As Native American Heritage Month invites us to listen more deeply to the stories that shaped this land long before today’s cities rose from it, we turn our attention to a leader whose work quietly stitches repair, dignity, and community into the built environment.
This is the story of architect Matt Aalfs, his heritage, his purpose, and the belief that thoughtful design can transform lives.
Where Purpose Takes Root
Matt’s connection to community does not begin in a studio or on a construction site. It begins generations back, in Oklahoma, through his mother’s Muscogee Creek and Cherokee lineage. His grandfather, a traditional Native man, carried and passed on the teachings of their ancestors, stories about plants and animals, the significance of birds, the medicinal purpose of the land, and an understanding of the world that exists outside of dominant Western narratives.
For Matt, those teachings were not history lessons. They were a way of seeing, a reminder that every action touches land, life, and future generations.
Growing up in California, he witnessed firsthand how many Native families left their reservations in search of opportunity. His own family lived this reality. Raised by a single mother, he spent his childhood in the financial uncertainty of the 1970s, watching her work tirelessly to make ends meet. Those early years shaped in him a deep empathy for families struggling to access basic resources.
A Childhood That Opened His Eyes
Matt’s mother was politically active, a fierce advocate. As a child, he often found himself at marches led by Native leaders. He remembers being eleven or twelve, following alongside his family, listening as elders spoke at ceremonial gatherings that concluded each march. He remembers the powwows, music, drumming, the scent of food in the air, and the sense of belonging those spaces offered.
It was there he learned a narrative often absent in his classrooms, one that acknowledged Native genocide, forced assimilation, and the immense strength of a people who endured. He grew up with stories that had been silenced, and those stories shaped his understanding of justice, identity, and responsibility.
Architecture as Healing
Today, Matt leads his work with that same sense of responsibility. To him, architecture is not simply a profession. It is a form of giving back.
His firm, Building Work, focuses heavily on public projects: libraries, community centers, and the places where families find safety, resources, and connection. Matt sees buildings as where people learn, gather, and recharge.
When architecture is done with care and purpose, you can make a difference in people’s lives. And he means it. His work is rooted in restoring what exists, not discarding it, renovating buildings instead of tearing them down, reducing environmental impact and, giving old spaces new life so communities can thrive in them again.
Carrying Culture Forward
Passing down tradition is a core belief for Matt. He is enrolled in the Muscogee Creek Nation, a process that requires precise generational documentation, and he carries that identity with pride.
Recently, he took his daughter back to Oklahoma to reconnect her with their heritage, their people, and the rituals that shaped generations before them. He wants her to know what he knows, that identity is not abstract. It is lived, practiced, and shared.
He also feels connected to the Native communities here in Seattle, recognizing that each Nation, each tribe, each region carries valuable teachings and a deep history.
Looking Forward, A Vision Rooted in Representation
Matt’s vision for the future is grounded in healing, both through design and through presence.
In the United States, fewer than fifty licensed architects identify as Native American. Matt would love to see that number grow. He wants young Native people to see architecture, engineering, and construction as pathways open to them. He wants greater access to education, more visibility in leadership, and a future where Native representation in design is not a rarity but a norm.
Because representation shapes what gets built and for whom.
Why This Story Matters
Native American Heritage Month reminds us to honor the voices that have shaped this land, not only through history but through continued contribution, innovation, and resilience. Matts story, rooted in heritage, guided by empathy, and expressed through architecture, shows what it means to build with intention.
He reminds us that communities do not flourish by accident. They grow from care, from culture, from design that understands people before materials.
He reminds us that Native people are here, not erased, not forgotten, but shaping the present and building the future.