Modern Vernacular: Translating First Nations Traditions Towards a Model of Contemporary Sustainable Architecture

Current contemporary buildings consume resources, generate waste and contribute to atmospheric pollution, relying on green rating and point systems to dictate the sustainable attributes of a project. The effectiveness of these point systems has come into question and current designers are examining the knowledge generated by thousands of years of vernacular architecture, which is becoming increasingly valued for its sustainable attributes. First Nations peoples reflected a bias for sustainable thinking long before the sustainable architecture of today; their architecture was derived from a direct response to site and an intimate understanding of nature. Using the architecture of the past as a means of looking forward, the goal of this thesis is to assert key sustainable design strategies derived from the First Nations peoples approach to architecture towards a model of contemporary sustainable design.