The Nk'Mip Desert Culture Centre (

Okanagan The Okanagan ( ), also known as the Okanagan Valley and sometimes as the Okanagan Country, is a region in the Canadian province of British Columbia defined by the basin of Okanagan Lake and the Canadian portion of the Okanagan River. It is part ...

; conventional English

pronunciation respelling A pronunciation respelling is a regular phonetic respelling of a word that has a standard spelling but whose pronunciation according to that spelling may be ambiguous, which is used to indicate the pronunciation of that word. Pronunciation respe ...

"in-ka-meep") is an interpretive centre in

Osoyoos, British Columbia Osoyoos (, ) is the southernmost town in the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia between Penticton and Omak. The town is north of the United States border with Washington state and is adjacent to the Osoyoos Indian reserve. The origin of the na ...

, Canada, It is owned and operated by the

Osoyoos Indian Band The Osoyoos Indian Band is a First Nations government in the Canadian province of British Columbia, located in the town of Oliver and Osoyoos in the Okanagan valley, approximately four kilometres (2½ miles) north of the Canada–United States bo ...

and is approximately north of the

Canada–United States border The border between Canada and the United States is the longest international border in the world. The terrestrial boundary (including boundaries in the Great Lakes, Atlantic, and Pacific coasts) is long. The land border has two sections: Can ...

. It is situated on the edge of one of the most endangered ecosystems in Canada, the northernmost point of the

Great American Desert The term Great American Desert was used in the 19th century to describe the part of North America east of the Rocky Mountains to about the 100th meridian. It can be traced to Stephen H. Long's 1820 scientific expedition which put the Great Am ...

which extends southward to the

Sonoran Desert The Sonoran Desert ( es, Desierto de Sonora) is a desert in North America and ecoregion that covers the northwestern Mexican states of Sonora, Baja California, and Baja California Sur, as well as part of the southwestern United States (in Arizona ...

in Mexico. The mission of the Centre is to exhibit the

Okanagan Desert The Okanagan Desert is the common name for a semi-arid shrubland located in the southern region of the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia and Washington. It is centred around the city of Osoyoos and is the only semi-arid shrubland in Canada. Pa ...

and the culture of the

Okanagan people The ''Syilx'' () people, also known as the Okanagan, Okanogan or Okinagan people, are a First Nations and Native American people whose traditional territory spans the Canada–US boundary in Washington state and British Columbia in the Okanagan C ...

, and to promote conservation efforts for desert wildlife. The Centre has helped to create several spin-off businesses, including a landscaping business, a greenhouse for indigenous plants, a website development business, and a community arts and crafts market.

Exhibits

The Centre includes both indoor and outdoor exhibits and trails. It is designed as an interactive learning environment with hands-on displays and two multi-media theatres. Exhibits include recreated examples of Aboriginal architecture structures: a

Tipi A tipi , often called a lodge in English, is a conical tent, historically made of animal hides or pelts, and in more recent generations of canvas, stretched on a framework of wooden poles. The word is Siouan languages, Siouan, and in use in Dakot ...

Pit-house A pit-house (or ''pit house'', ''pithouse'') is a house built in the ground and used for shelter. Besides providing shelter from the most extreme of weather conditions, these structures may also be used to store food (just like a pantry, a larder ...

, and

Sweat lodge A sweat lodge is a low profile hut, typically dome-shaped or oblong, and made with natural materials. The structure is the ''lodge'', and the ceremony performed within the structure may be called by some cultures a purification ceremony or simply ...

. The building is adjacent to a remnant of the desert, approximately 1,600 acres of which are being preserved as a conservation area. Trailheads lead to 1.5 km of desert paths leading to reconstructed examples of First Nations buildings and interpretive sculptures. The Centre's Rattlesnake Research Program receives support from

Environment Canada Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC; french: Environnement et Changement climatique Canada),Environment and Climate Change Canada is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Department of the Environment ( ...

to study Western Rattlesnakes and Great Basin Gopher snakes. The snakes are tracked and studied by biologists using radio telemetry.

Facilities

The Centre was designed by Hotson Bakker Boniface Haden architects + urbanists (now

DIALOG Dialog is an online information service owned by ProQuest, who acquired it from Thomson Reuters in mid-2008. Dialog was one of the predecessors of the World Wide Web as a provider of information, though not in form. The earliest form of the Dial ...

), and completed in 2006. The construction cost was $6.6 million for the (interior and exterior spaces) facility. The design is both an homage to the traditional winter dwellings of the Okanagan peoples and a literal integration into the natural landscape with a contemporary architectural design. The building is constructed partially underground with the desert landscape extending over the building’s planted (green) roof and the front of the building is constructed of a

rammed earth Rammed earth is a technique for constructing foundations, floors, and walls using compacted natural raw materials such as earth, chalk, lime, or gravel. It is an ancient method that has been revived recently as a sustainable building method. ...

facade. This rammed earth wall is constructed of local soils, concrete, and colour additives. At long, high, and thick, it is (as of 2014) the largest in North America. Its thickness and mass provide an insulating value of R-33 that help to provide a more stable indoor temperature than the large temperature swings of the surrounding desert climate. One architectural jurist described it: "the chameleon-like wall defines an ambiguous threshold between landscape and building." Blue stain pine boards are used throughout the interior of the project. This wood,

Lodgepole pine ''Pinus contorta'', with the common names lodgepole pine and shore pine, and also known as twisted pine, and contorta pine, is a common tree in western North America. It is common near the ocean shore and in dry montane forests to the subalpine, ...

damaged by the

Mountain pine beetle The mountain pine beetle (''Dendroctonus ponderosae'') is a species of bark beetle native to the forests of western North America from Mexico to central British Columbia. It has a hard black exoskeleton, and measures approximately , about the siz ...

and

blue stain fungus Blue stain fungi (also known as sap stain fungi) is a vague term including various fungi that cause dark staining in sapwood. The staining is most often blue, but could also be grey or black. Because the grouping is based solely on symptomatics, it ...

was harvested from local forests devastated by these invasive species. The use of this material serves as a demonstration project of how this product, which is typically considered unsuitable for a finish material, can be utilized.

Awards

The Centre and its facility have been recognized with architectural, aboriginal, and regional awards:Dialog.ca - architect's project webpage
Retrieved 2014-01-23 * Governor General’s Medal in Architecture (2008) * SAB Award, Sustainable Architecture & Building Magazine (2008) * Royal Architectural Institute of Canada - Award of Excellence, Innovation in Architecture (2007) * World Architecture Festival Award (2008) * Lieutenant-Governor’s of BC Medal of Excellence in Architecture (2007) * Wood Design Green Award, Canadian Wood Council (2007) * Awards for Excellence in Concrete Construction, Decorative Concrete Award, BC Ready–Mix Concrete Association (2007) * Aboriginal Tourism BC “Power of Education Award" for the Rattlesnake Research Program * Aboriginal Tourism BC "Inspirational Leadership Award" * Okanagan Life Best of the Okanagan 2010 – Editors Choice Awards

References

External links

Osoyoos Indian Band Architecture-Buildings - photo galleryAboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada - Nk'Mip Desert Cultural Centre, April 2009

''Nk'Mip Centre Shimmers in Desert'', The Tyee, 22 Oct 2008

Hammer, Brent A. (2011) "Nk’Mip: Creating a “Taste of Place”," Totem: The University of Western Ontario Journal of Anthropology: Vol. 19: Iss. 1, Article 8.
{{authority control Buildings and structures in British Columbia Buildings and structures completed in 2006 Museums in British Columbia First Nations museums in Canada Natural history museums in Canada Nature centres in British Columbia Tourist attractions in the Okanagan Okanagan 2006 establishments in British Columbia Museums established in 2006