Four Host First Nations Musqueam Pavilion

The structure was originally built as the temporary “Four Host First Nations Pavilion” to showcase Canada’s Indigenous culture and heritage for the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games. The original pavilion, located in downtown Vancouver and open to international tourists, featured a high-tech video projection sphere, surrounded by a Coast Salish Longhouse.

To ensure the building would be easily assembled, disassembled and moved, Fast + Epp designed a prefabricated kit-of-parts for the walls and roof panels in collaboration with the design builders.

After the Games, this Longhouse portion was repurposed as a legacy building. Today, it serves as a cultural and education centre for the Musqueam Nation. Gallery spaces allow the Musqueam – Metro Vancouver’s first inhabitants – to showcase their stories, art, sacred cultural objects and language.

Once relocated on Musqueam lands, the design team added an entrance canopy and exposed glue-laminated oculus roof to give the project a sense of completion and permanence. The building’s final resting place overlooks the foreshore lands and Fraser River.