Events

INDIGENOUS HOUSING + WORKING WITH COMMUNITIES  
Tuesday, October 15, 22, 29 2024
Virtual
 
Indigenous Housing + Working with Communities is a lecture series developed in collaboration with the Center for Architecture + Archtober.

At the center of many Indigenous ideologies exists the inherent practice of planning - planning for seasonal change, planning for multiple generations, and planning for home place. Understanding these Indigenous planning principles often begins with understanding of multigenerational design, concept of community, interconnectedness, and stewardship. Many Indigenous communities begin by teaching these planning and design principles within the home. Homes carry a power to reinforce traditional cultural knowledge and Indigenous ideology in everyday practices. Indigenous values can guide better housing design practices for communities and inform inclusive and sustainable planning strategies. This lecture series shares successful methods of Indigenous engagement, tribal sovereignty, and self-determined approaches for Indigenous housing design.

Braiding Past, Present, & Future: Honoring Standing Rock Culture through Design

SAGE Development Authority is in the process of envisioning a cultural center on the Standing Rock Nation. The innovative project ensures the project is rooted in culture, ecology, and site. Growing up on Standing Rock, Celina Brownotter has a deep commitment to the community and the land. This presentation will explore community engagement strategies, environmental considerations, and the design process that guided the project. Attendees will learn about the challenges and successes of integrating traditional knowledge with contemporary design practices to create a space that promotes healing, unity, and cultural continuity for the Standing Rock Nation.

Speaker: Celina Brownotter

About the Speaker:
Celina Brownotter is a Hunkpapa Lakota and Diné designer who is passionate about collaborating and engaging with Native communities to create innovative design. Having grown up on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, she is a steadfast advocate for place-based design, firmly believing in the transformative power of a built environment that seamlessly integrates with its natural surroundings, cultivating healing, unity, and cultural resonance.

Celina holds a Master of Architecture from the University of Southern California and a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Design from Montana State University Bozeman. At MASS Design Group, she contributes to the overall design of various projects through the Sustainable Native Communities Design Lab in O’ga P’ogeh, also known as Santa Fe, New Mexico. The variety of projects reflects her commitment to fostering deep collaboration and engagement within Native communities.

Beyond her work at MASS, her personal research focuses on how the integration of culture, beliefs, and traditions can have a positive impact on Lakota tribal housing, advancing the discourse on culturally conscious design. Celina's interests extend to art-related fields, evidenced by her recent involvement in "We Carry the Land," which introduces an oscillating experience of the sacred and intimate through material and structural engagements designed with five other emerging Native professionals.

When: Tuesday, October 15, 1pm EST

Sign Up Here:
https://calendar.aiany.org/2024/10/15/braiding-past-present-future-honoring-standing-rock-culture-through-design/

Protocols for Sovereign Suburban Space

Speaker: Bailey Morgan Brown Mitchell

About the Speaker: Bailey Morgan Brown Mitchell is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, a researcher, designer, and educator. She is currently an Assistant Professor at Oklahoma State University. Previously, Bailey was a designer at Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects in New Haven, CT as well as a public high school teacher. She holds a Master of Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design as well as a Master of Design Studies where she completed a thesis concerned with tribal law, property, and housing. Her research examines topics related to Native American sovereignty, housing, and beginning design education while her current research is concerned with methodologies of sovereign representation and supporting tribal sovereignty in beginning design education.

When: Tuesday, October 15, 1pm EST

Sign Up Here:
https://calendar.aiany.org/2024/10/22/protocols-for-sovereign-suburban-space/

A Need for Sacred Space with Chief Seattle Club

Join the Indigenous Society of Architecture, Planning, and Design (ISAPD) and Chief Seattle Club to learn why providing culturally appropriate housing is vital in urban cities.

Native people in urban areas face unique challenges and experience a disproportionately high rate of homelessness compared to the general population, according to the 2023 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report by the National Alliance to End Homelessness. Tribal sovereignty plays a critical role in creating culturally specific and effective programs that are reflected in the architecture.

The Chief Seattle Club in Washington state is a Native-led housing and human services agency that embraces the Indigenous cultures, languages, and traditions of its members as the primary method for healing and transformation.

“We believe that a world without homelessness is possible by leading with Native values. We provide sacred space to nurture, affirm, and strengthen the spirit of urban Native people.” – Chief Seattle Club

Join Executive Director Derrick Belgarde and Chief Community Development Officer James Lovell as they share the origin story and community programming of the Chief Seattle Club.

https://www.chiefseattleclub.org/

Speakers: 
Derrick Belgarde, Executive Director, Chief Seattle Club
James Lovell, Chief Community Development Officer, Chief Seattle Club
 
About the Speakers:
Derrick Belgarde is an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians of Oregon, and also Chippewa-Cree from Rocky Boy Montana. He serves on the board of Community Roots Housing, Downtown Emergency Service Center, Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness, and the Housing Development Consortium. He completed his undergraduate in Public Affairs Magna Cum Laude, and went on to complete his Master’s in Public Administration, both at Seattle University. He is a proud father of three and is married to the wonderful Lua Belgarde.

James Lovell is Chief Seattle Club’s Chief Community Development Officer and has been at the Club since 2021. In this role, James oversees the development of resources for the Club including fundraising, grant writing, and policy & advocacy work. James also leads the Club’s public-facing work including communications and the ʔálʔal? Café. James has previously served as Development Director for Neighborhood House, a partner of Chief Seattle Club. James’ background is in youth development and system-building for statewide education systems, including work at School’s Out Washington, ReWA, and VFA (now Kandelia). James is enrolled in the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians from Belcourt, ND and was born and raised in Seattle. James currently lives in SeaTac, WA with his wife, kids, and extended family.

When: Tuesday, October 22, 1pm EST

Sign Up Here: https://calendar.aiany.org/2024/10/29/a-need-for-sacred-space-with-chief-seattle-club/



INDIGENEITY AND TRADITIONAL ECOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE IN SPATIAL PRACTICES  
Thursday, October 10, 2024
6:30 PM EST
Center for Architecture
536 LaGuardia Place, New York, NY 10012 

https://calendar.aiany.org/2024/10/10/indigeneity-and-traditional-ecological-knowledge-in-spatial-practices/

Join us for a conversation organized in collaboration with the Center for Architecture + Archtober.

This event will convene distinguished guests to examine and discuss the intersection of Indigenous perspectives and the built environment—a realm where architecture, urban planning, and land use intersect with traditional ecological knowledge, cultural practices, and Sovereignty movements. The event will foster an interdisciplinary dialogue between researchers, practitioners, and policy makers influencing the realm of architecture, planning, and design.

Speakers:
Winona LaDuke, Founder, Winona’s Hemp & Heritage Farm
Julia Watson, Author, Lo–TEK: Design by Radical Indigenism
Wizipan (Wee-zee-pan) Little Elk Garriott,  Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs in the U.S. Department of the Interior

Moderator:
Christian Hart Nakarado, Assistant Professor of Art, Wesleyan University; Founder, Slow Built Studio

About the Speakers:

Winona LaDuke: Winona LaDuke is one of the world’s most tireless and charismatic leaders on issues related to climate change, Indigenous rights, human rights, green and rural economies, grass-roots organizing, local foods, alternative sources of energy and the priceless value of clean water over a career spanning nearly 40 years of activism. https://www.winonaladuke.com/

Julia Watson: Julia Watson is an Australian born, award-winning author, educator, and landscape designer based in Brooklyn, New York. Watson is an expert on traditional and indigenous technologies and focuses her work at the intersection of anthropology, ecology and innovation. Her eponymously named studio foregrounds traditional knowledge, sustainability and nature-based innovation, while the Lo—TEK Institute launched in 2024, to foster climate and environmental literacy for scholars worldwide. Watson was named by Wallpaper* in 2023 and 2024, as one of the 300 people defining creative America, and is the 2024 recipient of the Institute of Classical Architecture and Art’s Arthur Ross Award for lifetime achievement in Education.
https://www.juliawatson.com/

Wizipan (Wee-zee-pan) Little Elk Garriott: Wizipan (Wee-zee-pan) Little Elk Garriott, an enrolled member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe in South Dakota, is the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs in the U.S. Department of the Interior. He was appointed to this role by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland in October 2021.

The Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs serves as the first assistant and principal advisor to the Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs in the development and interpretation of policies affecting Indian Affairs bureaus, offices, and programs.

Prior to his appointment, Mr. Garriott served as chief executive officer from 2012 to 2021 of the Rosebud Economic Development Corporation (REDCO), an ecosystem of Tribal organizations serving the Rosebud Indian Reservation. In this capacity, Mr. Garriott led and started businesses and community-based programs, including a Native language immersion school and 1,500-head buffalo herd.

Christian Hart Nakarado: Christian grew up in the mountains outside of Golden, Colorado. He received his B.A. in Architecture from Yale College and his M. Arch from the Yale School of Architecture. He has spent the last 18 years working in practices on the east and west coasts of the United States, as well as in Canada and England. He is a licensed architect in New York, California, and Michigan, is a member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the American Indian Council of Architects and Engineers (AICAE), and is an enrolled member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians.

Currently an Assistant Professor of Art at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, Christian previously held positions at the Birmingham School of Architecture and Design, at Daoust Lestage in Montréal, at Sage and Coombe Architects in New York, and at Michael Maltzan Architecture in Los Angeles. His teaching and research both focus on impermanence in design and indigenous precedents for non-extractive making.
https://slowbuilt.com/


ISAPD INFORMATION POP UP 
Friday, August 16, 2024
4:30 PM-6:30 PM
MASS DESIGN GROUP
1807 2nd Street Santa Fe, New Mexico


MASS Design Group is hosting a happy hour in celebration of Native impact and talent across creative disciplines and is hosting ISAPD and designers of the “We Carry the Land” installation for Materials and Applications. 


REORIENTING: ANCESTOR GEOGRAPHY & MAPPING INDIGENOUS FUTURITY WORKSHOP 
Saturday, June 29, 2024
12:00 PM 3:00 PM
M&A x Craft Contemporary
5814 Wilshire Boulevard Los Angeles, CA, 90036


Join us and M&A for a conversation and workshop with Miriam Diddy and River Garza that explores ideas of mapping tangible and intangible cultural elements that reinforce sovereignty, collective power, and futurity.

As the original inhabitants and stewards of lands and waters, Indigenous peoples have resiliently carried traditions and culture through generations. Throughout history, many Indigenous mapmakers drew both space and knowledge across time. The first cartographers mapped connections across land to relatives utilizing community and ancestral thinking as planning principles to design. Understanding foundational planning principles of seven-generation design, community and multigenerational interconnectedness, and stewardship can foster holistic worldviews in practices today. What does Ancestor Geography & Mapping Indigenous Futurity look like today and how can it influence design practice? In this workshop, participants will create maps to their ancestors using their own language, memories, experiences, and dreams.

This workshop is free and accessible to all. To RSVP, please click below. 

https://events.humanitix.com/we-carry-the-land-reorienting

Miriam Diddy is a planner and GIS specialist based in Albuquerque, NM. With ten years of mapping, planning, and design experience for tribal communities, her work builds upon both the tangible and intangible elements of planning. Born and raised in New Mexico as a Diné and Hopi woman, her work focuses on bridging the ties between the contemporary built environment and cultural narratives that honor and recognize the resiliency of indigenous people in everyday places. Miriam is Regional Director of Deserts & Xeric Shrublands for the Indigenous Society of Architecture, Planning & Design (ISAPD).

River T. Garza (b.1994) is an Indigenous interdisciplinary visual Artist based out of Los Angeles. Garza is Tongva, Mexican, and he is a member of Ti’at Society. His work draws on traditional Tongva aesthetics, Southern California Indigenous maritime culture, Chicano culture ,Mexican art, graffiti, skateboarding, and lowrider art. Garza often explores the intersection of Tongva and Chicano/Mexican identity, history, and culture through his art practice. His work can be found in permanent and private collections.


INDIGENOUS ARCHITECTURE DAYS - NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK

Tuesday - October 24, 2023
- 
Saturday - October 28, 2023

Join us for a week-long celebration of Indigenous architecture, planning, and design at Davies Toews Architecture presented by the Indigenous Society of Architecture, Planning, and Design (ISAPD) and partners. The intention of Indigenous Architecture Days is to inspire future generations, support current Indigenous designers, and gather together with professional, academic, and the greater creative community to celebrate nature-informed Indigenous architecture in the city.

More information below.

INDIGENOUS ARCHITECTURE DAYS (NYC) - SPONSORS

JCJ Architecture

JCJ Architecture’s commitment to Tribal economic self-sufficiency and self-determination is both long-standing and unwavering. We are proud to have worked in close collaboration with more than 70 Tribal Clients on projects from gaming & entertainment, to centers for education, to administrative and public safety facilities, to buildings that promote culture and wellness.

Our work in Indian Country began with the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, designing Foxwoods Casino Resort - which has become one of the most iconic gaming facilities worldwide. We understand that Tribal development initiatives present unique opportunities to promote economic diversification in Indian Country. The JCJ team understands the need to balance economic development opportunities with sensitivity and respect toward history and culture. We work closely with our Tribal partners to create and deliver a legacy of success.

JCJ Architecture has frequently teamed with Native American owned architectural, interior design, engineering, and construction firms, often acting as a mentor in establishing and/or growing their businesses. We are founding members of Construction In Indian Country (CIIC) and continue to support their efforts through participation on the Executive Committee and through contributions and conference support. JCJ Architecture is an Associate member of the National Indian Gaming Association.

Find out more about JCJ Architecture here: https://www.jcj.com/projects/native/



SO-IL

SO–IL was born in New York in 2008.

Diverse in origin, our team of collaborators speaks a dozen languages and is informed by global narratives and perspectives. We are both locally-rooted and nationless, coming together as a mid-size, well-recognized company. With our ambitious private and public clients, we explore
how the creation of environments and objects inspires lasting positive intellectual and societal engagement.

We have completed projects in Leon, Seoul, and Lisbon, as well as our hometown, Brooklyn, New York.

In a digitized world that increasingly draws one inward, our architecture is outward-looking, engendering meaningful dialogue with what is materially and psychologically outside of ourselves. Our concept home for nomadic living in Milan encourages an active awareness of life beyond routine. At the University of California, Davis campus, we designed a museum that cultivates an intentionally open-ended relationship between the visitor and the site at the outset.

We design with time in mind. Whether working with existing structures or building from the ground, we carefully investigate physical properties and history. In Meisenthal, France, we transformed an industrial heritage site into a thriving cultural campus in this way. Our interventions are both respectful of their pasts and adaptable to a dynamic future.

We have been featured in the New York Times, CNN, and Frankfurter Allgemeine. Our work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum, and the Art Institute of Chicago. Our team has received numerous accolades, including the Vilcek Award, the Curbed Groundbreakers Award, and the MoMAPS1 Young Architects Program Award.

Our New York practice is led by Jing Liu and Florian Idenburg.

Find out more about SO-IL here: http://so-il.org/


INDIGENOUS ARCHITECTURE DAYS (NYC) - AGENDA + PARTNERS

Oyster Station Design - Workshop

Tuesday October 24 12-2PM
Davies Toews Architecture
209 Ave A New York City, New York 10009

https://www.archtober.org/2023-events/oyster-station-design-workshop

Learn about the Billion Oyster Project with Robina Taliaferrow (Director of Community Engagement) and Tanasia Swift (Field Stations Program Manager) and and take part in designing an Oyster Station with Anjelica S. Gallegos of Page Southerland Page and Miriam Diddy of Pland Collaborative. Admission is free and workshop materials are provided.

Robina Taliaferrow, Director of Community Engagement

Robina Taliaferrow (she/her) is a client relations expert and environmental educator. Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Robina joined Billion Oyster Project (BOP) in 2013 when it was known as the New York Harbor Foundation. In 2017 she led the effort to establish a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policy and committee at Billion Oyster Project. Robina is currently the Director of Community Engagement and oversees the community science, field stations, public outreach, and volunteer programs. She is an active member of the Leadership team.

Tanasia Swift, Field Stations Program Manager

Tanasia Swift (she/her) is a marine educator from Brooklyn, NY. She works at Billion Oyster Project as the Field Stations Program Manager, where she develops outdoor programs across NYC utilizing oyster reefs. She manages community connections, plans field events, recruits and engages school groups, and trains community partners at each Field Station location. Tanasia is also an Ambassador for Girls That Scuba (GTS), and a core member at Superhero Clubhouse.

Billion Oyster Project

Billion Oyster Project was founded in 2014 by Murray Fisher and Pete Malinowski, who envisioned a healthy, biodiverse New York Harbor — and who shared the belief that restoration without education is temporary.

Murray and Pete met at The Urban Assembly New York Harbor School, where Murray served as Director and Pete taught Aquaculture. The two found that when students are given real responsibility, like helping to restore a degraded New York Harbor, they rise to the occasion with great enthusiasm. Billion Oyster Project has expanded on that idea — offering public school students, volunteers, community scientists and restaurants the opportunity to learn about New York City’s rich oyster history and lead the movement to restore it.

https://www.billionoysterproject.org/our-story

SCAPE - Land, Sea and People - Talk

Tuesday October 24 6-7PM
Davies Toews Architecture
209 Ave A New York City, New York 10009

https://www.archtober.org/2023-events/sacpe-land-sea-and-people

This presentation features a discussion with Tami Banh, the deputy project manager of Living Breakwaters, and Tama Whiting, design lead for Te Ara Tukutuku.

Tami will talk about Living Breakwaters, an innovative coastal green infrastructure project featuring 2,400 linear feet of near-shore breakwaters. These partially submerged structures are constructed from stone and ecologically enhanced concrete, aimed at mitigating erosion and storm wave damage. The project also focuses on enhancing the ecosystem health of Raritan Bay, promoting stewardship of our nearshore waters, and improving the overall shoreline experience in southern Staten Island.

Tama, on the other hand, will introduce 'Te Ara Tukutuku', SCAPE's pioneering collaborative project spanning 25 acres in Aotearoa, New Zealand. He'll provide insights into the co-design process and offer a glimpse of the early outcomes achieved through their partnership with Mana Whenua representatives—Māori tribes and sub-tribes deeply connected to the project's location.

Tami Banh, Architect, Landscape Architect

Tami Banh is a Vietnamese architect and landscape architect. She’s passionate about exploring ways to restructure relationships between humans and the surrounding world through designing, building, writing, and making. Her works and research focus on ecology, climate resilience, and human-nonhuman cohabitation. Tami is an associate at Scape Landscape Architecture and served as an Associate Adjunct Professor in the Urban Design program at Columbia University. Tami holds a Bachelor in Architecture from the University of Southern California and a dual Master in Architecture and Master in Landscape Architecture with Distinction from Harvard University.


Tama Whiting, Landscape Architect, Designer

Tama Whiting, also known as Tamatamaarangi, which translates to “Son of the sky”  is a Māori landscape architect and designer descended from Te Whānau-ā-Apanui, a Māori tribe indigenous to Aotearoa, New Zealand. Tama currently serves as a Senior Design Consultant for SCAPE and takes pride in leading design initiatives and forging valuable relationships for the firm across the Pacific Rim. He has both a Bachelor of Architectural Studies (BAS) and a Master's in Landscape Architecture (MLA) from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Tama further expanded his horizons through a postgraduate exchange program at the Technical University of Munich, Germany.


SCAPE Studio

SCAPE is a dynamic landscape architecture and urban design firm with offices in New York, New Orleans, and San Francisco. The heart of their mission revolves around designing and advocating for ecologically restorative and socially engaged landscapes, urban environments, and natural infrastructure to shape a sustainable future. Their versatile approach encompasses various design facets, from constructed landscapes and urban planning to visionary projects and in-depth research, all with the overarching aim of fostering a deeper connection between people and their surroundings.

At the core of SCAPE’s practice, ecological design and a strong commitment to community engagement and environmental justice are woven into every facet of its design philosophy. SCAPE firmly believes in the transformative potential of natural infrastructure to usher in enduring positive changes in both urban environments and landscapes across different scales, ranging from the resilience-focused Living Breakwaters in Staten Island to the indigenous co-design development of Te Ara Tukutuku in New Zealand.

To Leave and Return - Mount Pleasant Indian Industrial Boarding School - Talk

Wednesday October 25 7-8PM
Davies Toews Architecture
209 Ave A New York City, New York 10009

https://www.archtober.org/2023-events/indigenous-architecture-days-to-leave-and-return

This program is part of the Alignments in the Indigenous Design Process series, developed in collaboration with the Center for Architecture. 

The Mount Pleasant Indian Industrial Boarding School was a federal institution that operated from 1893 to 1934 on treaty lands of the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan. Between 2011 and 2013, part of the site was conveyed to the Tribe, along with seven historic school buildings. Over the past decade, community members have worked diligently to map out a new, hopeful future for a place that is marked by a complicated and tragic past. Slow Built Studio has worked pro bono for the Tribe for the past three years to develop a plan for a living memorial and new uses for the site, incorporating Anishinaabe cultural and material practices. This lecture will provide historical background and describe the community-based design work that has gone into the site’s planned transformation back into a space for indigenous life, art and language.



Christian is an Assistant Professor of Art at Wesleyan University and the founder of Slow Built Studio, a design, research, and architecture practice based in New Haven, Connecticut. His teaching and research both focus on impermanence in design and indigenous precedents for non-extractive making. He has spent 18 years working in practices on the east and west coasts of the United States, as well as in Canada and England. He is a licensed architect in New York, California, and Michigan, and is a member of the American Institute of Architects and the American Indian Council of Architects and Engineers. He is an enrolled member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians.

Educational Projects of the Gila River Indian Community - Talk

Thursday October 26 7-8PM
Davies Toews Architecture
209 Ave A New York City, New York 10009

https://www.archtober.org/2023-events/educational-projects-of-the-gila-river-indian-community

JCJ Architecture's Chief Architectural Officer, Jim LaPosta, will share insights on the community engagement with the elders, youth, artists of the community, key design concepts, and their innovative delivery process for working with tribal communities.

James E. LaPosta, Jr., FAIA, LEED AP, Principal JCJ Architecture

James E. LaPosta, Jr., FAIA, LEED AP is a Principal with JCJ Architecture and serves as the firm’s Chief Architectural Officer. In the role of CAO, Jim has oversight of all aspects of design quality, delivery of technical services and professional licensure. As an architect and design practitioner, Jim has dedicated his career to public and community focused work, including educational facilities for public districts and schools that serve Tribal Nations. Under his direction, JCJ has been recognized as a leader in the design of schools that support innovation, collaboration and Next Generation teaching and learning.

Jim is an articulate contributor to the collective dialogue around the practice of architecture and has worked with client and professional organizations at the local, regional, national and international level. As a past national Chair of the AIA’s Committee on Architecture for Education and leader of JCJ’s Knowledge Partnership with the American Architecture Foundation Design for Learning program, Jim has been at the forefront of the profession’s engagement around school design that supports shifting pedagogy and student achievement. In 2013, Jim was conferred the title of Fellow of the American Institute of Architects for his work elevating the practice of architecture, in particular design for education.

Dispossession, Tourism, and Desire - Talk

Friday October 27 6-7PM
Davies Toews Architecture
209 Ave A New York City, New York 10009

https://www.archtober.org/2023-events/dispossession-tourism-and-desire

Through the lens of Indigenous Sovereignty, tourism, and development, an image analysis of a Florida landscape will be shared by Emily Velez Nelms. The image, however, offers more than a landscape; it provides a complex visual history that underscores the profound impact of cultural tourism on the built environment. This gallery talk will speak to the ‘politics of home’ in how notions of paradise and the exotic are deeply intertwined with local formations of race and suburbia.

Emily Velez Nelms, ISAPD Yale

Emily Velez Nelms (she/her) is an artist, educator, and community organizer, born and raised in southern Florida. She studied painting at Savannah College of Art and Design (BFA 2013), sculpture at the University of California Los Angeles (MFA 2019), and is currently a Master’s of Environmental Design candidate at the Yale School of Architecture. Velez Nelms has also engaged in the study of architecture at the University of Miami.

Velez Nelms’ thesis work is centered on Indigenous methodologies, archive formation, and theories of racial formation. Currently, she is studying the impact of cultural tourism on the infrastructural development of southern Florida, through the lens of Indigenous Sovereignty, entertainment, and institutional collection making.

Velez Nelms has been a resident artist at the International Sculpture Center, the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, the Yale Center for Collaborative Arts & Media, and MASS MoCA. She is a current Studio Participant in the Whitney ISP.

Velez Nelms teaches in the Interdisciplinary Studies Department at University of Hartford and is the graduate coordinator for the Yale Group for the Study of Native America.

First Future Festival (NYC)

Friday October 27 7:00pm - 8:00PM
Davies Toews Architecture
209 Ave A New York City, New York 10009

Experience the Equinox House: Enter the Past + Engage the Future. Night Light Activation commences at 7pm. Dream, ideate, transform, and engage.

The Equinox House is part of ISAPD’s year long First Future Project, supported by the Fulcrum Fund, a grant program of 516 ARTS made possible by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the Frederick Hammersley Fund for the Arts at the Albuquerque Community Foundation. The intention of the Equinox House is to reawaken the relationship between people and natural cycles.

The First Future Festival New York edition is a public colloquy and exhibition to experience the activation of the Equinox House and see collaborative narratives come to life architecturally.


Beading Workshop

Saturday October 28 11AM-12:30PM
Davies Toews Architecture
209 Ave A New York City, New York 10009

https://www.archtober.org/2023-events/beading-workshop

Innovate your creative practice and learn how to bead with Nishina Shapwaykeesic-Loft and Relative Arts!

Nishina Shapwaykeesic-Loft

Nishina Shapwaykeesic-Loft is Kanien’kehá:ka from Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory. She is a 2S queer, multi-disciplinary artist in a wide spectrum of mediums. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts with Honours from York University in Theatre Production and Design.

Nishina works in the theatre industry with a specialization in costuming. Her recent credits for Costume Design are BentBoy (Young People's Theatre) and Niizh (Native Earth Performing Arts). She is a mural artist working with StART as a junior curator and an indigenous advisor. She is the Associate Programmer for the Toronto Queer Film Festival and has worked in programming for  imagineNATIVE Media + Arts Festival. She is a beadwork artist exploring different materials and incorporating modern interpretations (@nshtsh). She is the Resident Artist for Relative Arts located in the East Village, NYC. She continues to grow within her field and explore new opportunities.


Indigenous Computer Aided Design (CAD) Blocks Drawing Session

Saturday October 28 2:00pm - 3:30PM
Davies Toews Architecture
209 Ave A New York City, New York 10009

Itandehui Gomez will lead the Indigenous Computer Aided Design (CAD) Blocks Drawing Session with Relative Arts. Creating Indigenous Representation in drawings and renderings of the architecture, planning, and designing fields. Join and contribute toward the movement of Indigenous representation and the Indigenous CAD Library drawing session! This session will involve a brief discussion on representation in drawings and will be a working session for hand drawing and computer aided design drafting techniques. Feel free to bring your personal laptop for the session. Drawing materials will be provided.  

Itandehui Gomez, Architectural Designer, Caplan Colaku Architecture

I am an artist and architectural designer. I was born in Oaxaca, Mexico, and grew up in Portland, Oregon, where I got my bachelor's degree in Architecture with a focus on environmental sustainability. I later moved to New York and attended The Pratt Institute, where much of my research focused on Architecture in the Anthropocene. A lot of my work, both art and architecture, focuses on representation. I currently work at Caplan Colaku Architecture as an architectural designer.


Star Party

Saturday October 28 7:00pm - 9:00PM
Relative Arts
Storefront East, 367 E 10th St, New York, NY 10009

Celebrate New York’s Indigenous community and the conclusion of Lenapehoking’s - New York’s, first Indigenous Architecture Days!

Join us for the after party at Relative Arts located in the East Village. We will gather in a celebration of Indigenous peoples who were among the first architects of our built environment to design structures synchronized with nature and seasonal changes, aligned with the cosmos, and honoring our holistic relationship with a larger system.

Celebrate with us at the Star Party!


Liana Shewey, Co-founder, Director of Programming at Relative Arts

LIANA SHEWEY (Mvskoke) is Co-founder and Director of Programming at Relative Arts. Shewey is a committed educator and community organizer who has led teachi-ins and speak-outs to create awareness around missing and murdered Indigenous relatives (MMIR), the damaging effects of fossil fuels, and Indigenous liberation. She has also worked in music and event production for more than 15 years and brings those skills and relationships to Relative Arts to host events featuring artists of all forms, and to develop progressive educational programming. Notable engagements include The New-York Historical Society, William Paterson University, RISD, The American Indian Community House, The Museum of the City of New York and more.

Korina Emmerich, Founder EMME Studio, Co-Founder Relative Arts

KORINA EMMERICH (Puyallup) founded EMME Studio in 2015 and co-founded Relative Arts, NYC in 2023. Her colorful work celebrates her patrilineal Indigenous heritage from The Puyallup tribe while aligning art and design with education. Her work has been featured on Project Runway, in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Moma PS1, The Denver Art Museum, NYU, Cornell, RISD Museum, The Museum of the City of New York, Vogue, Elle, Instyle, New York Magazine, and more notable publications. She has presented her collections in Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week, Indigenous Fashion and Arts, Santa Fe Indian Market's Couture Runway Show, and New York Fashion Week.

Relative Arts

Relative Arts is a new brick-and-mortar community space, open atelier, and shop displaying contemporary Indigenous fashion and design. Our mission is to provide a peer-run space in New York City to celebrate the advancement of Indigenous futurism in fashion through representation and education. We are Indigenous owned and operated by Korina Emmerich (Puyallup) and Liana Shewey (Mvskoke).

https://www.relativeartsnyc.com/

Davies Toews

Established in 2009 by Trattie Davies and Jonathan Toews, Davies Toews is dedicated to the

continuous exploration of ideas through a balance of built work and academic practice. The office is modeled on a studio environment with emphasis on physical models and drawings as tools to examine concepts of program, site, and form.

https://www.daviestoews.com/ 


RABBIT RABBIT

RABBIT RABBIT is a place of things.

It is a collective with a changing presence.

It is a split space, half devoted to making and half devoted to seeing.

It is impermanent.

It is a party.

It is a performance.

It is a celebration.

It is a cloud.

Rabbit Rabbit is a storefront

by Davies Toews Architecture.

Davies Toews Architecture

209 Avenue ANew York, NY 10009

https://rabbitrabbitnyc.com/


The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts

In accordance with Andy Warhol’s will, the mission of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts is the advancement of the visual arts. The Foundation manages an innovative and flexible grants program while also preserving Warhol’s legacy through creative and responsible licensing policies and extensive scholarly research for ongoing catalogue raisonné projects. To date, the Foundation has given nearly $280 million in cash grants to more than 1,000 arts organizations in 49 states and abroad and has donated 52,786 works of art to 322 institutions worldwide.

https://warholfoundation.org/ 


Pland Collaborative

Pland Collaborative creates spaces that capture the imagination and stimulate the senses, include people of all ages, abilities and interests, and provide opportunities for users to connect with nature. We measure the success of our built environment by its ability to solve the physical and environmental challenges of a site with simple and compelling solutions. Founded in 1973, Pland is the largest landscape architecture and planning firm in New Mexico.

https://plandcollab.com/

Page Southerland Page

Page is a multidisciplinary design, architecture and engineering firm with 1,300+ talented staff and offices in the U.S. and abroad. Page’s work consists largely of complex projects that benefit from integrated disciplines and that make a significant impact on the communities they serve.

Page believes buildings are more important for what they do — for the positive impact they make on individual lives — than for what they are.

Find out more about Page Southerland Page here:

https://www.pagethink.com/

516 Arts

Established in 2006 by Suzanne Sbarge, 516 ARTS is a non-collecting contemporary art museum in Albuquerque, New Mexico that celebrates thought-provoking art in the here and now. At the core of its mission, 516 ARTS seeks to connect contemporary artists and diverse audiences through exhibitions and public programs that feature a mix of local, national, and international artists. The only museum in Albuquerque devoted exclusively to contemporary art, 516 ARTS prioritizes creative experimentation, with a focus on the intersection of Latinx and Indigenous histories in New Mexico and beyond. The museum delves into timely and pressing themes such as climate change, migration, and social and environmental justice. 516 ARTS sees art as at the essence of our humanity and a catalyst for positive social change.

https://516arts.org/about/about-516-arts

Envision Resilience

The Envision Resilience Challenge, a coastal resilience initiative that connects academia, local leadership and community members, inspires coastal communities to envision innovative approaches to the impacts of climate change. The design studio calls on multidisciplinary student teams of architects and landscape architects, designers, engineers, environmental scientists, naturalists, journalists and artists to reimagine coastal communities and propose imaginative solutions to the current and future impact of sea level rise.

https://www.envisionresilience.org/

Center for Architecture

Center for Architecture is a leading cultural venue for architecture and the built environment in New York City, located at 536 LaGuardia Place, NY, NY.

https://www.centerforarchitecture.org/

Archtober

Founded in 2011, Archtober has grown into a year-round resource for all things architecture, celebrating the craft and the individuals behind the global built environment. Archtober works with partners like museums, cultural organizations, consulates, advocacy groups, parks, and more.

https://www.archtober.org/partner/indigenous-society-of-architecture-planning-and-design


ARCHTOBER PROGRAM SERIES:

ALIGNMENTS OF THE INDIGENOUS DESIGN PROCESS

This program is part of the Alignments in the Indigenous Design Process series, developed in collaboration with the Center for Architecture + Archtober. Since time immemorial, Indigenous peoples were among the first architects of our built environment to design structures synchronized with nature and seasonal changes, aligned with the cosmos, and honoring our holistic relationship with a larger system. This series will present processes and projects with an array of alignments with natural and artificial elements that are woven into Indigenous spatial design methodologies.




Part I: Nonhuman Futures

Suzanne Kite is a performance artist, visual artist, and composer. In this lecture, she will be talking about spatial relationships between human and non-human entities in her installation and design work.

Speaker: Suzanne Kite

About the Speaker: Suzanne Kite holds an MFA in Music and Sound from the Milton Avery Graduate School of Fine Arts at Bard College, and is currently completing their PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies at Concordia University, with a focus on Lakȟóta ontology (the study of beinghood in Lakȟóta philosophy), Artificial Intelligence (a theoretical and practical field that uses computation techniques such as Machine Learning) and contemporary art.

Host: Emily Velez Nelms

About the Host: Emily Velez Nelms (she/her) is an artist, educator, and community organizer, born and raised in southern Florida. She studied painting at Savannah College of Art and Design (BFA 2013), sculpture at the University of California Los Angeles (MFA 2019), and is currently a Master’s of Environmental Design candidate at the Yale School of Architecture. Velez Nelms has also engaged in the study of architecture at the University of Miami.

When: Tuesday, October 3, 1pm EST

Click Here to Register




Part II: An Otomí Leader and an Architecture of Indigenous Reclamation

Tracing the story of a young leader of the Otomí resistance against the neoliberal state in Mexico City, this lecture focuses on the Indigenous appropriation of a building previously used by an assimilationist arm of the Mexican government. Since the 2020 rebellious takeover, the building has been transformed by the Otomíes into a house for the Indigenous peoples of all Mexico. A broader aim of this presentation is to contend for the need to register spaces of resistance such as this one, which demands that architectural history develop analytical tools beyond its traditional reading of form and language. The historical relevance of these subversive spaces manifests in the more particular aim of this talk, which is to show the significance of an architecture of resistance in the empowerment of a young Indigenous woman, whose activism awoke when she saw her community occupy and transform the building. Her leadership in the struggle against the legacies of colonialism was built in parallel with the agency of her people both to claim spaces for Indigenous communities in the country's capital and to reshape an architecture that would disseminate the message of Indigenous resistance throughout Mexico.

Speaker: Tania Gutiérrez-Monroy, Assistant Professor, School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, University of British Columbia

About the Speaker: Tania Gutiérrez-Monroy is an assistant professor at the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture in the University of British Columbia. She studies architecture as a material and signifying practice that spatializes colonial and patriarchal forces as well as resistance mechanisms. Her research focuses on the ways in which different categories of identity intersect, are negotiated in, and transform space. Thematically, her work spans: historical examples of ephemeral and practised architectures, race and gender in spaces of conflict, and landscapes of Indigenous resistance. Prior to joining UBC, Tania was an assistant professor of architecture at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee after being the 2021-2022 Emerging Scholar Fellow at the G. Hines College of Architecture and Design at the University of Houston. She holds a Ph.D. and an M.Sc. from McGill University and was trained as an architect at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. She has also taught architectural history, theory, design, and research methods at the University of Houston, the University of British Columbia, Louisiana State University, and Université Laval.

Host: Brent Wafula

About the Host:  Brent is a candidate architect hailing from Nairobi, Kenya. He pursued his bachelors in architecture at Jomo Kenyatta University in Juja, Kenya, with a brief stint at the Delft University of Technology. He also has over 2 and a half years of work experience having worked on projects situated in Kenya, South Sudan, Rwanda and USA spanning master planning, healthcare, commercial, cultural and residential design. He has worked at Studio Mehta Architecture and Planning Systems Services both in Nairobi, Kenya and Hart Howerton in New York, USA. He is currently a second year student pursuing a master’s degree in architecture at Yale University.


When: Tuesday, October 17, 1pm EST

Click Here to Register


Part III: Indigenous Architecture Days: To Leave and Return

The Mount Pleasant Indian Industrial Boarding School was a federal institution that operated from 1893 to 1934 on treaty lands of the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan. Between 2011 and 2013, part of the site was conveyed to the Tribe, along with seven historic school buildings. Over the past decade, community members have worked diligently to map out a new, hopeful future for a place that is marked by a complicated and tragic past. Slow Built Studio has worked pro bono for the Tribe for the past three years to develop a plan for a living memorial and new uses for the site, incorporating Anishinaabe cultural and material practices. This lecture will provide historical background and describe the community-based design work that has gone into the site’s planned transformation back into a space for indigenous life, art and language.

Speaker: Christian Hart Nakarado, Assistant Professor of Art, Wesleyan University; Founder, Slow Built Studio

About the Speaker: Christian is an Assistant Professor of Art at Wesleyan University and the founder of Slow Built Studio, a design, research, and architecture practice based in New Haven, Connecticut. His teaching and research both focus on impermanence in design and indigenous precedents for non-extractive making. He has spent 18 years working in practices on the east and west coasts of the United States, as well as in Canada and England. He is a licensed architect in New York, California, and Michigan, and is a member of the American Institute of Architects and the American Indian Council of Architects and Engineers. He is an enrolled member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians.

When: Wednesday, October 25, 7pm EST
Where: Davies Toews Architecture 209 Avenue A New York, NY 10009

Click Here to Register


INDIGENOUS ARCHITECTURE DAYS - ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO

Friday - September 22, 2023
+
Saturday - September 23, 2023

Join us for a two day celebration of Indigenous architecture, planning, and design at the Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center presented by the Indigenous Society of Architecture, Planning, and Design (ISAPD) and partners.

The intention of Indigenous Architecture Days is to inspire future generations, support current Indigenous designers, and gather together with professional, academic, and the greater community to celebrate nature-informed Indigenous architecture. Native youth and tribal communities are prioritized and invited to sign up to the limited capacity workshops first. Please see workshop sign up forms linked below.


Day 1:
Adobe Making Workshop - Rebuilding Connections to Traditional Pueblo Architecture ~ Charelle Brown + Francisco Uviña + AIA ABQ
1:00pm - 5:00pm
Location: Amphitheater + Grounds
AIA HSW Pending Approval
Sign Up Here

Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center Site Tour ~ Formative Architecture + AIA ABQ
5:00pm - 6:00pm
Location: Multipurpose Room + Grounds
AIA HSW Pending Approval
Sign Up Here

Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center Design Charette ~ Indigenous Design Studio + Architecture
6:00pm - 7:00pm
Location: Multipurpose Room
Sign Up Here

Shuká Hít (Our Ancestors’ House) A Symbol of Survival and Strength - Film Screening ~ University of New Mexico (UNM) Indigenous Design and Planning
Institute
7:00pm - 8:00pm
Location: Amphitheater

Day 2:
Pollinator House Workshop + Rainwater Harvesting
Demonstration ~ ABQ Backyard Refuge Program + Arid LID Coalition
11:00am - 1:00pm
Location: Grounds + Backyard Refuge Habitat Garden
Sign Up Here

Pop Up Shop + Gallery ~ Indigenous Designers, Event
Partners, UNM School of Architecture + Planning Masters Architectural Design Studio
1:00pm - 5:00pm
Location: Grounds

First Future Festival ~ ISAPD with music by DJ Garronteed
1:00pm - 5:00pm
Location: Grounds

Indigenous Computer Aided Design (CAD) Blocks Drawing Session ~ ISAPD_UNM Chapter - Charelle Brown + Halle Sago
2:00pm - 3:00pm
Location: Multipurpose Room + Grounds
Sign Up Here

Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center Design Charette ~ Victor Pascual
3:00pm - 4:00pm
Location: Multipurpose Room
Sign Up Here  


INDIGENOUS ARCHITECTURE DAYS (ABQ) - SPONSORS 


Isleta Resort & Casino

Isleta Resort & Casino is a lush oasis, high in the desert, above the crowd and beyond compare.

Find out more about Isleta Resort & Casino here: https://www.isleta.com/

Established in the 1300’s, the Southern Tiwa-speaking community of Isleta is, and long has been, one of the largest Eastern Pueblo towns in New Mexico.

Find out more about the Pueblo of Isleta here: https://www.isletapueblo.com/

American Indian Council of Architects & Engineers

The American Indian Council of Architects and Engineers (AICAE) is a non-profit organization established in 1976 by a small group of Native Americans to promote the development of American Indians in the professions of architecture, engineering and construction and to encourage the training and licensing of greater numbers of American Indians in these professions. Our membership is composed of professional architects, engineers, contractors and those in related fields throughout the United States. Our mission is to advance our members’ professional skills and promote recognition of our members’ excellence, service and contributions in the design field at a national level. In addition, AICAE encourages young Native Americans to pursue careers as professional architects, engineers, and design professionals.

Find out more about AICAE here:
https://aicaecouncil.org/

Page Southerland Page

Page is a multidisciplinary design, architecture and engineering firm with 1,300+ talented staff and offices in the U.S. and abroad. Page’s work consists largely of complex projects that benefit from integrated disciplines and that make a significant impact on the communities they serve.

Page believes buildings are more important for what they do — for the positive impact they make on individual lives — than for what they are.

Find out more about Page Southerland Page here:
https://www.pagethink.com/

Pland Collaborative

Pland Collaborative creates spaces that capture the imagination and stimulate the senses, include people of all ages, abilities and interests, and provide opportunities for users to connect with nature. We measure the success of our built environment by its ability to solve the physical and environmental challenges of a site with simple and compelling solutions. Founded in 1973, Pland is the largest landscape architecture and planning firm in New Mexico.

Find out more about Pland Collaborative here:
https://plandcollab.com/



INDIGENOUS PRESENCE IN ARCHITECTURE

March 31, 2023

Indigenous Society of Architecture, Planning, and Design (ISAPD)  X Yale Haas Arts Library X Yale School of Architecture

When: March 31, 2023, 1:00pm - 2:30pm
Where: Rudolph Hall, Room 322
 



IN THE REALM OF INDIGENOUS ARCHITECTURE 

October 2023  

Join us for the ‘In the Realm of Indigenous Architectures’ series, developed in collaboration with the Center for Architecture. In the Realm of Indigenous Architectures presents built projects, architectural tools, and historical policy illustrating the preservation of culture and transformation of Indigenous communities in the United States today.

October 4, 2022

IN THE REALM OF INDIGENOUS ARCHITECTURE
Part I
Architectural Tools and Technology for Tribal Communities

Click Here to Register

Miriam Diddy (Hopi, Navajo) is a planner and GIS specialist and has worked on planning, mapping, and community engagement efforts for several tribes across the Southwest. While at AOS Architects, Diddy was the lead designer coding and building the award-winning Zuni Housing Authority mobile app, which collects housing and demographics data on nearly 2,000 homes at Zuni Pueblo. Diddy will highlight the importance of architectural tools and technology for tribal communities and share her experience developing the app and its potential expansive use for other departments or tribes in the future.

Speaker:
Miriam Diddy (Hopi + Navajo), AICAE, Planner, MRWM

About the Speaker:
Miriam Diddy is a planner and GIS specialist. She has a BA in environmental planning and design from UNM. Diddy has assisted on planning and building assessment/inventory efforts for several tribal clients, including the Pueblos of Zuni, Laguna, Cochiti, Santo Domingo, and San Ildefonso. As part of these efforts, she has developed a mobile phone app geared towards the assessment of historic structures in traditional tribal communities that has been customized for multiple clients to streamline data collection and reinforce data sovereignty in Indian Country. Born and raised in New Mexico, Diddy is a member of the Navajo Nation (Diné) with additional Hopi and Ukrainian heritage. She currently volunteers for several non-profits including as Secretary for the American Indian Council of Architects and Engineers (AICAE) and as a Steering Committee Member for the Tribal + Indigenous Planning Division of the American Planning Association (APA). She also serves as Board Member for Creative Startups, a non-profit with the mission of helping individuals successfully launch creative businesses and entrepreneurs that help drive the creative economy.

October 11, 2022

IN THE REALM OF INDIGENOUS ARCHITECTURE
Part II
The Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative

Click Here to Register

In June 2021, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland announced the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, a comprehensive effort to recognize the troubled legacy of federal Indian boarding school policies, with the goal of addressing their intergenerational impact and to shed light on the traumas of the past. The federal Indian boarding school policies introduced a new architecture and program to American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian communities in the 19th and 20th centuries. In this program, Joaquin Gallegos (Jicarilla Apache, Santa Ana Pueblo), Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs at the US Department of Interior, will summarize the findings of this extensive and first-ever inventory of federally operated Indian boarding schools.  
Speaker:
Joaquin Gallegos (Jicarilla Apache + Santa Ana Pueblo), Special Assistant to Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs, US Department of Interior

October 18, 2022

IN THE REALM OF INDIGENOUS ARCHITECTURE
Part III
The Albuquerque Indian Boarding School

Click Here to Register

Following on last week's talk on Federal Indian Boarding School, Dr. Ted Jojola (Isleta Pueblo), will present the story of an anomaly Indian Boarding School: the Albuquerque Indian School (AIS). Jojola will examine how the AIS students' tribal communities were able to exercise their agency, influencing everything from classroom curriculum to school functions. AIS serves as an example of how communities ultimately mitigated the schools' assimilation efforts and assured the cultural, social, and economic survival of their people.

Speaker:
Ted Jojola (Isleta Pueblo), Director, Indigenous Design and Planning Institute, and Distinguished + Regents' Professor, University of New Mexico

October 25, 2022

IN THE REALM OF INDIGENOUS ARCHITECTURE
Part IIII
Affordable Housing and Community at Siler Yard

Click Here to Register

Garron Yepa (Navajo, Jemez Pueblo) was born and raised in New Mexico and brings his cultural and regional knowledge to every architectural project as a designer and project manager. Yepa will share information and key insights on the Wa-Di Housing Development for Santo Domingo Pueblo and the Owe’neh Bupingeh Preservation Project for Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo. Yepa will further discuss how these tribal projects informed Siler Yard: Arts+Creativity Center of Santa Fe, the first net-zero energy, 100% electric utilities multi-family project in New Mexico.

Speaker:
Garron Yepa (Navajo + Jemez Pueblo), AOS Architects

About the Speaker:
Garron Yepa was born and raised in New Mexico and brings his cultural and regional knowledge to every architectural project. As the son of a Navajo (Dine) mother, and a Jemez Pueblo (Towa) father Garron has a unique perspective on architecture and design. Being a fluent Towa speaker has given him insight into another way of describing the world around him. He has continued his learning with extended stays in New Hampshire, Alaska, and New York City - always returning home to restore his grounding in his communities.

Garron Yepa (Navajo + Jemez Pueblo), AOS Architects