Regenerative buildings - a New Year reading list?

If your New Year resolution is to learn more about regenerative design, then the photo above shows the thirty books that helped me to write my latest book on regenerative buildings. The list includes some old ones I read early in my career and some that I discovered as part of my research. Of course, this doesn’t include the reams of online documents and research papers that provided invaluable case studies and insights.

All of the books are amazing and inspiring for different reasons, so it really depends on what you want to find out about. There are a couple that were useful for their case studies (e.g. WOHA and a.mag), but are hard to get hold of and probably not for a casual read. Some of the older ones still hold true, particularly those by the amazing James Lovelock (gaia theory) and the compelling Fritjof Capra (the Tao of Physics and the Web of Life).

The ones that gave me that head tingle on discovering a new insight (do other people get that, or is it just me?) are these three:

Sarah Ichioka and Michael Pawlyn 's book, Flourish, includes many insights and examples of regenerative design and it elegantly summarises work by Dayna Baumeister and Janine Benyus of US-based consultancy Biomimicry 3.8 in this quote: ‘When designing a new piece of city or a new building, we should start by analysing how a thriving ecosystem in that part of the world would function, e.g. how much carbon does it sequester; how much wildlife does it support; how much oxygen does it produce; how much water does it store, ?lter, and recycle?’ For me, this quote really captured what regenerative design should be aiming to achieve.

Flourish also helped to encourage me to write Regenerative by Design as in the conclusion they ask what we should each do to begin to bring about change? They quote Ayana Elizabeth Johnson who suggests that we look for the intersection of these three things: ‘what are we good at?’ ‘what is the work that needs doing’ and ‘what brings you joy’. It reassured me that writing about potential ways to avert the worst impacts of climate change in our built environment was one thing that I could attempt to do that I felt needed doing and brings me joy, whether it’s any good is not for me to decide!

Regenerative Urban Design and Ecosystem Biomimicry by Maibritt Pedersen Zari introduces the idea that ecosystem services could be applied to the built environment and that this provides a new perspective on sustainable buildings. Ecosystem services such as the purification of water and air, the formation of healthy soil, the sequestration of carbon and the cycling of nutrients are not topics that are covered by BREEAM and LEED, even though they are all essential for the healthy function of ecosystems. And they can be mimicked in the built environment through nature-based solutions or through technology. Ecosystem services can also be quantified for any given site, providing a baseline and a set of targets to be achieved based on a local reference site that has a thriving ecosystem. With the aim of regenerative design being to make the built environment an active part of the ecosystem, this seems the perfect way to set objectives and measurable targets to be implemented on a project.

The PAE Living Building book by Mary Adam Thomas is invaluable for showing how a developer-led, regenerative building can be delivered. It provides two insights. Firstly, that it is possible to design a building within environmental budgets – the building’s energy and water use are within the limits imposed by what is available locally (e.g. what can be generated from photovoltaic panels, gleaned from ground source heat pumps and captured from the rain). Secondly, it showed how a combination of rental premiums, tax benefits and a collaborative business model enabled the building to be financially viable as well as achieving Living Building Challenge certification.

So, if your New Year aim is to learn about regenerative design, then here’s thirty books you could read. Or, if you also have a resolution to spend more time with family and friends, then you could just read my attempt at summarising all that into 148 pages in Regenerative by Design!