The Art of Regenerative Design

A Roadmap to Regenerative Practices

If this appears as a guide or manual for regenerative design, understand that creating such a manual is inherently contradictory. Regenerative design cannot stem from our current linear processes and thinking, which the old scientific paradigm has ingrained in us. To design regeneratively, we must adopt a systemic view and comprehend how ecosystems function, including the intricate feedback loops that drive their dynamics.

This text aims to serve as a map, but remember, the map is not the territory. True regenerative design transcends traditional guidelines and embraces the living complexity of natural systems. It requires us to see beyond the linear and cultivate a holistic understanding of our place within the web of life. Only then can we truly engage in the co-creative process of regeneration, where design is a living practice, evolving in harmony with the world around us.

“Designing Regeneratively” invites us to envision a future where our economic and ecological systems are not just sustainable but flourishing in harmony. This vision asks us to move beyond the destructive patterns of consumption and growth that have defined the industrial age and towards a more integrated and life-affirming approach.

The Intimate Connection Between Economy and Ecology

To understand regenerative design, we must first acknowledge the intimate connection between economy and ecology — a connection often obscured by modern economic theory. As Charles Eisenstein eloquently argues, our economy should be a reflection of the sacred, a system that honors the natural world rather than exploiting it. This is not a utopian ideal but a practical necessity if we are to ensure our survival in this planet.

Regenerative design recognizes that our well-being is intertwined with the health of our ecosystems. By aligning financial incentives with ecological health, we can create markets that value biodiversity, water purity, and soil fertility. Imagine a world where forests are more valuable standing than cut down, where rivers are more precious clean than polluted. This is the world that regenerative design seeks to create.

The Wisdom of Indigenous Knowledge

Robin Wall-Kimmerer, with her deep understanding of indigenous knowledge, reminds us that the principles of regenerative design are not new. For millennia, indigenous peoples have lived in a reciprocal relationship with the land, guided by an ethos of gratitude and responsibility. These ancient wisdoms teach us that we are not separate from nature, but part of a vast, interconnected web of life.

Incorporating indigenous knowledge into our design processes means listening to the land, learning its language, and understanding its needs. It means seeing ourselves as caretakers rather than conquerors, and recognizing that the health of the land is inseparable from our own health. This shift in perspective is not just a moral imperative but a practical guide for creating systems that are resilient and regenerative.

The Role of Technology

Technology plays a crucial role in regenerative design, but it must be technology that serves life, not the other way around. Innovations in renewable energies, regenerative agriculture, and circular economy models offer us tools to redesign our systems in ways that regenerate rather than deplete.

Consider the potential of blockchain technology in creating transparent and accountable systems for managing biodiversity credits and land stewardship tokens. These digital tools can help ensure that investments in ecological health are tracked and rewarded, creating new markets that incentivize regenerative practices.

Designing Regeneratively: Cultivating Capacity and Ecological Harmony

Designing regeneratively requires developing specific capacities and capabilities rooted in deep understanding and sense-making. This understanding transcends mere knowledge, adopting a regenerative paradigm that views the world systemically, recognizing the intricate patterns and relationships within living systems.

Regenerative methodology emphasizes the role of humans in enhancing natural systems, viewing human activities as integral to ecological processes. It requires a shift in mindset to see buildings and projects as interconnected energy systems, constantly evolving.

Regenerative Designers must act like gardeners, “careholders”, fostering ecosystems within ecosystems, which demands not only ecological literacy but also the ability to harness community creativity. Ultimately, regenerative development is a continuous, developmental process aimed at improving the entire system and achieving higher-order goals, fostering co-evolution between human culture and natural life.

Embodiment and Sense-Making

At the heart of regenerative design lies embodiment, a profound connection to the principles we seek to implement. Developing sense-making capacities is the initial step, enabling us to perceive and interpret the complex systems we inhabit.

Capacity is understanding; conceptualizing capacity is the design of a regenerative mindset. This capacity enables capability, fostering purposeful agency and the implementation of regenerative development.

Building capacity to build capability begins with intention. Intention is the cornerstone, the starting point that sets the course for transformative change.

When our intention is pure, it initiates a redesign of our mindset, fostering new relationships with ourselves, nature, our families, and our purpose.

A constant question keeps coming up: Are we fulfilling our purpose? Purpose and intention are intertwined, each reinforcing the other.

Capacity encompasses understanding and sense-making. It involves discerning patterns within both living and human systems, embodying the principles we espouse. Capacity represents a deep connection, embodying mindfulness in all our actions.

To truly design regeneratively, we must connect content with context, mind with heart, and ourselves with the systems we aim to transform. This holistic integration is essential for creating designs that are not only sustainable but also deeply regenerative, fostering a harmonious relationship between humanity and the natural world.

The importance of Metrics and Measurement

Our current mindset, shaped by a scientific viewpoint, relies heavily on metrics. Therefore, we must develop metrics that measure our evolution and the health of both biosystems and social systems. These metrics must be connected to technology, which plays a crucial role, and they must also be grounded in place — connected measurement in situ.

To achieve this, we need to understand the essence and the story of each place. We must recognize the potential of each place, especially in relation to human interaction. It’s about designing a symbiotic, mutualistic relationship for co-evolution.

At this moment, our system is self-terminating. The habitat for human civilization is deteriorating, and we need to grasp how we have breached our planetary boundaries, a concept brilliantly articulated by Johan Rockström. We are eroding our planet’s resilience and its capacity to sustain us. Our current model is collapsing, necessitating an urgent shift in understanding. Once we grasp these signals, we can apply the principles of regenerative design to create a sustainable future.

Discovering the Story of Place

To design regeneratively, we must first discover and unveil what Bill Reed calls the "the story of place." From this story, we can discern its essence—a vital principle in regenerative design.

Understanding essence is our first principle: What is the essence of this place? What is its potential? What can this place become, or what does it desire to become?

Through these questions, we cultivate a deep, reciprocal relationship with our surroundings, allowing for co-evolution and mutual flourishing.

This inquiry extends beyond the land itself. What is your essence? What is the essence of your family, your community?

Understanding our essence is intertwined with understanding the essence of the places we inhabit.

Wholeness and Systemic Perspective

Systems need to be understood as wholes. A whole is everything that is singular, alive, and evolving. (Reed)

A human, a city, a corporation — all are wholes, living, evolving organisms. Understanding wholeness requires a systemic perspective, rooted in system and living system theories.

A systemic approach develops capacities for understanding the principles of regenerative design and recognizing a system as group of interconnected elements with a purpose.

The principle of reciprocity becomes crucial in this interconnected context. Reciprocity allows for interdependence and integration, not as a transaction in the sense that our current economic system often defines it — as a zero-sum game with a winner and a loser, or an extraction — but as co-creation and collaboration. Reciprocity enables us to build ecosystems together, where each individual element of the system co-constructs from its own diversity and experience. This shared creation can be seen as a common good, a “commons” that offers collective growth and the potential for emergence.

The Commons and Governance: Stewardship and Co-Evolution

Elinor Ostrom, a Nobel laureate, illuminated community governance principles that ensure the sustainable and equitable management of shared resources. Her eight principles foster cooperation and trust, empowering communities to manage commons effectively.

Commons are dynamic, living entities, continually evolving. Humans can become stewards of these ecosystems, managing them sustainably and equitably as interconnected systems. Through her extensive research, Ostrom demonstrated that numerous commons worldwide have been managed sustainably for centuries. By adopting a systemic view — understanding ecosystems as wholes, as commons — we can steward these ecosystems sustainably and equitably.

Recognizing that the ecosystems sustaining us are living, evolving wholes allows us to co-evolve in mutualistic, symbiotic relationships with them, benefiting from their increasing health.

This perspective acknowledges that our world comprises a series of nested systems — our communities, the biodiversity that sustains us, and the planet as a whole. Viewing and managing our world as a commons honors the interconnectedness of life and fosters a sustainable future for all. Ostrom’s framework emphasizes cooperation, shared responsibility, and equitable resource management. This approach not only sustains but also enhances the health of our ecosystems, allowing humans and nature to thrive together in harmony.

Nested Systems and Developmental Levers

Next, we must identify the developmental lever points for this potential to emerge. How nested is this system with other systems? Is it a node within a larger network? Understanding this nestedness is crucial to grasping the interactions and dependencies within and beyond the system. This holistic view enables us to design interventions aligned with broader ecological and social contexts. Through this stewardship, we can build a resilient, regenerative world that nurtures both human and ecological well-being, fostering a future where all life can flourish.

Embracing Infinite Games: A Call to Deep Adaptation

Future generations may see us as the Holocene species that led to their own demise in the Anthropocene. We have disrupted the planet’s homeostasis and its capacity to sustain human life.

Returning to that previous balance is impossible. Instead, we must, as Jem Bendell suggests, engage in deep adaptation to new conditions. There is no reset button, no game over for a fresh start. We are playing a finite game, but we need to shift to an infinite game.

James P. Carse describes a finite game as one where a player loses, ending the game. An infinite game, however, is one where the goal is to keep the game going, benefiting everyone. Today, our systems are plagued by rivalrous dynamics and multipolar traps. To transcend these, we must develop our capacity for sense-making, evolve our consciousness, and foster agency and emergence.

This journey must be collective, where our individual awakenings converge to spark a collective awakening. Only then can we shift from finite to infinite games, creating a world where life continues to thrive.

The Concept of Emergence

Living systems possess the profound gift of emergent capabilities, the very essence of life itself. Emergence is the spontaneous creation of order and complexity from seemingly simple interactions, a fundamental principle that drives the evolution and diversity of life. At this pivotal moment, we find that our entropy has depleted the planet’s resilient capacity to sustain us. To counteract this, we must cultivate syntropic forces — energies that bring order, harmony, and renewal. Through regenerative design, we can create the possibility and potential for emergence, guiding us toward the restoration and flourishing of life.

Developing Capacities for Regenerative Design

Beyond intentional purpose, there is a demand for unwavering commitment — to learning and unlearning, to developing, interbeing, and interbecoming capacities. This commitment involves embracing principles and capacities that foster our interconnectedness and collective growth. It’s about building the capabilities we need to navigate and thrive in our rapidly changing world.

There are many that are trailing the path ahead of us or at similar stages. We need to connect with their way of thinking. We need to connect with the patterns and principles that they are detecting and that they are sharing. There are several future thinkers.

I suggest Nate Hagens, Daniel Schmachtenberger, and Indy Johar to begin with. There are also several design thinkers whose work is incredibly useful and powerful. I highly recommend following their insights and contributions. The above-mentioned Bill Reed, Janine Benyus, John Fullerton, Daniel Christian Wahl, Laura Storm, Giles Hutchins, Carol Sanford, and Ronald Sistek, among others.

Regenerative design calls for intention, purpose, courage, commitment, empathy, and compassion.

A New Story for Humanity

Ultimately, designing regeneratively is about telling a new story for humanity — a story that transcends the old paradigm of separation and recognizes our place in the larger web of life. This new story invites us to act with humility and reverence, acknowledging that we are deeply interconnected with all living beings. It calls for courage, creativity, and collaboration across all sectors of society.

As we stand at this critical juncture in history, we have a profound opportunity for self-discovery. What does it mean to be human in these days and times? It means embracing our role as bridge-builders to new, uncharted territory. We are stepping into a new paradigm, a world that is more just and more equitable. This is not just a path for ecological renewal, but for the renewal of our own humanity.

We have the opportunity to create conditions for thriving life, fostering a new mutualistic symbiotic relationship with the natural world. This is a relationship where we co-construct with living systems, embracing the concepts of interbeing and interbecoming. In this new story, we recognize that we are not separate from nature, but deeply interwoven with it. Our actions and intentions ripple through the web of life, creating patterns of connection and growth.

We must seize this moment to cultivate a deeper understanding of our role in the grand story of life. We can design systems that nurture the earth and its inhabitants, creating a future where all life can thrive. Through regenerative design, we can harness the power of emergence to build a world that honors the principles of reciprocity, cooperation, and collective flourishing.

This journey is about more than survival; it’s about discovering our deepest purpose and potential. It’s about finding our role in the grand story of life, and in doing so, becoming fully human. Let us walk this path with open hearts and minds, building bridges to a world where all life can thrive. Let us commit to creating the conditions for a thriving, interconnected planet, where the concept of inter-becoming guides us towards a harmonious and flourishing existence.

Before You Leave!

If you relate to this story, I would greatly appreciate you clicking the 👏button. You can hold it down up to 50 claps and this will help this story get more exposure and this narrative more support. If you feel the calling please reach out privately or leave a comment below

Thanks for your support!