The Homalco Healing Centre is a community-led project designed to support addictions recovery and trauma healing for members of the Homalco Nation and surrounding Indigenous communities. Located on a former village site with deep cultural resonance, the centre reconnects people to land as a foundation for healing.

Extensive engagement with Chief and Council, elders, youth, and families shaped the design. Community sessions invited personal stories about what it means to heal, to return to the land, and to find strength in traditional practices. These conversations informed a design approach that creates a flexible “canvas” of spaces, from intimate areas for two or three people, to small group gathering rooms, to larger ceremonial spaces.

CLA’s integrated design process emphasized scalability and efficiency. The program is organized into modular pods and connected walkways that can be built in phases, allowing the centre to grow with resources and need. Prefabrication supports cost control, rapid erection, and adaptability, while also minimizing disruption on the land. Collaboration with the client ensured that traditional and contemporary healing modalities—ceremony, counseling, Western and traditional medicine—could all be supported within the same facility.

Environmental sensitivity guided the architectural response. Buildings are lightly raised on stilts, allowing water to move naturally across the steep, rain-heavy site while reducing regrading and ecological disturbance. Walkways manage stormwater and knit the pods together into a cohesive whole. Durable, low-maintenance materials were chosen for resilience in this environment, while the architecture remains open to cultural expression and flexible use over time.

The Homalco Healing Centre exemplifies CLA’s threefold approach: community-led design shaped by listening and cultural respect; integrated planning that balances cost, scalability, and collaboration; and environmental responsiveness that works with the land. It is envisioned as a place of renewal—where healing, tradition, and resilience come together.