Indigenous Cosmologies Challenge Western Definitions of Architecture

An article by Camilla Ghisleni, published on ArchDaily on July 13, 2026, argues that Western architectural categories fail to capture the spatial practices of Indigenous peoples in Latin America. The piece draws on thinkers such as Davi Kopenawa, Thiago Benucci, and Ailton Krenak to reframe architecture as a relational, cosmological practice rather than a material or technological one. For the Yanomami, architecture is defined as 'the place where hammocks are hung'—a temporary, mutable space tied to territory and ancestry. The Tupinambá people integrate earth into medicinal practices, blurring boundaries between building and healing. A 2025 discovery in Fonte Boa, Amazonas, revealed artificial islands and funerary urns that link construction, memory, and ritual. The article critiques contemporary sustainability discourse as extractivist, citing architect Ana María Gutiérrez of Fundación Organizmo, who calls for 'unlearning' colonial notions of progress. Ultimately, Indigenous cosmologies offer a model of architecture that prioritizes relationships over objects and permanence of connections rather than materials.