Slow Urbanism: Embracing Sustainable Urban Development
December 16, 2024
Replacing Sustainability with Regenerative Design
When we think of regeneration, we think of mending or resurrecting something from the ground up, rather than simply making it environmentally friendly. As a result, Regenerative Design is founded on the concept of designing a structure that reflects the healing aspects of nature in order to have a good impact on the environment. These constructions are designed to have a positive impact on the environment in addition to preventing negative effects. Regenerative design varies from sustainable design in that it goes beyond environmental preservation.
Sustainability in Architecture Design
Sustainability in architecture, as understood by modern society today, is an inadequate measure for current and future architectural design, for it aims no higher than trying to make buildings “less bad”. The current standard of building requires very little in regard to the environment and the standard that is set for what is considered a “sustainable” building is extremely low. The dynamic in architecture as it pertains to the environment, expects little in order to be deemed a success. When a structure is built, it is celebrated if it employs any level of environmental acknowledgement.
Regenerative architecture
The practise of using the natural world as a medium for and generator of architecture is known as regenerative architecture. It responds to and makes use of the living and natural systems that exist on a site, which serve as the architecture’s “building blocks.” Regenerative architecture has two focuses: it is architecture that focuses on conservation and performance through a focused reduction of a building’s environmental impacts; and it is architecture that focuses on sustainability and performance through a focused reduction of a building’s environmental impacts. Material choices, lower energy use, and intelligent design are all examples.
The handling of the environment as an equal shareholder in the building is the second, more significant aspect of regenerative architecture. It is a method of designing a structure that incorporates a thorough understanding of natural and living processes. It is an architecture that is environmentally conscious and builds on millions of years of engineering and development to create a regenerative structure. Everything we create has the potential to collaborate with nature as a “equal partner” in the design process.
Regenerative design aims to use design and construction to heal natural and human systems rather than only mitigate the negative effects of new development. The road from sustainability to regenerative design is depicted in the diagram below. On this graph, we’re getting close to the moment where we switch from doing “less terrible” to “doing good.” Before we can routinely adopt regenerative design, we have a long way to go and much to learn—and it will be a slow process.
The Hannover Ideas are a set of concepts devised by William McDonough, a well-known architect who uses many of these principles in his work. They are a set of design standards designed in 2000 for the Hannover World Exposition in Germany. They recommend a design method based on the elements of earth, air, fire, water, and spirit, and they believe that mankind must live in harmony with nature. The Hannover Principles describe people’ natural interaction with the natural world, as well as the impact of our designs on ecosystem viability. They take into account “all aspects of human habitation” as well as people’s relationships with their built environment and nature.
The Hannover Principles
1. Insist on rights of humanity and nature to co-exist in a healthy, supportive, diverse and sustainable
condition.
2. Recognize interdependence. The elements of human design interact with and depend upon the natural world, with broad and diverse implications at every scale. Expand design considerations to
recognizing even distant effects.
3. Respect relationships between spirit and matter. Consider all aspects of human settlement including community, dwelling, industry and trade in terms of existing and evolving connections between spiritual and material consciousness.
4. Accept responsibility for the consequences of design decisions upon human well-being, the viability of natural systems and their right to co-exist.
5. Create safe objects of long-term value. Do not burden future generations with requirements for maintenance or vigilant administration of potential danger due to the careless creation of products, processes or standards.
6. Eliminate the concept of waste. Evaluate and optimize the full life-cycle of products and processes, to approach the state of natural systems, in which there is no waste.
7. Rely on natural energy flows. Human designs should, like the living world, derive their creative forces from perpetual solar income. Incorporate this energy efficiently and safely for responsible use.
8. Understand the limitations of design. No human creation lasts forever and design does not solve all problems. Those who create and plan should practice humility in the face of nature. Treat nature as a model and mentor, not as an inconvenience to be evaded or controlled.
Understanding Regenerative Design
1. Regenerative design achieves net-positive impacts for ecology, health and society.
A regenerative project establishes performance metrics in these three areas to remediate the harm that has resulted from years of conventional development. Because it emulates natural ecological systems, regenerative design incorporates leading edge design for wellness and actively participates in unique, place-driven social equity solutions.
2. Regenerative design is flexible for all project types and sizes.
Regenerative design does not discriminate. We’ve developed a regenerative design framework that has the ability to accommodate design projects of all sizes, typologies and performance levels. The framework moves beyond basic high performance design and moves design into “net positive” impacts for carbon, water, nutrients, air, biodiversity, social and health categories.
3. Regenerative design is metric based and driven by unique site data.
Regenerative project goals are established using a pristine reference site and its associated natural performance metrics that exceed code and regulatory standards. These metrics are scientifically defensible and are established using geographical information system maps, federal agencies, universities and accepted social and ecological research.
4. Regenerative design continuously evolves and renews.
Regenerative design includes projection modelling of place-appropriate performance indicators in the following categories (air, carbon, water, nutrients, biodiversity, health and social). These indicators will fluctuate and are influenced by short- and long-term disturbances of socio-ecological systems.
5. Regenerative design incorporates and builds upon existing paradigms:
Everything we have been doing as a firm and an industry has been building to true regenerative design performance levels. The following paradigms are included in our regenerative design framework:
• Triple Net-Zero (energy, water and waste)
• Carbon Balancing (embodied and operational carbon)
• Health and Wellness Design
• Materials Transparency
• Resiliency
• Social Equity
6. Regenerative design continuously engages and involves the community:
A project should maintain and inspire continual stakeholder engagement to harmonise community values with project goals and to plan for future co-evolution of socio-ecological systems. This new design approach changes our fundamental thinking about long-term building operations and their impacts on the local community and ecology. It changes our approach on how a project should perform through its entire lifecycle (cradle to cradle).
Regenerative design creates an opportunity for new supply chains and increased availability of resources for future projects of all types, both vertical buildings and horizontal infrastructure such as roads, bridges and water system. It also changes our approach to community development issues, given the need to plan in a way that supports at risk or disenfranchised populations, promotes attainably-priced housing and brings issues of social equity to the forefront of a design.
How does it work?
Regenerative design should reconnect humans and nature, ideally through the continuous renewal of a collection of ecological, social systems. Unlike traditional methods, regenerative approaches solicit and encourage continuous feedback at every stage to deliver adaptable, dynamic results. It also increased the opportunity for the creation of new supply chains based on these dynamic results. Regenerative design uses management techniques that are cohesive and process oriented. These processes can be applied to decisions made regarding things such as material selection and energy use. Aside from their impact on the natural environment, these processes should be socially beneficial to the community. As such, regenerative design seeks to create human-centric, ecologically restorative projects where people and the planet are the primary priorities.
Top Regenerative Design Strategies in Buildings
At the very start of the project, the architect must have a sincere discussion with the client to understand exactly what they expect out of the building in terms of regenerative design. What are they comfortable pursuing in terms of an energy target?
What strategies would they be willing to push the envelope on? 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 Rainwater. Designing constructed wetlands that capture and naturally store stormwater is a useful tool that replenishes the underground aquifer.
• Wastewater Treatment. On-site water treatment may have a high initial principal cost, with a low monetary return on investment, but that same strategy is far more impactful in terms of water conservation and thereby results in long-term resource savings that arguably outweighs short-term financial projections.
• Energy Consumption & Production. It’s important to not only design buildings that use less energy but to also design them to produce and store energy on site so that there is less or no reliance on the utility grid. Energy stored on site via microgrids can be used by the by the building during night hours. The building could also serve as small scale energy resource for the surrounding community, thereby further reducing reliance on the larger utility. Renewable technologies such as solar panels and wind turbines are becoming more commonplace in projects as energy generators. Every day, new technologies are coming online such as biodigesters which convert solid waste into energy which can be used by the building.
• Thermal Efficient Construction. Thermal efficient construction encompasses the whole building envelope, creating a building that is more energy efficient, which reduces the mechanical system load. Curtain walls, for example, can contribute to thermal efficiency, by creating a thermal barrier between the exterior and interior.
While some strategies have been around for some time now, there is an exciting opportunity to keep pushing the boundaries of regenerative design. It’s also important to remember that buildings do more than just providing shelter — they teach, inspire, and support occupant health. These are less tangible, but no less important outcomes of regenerative design.
Three Ways Buildings Can Contribute to the Community
• Electricity generation for a distributed, resilient grid
• Rainwater collection and gray or black water filtration for healthy waterways
• Green roofs and native vegetation for community and habitat enrichment
Regenerative Design Buildings
There is as yet a perfect example of a fully regenerative design building. But the VanDusen Botanical Garden Visitor Centre in Vancouver comes close. Waste from the toilets is harvested to be mixed with food waste composting, while the water is separated out and purified for use in irrigation. Rammed-earth building blocks were formed by dredging ponds on the site, and the deeper water in turn led to a healthier ecosystem. The equivalent of staircases encourage all kinds of critters to get up to the green roof and feed; coyotes have been spotted up there.
Biomimicry in regenerative design
Biomimicry can lead to some beautiful structures that work with their ecosystem. Biologically inspired design approaches such as biomimicry – currently regarded as peripheral – need to be urgently integrated into mainstream thinking. Bio¬logy has evolved solutions to many challenges that are directly equivalent to those faced by architects. The closest thing to concrete in biology is arguably coral – a large scale mineral structure. The contrast between the two is profound: concrete production releases carbon dioxide whereas coral grows by taking carbon out of its environment. While some of the adaptations in biology are beyond our current capabilities, there are straightforward approaches that can implemented immediately, such as building with materials made from atmospheric carbon (wood is the obvious example but others are coming to the market, for instance BioMason bricks). There are countless adaptations in biology that can inspire us (with existing technology) to design structures that use a fraction of the material of conventional approaches, to develop more efficient processes for heating, cooling, lighting and many other aspects of the built environment. Similarly, many of the solutions we need to make the circular economy a reality can be found by studying the characteristics of ecosystems. We already have the solutions we need to design out 99% of the waste that we produce.
The Challenges of Regenerative Design
The fear of trying something new, on both the clients’ and architects’ sides, is often a barrier to regenerative design. This can be avoided by effective teamwork, a strong client relationship, and mutual respect between the architect and the contractor.
It takes courage to try something new, but the benefits can be incredible. People are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of protecting and replenishing our diminishing resources, so it’ll only be a matter of time before the limitations of current legislation give way to a critical mass of building users and designers who want change, change delivered through regenerative design innovation.
With the support of municipal leaders, regenerative design can be implemented on a massive scale, culminating in whole towns or even cities that embody biophilic urbanism. Singapore is one example of how this principle has been implemented. Green walls and roofs, a dedication to water self-sufficiency through rainwater harvesting and treatment, and the landmark Supertree Grove are all fantastic examples of how a major city can have a beneficial influence by adopting regenerative design concepts.
About the Author
Hello, my name is Bhavishan Gill. I am an architecture student at Sushant school of Art and Architecture. I am an avid reader, and I love travelling, music and baking. I aspire to work towards making architecture more inclusive for everybody.
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