Social and environmental benefits of regenerative design

Cities are major contributors to climate change through greenhouse gas emissions, notwithstanding other sources of pollution, conditioning planet health and citizens wellbeing. The increase in urban growth and urbanization results in an expansion of urban hazards - including water scarcity, air pollution and other environmental issues. Therefore, to respond to the need for new urban development, it is necessary to introduce a new systems-based approach able not only to maintain the existing environmental indicators, but to guarantee their improvement. 

To address this complexity, in this work we explore Regenerative Design (RD) definition, scale and proprieties to rethink the ecological challenges we face in a holistic and systematic manner.  Regenerative Design approach, in this study, aspires to demonstrate that order to achieve net-positive outcomes and address social and ecological issues, it is necessary to move beyond the only intention of environmental harm mitigation. The regenerative design process leads to design processes that utilize the insights and relationships of ecological systems of the place as the basis for projects in which human actions positively contribute to the self-healing properties of nature. Therefore, an integration of nature-inspired solutions throughout the design process is required.

This study evidence that a transformative shift towards regenerative design requires not only a change in way of thinking and practice, but also in worldviews and values. It starts with the awareness the way we approach analysis of a design process might not be regenerative. Therefore, there is need for systems change to tackle root causes of degeneration, where the context and the place-based design decisions are of crucial importance.