Of tradition and technology: Douglas Cardinal receives an honourary doctorate from Laurentian University

By Laura E. Young

Sudbury – Douglas Cardinal turned to a computer designed for war in order to design a building in harmony with people and the environment.

The Alberta-born architect, 81, became one of the first architects to use computers in the 1960s. He needed to resolve all the calculations necessary to design the curving lines that would become the trademarks of a lifetime in architecture.

By the 1970s, technology had advanced enough that programming held the coordinates of global cities where “they could zoom in the back pocket of Russia and plant an atomic bomb,” he recalls. “I needed it for building.  Everybody said it was impossible. So I went back to Texas where everything is possible.”

The University of Texas graduate spent $250,000 for 512K or half a megabyte, he says, adding that his current smart phone has 5MB capacity. The computer was the size of a refrigerator.

In his practice, now, the technology is has been taken to a whole new level, where they work in 3D, “we build a building virtually on a computer.”

And he’s fine with that. “We need all the technology we can get to save this planet from the abuses of my generation. I have to be optimistic. I have children,” says the father, grandfather, and great-grandfather.

It’s hard to keep him down, so he’s also filing appeals over major development on Kettle Island in the Ottawa River while running his firm Douglas Cardinal Architect Inc. in Ottawa.

It’s that distinct blend of architecture, leadership, and innovation that Laurentian University to award Cardinal a Doctorate of Laws on Friday, June 5 during its week of Convocation Ceremonies. Cardinal was involved in some of the preliminary discussions and meetings as Laurentian’s School of Architecture was being structured.

Already an Officer of the Order of Canada, Cardinal has received 17 honourary degrees from other universities, a United Nations Educational Science and Culture Organization (UNESCO) award for most sustainable village, and was named a World Master of Contemporary Architecture from the International Association of Architects.  He is perhaps most noted for the Museum of History in Hull, Quebec.

Speaking without notes, and wearing a striking Headdress, Cardinal gently implored Laurentian graduates to seek change in Canada and create a nation that is united. He asked students to consider that Canada still practises a form of apartheid where First Nations don’t have the same rights as other citizens of equal access to health care, education and housing.

“We believe it’s time that we share our land together, including equal opportunities for our children,” he said.

Cardinal graduated from architecture at the University of Texas in Austin where he developed his approach to his craft as one of harmony between the people and the land. Already taught to be self-sufficient by a father who didn’t believe in the Indian Act, Cardinal attended university during the US Civil Rights era and learned from professors willing to train him as an individual. “No government is good government (in Texas) because they’re more concerned about making people individuals,” he adds.

Still, there have been battles and losses. He turned to the support of Elders in the late 60s when government changes swept through Alberta. Elders told him there was no time for illness and they all retreated to the mountains where he trained to take on the government, becoming “an Anishinabe warrior that has no fear.”

To sustain the fight, it helped to have a “damn good education. You have to be three times as good to maintain (the fight) but so what? That’s good pressure. You get shut down. You just keep on going. You just don’t allow people to put you down.”

He has long since practised traditional ceremonies, including a regular Friday evening sweat lodge with the team at his office.   “If I don’t the stress of dealing with this crazy world is too much for me. I have too much Anishinabe DNA,” he chuckles.

https://laurentian.ca/convocation  http://www.djcarchitect.com/