In 2006, when Geneviève Noël saw T. Maginnis Cocivera’s competition-winning M.Arch thesis on sewage biofiltration, it was a meeting of environmentally aligned minds.
Raised in Quebec’s trees-and-skis Eastern Townships, Noël grew up knowing that she was Québécoise with some Indigenous ancestry, with the latter largely assimilated into the former. She left a life as a clothing designer to travel the globe and plant over a million trees on the coast of British Columbia prior to studying industrial design at Vancouver’s Emily Carr University. She has patented two living wall systems. One of them, licensed worldwide to Sempergreen BV, is Cradle to Cradle certified and has been installed at the 9/11 memorial in New York City.
Cocivera, who grew up near Guelph, Ontario, completed his architectural studies at Dalhousie University and worked with Mario Bellini in Milan on the Louvre Hall of Islamic Arts and with Busby Perkins & Will in Vancouver on the UBC Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability, before transitioning into residential development, culminating as VP Development at Polygon Homes.
Cocivera and Noël founded North Vancouver-based Mindful Architecture in 2017, more than a decade after becoming life partners. Their work addresses the climate crisis though regenerative design approaches that are rooted in Indigenous principles such as circularity and living in harmony with the natural world. “When Truth and Reconciliation came about, I felt compelled to reconnect with my Indigenous roots, cultivating friendships and learning more about Indigenous Culture,” says Noël. (Mindful Architecture, as they note, is located on Squamish and Tsleil- Waututh unceded territory, in the place commonly known as North Vancouver.)
Since then, Cocivera and Noël have co-created with First Nations and Métis communities. “We start by listening and learning about community-specific traditional forms, what kinds of tectonic systems they use, and we showcase the sophistication of these building strategies in a contemporary way,” says Cocivera.
Weaving two circular forms into an infinity loop, the Métis Cultural Centre, an in-progress project in Fort McMurray, Alberta, was designed to be regenerative and Zero Carbon. Symbolizing Métis culture, the project conjoins a classically European open-air amphitheatre and an enclosed volume encircling a ceremonial Fire Circle. A ramp spirals up to a rooftop terrace shaded by a deciduous Dream Catcher trellis. The double-height volume’s glazed south wall and operable skylight induce stack-effect ventilation, while earth tubes temper the ventilation air and plants cascading down the atrium railings naturally humidify the interior, saving up to 11 percent of the energy demand.
Using 21st-century technology to translate time-honoured Indigenous design principles into architecture is their approach to providing culturally resonant housing that is both contemporary and affordable. An Ishken, or pit house, is a traditional circular dwelling, nestled under insulating sod, with a central hearth. Several Indigenous communities have expressed interest in partnering on a pilot construction of Mindful Architecture’s 3D Printed Solar Pit House. The printing technology eliminates the cost premiums of building circular forms via conventional construction methods. What’s more, DCarb, the substance Mindful Architecture has pioneered as the printing material, dramatically shrinks the carbon footprint associated with concrete by replacing its usual CO2-intensive aggregates with crushed, carbon-sequestering seashells.
Both partners’ passion for turning one system’s waste into the ‘food’ for another process is generating intriguing possibilities for greener construction. Their research suggests that keratin fibre—also known as hair— washed and sterilized after it’s snipped off human heads, is a highly effective building insulation material. “It’s resilient to moisture, it doesn’t need any chemicals added to it to pass the fire test for insulation, it sequesters 9 percent more carbon than cellulose insulation, and unlike wool, it is rapidly renewable worldwide and doesn’t need arable land nor water to be grown,” says Noël. The first installation of DCarb Insulation, Mindful Architecture’s hair-based insulation product, will take place next year, when Noël and Cocivera renovate and expand their home office.
As appeared in the October 2024 issue of Canadian Architect magazine