Regen

"When the forest and the city are functionally indistinguishable, then we know we have reached sustainability." ~ Janine Benyus

A global strategy of achieving sustainability requires a holistic approach from architects, including a slowly emerging environmental, economic, architectural and social framework to create systems that are not just more efficient than what we have now, but aim to have positive social and environmental impacts. Could we live in what McDonough & Braungart describe as a world of ‘abundance and delight’ rather than a world of limits? Regen worked across different scales of systems thinking; it simultaneously considered the large-scale and the tectonic. Within the catchment of the Tyne River – from Kielder Forest to Tynemouth – we explored regional material flows through systems mapping while understanding that we as designers can influence these systems through material selection and application. Cities and large-scale rural regions, with their confluence of economy, ecology, built environment and society are testing grounds for our premise of creating a new system-based approach to material use.

Studio tutors: Dr Ben Bridgens and Anna Czigler