Tag: regenerative designPage 1 of 2

Where we make but also where we take

When it comes to regenerative design, it’s not just where we make but also where we take that matters. For the last two decades, engineers (and other humans)…

Construction as an act of healing

What if, every time we designed a building, the world got better? This post explores the transformative potential of regenerative design, a paradigm shift from construction that contributes…

Seeking abundance in the Cambridge Fens

An abundance mindset is a key tool for the regenerative engineer. It gives three things. The first is the ability to see the richness of the situations we…

Time for new patterns

We see patterns. We think in patterns. We create patterns. A pattern is something that repeats. A drum beat. An oscillation. Patterns make things regular and therefore intelligible….

Vision for a regenerative programme of forestry and building maintenance at Hazel Hill Wood

This afternoon I met with two trustees of Hazel Hill Wood to develop some ideas for a funding bid to support more regenerative use of timber to maintain…

Downhill to the weekend – time for writing

I’m just noticing that I’m entering that perfect groove of Friday afternoon. I’ve stopped travelling for the week and I’m back at my desk. My head is buzzing…

Regenerative Design Tetris Blocks

There’s lots of regenerative design thoughts bubbling around between my ears. I often get to a point in my creative process where I feel I can’t write something…

A myriad of questions about regenerative design

In my post earlier last week I made the case for regenerative design as a response to the range of systemic ecological, social and climatic challenges that we…

The incredible system that will save us

Good news. There is an incredible system that can save humanity and will enable us to thrive on planet Earth. Here’s how it works.  It is the system…

Regenerative design as a response to the systemic challenges we face

In the construction industry we are focused on tackling anthropogenic carbon emissions. But this focus misses two wider points.  Firstly, that the climate crisis is just one of…

Targets for regenerative design

Rather than look at a design process and ask ‘is that regenerative’, I find it more insightful to look for where a design process is enabling a living…

Salt harvesting in Brittany – engineering and commoning

Salt has been harvested in the bay between Le Croisic and Guérance on the edge of Brittany for centuries. The industry had been in decline but in more…

Muides sur Loire – Blois – Amboise

The second day of cycling along the Loire. A relatively flat 70km that would get steadily heavier going as the day heated up. The cycle path along the…

Self-learning in systems, hair engineering + Idler Festival Day 1

A day of two halves: book writing this morning and then swing dance teaching at the Idler festival this evening, with some hair engineering in the middle. Enabling…

Notes from RESTORE report Sustainability, Restorative to Regenerative

Here are my notes from reading the RESTORE report ‘ (REthinking Sustainability TOwards a Regenerative Economy) Sustainability, Restorative to Regenerative – edited by Martin Brown and Edeltraud Haselsteiner…

Exploring regenerative practice for engineers

As James and I start to delve into the writing for our book on regenerative design for structural engineers, I am gathering my thoughts on what regenerative practice…

Notes on building local

This month I am writing an article on that explores what if we restricted construction material use to those from a local catchment. Rather than a global supply…

Restorative versus regenerative design

Restorative and regenerative are two words I am hearing used interchangeably. Both are relevant to engineering and design. Both are approaches to design that are valuable. But they…

Recognise the desert to return it to life

When renewable systems are over exploited they fall into a desertlike state. In this state the system population is too low to support regrowth and the system structures…

Bristol: from rainforest to desert

Where I live, coal was so abundant near the surface that you could have dug a hole in your garden and found it lying there. This coal was…

Four characteristics of regenerative systems

Work on regenerative thinking progresses on all fronts. Book writing with my friend James on Monday (read his excellent blog on this process), developing regenerative practice at Hazel…

Start by lighting the fire

It’s the first thing we do at Hazel Hill Wood. Light the fire for everyone else. A clutch of tiny twigs, a handful of finger-thick branches, and some…

Think resilience to observe and enhance a system’s restorative powers

I underlined these words in Meadows’s Thinking in Systems primer. ‘Thinking about resilience enables us to observe and enhance a system’s restorative powers.’ As with so much in…

Regenerative Design Lab working notes

Sharing my working notes from today.

Regenerative Design: a process not a thing

As I continue my exploration of regenerative design in engineering, correspondents have said it would be helpful to gather examples of regenerative design. Templates that we can look…

Reflections on transformational innovation

These are my reflective notes as I work through chapter two of Daniel Wahl’s ‘Designing Regenerative Cultures‘. My aim in this reading is to find clues as to…

Updates from a regenerative system

Our nearby allotments are my local source of food and regenerative inspiration. Sharing my thoughts from this weekend’s visit when I was helping with apple pressing. While Bristol…

Sustainability is no-longer enough

Today I am sharing more of the thinking that went into my vision question for Hazel Hill Wood: what if we became a centre for regenerative practice? It…

Allotment notes: bindweed and fertiliser

I have been spending more time at the allotment as a stimulation for thinking about regenerative design. Notes from yesterday’s visit.

What does regenerative design mean for engineers?

As I wrote in my last post, this summer I have been thinking about regenerative design, and what it means for engineers.  In the context of climate breakdown,…