They look a bit like four giant golf balls, but these domes are actually high-tech greenhouses — and they’re the home of a new project helping Indigenous entrepreneurs grow.
“We don’t want to create a space for Indigenous youth, we want Indigenous youth to come here and make it their second home, and learn about the land, how to grow produce from the land and how we can learn entrepreneurship through that process,” says Jonathon Araujo Redbird, a business leader from Saugeen First Nation.
The 24-foot domes, located beside U of T Scarborough’s tennis courts near the Highland Creek Valley, will stay at a humid 35 C year-round through their solar panels (which will also power the technology inside), irrigation systems, and geothermal tubes running underground and through the panels. The domes will be accessible for people using mobility devices such as wheelchairs and entirely self-sustaining when construction finishes in the coming months.