Kingston Native Centre and Language Nest- Addition

The Kingston Native Centre and Language Nest (KNCLN) project is transforming a heritage limestone schoolhouse dating to 1873, into an accessible, net-zero designed community hub for Indigenous language learning, cultural programming and gathering.

Located on the traditional lands of the Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe peoples, the project combines the adaptive reuse of the historic two-storey building with a new mass timber addition. The renewed centre will include offices, gathering spaces, a teaching kitchen and accessible facilities, along with outdoor spaces supporting cultural learning and connection.

Mass Timber Supporting Adaptive Reuse
Mass timber plays an important role in the project’s new construction, with Spruce-Pine-Fir cross-laminated timber (CLT) used for walls, floors, roof elements and a canopy. 

The use of prefabricated CLT complements the project’s broader approach to sustainable adaptive reuse: preserving and restoring the existing 150-year-old building while introducing a contemporary, low-carbon structural material for new elements.

Heritage, Sustainability and Community
Sustainability is central to the redevelopment. The use of mass timber helps reduce the project’s embodied carbon, while deep energy retrofits, high-performance building systems, rooftop solar and the elimination of fossil fuels support its goal of achieving net-zero energy performance.

The project is expected to significantly reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions while extending the life of the historic building.

The project demonstrates how heritage conservation, mass timber and high-performance design can work together to give an existing building a new purpose for generations to come.