The canoe trip - Part 2

Northern Architecture

When you are up in northern Saskatchewan, vernacular architecture seems to rule the world, and understandably so. Typically...and forgive my generalizations...those who live in the northern lakes region are more concerned about fundamentals: food, shelter, water. Whether they were born there, moved there, or vacation there, it is the outdoors that consumes, that is the prevalent force, that is the passion. Shelter is a means, not the end, and thus it is made with local materials, to a local design, to suit the local purpose. Now, there are exceptions, and I will show you one below.

On our trip, we encountered 4-5 varieties of construction. In my opinion, 3 of them were vernacular (built for a purpose more than for an aesthetic), and the other two were built to mimic that style.

1. The hamlet of Missinipe. (no photo)
This town was rather touristy, though small, and many of the buildings were lavish, but designed to look rustic. That is not truly vernacular, b/c the aesthetic came first to match the log-cabin look. However, many of the buildings, like the local store, are seemingly built solely to serve their reason for existence.

2. The steel bridge over Otter Rapids.
Is it vernacular? Despite its utilitarian design, I'd say no. The materials are not local, and some effort was put in into making it look nice.

3. The housing on the nearby Reserve.
I am torn on this one. The houses are extremely basic, and are built from "sort of" local materials. They serve the purpose of providing shelter, and not much more. They aren't much to look at, so function was of higher priority than form. However, the housing design is southern. It is not the log cabin look, but maybe that look is no longer the local style. Maybe using sheet goods is the new vernacular...it certainly would be cheaper.


4. Bush cabins littering the lakes.
These are my favorite, and they are ubiquitous. Summer residences, built with what appears to be local cord wood, for the purpose of providing a holiday crash pad. Squished into whatever open, flat space that can be found, they almost look like they were sprouted and grown rather than built.

5. Other (ie. tents, trailers, mega-cabins, etc.)
Then there is this thing we came across on one of the larger islands. This cabin was a monster, and it was brand-new. It had connections for power, plumbing that brought water in from the lake, and million dollar view. I hope the view is worth it, b/c it likely cost a million dollars to build it. The irony is that is is built as a log cabin, but I guarantee the logs did not come from anywhere nearby. Definitely not vernacular, as posers don't count.


I am not sure what point I am trying to make here. Perhaps I am just more publicly exploring the concepts discussed within this post, in an effort to understand it all better.