Decolonizing Pacific NW Architecture

We should learn directly from Indigenous people about how to meaningfully design for cultural continuity in our shared spaces. Self-education is an important action. Native people are underrepresented in the profession of architecture, and architecture curriculum has traditionally elevated European design ideals. It’s a personal and organizational responsibility to learn about Indigenous culture and design in the places where we work and build.

Appreciating Our Project Partners

Candid and thoughtful feedback from Native community members has shaped our understanding of how design can welcome Native people and visitors meaningfully, making culture and history visible. We worked with the Native American Rehabilitation Association of the Northwest (NARA NW) on Julia West House, a Permanent Supportive Housing tower in downtown Portland, and Ikanum, a civic space adjacent to East County Library. The Native American Youth and Family Center (NAYA) has also been involved with the East County Library, working with the team during phases of community engagement and design. While working with Northwest Native Chamber on the Community Economic Coalition Campus project, we had the opportunity to explore conceptual design for a business hub that interweaves aesthetics to shape a truly multicultural space.

Rendering of East County Library's southwest entry.

Learning Best Practices

In 2022, we worked with Indigenous designer Athena Rilatos to develop education for our office, addressing how we can decolonize architecture practices. We learned that architects’ work does not stop at decolonizing, i.e., breaking down the cultural and social effects of colonization. We should engage with Native people to support further indigenization of the built environment. In an indigenized place, the processes and products of architecture better reflect the communities whose histories are woven into the landscape we build on. We look for inspiration from indigenizing efforts in architecture like the Te Aranga Principles, an Auckland-based urban design strategy that articulates Māori interests and design aspirations in the built environment.

From this work, we developed “Decolonizing Pacific NW Architecture,” a session that provides an overview of the history of European colonization in the Pacific Northwest and explores how we can conscientiously interweave Native aesthetics, sustainable building strategies, and community-oriented processes into architectural design in a way that benefits people and the planet. We reviewed case studies of equitable and Indigenous architecture and urban design processes that involve Native people and appropriately respond to their needs.

Sharing Decolonizing Pacific Northwest Architecture

The collaboratively developed session evolved with the help of Indigenous designer Danáe Sakuma, who joined Hannah Silver and Athena Rilatos to present at the NOMA National Conference in October 2023. The most exciting part of the event was the large group discussion about the next steps for evolving an equitable, decolonized architecture practice that elevates native voices.

Watch the Presentation Here

Learning Our Roots

Holst employees were asked to pin where they have lived to a map from Tribal Nations Maps. The map shows only topography and traditional Tribal names and locations of the place we now call the United States. We also pinned on a world map to indicate places of importance to our families or cultural heritage. We researched examples of both Indigenous architecture and responsive contemporary design from our pinned locations. Activities like this keep us learning, asking questions, and expanding our views of what contemporary architecture can and should look like.

Essential History

The mapping exercise asked our staff to expand their knowledge of the pre-colonial architecture worldwide, share examples of buildings that truly respond to place, and rethink how we see the colonial boundaries of states and countries.

Interested In Learning More?

You can go here to watch a recording of Decolonizing Pacific Northwest Architecture from the NOMA National Conference in 2023.

Check out a list of additional resources on decolonizing architecture here.

Slide introducing "Decolonizing Pacific Norhtwest Architecture," a presentation at NOMA Portland '23: Building Bridges, from October 13, 2023.

Slide detailing the AIA learning objectives: overviewing the history of European colonization in the Pacific Northwest, exploring how to interweave Native design into our spaces, evolving our processes to be equitable, and discussing how to take a next step toward elevating Native voices and needs.

Slide showing bold text "You are looking at unceded land" affixed to tall windows in a building in Chicago. Settler Colonial City Project at Chicago Architecture Biennial, 2019.

Slide showing six different images of rich textures and colors in architecture and other craft from around the world, illustrating "decolonial aesthetics."

Scene of Native people of all ages dressed in colorful clothing on a grassy field at the Nesika Illahee Pow Wow in Siletz, 2018.

A recreation of the Cathlapotle Plank House, a cedar building with a sunken interior, circular opening, and large wooden beams.

Illustrations of the patchy forest and Oak savannah terrains that were common in the Pacific Northwest prior to colonization in the 1800s.

A photo of the Broadway Bridge and downtown Portland with overlaid text reading, "Portland has the 9th largest urban Native American population in the U.S., made up of more than 58,000 people from more than 380 Tribal Nations."

Illustration, diagram, and rendering of Barbie's Village, a project designed by Danáe Sakum in Portland using a donated church parking lot site, intended to house Indigenous families together with supportive services.

Prompt from the NOMA National Conference session to turn to other people in the room and start a discussion about how we can go beyond land acknowledgement to decolonize design processes, avoid appropriation, and honor stewards of our project sites.

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