Jennifer Cutbill

Principal | Lateral Agency

I’m a registered Architect and founding Principal of Lateral Agency – a regenerative design, development and research practice focused on growing capacities to co-create environments nurturing regional health. During my 15+ years in practice – part, with other firms (DIALOG, Local Practice) – I’ve worked with talented teams across Turtle Island; projects include: missing middle affordable housing, education, block-scale adaptive reuse, and regional water infrastructure. At Lateral, I focus beyond individual parcels to support transformative innovation upstream (policy, planning, project definition, engagement, internal capacity building, etc.) with local, regional and federal governments, health authorities, post-secondary institutions, NGOs, and Indigenous Guardians. I serve on various committees re climate, regeneration, reconciliation, and have taught in the Architecture, Engineering Leadership, Public Policy, and Climate Connector programs at UBC (also my alma mater).

As our context of increasingly complex, systemic challenges requires transformative shifts – not just in what we design, but for and with who, how, and how we understand, measure and empower “success” – I’m also pursuing a transdisciplinary PhD, to dig deeper into what this means and requires. As a Mother and settler living on unceded xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh and səlilwətaɬ lands, I recognize my complicity in oppressive systems, my responsibilities to decolonizing, and the life-long learning required.

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