Architectural design is already daunting, with its surrounding parameters and constraints often hindering a project’s completion and affecting its overall quality. If the goal of designing spaces is to address potential issues on-site and optimise a structure’s function for its inhabitants, why not expand this approach to consider every element that could impact the space, both known and unknown? Finnish architect and designer Alvar Aalto once remarked:
“Nothing is as dangerous in architecture as dealing with separated problems. If we split life into separated problems we split the possibilities to make good building art”
Aalto’s insight calls for a holistic reevaluation of the architectural process, where regenerative architecture offers a solution. This approach not only sustains itself but also contributes positively to the environment and society.
Paying Homage to the Existing
The term “built environment” is particularly interesting when dissected. It suggests that what humans build alters what already exists, carrying an implicit assumption that nature alone isn’t enough to fulfil our needs. There’s a degree of arrogance in this belief as if our technological advancements could ever truly replicate nature’s inherent beauty. This mindset reflects the core of today’s environmental crisis, a problem that continues to worsen and, in many cases, has reached irreversible stages.
Architecture, historically regarded as a noble profession serving both elites and the public, now finds itself at odds with these environmental challenges. As Carl Elefante famously declared, “The most sustainable building is the one that is already built.” His statement highlights a simple yet profound solution to the alarming statistic that buildings contribute 42% of annual global carbon dioxide emissions: either stop building entirely or design structures that sustain both the environment and society.
This presents a tough truth for the profession, which is predicated on the constant creation of new projects to showcase architectural design as an art form. This is what makes the innovation of biophilic design so intriguing and ironic in its acknowledgment of nature’s power to heal and rejuvenate, while indirectly pointing to our flaws in trusting the natural world that has sustained us all along. Among the many emerging architectural innovations, regenerative architecture stands out as a practice that encourages professionals to consider every possible outcome of their designs, embracing a holistic approach that seeks to encompass all that could occur.
The Approach
Regenerative architecture goes beyond creating energy-efficient buildings. It should be understood as an ongoing process that actively restores, enhances, and improves environments at every level. Unlike traditional innovative attempts that may simply aim to minimise harm, regenerative design seeks to positively impact both the built and natural environments wholeheartedly. This approach considers the entire life cycle of materials, the long-term functionality of the space, and most importantly, the surrounding environment’s inherent ability to thrive post-substantial completion.
This trajectory of environmentally responsible design is clearly outlined by Bill Reed, where he emphasises the need to move from just sustainability toward regeneration. It is through the engagement with living systems that building can in fact restore and self-sustain itself to the benefit of land and its inhabitants, or better yet the ‘built’ and the ‘environment’.
The Role of Architects and Clients
A firm that practises a regenerative approach is HMC Architects: Design for Good. They feel regenerative practices are the future, thus leading them to make this central to their work expressing that, “We see it as our responsibility to incorporate regenerative design principles into our projects, to educate our clients about the benefits of these principles, and to inspire everyone to design for a better world.” This client perspective is crucial to practising regenerative design as it makes this innovation come to fruition in practice. A client’s role has never been bigger in an ongoing environmental crisis where an investment in an architectural service centred around regenerative architecture can simultaneously provide environmental benefits but also be a precedent for others to follow suit.
Clients who embrace this approach become catalysts for change, inspiring others within their industries and communities to look keenly and critically at how they too can make an impact. Regenerative structures have limitless potential in being testimonies to what architecture can be when it considers that respecting the power of ecosystems is to its inhabitants’ benefit at many contemporary levels.
Strategies
Regenerative strategies are site-specific, and intentionally designed to address all potential issues that could arise from construction. These strategies work in unity with the environment, thus leading to adaptive buildings that respond to issues with solutions. Here are just a few of the strategies, as outlined by VELD Architects:
- Green roofs and skins
- The capture and storage of rainwater
- Wastewater treatment
- Generating and storing energy
- Sequestering carbon emissions
- Obtaining thermal efficiency
- Creating a suitable habitat for lost wildlife and plants
- Growing food
- Increasing biodiversity
- Addressing pollution
- A building with no negative health impact on inhabitants
- The ability to adapt to weather conditions
- Healing the environment
A Final Note
Reducing issues through compartmentalization often overlooks the interconnectedness of the problems at hand. As Bill Reed and many regenerative architects have pointed out, one must move beyond addressing isolated challenges and instead embrace the integrated nature of living systems. Every element in a building’s design, especially its life cycle from its material extraction to its interaction with the ecosystem, affects the overall health of the environment; that is a fact. Nothing in life is truly mutually exclusive; where there is conflict, there is an underlying truth to be uncovered. In embracing this truth, regenerative architecture challenges a new way of going about design for architects, expanding our role and emphasising our importance in shaping the world around us, with the ultimate goal of not just living sustainably but regeneratively.
Reference List:
- Letter, V. (2023) Venetian Letter – Why is Beauty Essential for Sustainable Architecture and Design?, Venetian Letter. Available at: https://www.venetianletter.com/2023/07/21/why-is-beauty-essential-for-sustainable-architecture-and-design/#:~:text=As%20the%20architect%20Carl%20Elefante (Accessed: 15 May 2024).
- Architecture 2030 (2023) Why The Built Environment – Architecture 2030, www.architecture 2030.org. Available at: https://www.architecture2030.org/why-the-built-environment/
- Pawlyn, M. (2019). What is regenerative architecture? [online] www.ribaj.com. Available at: https://www.ribaj.com/intelligence/climate-change-emergency-regenerative-design-michael-pawlyn.
- HMC Architects (2019). Regenerative Architecture Principles: A Departure From Modern Sustainable Design | Thought Leadership. [online] HMC Architects. Available at: https://hmcarchitects.com/news/regenerative-architecture-principles-a-departure-from-modern-sustainable-design-2019-04-12/.
- Holl, G. (2020). What is Regenerative Architecture & why should it matter to you? [online] Veld Architects. Available at: https://www.veldarchitects.co.za/what-is-regenerative-architecture-why-should-it-matter-to-you/.
