The Living City: Indigenous Knowledge, Biomimicry, and the Future of Urban Infrastructure

Description

Cities have traditionally been designed as engineered systems focused on efficiency, movement, and growth. But what if our infrastructure functioned more like a living ecosystem?

Drawing from Indigenous ways of knowing, advances in biomimicry, and current work with the Biomimicry Co-Lab, architect and planner Jeff Roberts, AIA explores an emerging framework for regenerative urban design. Through the conceptual design of the Center for Tribal Nations within Portland's OMSI District, the presentation illustrates how ecological intelligence, cultural identity, and community stewardship can reshape infrastructure from isolated systems into living networks that support both people and place.

Rather than asking how cities can become more sustainable, this session asks a more fundamental question: How can our cities become living participants in the ecosystems they inhabit?

Jeff Roberts, AIA, AICAE, LEED AP, NOMA is the Founder and Principal of Earthwise Design, a Native American-owned architecture and planning practice focused on regenerative design, ecological resilience, and community-centered planning. An enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation with nearly 30 years of experience, Jeff's work bridges architecture, urban design, and Indigenous ways of knowing to create districts, public spaces, and civic infrastructure that strengthen the relationship between people, culture, and the living systems that sustain them.

Jeff currently serves as Project Manager for the Center for Tribal Nations (CTN), a transformational Indigenous-led development in Portland's OMSI District that reimagines urban development through cultural identity, economic opportunity, climate resilience, and community partnership. He also serves as a collaborative member of the Biomimicry Co-Lab, an international alliance of architects, scientists, engineers, and ecologists advancing nature-positive design through the recently completed Biomimicry Manifesto. Together, these efforts explore how cities can evolve from minimizing environmental harm to actively restoring ecological systems while fostering healthier, more resilient communities.

As an architect, educator, and collaborative design leader, Jeff continues to advocate for urban environments that learn from nature, honor place, and create lasting value for future generations.