Margit Kathryn Applegate

Reciprocal Refuges envisions a network of tsunami evacuation towers encompassing Willapa Bay, on the West Coast of the US, situated within the ancestral lands of the Chinook Nation. The project explores how these towers can provide refuge while also creating space for a decolonial imaginary to emerge.

The towers translate ancient knowledge systems into climate-resilient infrastructure, drawing on Indigenous land management practices that sustained ecosystems for millennia. Designed as dynamic machines, analog environmental controls are integrated to respond to lunar cycles and salmon migrations. During upstream migrations, they function as fisheries rooted in intergenerational knowledge. While salmon spawn, they transform into traditional Chinook canoe workshops. In the event of a tsunami, the equipment collapses into the facade to provide a safe haven for refuge.

Reciprocal Refuges weaves together scientific knowledge and Chinook ways of knowing into a vision for ancestral futures, where architecture fosters Indigenous reclamation and reciprocity with the more-than-human world.