Reciprocal Refuges envisions a network of tsunami evacuation towers encompassing Willapa Bay, in present-day Washington State, that respond dynamically to the lunar cycles and the seasonal migration of salmon populations through its waters.
The design of the towers arises from a desire to translate Indigenous knowledge systems into climate-resilient infrastructure. It builds on the understanding that Indigenous land management practices, which sustained North America’s ecosystems for thousands of years before colonial interventions, can serve as a model for imagining a climate-adaptive future. This research seeks to unravel contested histories and colonial conceptions of land, exploring new ways of belonging in the wake of ecological crises driven by extractive capitalism.
This project is a repository of both scientific knowledge and Chinook ways of knowing, whose ancestral lands lie within the region most vulnerable to tsunami events. It develops a lexicon to decipher—and weave together—the languages of multiple ontologies. This work creates space for a decolonial imaginary to emerge, where architecture functions as a form of Indigenous reclamation, revitalizing ancient Chinook fishing technologies and fostering reciprocity with the more-than-human world.
