Co-founder of UK Architects Declare, Michael Pawlyn explains the thinking behind the Regenerative Architecture Index and explains why why need a paradigm shift to move from conventional sustainability towards regenerative design. 

The idea for the Index emerged from discussions in the Architects Declare Steering Group. Our strategy for change has always been based on the systems thinker Donella Meadows’ work – particularly the case she put forward that the best way to change a system is to intervene at the level of the paradigm that determines to a large extent how the system behaves. This was the reason for our focus on helping to make the shift from conventional sustainability towards a paradigm of regenerative design (which, in its simplest form could be described as striving to be net positive in everything we do).

In Meadows’ prioritised list, the next most influential place to intervene is by changing the goals of the system, which we interpreted as the various awards and forms of publicity that architects aim for. We concluded that many of the current goals encourage architecture and ways of practising that are inconsistent with addressing the planetary emergency – for instance, promoting size, growth, profitability and, in some cases, profoundly unsustainable buildings.

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