Indigenous Knowledge and the Future of City Building

Cory Douglas, Director at Modern Formline Design, and James K. M. Cheng, Founding Principal of James K.M. Cheng Architects Inc., came together for a conversation on Indigenous Knowledge and the Future of City Building — exploring how urban sites across North America hold layers of Indigenous history and cultural meaning that long predate modern development.

Cory and James discussed how Indigenous knowledge systems, grounded in deep understandings of place, ecology, and community, can inform architectural thinking — and how uncovering the cultural histories embedded in urban sites opens new possibilities for how cities are imagined and built.