Not a Worry in Site: Inherited Forms and Contemporary Navajo Design

This talk reflects Navajo architecture as something carried forward rather than preserved—shaped by land, movement, and lived practice. Beginning with traditional forms such as the Hogan, the presentation traces how Navajo ways of building have shifted over time, responding to change while holding onto orientation, relationship, and meaning. Through drawings, research, and making, Not a Worry in Site explores the idea of inherited forms and traditional waypoints: spatial logics passed down not as fixed objects, but as decisions—where to enter, how to gather, how to move, how to see. These ideas are examined through a body of research work and concepts. Rather than treating tradition as static or symbolic, the work asks how contemporary Indigenous architecture can remain grounded, adaptive, and accountable—allowing buildings to emerge from place, memory, and responsibility, while meeting the realities of the present.

Speaker:
Nathan Becenti, Associate, Line and Space

Moderator: 
Emma Sumrow, Adjunct Assistant Professor, Columbia GSAPP

More Events in This Series:
October 6: ISAPD in Our Hands: Student Chapters Shaping the Future
October 13: Being a Good Relative: Architecture Through Wahkohtowin
October 20: Kéyah: A Diné Responsibility to the Land
October 27: The UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and the Built Environment

If you register for a virtual ticket, you will receive an email with a Zoom link to access the program.