This week I read The Spirit Garden by Ryan Gorrie. This article was about a bent wood structure he created for the Anishnaabe people through a combination of new and old building techniques. This reading was less about the structure he created and more about the people. Gorrie felt that it was his responsibility to make these people’s vision a reality. He talks about how architecture is actually an animate object. This doesn’t mean that it moves but rather that it creates a place, an environment. This place can change and often does based on the people that inhabit it. I love looking at how indigenous architects view architecture. It is very different from the western perception in which we build big, unoriginal buildings without a care
