St. Mary’s Hospital

Located on the Sunshine Coast, northwest of Vancouver, the St. Mary’s Hospital land was donated by the Sechelt First Nation more than fifty years ago. Once a site of great hardship and trauma cause by Canadian government policies that devastated the Sechelt people, the hospital is now a part of the Truth and Reconciliation process between Indigenous people and settlers.

Members of the Sechelt First Nation played a key role in the design process through extensive consultation on how to incorporate the most meaningful and enduring elements of their culture and traditions into the hospital. The shape of the building was inspired by the cedar Bentwood Box, which is a symbolic and practical storage unit unique to Coastal First Nations. In this concept, the Bentwood Box holds our more precious possession: our health.

At the time of its opening in 2013, Sechelt Hospital was recognized by multiple bodies as one of the most sustainable hospitals in North America. As climate change mitigation has health co-benefits, the hospital was designed to be carbon neutral, feature a high-performance building envelope, and include 125 boreholes, each 250ft deep, to provide zero-carbon energy for the building’s heating and cooling, distributed through radiant slabs. A 19-kilowatt photovoltaic array provides electricity, and the passive design strategies – such as a green roof, solar shading, and operable windows – reduce solar heat gain. We defined sustainability not just ecologically, but also in terms of cultural authenticity, which is why the incorporation of Sechelt designs, traditions, and ways of thinking were critical and have been recognized as one of the hospital’s most notable qualities.

Indigenous stories of a coherent life involve symbols of illness, healing, death and the afterlife, and are portrayed as a part of a natural life process. Major Sechelt works of art, such as the three totem poles that mark the main entrance, tell stories and depict these well-known cultural symbols. The entrance is further animated by a mural that spans 70ft in length across the transparent main lobby, by First Nations artist Shain Jackson.