PS24 Issues in Indigenous in North America 08:30 - 10:40 Friday, 26th April, 2019 553A Track Track 4

08:35 - 08:55

PS24 Decolonized: Design Methodologies for Indigenous

Chris Cornelius University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, USA

Abstract

To decolonize, one might assume some form of removal, retreat or self-emancipation - some form of agency. Design is agency. This paper posits a way of reframing indigenous thought as it relates to architectural design for contemporary indigenous people. The methodologies explored in this paper are ones that dismantle nostalgic stereotypes and forms of what indigenous architecture should be. These strategies examine historic forms and find the cultural, material, and political contingencies that gave rise to their existence. A challenge when designing for indigenous people of the Americas is understanding that although they are rooted in a timeless worldview, they do exist and evolve in contemporary society. Resemblance to tepees, , or other historic dwellings does not make indigenous architecture. Also, buildings with iconography and pattern motifs are not somehow made cultural. Through the examination of three projects by a single author, this paper will present ways of understanding indigenous and seeing architecture as a contemporary cultural artifact. A component of this examination will be the use of precedent. Another presents the importance of cultural narrative to indigenous culture and its importance in resilience. This paper's examination and presentation of these methodologies is rooted in a projective future to help advance architecture as contemporary cultural artifact. While not currently regarded as a cultural artifact, architecture now serves in that capacity. 08:55 - 09:15

PS24 Cultural Resiliency: Design of the Skokomish Community Center

Daniel Glenn 7 Directions Architects/Planners, Seattle, USA

Abstract

In the fall of 2017, on the Skokomish Reservation at the southern end of the Hood Canal in the Puget Sound of Washington, Skokomish tribal members gathered to celebrate the opening of a new community center. It was the realization of a dream that began almost 60 years ago, according to the Skokomish Tribal Council Chairman, Guy Miller. The 22,000-square-foot center includes a tournament sized gymnasium for basketball, large gathering space for tribal events and ceremonies, commercial kitchen and elder’s dining hall, fitness center, office space, crafts room and display areas for tribal artefacts. It's designed to reflect and celebrate the Salish tradition of the tribe, and incorporates artwork by a dozen Skokomish artists into the building’s design. In addition, the building was designed to be Net Zero energy. The project was designed by the author’s firm, 7 Directions Architects/Engineers, a Native American owned and operated firm based in Seattle, Washington, and is an exemplar of contemporary Native American architecture for tribal communities in the Pacific Northwest. The building is the first phase of a master plan designed with the tribe by the firm in an interactive engagement process with tribal membership. This paper will discuss the design process and methodology that led to the design for both the building and the master plan, as an example of the author’s design philosophy in the development of contemporary Native American architecture. The intent is to create a contemporary architecture that is tribally-specific, rooted in the culture, climate and traditions of the tribe while utilizing contemporary materials and technologies. The author’s work is part of an international movement of Indigenous architects, planners and designers seeking to create places and structures which seek to “decolonize” architecture and support a larger effort towards cultural resilience. 09:15 - 09:35

PS24 Niimii’idiwigamig | Anishinaabe : A Place of Connection

Eladia Smoke McEwen School of Architecture, Laurentian University, Sudbury,

Abstract

The roundhouse is a pre-contact architectural typology of the Anishinaabeg (including the Three Fires Confederacy of the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi), and is in current use throughout our traditional territories. These territories include present-day , Manitoba, Michigan, Minnesota, and parts of adjacent states and provinces in the Great Lakes and Canadian Shield regions. The roundhouse is one of several sacred Anishinaabe lodges in current use. It is a contemporary building form with a long history that pre-dates written historical records. To establish the significance of this architectural typology, several existing roundhouses are analyzed using insights and perspectives from Elders, knowledge carriers, Anishinaabe architects and scholars, and community members. The roundhouse is explored by means of the oral tradition, and with reference to pertinent literature. Eladia Smoke was commissioned through her private practice to design a roundhouse for Henvey Inlet First Nation in Ontario, Canada, on Robinson-Huron Treaty land. This interpretation of the roundhouse is a hybrid incarnation, interrogating the core principles of Anishinaabe architecture through contemporary application. A roundhouse is a place to gather at important points in the rhythm of community life, an intergenerational space of celebration and learning. As a physical expression of Bimaadziwin, the good life, the aim of architecture for the Anishinaabeg is to and reconnect with each other, and with other-than-human life, ndinawemaaganidog, all our relations. 09:35 - 09:55

PS24 Memory and Traditional Design Cues: On Defining the Indigenous Architectural Landscape

Daniel Millette , , Canada

Abstract

The difficulty in documenting architectural design within the Indigenous landscape lies within several realities: cultural diversity, geographical isolation, historical baggage and unique traditions, for instance, have led to typologies that are well beyond what has been typically studied by planners and architects. There are challenges in understanding past and present-day Indigenous design as both can be linked to traditional practices that are not always explicit and not always open to the outsider: Site and program are clearly subordinate to culture and tradition. Accessing the subtleties of that are by nature, private, discrete and weary of exploitation is no easy undertaking. And the challenge for planners and architects in terms of understanding Indigenous design lies well beyond these complexities; it lies in the very nature of the attempts at dismantling cultures through colonizing and missionizing. This paper will look at ways through which traditional design cues may possibly be accessed, and in turn, translated into present day architectural design.