2024 Hagey Lecture: Decoding meaning in Indigenous design

Decoding meaning in Indigenous design

Wanda Dalla Costa, AIA, FRAIC, LEED A.P.

Principal, TAWAW Architecture Collective Inc.

TAWAW is a design-research firm dedicated to advancing Indigenous architecture. Our current research centers on the meaning found in original structures – the tipi, hogan, longhouse or wigwam - which we have come to understand as a microcosm of a larger world. Each project we undertake, offers behavioral, social and ideological meanings, that we integrate into contemporary form. Our work is not about replicating traditional designs but about understanding the meanings they hold, to bring meanings forward, making culture visible, but also stable. Join us as we explore the work of encoding and decoding Indigenous environments.