Wanda Costa

Wanda Dalla Costa is a prominent architect and educator with a distinguished career focused on Indigenous architecture and design. She holds joint positions at Arizona State University (ASU) as Institute Professor in The Design School at the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts and Associate Professor in the Del E. Webb School of Construction.12

Background and Education

Dalla Costa is a member of the Saddle Lake First Nation and has nearly two decades of experience working with Indigenous communities in North America.1 She holds multiple advanced degrees:

• Master of Design Research in City Design from the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc)
• Master of Architecture from the University of Calgary
• Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and Native Studies from the University of Alberta1

Professional Achievements

Dalla Costa has several notable accomplishments:

• First First Nation woman to become an architect in Canada1
• Founding principal of Redquill Architecture (now Tawaw Architecture Collective) based in Phoenix, Arizona12
• Part of the team representing Canada at the 2018 Venice Biennale1

Academic Work

At ASU, Dalla Costa:

• Teaches interdisciplinary service learning studios where students work directly with tribal communities2
• Founded the Indigenous Design Collaborative to support student professional development2
• Focuses on re-operationalizing Indigenous ways of knowing in architecture education and practice1

Research Interests

Her research interests include:

• Co-design methodologies
• Indigenous place-keeping
• Climatic resiliency based on regional architectures
• Community-driven design
• Indigenous methodologies
• Vernacular intelligence of regional architectures12

Dalla Costa's work bridges academia, professional practice, and community engagement, making significant contributions to the field of Indigenous architecture and design.