slow built studio

about

Slow Built Studio is a design, research, and architecture practice run by Christian Nakarado.

Christian grew up in the mountains outside of Golden, Colorado. He received his B.A. in Architecture from Yale College and his M. Arch from the Yale School of Architecture. He has spent the last 18 years working in practices on the east and west coasts of the United States, as well as in Canada and England. He is a licensed architect in New York, California, and Michigan, is a member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the American Indian Council of Architects and Engineers (AICAE), and is an enrolled member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians.

Currently an Assistant Professor of Art at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, Christian previously held positions at the Birmingham School of Architecture and Design, at Daoust Lestage in Montréal, at Sage and Coombe Architects in New York, and at Michael Maltzan Architecture in Los Angeles. His teaching and research both focus on impermanence in design and indigenous precedents for non-extractive making.

Since 2020, Christian has worked with the Saginaw Chippewa Tribal Nation on the renovation of seven historic structures on the site of the former Mount Pleasant Indian Industrial Boarding School, located on their lands in Isabella County, Michigan. Once a site of federally-sponsored assimilation for native children taken from throughout the Midwest, the project aims to reverse this legacy by transforming it into a place for honoring, healing, and remembering those who were students there.

Christian lives in New Haven, Connecticut with his wife Merve, and their two sons Aydin and Altan.