Kevin O’Brien, principal at BVN, has been appointed 2022 Distinguished Visiting Professor Portland State University in Oregon, as part of a project to design an Indigenous centre on campus.
O’Brien’s appearance will inaugurate a year-long program centred on the restoration of an on-campus oak savanna landscape and the design and build of a centre for Indigenous Traditional Ecological and Cultural Knowledge (ITECK).
The project has been in the pipeline for more than a decade, but momentum has gathered in recent years as the university has concentrated efforts on reclaiming the savanna as a site for traditional food, medicine and ceremony.
The five-acre site has been the focus of student research as well as seasonal gatherings and group workshops centred around Indigenous ways of knowing, learning and doing.
O’Brien will lead a one-week Indigenous design methods workshop for undergraduate and graduate architecture studio classes. He will also meet with local architects, attend Portland State University’s Indigenous Nation Studies program, and host a public lecture.
Portland State professor of architecture Sergio Palleroni said O’Brien’s visit will serve as a “launch” for students and faculty staff across both architecture and Indigenous Nations studies, who will be collaborating on the project.
His design workshops will challenge students to reconsider their assumptions about architecture’s relationship to the land and their conceptions about how they imagine the city.
For more information visit the Portland State University website.
Source: Architecture - architectureau
