Batoche National Historic Site featured in AZURE

Form:Media (now Fathom Studio) was honoured when Parks Canada hired them to develop an interactive, outdoor interpretive environment for Batoche National Historic site, in Saskatchewan, Canada. For the consortium of Form:Media and Skyline Atlantic Canada, this project represents the effort of interpretive planners, architects, landscape architects, and graphic designers collaborating to interpret a unique cultural landscape, the spiritual capital of the Métis people.

Form:Media (and sister company Ekiticstic Planning & Design) developed experiential elements in the landscape to highlight the scale and beauty of the site, while simultaneously acknowledging the personal lives and cultural strength of the Métis people here. They used the seigneurial, or river lot land division system, as an emblem of the culture and struggle of the Métis people. From a design perspective, the distinctive shapes of the lot system provide a foundational narrative for interpreting the cultural landscape of Batoche. Stories told here include the transition from nomadic life to an agricultural society, emphasis on the river as critical to Métis way of life and primary means of travel, a source of fresh water, and conflict between the Métis’ traditional river-lot system and Canada’s “rational” Dominion Land Survey (DLS).

While employed by Form:Media, John deWolf provided the interpretive direction and managed the project working closely with the Ekistics’ architecture and landscape architecture teams. In 2017, AZURE Magazine wrote an article on our new approach to cultural interpretation. Read Kendra Jackson’s article.

AZURE is an award-winning, international magazine with a focus on contemporary architecture and design. Its international perspective and multidisciplinary coverage make it distinct from any other publication. Groundbreaking architecture, vibrant interiors, inspiring ideas, exciting new furniture and products; each of eight annual issues is packed with the best in design innovation. Through profiles of top architects and designers, stories about transformative projects, and trend news from major design fairs around the world, AZURE anticipates the future, providing invaluable insight and shining a spotlight on the issues, ideas and people that matter.