Regenerative design

Regenerative design is increasingly being applied in such sectors as agriculture, architecture, community planning, cities, enterprises, economics and ecosystem regeneration.

Feedback loops are integral to regenerative systems[citation needed] as understood by processes used in restorative practice and community development.

In recent years regenerative design is made possible on a larger scale using open source socio- technical platforms and technological systems as used in SMART cities.

During their first three years together Mollison worked at applying their ideas, and Holmgren wrote the manuscript for what would become Permaculture One: a perennial agricultural system for human settlements as he completed his environmental design studies, and submitted it as the major reference for his thesis.

In 1976, Lyle challenged his landscape architecture graduate students at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona to "envision a community in which daily activities were based on the value of living within the limits of available renewable resources without environmental degradation.

"[14] Over the next few decades an eclectic group of students, professors and experts from around the world and crossing many disciplines developed designs for an institute to be built at Cal Poly Pomona.

[15] In 1995 Lyle worked with William McDonough at Oberlin College on the design of the Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies completed in 2000.

[17] Swiss architect Walter R. Stahel developed approaches entirely similar to Lyle's also in the late 1970s but instead coined the term cradle-to-cradle design made popular by McDonough and Michael Braungart.

[18] Sim Van Der Ryn is an architect, author, and educator with more than 40 years of experience integrating ecological principles into the built environment.

The goal is to create Living Buildings that incorporate regenerative design solutions that actually improve the local environment rather than simply reducing harm.

Another characteristic that separates 'green' design is that it is aimed at broad market transformation and therefore green building assessment frameworks and tools are typically generic in nature.

It "promotes a bio-centric view that places the human presence within a larger natural context, and focuses on constraints and on fundamental values and behavioral change.

In a regenerative system, feedback loops allow for adaptability, dynamism and emergence to create and develop resilient and flourishing eco-systems.

Cole highlights a key distinction of regenerative design is the recognition and emphasis of the "co-evolutionary, partnered relationship between human and natural systems" and thus importance of project location and place.

It argued that buildings, landscapes and infrastructure that restore the damage they do over their lifecycle are, in reality, negative in the context of the overshoot of planetary boundaries.

[26] However, as the textbook Positive Development explained - current institutions of governance, planning, and decision-making, as well as design, must be redesigned and retrofitted on radically different premises.

The STARfish inverts three dozen fundamental flaws with both quantitative and qualitative green building certification or rating tools.

It must increase natural and social life-support systems in absolute (global) terms - sufficient to reverse its share of the cumulative and remote impacts of human expansion and consumption.

The project does not end with the completion of construction and certificate of occupancy, instead the building serves to enhance the relationships between people, the built environment and the surrounding natural systems over a long period of time.

In their article Designing from place: a regenerative framework and methodology, Pamela Mang and Bill Reed define place as a "unique, multilayered network of living systems within a geographic region that results from the complex interactions, through time, of the natural ecology (climate, mineral and other deposits, soil, vegetation, water and wildlife, etc.)

and culture (distinctive customs, expressions of values, economic activities, forms of association, ideas for education, traditions, etc.

[35] A four stage process was identified and included: education and project aspirations, goal setting, strategies and synergies, and whole systems approaches.

Each stage raises important questions that require the design team to define place and look at the project in a much larger context, identify key resources flows and understand the complex holistic systems, determine synergistic relationships and identify approaches that provoke the coevolution of both humans and ecological systems.

Craft et al. attempted to create a regenerative design model that could be applied to retrofitting existing buildings.

[37] Craft et al. present a case study in which the chemical science building at the University of New South Wales was retrofitted to incorporate these regenerative design principles.

Organic food grown using regenerative and permaculture design increases the biodiversity and is used to develop business models that regenerate communities.

Regenerative agriculture grows organic produce through ethical supply chains, zero waste policies, fair wages, staff development and wellbeing, and in some cases cooperative and social enterprise models.

It seeks to benefit the staff along the supply chain, customers, and ecosystems with the outcome of human and ecological restoration and regeneration.