The AIA Housing and Community Development Knowledge Community (HCD) is a network of architects and allied stakeholders that promotes equity in housing, excellence in residential design, and sustainable, vibrant communities for all, through education, research, awards, and advocacy.
Cultural Expression Through Mass Timber- The Village SF Wellness Center
Softwood Lumber 2023 Mass Timber Competition winner, The Village SF Wellness Center will be a 45,000 square foot building in the heart of the American Indian Cultural District. The Owner represents a coalition of Intertribal American Indian Organizations serving the Urban American Indian community and beyond. It will shine as an example of a dense, mixed-use, community-based project constructed of mass timber.
The Center is a lesson for non Native architects to recognize the built environment’s role in colonization. We will share the process of rejecting a colonized perspective and elevating cultural indigenous values and spiritual ancestry presence in design.
The ability to build Type IV-C projects has become a pathway to decolonizing architecture. The exposed mass timber structure communicates a sense of nature, cultural connection and warmth that calls to residents and users, as seen by the Village SF Wellness Center.
This project personifies an important perspective when thinking globally about mass timber’s presence, and grounds us in the lessons from First Nations. We will discuss together the difficulties and opportunities for sourcing timber from native land and stewarded forests.
The webinar was part of a series produced by the AIA Right-to-Housing Working Group. In each episode, we ask: “What does the right to housing mean in practice?” and “How can architects contribute?”Janey Madamba, AIA, Senior Associate, PYATOKAnya Riddell-Kaufman, Associate, PYATOKRay Reedy, AIA, Associate, PYATOK
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