Instant Indigenous communities

Abstract

This thesis aims to explore issues of relocation, myth, and the cultural particularities of habitable space. These ideas are explored and tested through two community design projects, both consisting of cohesive migrations of groups of indigenous people. The first project is sited in Mexico City, and involves the design of housing and community infrastructure for 225 Otomi peasants. The second project is in Labrador and deals with the relocation of an Innu village of 500 people. The main focus of the design work is the house. The definition of the domestic living environment touches on private and public space, infrastructure and services, and fixed and movable pieces. The house designs attempt to embody these symbolic or cultural qualities, while responding to site and climate conditions. The design of the overall community is at the level of strategy. It includes general layout or settlement pattern, a definition of common infrastructure, and a proposal for communal indoor and outdoor spaces. The designs aim to mediate between traditional values and new circumstances, with a view to engage the creative potential of change. Each piece is developed as a building block, a set of initial patterns or rules out of which a new community might grow. The potential for active interaction by inhabitants is both considered in the design development and suggested in the presentation format. The houses, community buildings, and settlement patterns are proposals for buildings, yet they are also narrative elements, part of a story about a possible future.