Indigenous Public Interest Design Institute

The Public Interest Design Institute of Design Corps is facilitating “Cultural Responders Forum – Indigenous Architecture” on December 12, 2025. This is an ongoing dialogue that continues the discussion begun at the Indigenous Public Interest Design Institute held on October 24, 2025.

This forum will explore how Indigenous worldviews, protocols, and relationships to land can reshape the future of civic and public-space design. Using case studies -including the Manitou Asinîy–Iniskim–Tsa Xani Centre (MAITX) and the Indigenous Placekeeping Framework (IPFK) can guide projects toward deeper cultural relevance, ecological reciprocity, and community-centered programming.  Attendees will learn how culturally specific cosmologies and land-based relationships can meaningfully inform design processes, architectural form, and the role of public institutions in advancing relational and inclusive spaces.

This forum will be led by Wanda Dalla Costa, FRAIC, AIA (she/her) is an architect, institute professor, member of Saddle Lake Cree Nation, and an advocate for Indigenous peoples in her professional and academic roles – employing design to uplift Indigenous culture, while ensuring authenticity in the built environment. From custom interior elements to master planning, she is the first, First Nations woman to practice architecture in Canada. A graduate of SCI-Arc and the University of Calgary with degrees in both Architecture and Urban Design, she balances practice and teaching: at Arizona State University she is the founder and the director of the Indigenous Design Collective, while leading her firm – Tawaw Architecture Collective (www.tawarc.com) overseeing Indigenous design and research in both offices (Phoenix and Calgary).)

Registration for the event  is now open and can be accessed using this link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1976464035134?aff=oddtdtcreator