You don't have live in a rustic cabin in the woods and grow all your food and cook with a solar oven to live a sustainable life. There are many choices.

 

Biophilic & Regenerative Design in a nutshell

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Biophilic Design and Regenerative Development is an approach that encourages communities to support and create positive relationships that will benefit society and our environments by allowing the systems of Nature to evolve and adapt to changing circumstances. This paradigm emerges from an ecological mindset by embracing uncertainty and change. It moves away from the idea ‘control’ as we cannot predict how systems will evolve. Instead, it learns from Nature and understands that diverse strategies acting in unison are key elements to create an adaptable and resilient natural environment (and development).

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Most importantly, it views the world from a holistic perspective. That is, this framework understands that every issue has many interacting factors contributing to it; thus, any attempt to improve the situation must act across different scales and elements.

How is this different from current strategies? Current development strategies understand the world from a ‘mechanistic’ perspective; that is, the aim is to control the variables. To do so, it breaks apart the systems and deals with one element of the issue in isolation. Afterwards, we are surprised that the issue was not fixed after the intervention. In general, the same values that drive our economy ‘get more revenue for less work’, drive traditional development strategies ‘do more with less’. As such it is unstable in the long run.

 

Biophilic & Regenerative Design in action

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Biophilic Design Regenerative development creates the capacity within a system for it to be vital, viable and able to constructively adapt to change. Critical to this is the engagement of people. Critical to a thriving future is architecture and businesses who begin to see their role as enriching, supporting and benefiting their community, They aren’t just sustainable in its water, energy and resource use; but is also supporting all its inhabitants and employees to grow, succeed, be happier, healthier and more engaged.

 

This groundbreaking work has allowed us to identify the defining characteristics of life as the ability to self-maintain and to self-regenerate. It also identified 4 unique properties of life;

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1. Self-Regenerative ability is not located in any one place. It is nodal or decentralised

2. Life is dependent on interconnected relationships of all parts of the cell

3. Life is an holistic (emergent) property of all “parts” of the cell and relationships between the parts

4. Each “part” is also a self-regenerative (autopoetic) system so the cell as one whole is made up of a number of other wholes within it.

 

So “life is an organized system capable of maintaining itself within a boundary of its own making” where living is regenerative and regenerative is living. The breakdown of this interconnectedness leads to the inability to regenerate and death. When we consider the systems with which we work; agriculture, business, organisations, communities, governments; these are all living systems which have complex connections within and between them. They are individually wholes; as are the soils, farms and people; but are wholes within greater wholes. If we break down the connections, we take life from the complex systems we are working with, for example the soil, the business or the community. We lose the potential inherent within these complex systems and need to provide more support by way of inputs and energy. A prime example of this is the increasing reliance of our agriculture on exogenous inputs like fertiliser, pesticides and herbicides. Degenerated systems need external support and cost more to run than regenerative systems. Living Systems as with natural systems have the inherent ability to maintain themselves, regenerate and thrive in the right conditions. Regenerative design is about creating these conditions. Decision making in this design process needs to be mindful and relevant.

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Here a few examples of the many styles of architecture that can be adaptable to Regenerative Design principles in the processes of building and maintaining them over time. Yet, this process can only be done in relationship to the many complex relationships between how the building is built, how it is placed on the site, how much energy  it requires, how much waste it generates, how much Nature is disturbed, plus 100+ more issues. To start on must consider a holistic list of how you architecture project can apply Regenerative Principles. This team has years of experience couching clients through this complex, yet necessary process.

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Below are just a few examples of architectural styles that can be adapted to Regenerative Design. Whatever you unique style preference, it is likely adaptable regeneration. These shifts in practices lead to 7 principles which define regenerative.

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1. Holism.  Interrelated and dependent where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

2. Mutualism.  All parts of the system have inherent value, are interdependent and contribute to the health and resilience of the system. Success cannot be at the expense of the parts or the system.

3. Uniqueness.  Every whole and part of the system is unique and has within its whole inherent and often unrealised potential. Regenerative design fosters individual genius and unrealised potential within the parts for the benefit of the whole system.

4. Evolutionary. Living systems are unpredictable and the environments within which they work constantly change. The flexible frameworks of regenerative design maintains a dynamic balance with ever-changing environmental conditions.

5. Nodal. Decentralized and distributed decision making and resources which redistribute power.

6. Developmental. Regenerative design allows for the growth and health of the individual members.  Unlimited potential is realised when people grow.

7. Beauty. Too many human projects do not consider the aesthetics, patterns and orders of Nature when planning and building their environments. This typically results in poor functionality and a hodge podge growth system that too often requires a lot of concrete and asphalt roads connecting poorly planned environments. This destroys more Nature and easily becomes ugly. Example: Suburban cul-de-sac of lawn and garage in front style homes, especially on trash day- lots of plastic trach cans stacked by concrete driveways on asphalt streets- UGLY! Even in old treelined neighborhoods it is shabby. Plus, where is that trash going? In a regenerative system all the organic trash would be composted and plastic, metals, etc. reused in some way that is regenerative.. If it is not beautiful why do it? The whole plan and how all the parts relate must be considered as much as possible including how they look. Regenerative Designs always ask the question, "How can existing Nature be protected and saved in ways the promote future regenerative qualities and remains beautiful always?"

 

From these 7 principles we have framed a definition of regenerative "Beautiful living, evolving and naturally functioning environments, patterns and organization where abundance and resilience are recurring outcomes of its underlying health. Regenerative architecture is the practice of engaging our natural world as the medium for, and generator of the architecture. It responds to and utilizes the living and natural systems that exist on a site that become the “building blocks” of the architecture.”

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The term “regenerate” describes a process that mimics Nature itself by restoring or renewing its own sources of energy and materials. This team views regenerative design as design that reconnects humans and nature through the continuous renewal of evolving socio-ecological systems. Some of the top regenerative design strategies are: Green Roofs & Skins. Green roofs are fairly common in today's building design industry, but we can also design buildings with skins that actually clean the ambient air and sequester carbon. Capturing  and storing Rainwater and growing food.

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