Fellow Profile
Nathaniel Corum
“My motivation is to find ways of encouraging cultural and environmental sustainability within indigenous communities. The Fellowship has provided a wonderful structure towards these ends that led to community design and construction of replicable and green housing models with three tribal communities...”
— Nathaniel Corum
Fellowship Host:
Red Feather Development Group
Bozeman, MT
According to Nathaniel Corum, “The Rose Fellowship allowed the development of a career invested in working on housing with American Indian communities...” And what a career it has been.
Raised on a 30-acre farm in Vermont, Nathaniel left the Northeast to pursue a self-designed major in architecture and design at Stanford University. He went on to earn a master’s in Architecture from the University of Texas at Austin, culminating in a Fulbright Scholarship to study architectural preservation and urban poverty issues in Morocco.
Back in the States, Nathaniel used his Rose Fellowship to return to his rural roots by collaborating with the Red Feather Development Group. Working alongside tribal members, Nathaniel and his colleagues envisioned and constructed four green, affordable houses and a tribal college facility. These projects continue to serve as replicable models to address housing deficits in the Northern Cheyenne (MT), Ojibwa (ND) and Hopi (AZ) Nations. The Fellowship also fostered the production of a handbook, Building a Straw Bale House, now in its second printing from Princeton Architectural Press.
Industry recognition for Nathaniel’s work with Red Feather includes coverage in Architecture magazine, Dwell magazine and the 2006 book, Design Like You Give a Damn, edited by Architecture for Humanity.
Today, Nathaniel continues working towards cultural and environmental sustainability as Design Director for the Navajo nonprofit Indigenous Communities Enterprises based in Flagstaff, AZ.
Gallery
(hover over image to zoom)
Nathaniel Corum
by Hazel James
Community design meetings with tribal members ensure that consensus is reached prior to construction.
by Skip Baumhower
The interior of the Turtle Mountain Environmental Research Center prior to the application of stucco.
by Skip Baumhower
A view of the Turtle Mountain Environmental Research Center during the construction of the bale wall.
by Skip Baumhower
Community members and volunteers carrying a box beam that crowns a typical straw-bale wall.
by Jonathan Corum
The first phase of a Hopi elder’s home construction — the bale raising.
by Jonathan Corum
Using an improvised plumb-bob to true the surface of a straw-bale wall at a Hopi Elder Housing project.
by Jonathan Corum
On some design/build sites — such as this Red Feather project in Hopiland — volunteers live within a host community in tents and campers.
by Skip Baumhower
Design/build sites provide many opportunities for learning and outreach, for example an impromptu talk with students in a summer science program.
by Michael Rosenberg
Twilight sees the trusses installed above a golden straw-bale wall in Montana.
