Kenneth ‘Jake’ Chakasim
Assistant Professor
- MArch (Ryerson), BArch (Ryerson)
- Email Kenneth ‘Jake’ Chakasim
Jake (he/him) is a Cree from the Mushkegowuk Territory situated in Northern Ontario, also known as Treaty 9 or the James Bay Treaty. Coupled with scholarly activities and professional practice he has worked and collaborated with firms in Ontario and British Columbia.
Jake is cross-appointed with the Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism.
Education
PhD Candidate, Planning – University of British Columbia, 2016-present
MArch – Ryerson University, 2010
BArch – Ryerson University, 2006
Civil Engineering Technology – Lakehead University, 2001
Research
Jake’s approach to community design is interdisciplinary informed by Architecture, Engineering and Indigenous Planning Principles. He is currently a Doctoral Candidate with UBC’s School of Community and Regional Planning, SCARP with a research focus on resiliency, the internal migration and displacement of indigenous communities (a type of ‘domestic’ diaspora) including the foregrounding of an etymology of indigenous design missing in Canadian Schools of Architecture.
His approach to design education is based on phronesis, a type of ‘practical wisdom’ thus ensuring the ways Indigenous people express themselves are not to be seen (or considered) as anecdotal evidence but worthy of critical discussion. He brings forward a cultural narrative about the way indigenous practitioners come to bare the historical injustices imposed upon indigenous communities and the sociological forces that continue to shape and often ill define the working relationships with indigenous communities.
Activities
Jake is an active member of the RAIC Indigenous Task Force and is currently involved with the development of a National Architecture Policy for Canada that centralizes the valued inclusion of Canada’s Indigenous peoples’ presence, livelihood and wellbeing across the built environment. He has spoken at conferences and community events nationally and internationally on Indigenous design. In 2008, Jake was a contributing artist to Canada’s participation with the Venice Biennale via the exhibition, 41° to 66° Architecture in Canada: Region, Culture and Tectonics. In 2011, he was awarded the ARCC King Medal for Excellence in Architectural + Environmental Design Research that acknowledges innovation, integrity, and scholarship. And more recently, part of a team of Indigenous architects and designers responsible for UNCEDED, Canada’s contribution to the 2018 Venice Biennale of Architecture.
Publications
Weypiskosiweywin: the people have been displaced in Our Voices: Indigeneity and Architecture, 2018
The Phrotenic Role of the Indigenous Trickster in Planning & Design (in review), 2021