We:sic 'em ki:
(Everybody's Home)

We:sic ‘em ki: (Everybody’s Home) is a family home on the Tohono O’odham Nation that draws on Indigenous knowledge of building and living in the desert. Following 20 years of collaboration between master basket weaver and activist Terrol Dew Johnson, this collective home for the Johnson family, their farming and basket weaving practices, is inspired by traditional O’odham homes that pair a wa:ato, or whole-tree mesquite shade structure, with a ki:, an earthen enclosure.

location

Sells, AZ

year

2024

collaborators

Terrol Dew Johnson

Alexander Poncho Memorial Farm

Betty Lou Poncho, Noland Johnson, Vivian Donahue, Avery Johnson Jr., Seth Johnson, Novalee Antone

Wa: ato model showing mesquite structure, saguaro rib trellis, and adobe earth brick walls.

Designed with the Johnson family, We:sic ‘em ki: mobilizes indigenous knowledge to create a home in resonance with the cultural legacy of the O’odham people and the native farming practices of the Johnson family.

View of the communal area under the Wa:ato looking Southwest

Melhok Ki (ocotillo and mud house) at the Tumacácori mission grounds.

The O’odham Home

We:sic ‘em ki: is inspired by the materials and organization in native architecture. The traditional O’odham home typically consists of two parts, an earthen enclosure that is primarily used for sleeping and an outdoor wooden shade ramada,or Wa:ato (“WAH-ah-toe”), where most other household activity takes place. Purposefully rendered in materials responsive to the energy of the sun, an O’odham home supports a pattern of daily life that is in harmony with the desert and its climate.

Melhok Ki (ocotillo and mud house) at the Tumacácori mission grounds.

Seen through a lens that blends indigenous knowledge formulated over millennia, with contemporary design and building technology, the O’odham home offers a powerful alternative to building within our current climate emergency. For the O’odham community, on the front-lines of the climate crisis, safe, affordable, culturally appropriate and climate adaptive housing is also a crucial aspect of climate justice.

Alexander Pancho

The home will be situated on ancestral O’odham land adjacent to the Alexander Pancho Memorial farm, a 40-acre traditional dry land farm and open classroom for native food cultivation operated by the Johnson family. The Pancho-Johnson family had farmed this plot continuously until around 1975-80. The current generation of the Johnson family, led by Terrol and Noland Johnson, is re-engaging their farming practice.

We:sic ‘em ki: (Everybody’s Home) Design

The project is sited on the Johnson Family land on the Tohono O’odham Nation in Kawulk/Cowlic, AZ, located within a lush Sonoran desert landscape. It is also near the international border with Mexico.

Elevations

“We are working to build a home that will focus on the revitalization of our traditional way of building and living on the land. It will use traditional materials gathered from the desert and be designed in harmony with the landscape and O’odham cultural practices, where so many things take place outdoors, under the shade of the wa:ato. It will be a gathering place for my family and the community. It will be a place to practice and teach our reconnection to the O’odham Himdag, which is now, as it always has been, a source of identity and resilience for the O’odham people and an evolving source of knowledge from which to draw contemporary solutions to the urgent issues of our time.”

— Terrol Dew Johnson

Floor Plan

The Four Directions

The home is organized along the “Four Directions” from O’odham traditional planning. Each direction— north, south, east and west—provides access to sun, shade, cross ventilation and views. While they refer to the cardinal axis, the four directions also provide a way for the Tohono O’odham people to commune with the land.

At the start of the bahidaj (saguaro fruit) harvest, which marks the start of the O’odham new year, before eating Noland Johnson, says to dip a finger in the fruit’s pulp and draw a cross on your bare chest. “They say that for your first harvest for the season, get it with your fingers and make—it’s not really a cross, it’s the four directions—on your heart, so you bless yourself,” Noland says. “This is really powerful. This is what’s going to bring the rain.”

Approach from the West

View from the North

Life Under the Shade of the Wa: ato

More than simple shelter, a traditional O’odham home is the center of social and economic activity for a family and, collectively, forms the networked structure of the community. The home is a place for the community to gather, sing songs and tell stories, especially around meals under the Wa:ato.

View into Room and Wa:ato

Entrance

“During the summer we would all move outside. We had a summer kitchen; we would sleep outside, shower outside, cook outside. Everyone did, under the shade of our wa:ato, our ramada. It was made of mesquite gathered from the desert with saguaro ribs for the roof and segoi (creosote) thatching to keep out the rain. Our house was made of adobe bricks and had a dirt floor. What I remember most is its coolness and the smell of the dirt and segoi when it rained.”

– Betty Pancho, Terrol Dew Johnson’s mother

View from the East

Mock-Up Exhibition

We:sic ‘em ki: was exhibited in “Making Home — Smithsonian Design Triennial,” at the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum in 2024-2025. The Triennial focused on the home as a backdrop for addressing social, environmental, and health challenges throughout the United States, US Territories and Tribal Nations. Within the context of this exhibition, the installation served as a 1:1 prototype of the home and its construction process.

Mock up installed at The Cooper Hewitt Museum for Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial, 2024-2025

Homewares, baskets, native foods, family photographs and oral histories

The exhibition presented a mock-up of the O’odham home located in the Sonoran desert along with a collection of essential home elements, such as home wares and decorative baskets. It also includes family photographs and oral histories from the Johnson family about their home and farming practices.

Contemporary Baskets
Native Foods and Oral Histories of the Johnson family

Wa:ato Structure, Mesquite Beams and Columns
Wa:ato Structure, Mesquite Beams and Columns
Waato Structure, Mesquite Columns

Whole-Tree Construction

The Wa:ato is traditionally a whole-tree construction. As opposed to traditional lumber, the wa:ato uses long mesquite branches that are pruned from the tree. Trees are not cut down, only certain structural elements are selected for use.

Noland Johnson selects Mesquite branches for their relative length, plumb, and forks. Photo by Chris Lasch

The trees are pruned, not sacrificed, in the fertile border along the wash. Photo by Chris Lasch

The bark is stripped to increase the longevity of the wood and prevent insects. Photo by Chris Lasch

Gathering Mesquite along the Vamori Wash, Tohono O’odham Nation. Photo by Chris Lasch

Whole Tree Mesquite Trees are used for both columns and beams.
Site Model of We:sic ‘em ki: (Everybody’s Home)

Entry looking west

Earth brick walls

Interweaving private indoor with communal outdoor space, the masonry walls are made from compressed earth brick. Learning from an indigenous understanding of the Sonoran Desert represented by traditional local building practices, the home is an experiment in contemporary earthen architecture.

Compressed Earth Block

Mock Up Wall

Erecting Prototype

Mock Up Wall

Mock up installed at The Cooper Hewitt Museum for Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial, 2024-2025

Wa: ato model showing mesquite structure, saguaro rib trellis, and adobe earth brick walls.

Saguaro

Saguaro Ribs are traditionally used as the shading element of the wa: ato (ramada) in Tohono O’odham practice. The sentinel of the Sonoran desert, the towering Saguaro Cactus is a vital plant for the Tohono O’odham community; its fruit harvested for food and ceremony, its wood used for tools and construction.

Saguaro fruit, photo by Chris Lasch

Saguaro Fruit Harvest. Photo by Chris Lasch

Saguaro Ribs, photo by Chris Lasch

The sentinel of the Sonoran desert, the towering Saguaro Cactus is a vital plant for the Tohono O’odham community; its fruit harvested for food and ceremony, its wood used for tools and construction.
All wood elements can be disassembled and reused.

Mock-Up exhibited at the Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial
Mock-Up exhibited at the Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial

In Arizona, the Saguaro is a protected plant species and requires special permission to remove or transplant. For the prototype at The Cooper Hewitt, Saguaro ribs were salvaged from the ruins of a wa: ato at Papago Farms on the Tohono O’odham Nation.

“According to Tohono O’odham legend, the Saguaro grew from a human being and must therefore be considered a relative.”

– Terrol Dew Johnson

Terrol Dew Johnson teaching basket making

Terrol Dew Johnson

We:sic ‘em ki: is a home for, co-created with, Terrol Dew Johnson, an O’odham artist, basket weaver and activist living on the Tohono O’odham Nation. Johnson’s multifaceted practice is rooted in a movement that looks to the O’odham Himdag, the ancient life ways of the Tohono O’odham people, to create solutions for the future.

From developing and disseminating traditional crafts to promoting Native Food Sovereignty, Johnson’s practice is a form of cultural revitalization in the service of community continuity, health, economic development and climate action.

As a tribal member and through his wide-ranging activities as an artist and activist, Johnson is emblematic of the wider community, including the opportunities and challenges they face. He sadly passed away May 8, 2024 during the process of realizing his home as a place for the arts, food sovereignty, community gathering, health and wellness. The project continues in his honor.

PROJECT INFORMATION

TITLE: We:sic ‘em ki: (Everybody’s Home)
with Terrol Dew Johnson, 1971–2024, Born Sells, AZ, (Tohono O’odham Nation)

EXHIBITED AT: Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Triennial
Curated by Alexandra Cunningham Cameron, Christina L. de León, and Michelle Joan Wilkinson

PROJECT CREDIT:

Alexander Poncho Memorial Farm
Betty Lou Poncho, Noland Johnson, Vivian Donahue, Avery Johnson Jr., Seth Johnson, Novalee Antone

Aranda\Lasch
Benjamin Aranda, Joaquin Bonifaz, Chris Lasch, Alice Wilsey, Andrew Gonzales, Jesse Bassett, Leslie-Fairuz Abad-Neagu

The School of Architecture, founded by Frank Lloyd Wright (TSOA), Scottsdale, AZ
Stephanie Lin, Daniel Ayat, Eliot Bassett-Cann, Alex Mar-tinec, Nick Gulick

THANKS TO
The Cooper Union – The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architec-ture, Cattle Track Arts, Scottsdale, AZ, Mike Lopach, Earthen Building Consultant. Historic baskets on display courtesy of the Tohono O’odham Nation Cultural Center and Museum, Sells, AZ. This installation was made possible with additional support from the New York State Council on the Arts and the Articul-ture Institute of Scottsdale AZ.

Recognition

Type

Year

Smithsonian Design Triennial at the Cooper Hewitt

Exhibition

2024