Named Fogo Island Inn, the building is the latest edition to an ongoing arts residency programme being established on the Newfoundland isle.

So far Saunders Architecture has completed four of six live-in artists' studios and, most recently, this 29-room hotel and cultural attraction.

The Fogo Island Inn was conceived by the Shorefast Foundation, a Canadian charitable organization established by Zita, Anthony and Alan Cobb, as a building for learnings that have emerged from four centuries of lived experience on the northeast coast of Newfoundland – to help carry the past into the future. It was created to be a cultural and economic engine for Fogo Island, one of Canada’s oldest settlements; created in response to a pressing need to find new relevance for traditional knowledge and traditional ways. The goal was to “find new ways with old things”.

Fogo Islanders are a people who by virtue of their centuries of geographic isolation have become masters of making things by hand, recycling and devising local solutions to all manner of challenges. Engaging this cultural and intellectual heritage was a key priority in the design of the building and was a key asset in its construction. The Inn is owned by a charitable foundation and is operated for the benefit of the communities of Fogo Island and Change Islands.

Ecological and self-sustaining systems were subtly integrated from the beginning of the project, incorporating technologies to reduce and conserve energy and water usage.