NEW YORK — Sam Olbekson was first exposed to architecture at age five, when his uncle was a construction worker on a project to build the Minneapolis American Indian Center.
Decades later, Olbekson, 51, now runs his own architecture firm, Full Circle Indigenous Planning. He’s also MAIC's board president, designing an addition to the building which will begin construction next month.
After Native Americans were forcibly displaced from, even killed on their land, then relegated to scattered reservations, Olbekson said architecture today can reinforce tribes' legal sovereignty over their land as well as their"cultural sovereignty," both reflecting their traditions and envisioning their future.
For example, Olbekson said the Minneapolis American Indian Center, which houses an art gallery, was originally designed in a brutalist style with sharp angles. Their solution, Olbekson said, was to create an open floor plan, making the building"one space" rather than multiple siloed rooms. The redesign also features large windows and a round, central gathering space that flows into other areas, including a café serving Indigenous food.
But beyond apartments, the building also houses other facilities, including the Red Lake Nation Embassy, a wellness clinic, basketball court, community kitchen, daycare, garden with medicinal plants and a room where residents can take online classes at the tribal college. "Each culture has a different way of thinking about the land, but the commonalities are that everything is related, that we exist with the land, not on the land," he said."We're part of a system."
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