Advanced Architecture Studio: Ancestral Wisdoms for Climate Futures

Undergraduate / Graduate

What can ancestral building wisdom teach us about living with climate change today? If many traditional buildings were already climate-responsive, what have contemporary building practices forgotten? In this architecture research studio, we explore how Indigenous structures from around the world embody long-standing relationships between climate, materials, landscape, and cultural practice; and consider how this knowledge can inform living environments today. Through case studies and drawing as our primary mode of inquiry and communication, we will examine global architectural traditions alongside the ecological and cultural contexts that shaped them. While the course centers architectural systems that support human comfort, we will also engage the cultural frameworks, recognizing that climate knowledge is embedded within broader social worlds. Students will analyze passive strategies for thermal comfort and represent their findings through analytical drawings. Over the course of the quarter, the studies form a collective visual compendium, documenting environmental systems across diverse Indigenous building traditions. The shared research becomes a lens for reviewing contemporary conditions in the latter part of the quarter. Students will consider climate change and explore how ancestral building knowledge might inform adaptations to everyday structures in the city.