The McLeod Lake Cultural Centre is a multi-purpose facility that primarily serves the community and secondarily visitors. The program developed focused on an archival resource to “Strengthen Home Base”. The archives is meant to be a safe gathering place for people to learn about their lost families. This band has been very dislocated from three trauma’s: Residential Schools, 60’s Scoop and the Bennett Hydro Dam. Their membership is over 400 but only half live on reserve and the others are scattered all over. They want people to be able to come back to McLeod Lake, find information about their family, family photo’s and genealogical records in the archives. Then they want them to be able to access cultural programs to help with recovery.

During the development of the program Circular rooms are requested. One elder wanted a circular platform and semicircle seating for ceremony and drumming. They would like a fire outside and an outdoor traditional skills space (like Kebaowek) for tanning hides, building canoes, etc. There will be several types of storage units for both documents and cultural belongings/artifacts. The document storage will be separate from the archival storage room so that the climatic conditions (especially humidity) can be managed separately.

The Macleod Lake people were known as “the people of the stone” and the circle which is inherent in the pit house structures used in the past became strong architectural starting points. The narrow site at the corner prevented a circular building and the intention was to have the main exhibit and classroom spaces facing south for low angle sun in the winter. Thus, the building is wrapped in a circular stone wall at the intersection celebrating both the people of the stone and the importance of the circular form.