The Architect’s Expertise in a Judicial Context

<p>This conversation with Nina Valerie Kolowratnik is divided into two parts. The first one consists in the description of her work to engage the dilemma that the Native American tribe of Jemez Pueblo faces in the lawsuit they filed against the United States to regain ownership over parts of their ancestral homeland in New Mexico. The dilemma for the tribe consists in either documenting and revealing their use of the land and the secret ritual practices linked to it, or not being able to produce any valid proof for the standards of a Western court. Her architectural expertise allows Nina to produce drawings that encrypt the ritualistic aspect of the use of the land, while constituting an acceptable proof within the context of the lawsuit. The second part of the conversation (start at 43:30) is dedicated to the current architectural studio that Nina is co-teaching at GSAPP Columbia University, in association with Nora Akawi (Studio X Amman). The studio course invites students to propose concepts of possible futures for the village of Lifta (West Jerusalem), which take into account the return of Palestinian refugees to the village that their families had to forcibly abandon in the early months of 1948, and were not allowed to return to until today.</p>