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Creating a strong sense of place is critical to cultural identity in Native American communities. New tribal building and planning projects provide significant opportunities for tribal communities to reinforce cultural revival efforts while advancing economic, educational, and healthcare initiatives. This session will encourage an open and interactive discussion of the central issues in tribal design and efforts to lead a fundamental shift toward culturally appropriate design solutions and self-determination. From rural reservation single-family houses to inner-city multifamily mixed-use urban developments, Native American communities face unique challenges and opportunities. Legal and political constraints, complicated funding mechanisms, and a lack of infrastructure all contribute to a critical shortage of adequate housing and economic opportunity in most Native American communities. Many design solutions for tribal communities, unfortunately, fall back on one-size-fits-all models of development and design cliches that do not respond to the distinct social structures of Native families or reflect the diverse range of cultural and artistic expression unique to each tribe. This discussion will highlight diverse Native American projects that have challenged the status quo of typical tribal design and planning projects with innovative and culturally respectful design solutions.
As an Indigenous architect with over 25 years of design, comprehensive planning, and cultural visioning experience, Sam Olbekson, MAUD '05, serves tribal communities and Indigenous organizations by bringing a Native perspective to the design and planning process.
Free and open to the public.
All are invited to watch and participate online in this program by tuning into this page at the noted start time. No pre-registration is required. Online audience members will be able to submit questions throughout the event using Vimeo's Q&A function. If you would like to submit questions for the speaker in advance of the event, please click here.
Harvard ID holders are also welcome to attend programs in person, except where an event is listed as online only.
Live captioning will be provided during this event livestream.
