INSPIRE - Wanda Dalla Costa - Canada's First Female Indigenous Architect

It is unfortunate that Canada’s indigenous people aren’t more prominently represented in architecture and engineering. Wanda Dalla Costa is Canada’s first, female indigenous architect, who works as a professor at TheDesign School and The School of Construction in Phoenix, while also running a design firm – RedQuill Architecture. Her firm represents indigenous architecture across North America, with offices in Phoenix and Calgary, and she is a member of Saddle Lake First Nation, near Cold Lake, AB.

I am Inspired by Ms. Dalla Costa’s work, in particular her Indigenous Placekeeping Framework (IPKF), which is
outlined on RedQuill’s website: rqarc.com. I see it as a framework that can be used in so many different areas to build communities, from the inside. It draws on indigenous understandings and recognizes that too often the “specialists” have been from outside the community trying to impose their views. In the IPKF voices come from within, emphasising the social and cultural aspects of the place, allowing architecture to be created that relates directly to the landscape and culture.

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