Mako Sica

“Plants embody the most direct and elementary connection that life can establish with the world.” -Emanuele Coccia

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Fall 2022

Indigenous Seed Bank

Badlands, South Dakota

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Historically, the Lakota and other Native Americans have seen the seed as an integral & ancestral part of the their history through physical, spiritual, and future means. A seed bank is a largely unexplored typology of architecture that is meant to protect seeds through complex processes and spaces. The seed is to be presented, prepared, documented, and stored for an unknown future or release back into the environment.

 

Being one with the landscape, the architecture derives itself from the Red Osier Dogwood plant (AKA Cansasa) as a means of lifting to the spirits and celebrating a rich culture. The seed bank offers local Pine Ridge residents and visitors a way of understanding the essence of a seed and its importance on Earth.

 

Visitors have an opportunity to access and store ancestral seeds through farming, research, and community. The Lakota are further understood as spiritual keepers of the seeds and nurturers of the land.​

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The Global Seed Dilemma:

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75% of the world’s crop varieties disappeared between 1900 and 2000.

 

Globally, 2/5 plant species are vulnerable to extinction.

 

50% of the world’s seeds are controlled commercially by 4 major corporations.

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