Relatives: A lecture from Chris T. Cornelius

Chris Cornelius is a citizen of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin and Professor and Chair of the Department of Architecture at the University of New Mexico. He is the founding principal of studio:indigenous, a design practice serving Indigenous clients through architecture and artifacts that dismantle stereotypes surrounding Indigenous design and offer a distinct vision of contemporary Indigenous culture.

Cornelius is currently the Dean’s Visiting Professor at Columbia University and was a Louis I. Kahn Visiting Assistant Professor at Yale University in Spring 2021. He has also taught at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the University of Virginia. He received his Master of Architecture degree from the University of Virginia and a Bachelor of Science in Architectural Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Among his numerous recognitions, Cornelius is a recipient of the inaugural Exhibit Columbus Miller Prize and multiple Architect’s Newspaper Best of Design Awards, along with an artist residency from the National Museum of the American Indian. In 2021, studio:indigenous received an Architect’s Newspaper Best of Practice Award. Their work has also been exhibited in the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale and in the recent 2023 Chicago Architecture Biennial.

​Lectures made possible by the Jean Labatut Memorial Lectures in Architecture and Urban Planning Fund.