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We are advocating for architecture and design
communities to move beyond damage limitation (sustainability) and toward a
regenerative perspective. We aim to engage a consolidated group of architecture
students across Canada with our platform. We call upon institutions of
architecture to honor the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous People in all curricula and programming. Supernatural is a student
initiative established in 2019.
MISSION
Supernatural’s mission is to address
environmental burdens of architecture both in education and practice and to
advocate for architectural projects that positively participate and reinforce
complex social and ecological systems at different scales. We facilitate
critical dialogue in response to Climate Change through interdisciplinary
collaboration, lecture series, and design workshops. Supernatural will actively
and continuously hold an intersectional and egalitarian analysis in its
programming and operating.
MANDATE
Supernatural’s mandate is to create a
platform for architectural communities (including students, interns,
researchers, faculty, and professionals) to actively shift education, research
and practice in response to Climate Change. We aim to move beyond what is
taught as best practice and challenge the current state of architectural
conventions by encouraging critical inquiry into all scales of the design
process. This includes but is not
limited to extraction and transportation of materials, biogeophysical origin of
materials, built and supporting environment, carbon reduction and
decarbonization strategies, occupant experience and health, passive design
principals and building life cycle analysis. Supernatural works to stay
informed of research and data that has already been generated, and continue to
build upon this body of knowledge. Additionally, we acknowledge that Climate Change and environmental
degradation is both a symptom and a propeller of underlying social inequity,
and we believe that environmental action offers opportunities to identify and
disrupt systemic forms of oppression. Supernatural provides a flexible platform
for socially-engaged programming, as well as cultivates relationships within an
interdisciplinary framework that engage architectural design, research,
experimentation, education and dissemination.
