at the school as a faculty member.

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Fortinwill assume the director'sresponsibilities in January 2018 while continuing his teaching and research responsibilities.

"We have a unique context being in Sudbury, just in terms of the landscape," Fortin says.

"It's a different kind of city to study architecture. We're a re-greened place that has an industrial past.This place is our learning laboratory."

First Indigenous architect to direct a school inCanada

Fortin has been an assistant professor at Laurentian since the School of Architecture first opened in 2013.

He is ofMetisancestry, and says the school's tri-cultural focus is what attracted him in the first place.Fortin says he's had many opportunities to bring his Indigenous background into the classroom.

"The first assignment I gave my students, I sat down with our elder in residence and she gave us a creation story," says Fortin.

"The idea was to look at a map and the geography of where we are, but to see it with a lens that this didn't start with buildings or roadsit started with stories from thousands of years ago."

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In April, Fortinwas named the Associate Director of Laurentian's Indigenous research centre, known as the MaamwizingResearch Institute.

"When I came here, it was the idea of the school," Fortin says.

"Now that I'm here and that idea has manifested, to be able to guide that and take responsibility is a great honour."