Session 73 summary
Wonders of Indigenous Architecture
Wanda shares how the Indigenous Design Collaborative (IDC) is really preparing the next generation of designers to act as field transformation ambassadors and obviously how the power of place design and culture based innovation can come together to create something very unique. A lot of their work is to really increase the understanding (among people of the various indigenous communities) but also be welcomed in that space of architecture- increasing inclusiveness and accuracy. She calls what they look at as: ‘the undervalued and under-examined ancestral world views and values system’, and to her how these views can contribute to global transformation. So, what IDC has been trying to do is communicate to the world why that matters and Wanda believes that some of the indigenous world views are very innovative especially right now when there is a time of climate crisis, climate change. Their world views, since they live close to the land are very important. In IDC they are trying to do various things like; Pedagogy- they are trying to define new ways of teaching and learning, People- they are trying to create a network of working professionals together, Policy- trying to create tactics to guide public decision making and then of course Practice- where they are trying to create neutrals to create architecture and construction. In terms of how they do it, at the IDC it’s the combination of the education, outreach and research. Moreover presently, they began in education zone which has a couple of courses offered per year at the university, one is a theory course, the other is applied service learning course where they work with tribal client which is very popular and it is a part of the reason why they (IDC) have garnered attention in academics circles because it has this innovative research course that they offer. In terms of education they also offer speaker series and visiting fellows, who come and study with them. In terms of Research, they are getting asked to do more and more of this not only in their research group in the university but also in Wanda’s private practice, everything from ‘people want to interrogate how do we bring urban design into indigenous ideas in design’ all the way to them ‘working with the structural engineering group from another university who is interested in trying to create a 3D printing models but they want it to be connected to the indigenous people of their region’. For outreach, they do a lot of youth reaching as the next generation is very vital to them, they do a lot of STEAM initiatives with youth. They are currently creating an online youth resource database and they also have different training centre happen. Their tribal communities are partners of them but in addition to those partners they also work with cultural advisors, community members, industry partners, affiliates at the universities, elders, service providers, philanthropic partners and they also have an advisory group who guide that work.
How they gather/source money at IDC: a quarter of their money come from grants connected to Arizona State University. The majority of their funds actually come from free for service work done with tribal communities in Arizona and finally they have some partner grants that come in. After entering IDC, where does the money go? About 17% goes to the student workers- they pay student workers while they do that during school. They also pay a lot to get cost estimates- whatever gaps there are in the project they are working on they hire consultancy, sometimes engineering. The rest of the funds, about a quarter of it goes to the administration, travel and education, and marketing. In terms of some of their successes; in the span of last 5 years they have employed 24 students out of which 75% were indigenous, they have raised at least 254,000$ in grant free for service work in sponsorship and in kind, they have developed new applied curriculum which touches 50 students per year and the most important part of this work is mentorship because of the large learning curve, they have trained one faculty member and Wanda actually trained Sky and Leena to teach at the architecture school.
Some of the projects they did over the last 5 years: Equestrian Education Centre- where they were asked to do a planning study with scoping exercise, mainly front end studies. Another project was a book they did which was about how do you indigenise a campus and it started out as a class but the ideas that were in the book were so profound that it ended up on the President of Arizona State University’s desk who fell in love with the ideas that were in it and he asked the students and commissioned students to design some of the projects that were in there. Another project that they did was a Design Build Project where they were looking at the traditional forms of shade in the desert where there is hot and they were asked to build four shade structures made adobe with a lot of traditional materials. They also did a cemetery project, which is very sensitive and she had to bring people from that community. She had a Sustainable Housing Project and they recently finished a justice centre for a tribe in Arizona. Wanda states that it is very important in enlarging the work, one has to look at the bigger picture, and how one begins to sway people’s perceptions, change people’s perceptions and make themselves, their cultures and their futures relevant.
About the Speaker
Wanda Dalla Costa
Wanda Dalla Costa, AIA, LEED A.P. holds a joint position at Arizona State University between The Design School as Institute Professor and the School of Construction as Associate Professor. She is a member of the Saddle Lake First Nation and has spent nearly 20 years working with Indigenous communities in North America. Her current work focuses on re-operationalizing Indigenous ways of knowing, being and connecting in contemporary architecture education and practice. Her interests include co-design methodologies, Indigenous place-keeping and climatic resiliency based in regional architectures. Dalla Costa was the first, First Nation women to become an architect in Canada, and is part of a team of Indigenous architects representing Canada at the 2018 Venice Biennale. Dalla Costa’s coursework at ASU includes Indigenous Planning, Architecture and Construction and a multidisciplinary Indigenous Construction Studio, where architecture, construction and planning students work directly with tribal communities.
