News

Over 100 people joined us for our special online session earlier this month to learn about a range of practical resources on offer to help build the transition to a regenerative built environment with positive, people and planet-friendly actions to turn around the global climate and biodiversity emergency.

Members of the AD group of volunteers working on our Regenerative Design Primer provided a walkthrough of the guide, which we launched earlier this year as initial support alongside the Regenerative Architecture Index we’ve developed with Architecture Today.

• Eike Sindlinger set out what regenerative design is and why it is needed.

• Kevin Logan explained how AD’s Primer is set out to support this shift in practice.

• Anna Pamphilon, who has been leading this work for UK Architects Declare, set out the next steps towards version 2 of the Primer, which we will kick off with a dedicated event on 21st January - details to follow.

As Anna says, “AD sees this work as an iterative and interactive process to support architects and other built environment designers and we encourage any AD signatory practices (and others) who would like to be involved to get in touch.” 

Participants had brief introductions to substantial and practical resources that others have brought to the growing debate on a regenerative design paradigm:

• Isabel Allen, editor of Architecture Today, spoke about the online Regenerative Architecture Network that’s recently launched as part of the Regenerative Architecture Index initiative.

• Oliver Broadbent of Constructivist spoke about their Regenerative Design Lab initiative.

• Joanne Wheeler and Anna Hollyman of UK Green Building Council introduced their Regenerative Places Programme.

• Rachel Sayers of architects FCBStudios outlined the Regenerative Symposium they held for the sector earlier this year. 

• Pete Swift of urban and rural place design practice PlanIt talked about their Regenerative Practice Tool. 

You can watch all the talks in this video from the event. 

And we've created a short summary of the discussions from the Q&A session and Zoom chat, along with all the links to the resources and other sources mentioned in the event. 

Speaking after the event, Anna Pamphilon, said: “It was wonderful to see so many signatories at our Regenerative Design Resources event and encouraging to hear about the various actions being taken across our industry in support of a more regenerative built environment. While there is still a long way to go and much more to be done, this is a strong start!”

Pete Swift of Planit said: “Whilst we are not architects, the invitation by AD has been welcome and timely. This is a joint endeavour and to make any impact we have to get out of our disciplines, as much as our silos. In a world where there is no ‘training manual’ to move towards regenerative thinking and design, we are all compiling our own manuals, building on the work of others. I’m excited to share what we are doing here at Planit – it’s ‘open source’ in the very best way.”

And Rachel Sayers of FCBStudios said: “It is great to see such a strong cohort of thinkers, researchers and practitioners contributing to approaches for regenerative design.”

We look forward to working with our speakers and participants at this event - and with many other organisations - as we navigate and accelerate the shift in paradigm away from ‘business as usual’ and beyond ‘sustainability’ to truly regenerative approaches to a built environment aligned with the needs of the planetary emergency.

UK Architects Declare is delighted to welcome two brilliant Student Ambassadors - Amy Thompson and Anushka Gupta - to support our Steering Group. 

As we mark AD's first five years and plan for our next phase of work, we want to ensure our approach is informed by and remains relevant to a wide range of current and emerging thought on architecture’s place in tackling the planetary emergency. This new role builds on our existing Steering Group members' breadth and depth of experience by ensuring our discussions and plans benefit from the perspectives of students who can draw on their learning and knowledge of student networks to help shape our thinking, how we engage with different audiences and partners, what support we offer signatories, and where we can best intervene to change the systems that perpetuate a degenerative built environment to ones that promote regenerative policies and actions.

As we say in our accompanying LinkedIn post on this development - with links to Amy and Anushka's LinkedIn profiles - there is a lot to be done with regards to building climate literacy around regenerative practices into mainstream architectural education. There have already been some good initiatives, as highlighted in Hattie Hartman's recent Architects’ Journal article (Architectural education is changing. But is it changing fast enough?) but these need scaling up and fast. As Amy and Anushka say in our post: 

“Through our term we aim to lay the foundations towards this goal and establish connections that will allow the network to grow, including outcomes which:

• provide a fresh perspective on current climate mitigation solutions
• keep signatories and aspiring architects connected to new thinking
• give agency to the architects of the future as they move into practice; allowing them the skills to create the change that is needed.”
  

Anushka is a final year undergraduate architecture student at the University of Bath. She has completed internships at NLA and SEA LAB, and has organised large-scale events such as an inter-university student competition and the stuCAN festival as part of Architects Climate Action Network (ACAN).

Amy is currently studying towards her Part 2 qualification at the University of Bath and has a passion for Regenerative Design. She has worked at Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios on the regenerative Eden Dundee Project, and is currently conducting her final year research paper on the topic.

AD Steering Group member Zoe Watson says: “I think what excites me the most about this new role is the fresh perspective and energy Amy and Anushka will bring. As professionals it is easy to get bogged down in the day-to-day client pressures. However, as the climate crisis will affect future generations the most, it seems perhaps more obvious to younger generations that change is the only way forward.”

Amy and Anushka's term runs until June 2025, when we will start planning for next year's Student Ambassador(s) to build on their work with us. This new role is a special addition to support our Steering Group: its existing members work in a range of architectural practices and other built environment organisations around the UK and are also trustees of AD's registered Charitable Incorporated Organisation. 

As we mark our first five years and plan for our next period of work, we want to ensure AD’s approach is informed by and remains relevant to a wide range of current and emerging thought on architecture’s place in tackling the planetary emergency. 

We're therefore recruiting a student ambassador who can draw on their learning in academia and in practice and their knowledge of student architectural networks. They will help shape our thinking, how we engage with different audiences, who we collaborate with, what support we offer signatories, and where we can best intervene to change the systems that perpetuate a degenerative built environment to ones that promote regenerative policies and actions.

They will join the Steering Group as a non-voting member for a fixed term. Like all our SG members, this is a voluntary position.

See our Student Ambassador role description for full details. We welcome applications from all backgrounds, including underrepresented groups.

Deadline for applications: 20th September.

We were excited to have over 120 people join us and our hosts HaworthTompkins on 24th July to celebrate UK Architects Declare's first five years.

Around 80 organisations were in the room to celebrate how far we've come together over the past five years, including signatory practices and partners in our programme to move the built environment to address the planetary emergency. The energy, dedication and creative thinking to drive our collaborative action forwards is more prevalent than ever.

Members of our Steering Group shared their insights from AD's inception in 2019 and impetus to bring the sector together around our declaration points for systems change, the successes in producing our Practice Guide and Practice Action Masterclasses, and our more recent achievements with the Regenerative Design Guide, Regenerative Architecture Index and Building Blocks manifesto for transformative built environment policies.

Tom Gibson, one of our new Steering Group members, welcomed us to HaworthTompkins. Michael Pawlyn, AD's co-instigator alongside Steve Tompkins, told everyone how "Five years ago hardly anyone was talking about regenerative design, and now everyone is. That’s something we’ve all created together - the potential for architects to reclaim our agency as shapers of the future, as integrators and systems thinkers.”

Zoe Watson said "I think everyone in this room can be extremely proud of the community we’ve grown together and the collective action we have taken over the past 5 years"

Deepthi Ravi, one of our newest Steering Group members, painted a picture of our future focus: "Let’s embrace and transform the built environment that we all work with for 2030, and do it such that we plan, construct and operate within planetary boundaries.."

Julia Barfield led us in a toast to AD's programme and partners, and Carrie Behar reminded us of all the people and organisations who have made AD a success and whose support is fundamental to our work - and of the opportiunities to support us through a financial donation or to get involved in our work. Over the years, AD has worked closely on publications and events with many partners, including the RIBA and ACAN!, with an array of organisations on our Building Blocks policy work, and most recently with Architecture Today to launch the Regenerative Architecture Index - which will announce its first year's results in September.

Carrie then guided us through a short discussion, asking guests to become gather in the corners of the room designated with AD's key themes, according to where they think we should focus our activity - 'influencing local and national policy', 'supporting signatory practices', 'advocating for industry change', and 'something else' that they wished to propose for us.

Our Plan for Change sets out our approach to supporting signatories and demonstrating where leadership can replace the system that has created the climate and biodiversity emergency with one that builds a better future for us all.

Thank you to everyone at HaworthTompkins for all their help organising this special event, making us welcome at their offices - and making a special cake! - and all who made this such a great evening!

We're encouraged by the number of people who have begun registering to join the innovative Regenerative Architecture Index scheme with Architecture Today! But we appreciate that it's a process to complete the application, involving discussions across a practice's team. We've therefore agreed with Architecture Today to extend the deadline by a week to Friday 24th May.

It's also been good to see questions coming in as people explore what the Index involves. For example, do you need to be able to answer all the questions? No!

The Index captures good practice across many aspects of a business's approach to regenerative design in its policies as well as its projects. With a set of 19 questions in all, we do not expect all applicants will be delivering across every facet of our three core principles of Being a Good Ancestor, Co-evolving with Nature and Creating a Just Space for People. As such, it is not necessary to be able to answer every question in the application, and we expect there to be gaps. Having said that, we're also interested in the problems that practices encounter as they explore regenerative design, as well as their achievements.

The over-arching aims of the Index are to share knowledge and to support organisations making real efforts to incorporate regenerative thinking into their practices and projects. The Index won't be ranked 'top to bottom' in the conventional way, but will highlight practices that have performed well on each individual question, with examples where appropriate. From this, we will end up with a compendium of best practice, rather than a conventional ranking table. The Index will also anonymously highlight barriers, challenges and obstacles to help learning across the sector.

The Index is open to all organisations involved in the design of our built environment, and we welcome entries from beyond the UK.

As well as the Index, UK Architects Declare has also recently launched our first Regenerative Design Primer to help organisations explore and implement the principles of this transition to design with a positive impact.

We've extended the deadline for new vacancies on our Steering Group to Friday 8th March 2024.

We are keen to recruit new members from among our signatories, reflecting the diversity of practices as we develop AD’s programme. Our Steering Group are all volunteers and actively lead on many aspects of our work through small SG groups as well as full Steering Group meetings.

New members will contribute to the full range of the Steering Group’s discussions and decisions. It's a great opportunity to get involved in our busy work programme! You can find out what's involved and how to apply in our Role Description.

UK Architects Declare and Architecture Today have launched the world’s first Regenerative Architecture Index.

Benchmarking participating practices on their regenerative policies, actions and working practices, the Index aims to share best practice, celebrate success, raise awareness across the wider construction sector and act as a catalyst for regenerative practice across the industry. We will also use the initiative to identify obstacles to progress, encourage knowledge sharing and identify tools, methods or policy measures required to support the transition to a low-carbon, high well-being and resilient future.

AD will also very soon be publishing a free Regenerative Design Primer. Complementing our 2021 Practice Guide (and replacing its short chapter on regenerative design), this Primer will support practices participating in the Index - and all built environment designers looking to make this transition.

The Index asks participants about their practice and its projects under three broad headings:

Part 1: Being a good ancestor.

This is about a shift in practice mindsets to consider truly long-term thinking. Our decisions today should consider seven generations ahead, ensuring adaptability and flexibility for the future. This requires innovative thought, as current models are rarely beneficial in the long term.

Part 2: Co-evolving with nature.

This is about recognising that we are part of nature, within integral living systems, not separate from it. Our work should actively regenerate ecosystems by learning from and working with natural systems. This requires designing for circularity and encouraging closed-loop energy, material and water cycles.

Part 3: Creating a just space for people.

This is about providing social connection, economic opportunity and wellbeing for all. Our design processes should foster a shared sense of stewardship where neighbourhoods can self-organise and build their resilience. This requires ethical, inclusive and participative approaches.

The deadline for entries is Wednesday 17th May.

The results will be published in September 2024 in a special issue of Architecture Today and on the Architecture Today website.

We have new vacancies on our Steering Group and are keen to recruit new members from among our signatories, reflecting the diversity of practices as we develop AD’s programme. Our Steering Group are all volunteers and actively lead on many aspects of our work through small SG groups as well as full Steering Group meetings.

New members will contribute to the full range of the Steering Group’s discussions and decisions. It's a great opportunity to get involved in our busy work programme! You can find out more of what's involved and how to apply in our Role Description.

UK Architects Declare Communications Position

UK Architects Declare is hiring for a flexible, part-time position to support our social media engagement - either freelance or secondment.

We promote AD through Twitter, LinkedIn & Instagram, our website and newsletters. Our communications priorities are: Make the urgency of AD’s mission relevant; Be strong on AD’s achievements so far; Be positive, practical and focused in face of the Climate & Biodiversity Emergency.

Ahead of the COP27 talks in Egypt last November, Built Environment Declares surveyed UK signatories to understand what government support is needed in the form of strategies, regulation, and funding. In the UK, as well as Architects Declare, BED includes the declaration groups for Landscape Architects, Interior Designers, Structural, Civil and Building Services Engineers, Project Managers, and Contractors.

The survey, now in its second year, received responses from more than 150 companies and revealed that signatories to the declarations are calling for:

• Planning reform to incorporate incentives such as offering faster planning periods for retrofit and regenerative schemes
• National and local plans to raise biodiversity cover in the UK to the global average
• Rigorous carbon budgets for all publicly funded and procured buildings
• Quotas to be set for each planning use class to support reduction of embodied carbon budgets and embedding of whole life carbon targets in building regulations
• Reform of the UK’s housebuilding strategy to end homelessness and stabilise house prices
• Tax incentives, interest-free loans, and grants to enable home retrofit
• A network of storage and remanufacture facilities for building elements, products, and materials
• Bringing water infrastructure into public control and/or ownership

The survey results show a clear appetite for ambitious co-ordinated climate action from businesses and governments to address the environmental crises.

Smith Mordak, Director of Sustainability and Physics at Buro Happold and Built Environment Declares steering group member said: "I was particularly excited to see such widespread support for reforming the UK's housing strategy and housebuilding targets. To tackle embodied carbon, and the wider ecosystem impacts of the built environment, we need to devise ways of retrofitting and more fairly distributing our existing housing wealth. This means tackling the ways that housebuilding is often used for economic and political ends that often seeps outside of meeting housing need. The results showed that the industry believes that ending homelessness, stabilising house prices, and protecting nature are key goals of a good housing strategy and I believe that achieving this within planetary boundaries requires some innovative thinking in terms of design, planning, and policy-making."

Alasdair Ben Dixon, Architect and Co-founder at Collective Works and Architects Declare Steering group member said: "As a sector we are once again calling for improved regulation and a fundamental rethink of policy to address the planetary emergency. This survey captures the latest thinking on reforms which will help create a healthier, more equitable and truly sustainable built environment. Across the industry organisations large and small have been collectively developing and sharing new knowledge and standards required to guarantee our built environment performs better. These should now be embedded at a national level to ensure we can swiftly and fairly deliver on the UK’s essential net zero target.”

The report, with the full results of the survey, is available here.