Japanese Canadian Hastings Park Interpretive Centre
Vancouver, BC
Ongoing
The JCHPIC will be a space telling the story of the role Hastings Park played in the detention of Japanese Canadians during the Second World War. The project began as a feasibility study to review the technical requirements of renovating the space, which is a heritage building, inclusive of structural, mechanical and electrical upgrades and a project capital cost estimate. The documentation created provided content to apply for funding from the Japanese Legacy Fund, and has evolved into MOTIV providing design services for the completion of the project.
The project is situated in Hastings Park within the Livestock Building, which was used to house 8000 Japanese Canadians between March 1942 to March 1943. The design intent was to provide a flexible space that can transform and change as its use evolves and expands over time and with further curatorial investment. It’s focal point includes a “lookout” into the expansive existing livestock building, which is largely unchanged since 1942 - evoking a sense of what it might have been like to have been here, segregated from other family members and unsure of what the future would bring. An installation piece will eventually fill the main exhibition room, exploring themes of absence, void, and memory. The centre will also have a community space for Vancouver’s Japanese community to meet, show films, host small performances, or share stories.
With funding for the exterior portion of the project being secured first, the the design for the names memorial has been further developed. Outside the centre will be a stone / memory garden - to significantly mark the entrance and provide opportunity for contemplation and reflection, available to the public even when the centre’s interior exhibit might be closed. Its focal point will be a memorial for the names of 8000 Japanese Canadians who were held at Hastings Park, collected over the years by the JCHPIC Society, to be cut into pillars that emerge eight to twelve feet out of the landscape. The garden will also be the site of the Hollow Man sculpture by Jon Sasaki, an anti-monument to call attention the misdeeds of Ian Alistair Mackenzie.
Read more about the Japanese Canadian Hastings Park Interpretive Centre Society in the media below:
Vancouver Sun: Council votes yes to Japanese Canadian Hastings Park Interpretive Centre
Daily Hive: New centre at Hastings Park to honour Japanese Canadian internment