April 14, 2021
by Center for Architecture
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Anjelica S. Gallegos (Santa Ana Pueblo/Jicarilla Apache), MArch I Candidate 2021, and Summer Sutton (Lumbee), Architecture PhD Candidate 2022, of the Indigenous Scholars of Architecture, Planning, and Design (ISAPD).
Anjelica S. Gallegos (Santa Ana Pueblo/Jicarilla Apache), MArch I Candidate 2021, and Summer Sutton (Lumbee), Architecture PhD Candidate 2022, of the Indigenous Scholars of Architecture, Planning, and Design (ISAPD).

The Center for Architecture has launched the Center for Architecture Lab, a multi-month, multi-disciplinary residency program to highlight new voices in architecture and design, with inaugural residents the Indigenous Scholars of Architecture, Planning and Design (ISAPD) at the Yale School of Architecture. An advisory committee comprised of revered architects and advocates for equity nominated ISAPD, which is led by Anjelica S. Gallegos (Santa Ana Pueblo/Jicarilla Apache), MArch I Candidate 2021, and Summer Sutton (Lumbee), Architecture PhD Candidate 2022, who will share their work at the Center for Architecture from May 10, 2021 through July 23, 2021.

Established in 2018 by Gallegos, Sutton, and Charelle Brown (Kewa Pueblo), BA in Architecture Studies 2020, the ISAPD is a collective student group focused on increasing the knowledge, consciousness, and appreciation of indigenous architecture, planning, and design at the Yale School of Architecture and the Yale community at large. Sutton and Gallegos intend to utilize the Center for Architecture Lab platform to expand the scope and influence of ISAPD to reach Indigenous students and practitioners of architecture and design nationwide. This year’s digital residency will include access to the organization’s email communications and social media and programming opportunities, along with the publication of a digital exhibition with compelling and provocative content to elevate underrepresented perspectives.

Indigenous Futurism will serve as the overarching theme of ISAPD’s residency, investigating narratives of the future for Indigenous communities. Gallegos and Sutton will explore architectural sovereignty through the lenses of technology, alternate worlds, science fiction, and temporality. They will seek the expertise of Indigenous leaders to determine best practices for designing with Indigenous communities and highlight architectural designs by Indigenous architects to provide a foundation for analysis of contemporary architectural issues unique to Indigenous communities. ISAPD will also examine the cultural center as an integral resource in the preservation of Indigenous lifeways.

Created in response to the destabilizing forces of the global COVID-19 pandemic and the reinvigorated racial justice movement across the United States, the Center for Architecture Lab aims to offer programming that invites a greater diversity of professionals to participate in the fields of architecture and design, and encourages our community to consider outside perspectives, critical questions, and innovative solutions to systemic problems in architecture and other design professions. The Center for Architecture Lab’s second residency will be announced June 2021.