Indigenous architectural futures: Potentials for post-apocalyptic spatial speculation

Abstract

The representation and discussion of the future in architecture has remained almost exclusively within the realm of western science fiction (sf) where technological determinism, either utopian or dystopian, is the primary force for social and cultural change and adaptation. However, there are significant instances from outside of western industrialist sf traditions that offer immense opportunities for reconsidering the idea of ‘the future' in architecture. This essays posits the potential value of indigenous sf to enrich current architectural discourse, where ‘indigenous' does not necessitate a strictly backwards orientation towards ‘primitive' technologies and social organizations, which is often the case in architectural discussions of indigenous building and design, but is instead situated within the projected temporal territories often reserved for western-dominated visionaries. Such sf offers examples of post-futurist (the idea of linear time being underemphasized in indigenouscultures) and post-apocalyptic (the apocalypse for many North American indigenous groups being the arrival of Europeans) visions that offer indispensible diversity to our current capitalist trajectory. The essay focuses on three novels: D. L. Birchfield's Field of Honor, Zainab Amadahy's The Moons of Palmares, and Leslie Marmon Silko's Almanac of the Dead.