Faculty of Design

Environmental Design - Interior Design Specialization

Heeyoung Cho

Center of Research and Education for Hydro

My thesis project is designing a centre of research and education for hydro in grise fiord, Nunavut, Canada. This will need to be a permanent, self-sustaining building, and strong enough to withstand natural disasters, but also diverse enough to extract energy and other beneficial resources from the ocean. On the other hand, the building must have a variety of spaces that incorporated living, working, research, and tourism, as well.Grise Fiord community has the issue of hydro for the reason that the cold climate prevents the installation of underground infrastructure such as distribution and collection piping systems. So, the community of Grise Fiord relies on trucked water and septic. The problem is that the drinking water treatment is limited to chlorination. The chlorinated water is delivered to individual homes and stored in water storage tanks. Also, the amount of water available in the tanks is not enough to meet the needs of residents. Thus, the research team collectively seeks to understand the extent of these water quality issues and help the community to develop a water safety plan to discuss them. Additionally, investigations focus on hydrologic and ecological impacts of atmospheric change and variability, particularly in the Nunavut, Canadian arctic.I hope it will be helpful in the future by designing a research center that solves the hydro issue in the community, spreads awareness and understanding of the problem to the public. Therefore, the diversity of the program is critical to maintaining the connection between the communities.