Our work is unique, as it is built on
a practice of Indigenous lived
experience. To us, this is important as we
re-imagine our futures.
Tawaw started in 2010, under the name Dalla Costa Design Group, by Canada’s first First Nation woman to become licensed to practice architecture in Canada.
Today, our team works on both sides of the
Canada-USA border, learning about the
various people, histories and biomes that
co-exist on this continent. Call us, and we will
come visit, to learn and to co-design.
In 2010, Dalla Costa received a commission for the renovation of a Calgary school into an Indigenous early learning center. The Niitsitapi Early Learning Center taught her that schools could infuse Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing in built form. That is now our purpose.
Dalla Costa has since come to teach at Arizona State University, the snowbird capital of her home province of Alberta, where she directs the Indigenous Design Collaborative and mentors the next generation.